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Kebabish sizzles with fusion dishes

By Erin O’Hare and Sam Padgett

Kebabish Sizzling and Fire Grille, a new restaurant that fuses Turkish, Indian, Nepali and Mediterranean cuisines, is now open at 111 W. Water St. downtown, in the space most recently occupied by Downtown Thai.

The restaurant, owned by Uzzwal Khadka (who also owns Taste of India located at 310 E. Main St. on the Downtown Mall), promises fast, fresh, authentic food. Kebabish offers a wide range of dishes, including chicken, lamb and vegetable gyros (a gyro is a dish made from meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie and sliced and wrapped in pita with tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce); mo-mo, a spiced chicken dumpling that’s a popular street food in Tibet and Nepal; and shawarma, curry dishes, churrascaria kebabs and filets, fried noodles, fried rices and more. There’s also the “lovely meat ball” appetizer, a dish of chicken or lamb that, according to a member of our art department, is “kind of like a falafel, but with meat in it.”

All of Kebabish’s food, from the naan breads to the sauces, are made in-house. Additionally, Khadka says the restaurant has bought a lot of its fruit and vegetables from the City Market in an effort to ensure freshness while simultaneously supporting other local businesses.

Stout’s honor

When Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s Gingerbread Stout beer burst onto the scene in November 2011, it received a rare perfect 100 score from BeerAdvocate magazine, which in 2012 declared the spiced stout “freagin’ Christmas in a bottle.” The brew also received bronze in the 2012 World Beer Cup herb and spice category. And earlier this month, six years after its initial release, The Beer Connoisseur named GBS the No. 1 Christmas and Holiday Beer. Made with baby ginger from Casselmonte Farm and wildflower honey from Bearer Farms, Hardywood Gingerbread Stout is the first commercially brewed gingerbread stout. Hardywood has brewed eight different GBS variants for the 2017 holiday season—the original GBS, bourbon barrel, Christmas Morning and Kentucky Christmas Morning, plus four found only at Hardywood breweries: rum barrel, apple brandy barrel, rye whiskey barrel and double barrel.

Eater’s digest

Every Wednesday from 4pm to midnight at Graduate Charlottesville’s Heirloom Rooftop and Bar, chef Frank Paris dishes out ramen specials. Paris is the former chef and owner of Miso Sweet Ramen + Donut Shop, which closed its doors on the Downtown Mall earlier this year. “I definitely miss Miso Sweet and it was tough to close,” says Paris. “We made a lot of friends and fans in the short two years [Miso Sweet was open], and as we were closing, we were constantly asked if we were going to do ramen at our new location. When we were brainstorming ideas for Heirloom, ramen was a no-brainer. It’s the perfect weather for it, and it gives me a chance to reconnect with fans of Miso Sweet and hopefully make some new fans here at Heirloom.”

CAVA, a fast-casual Mediterranean chain restaurant, will open a Charlottesville location in summer 2018. It’s one of two restaurants planned for Emmet Street Station. Located at 1200 Emmet Street N. (across from the Barracks Road Shopping Center, in the empty lot that once held an Exxon station), Emmet Street Station is currently under construction.

Downtown Mall denizens may have noticed that the popular Catch the Chef food cart took a recent hiatus from the Third Street SE/Downtown Mall junction (it was back on Monday), and that’s because Catch the Chef has grown into full-fledged food truck zipping to a different location daily. Check the truck’s Facebook page for more info.

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