Month: June 2018

This may not be your quickest path to a bikini body, but how ya gonna argue with fried chicken? Or fried pickles? Or fried Oreos, for that matter? This issue, we’re taking a deep dive into hot oil (metaphorically, of course—safety first!), with a hefty helping of greasy, crispy, fatty treats to satisfy your most sinful summer cravings, plus some advice from the pros on frying foods at home. And don’t miss the coleslaw tips. There’s cabbage in it. It’s basically a health food (comparatively).

By Nathan Alderman, Shea Gibbs, Caite Hamilton and Erin O’Hare

Cluckin’ delicious

Charlottesville is full of fried chicken, from high-end restaurant menus to the high concentration of chain chicken spots on 29 North that locals have dubbed “the chicken strip.” But it’s no secret that the best fried chicken spots are the ones tucked away at the base of bridges or in gas stations. Each of the following fried chicken vendors offers its own tasty take on the ubiquitous dish, plus more sides than you can shake a stick at. And while no two places fry their chicken the same way, they all have two things in common: It’s fried with love, and it’s the best around.

Brown’s

Quality seems to be the name of the game over at Brown’s convenience store and gas station on Avon Street, where the fried chicken counter takes up most of the front of the store. “We use the best, best, best of everything,” says Kim Brown. High-quality flour, spices (they make their own blend) and grease, plus knowing how to cook it well, is how Brown’s achieves its impossibly moist-but-crispy fried chicken, and that same care goes into the baked chicken, too, for those who want a healthier option. Customers can choose their fried or baked pieces—thigh, breast, leg, wing—and combine them with sides for a meal platter. Use the Brown’s gas pump to put at least 10 gallons of gas in your car and you’ll get a free piece of fried chicken to fill up your other tank—your stomach.

Brownsville Market

“It’s just a down-home country recipe,” says Albert Graves of the Brownsville Market’s fried chicken. “It goes back many, many years. All the local people around here know how good it is.” Graves says they use a special blend of seasonings and quality flour to bread the chicken before giving it a dip in the deep fryer. The market offers the usual fried chicken sides, like potato wedges, mac ‘n’ cheese and cole slaw, but also mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, peas, even onion rings. “We have a little bit of everything,” says Graves.

Cherry Avenue GoCo

David, the fried chicken cook at the Cherry Avenue GoCo, says he only looks for one kind of feedback from the people who try his fried chicken: “Like Campbell’s soup: M’mm m’mm good,” he says. There’s a secret recipe, of course, but the real secret to the GoCo’s fried chicken is proper preparation: the sifting of the flour, keeping the grease at the right temperature and keeping the pieces in the fryer for just the right amount of time. As this reporter headed out the door with a fried wing, David warned her that just as she shouldn’t drink and drive, she shouldn’t eat and drive, because this chicken requires one’s full attention.

Preston Avenue Shell

What’s unique about the fried chicken at the Shell station on Preston Avenue is the way it’s fried: Cook Jim Simpson uses an enormous cast-iron skillet in lieu of a vat, a frying method that’s more like home-fried chicken than anything else, says store manager Elizabeth Girardeau. The Shell station has so many regulars that, more often than not, by the time a customer has walked from the front door to the chicken counter, Simpson’s already dropped her order into the skillet.

Wayside Chicken

Wayside Chicken has been serving fried chicken from the base of the Jefferson Park Avenue bridge for decades, and in all those years, even as the business has changed owners, it’s never changed the recipe or its peppery special spice blend. That consistency is what makes Wayside chicken so good, says operations manager Derek Cummings. That, plus the housemade sides, the house spicy ranch dipping sauce and the fact that you can choose light or dark meat, leg, breast, thigh, wing or drumstick. Wayside also offers baked chicken (again with a special spice blend) for those who need or want a gluten-free option.—EO

A great sandwich? Baloney!

In 2017, Bon Appetit magazine named Charlottesville native Mason Hereford’s New Orleans sandwich shop, Turkey and the Wolf, its best new restaurant of the year—and heaped praise on its fried bologna sandwich. Closer to home, Holly’s Diner owner Robert Truelove saw that write-up and couldn’t resist paying homage.

“I am a huge Mason Hereford fan,” Truelove says, “and given we are one of a handful of restaurants in C’ville that serve food till 2am, I felt our customers would welcome a sandwich that is both Southern and iconic.”

Holly’s version starts with two quarter-inch slices of Boar’s Head bologna, fried crispy on a griddle (with a weight to keep their edges from curling up). Those two discs of tasty lunchmeat surround a fried egg topped with melted Havarti cheese, with more cheese and fried onion straws on top, all nestled between two slices of Texas toast spread with mayo and Dijon mustard.

“I’ve never been much for bologna,” says kitchen manager Benjamin Linden, “but when combined with all of these amazing flavor combinations, I keep finding myself saying, ‘Please, sir, I’d like some more!’” No wonder Holly’s goes through an estimated 40 sandwiches—and up to 25 pounds of bologna—every week.—NA

Cole conspirator

It’s food pairing 101: If you have a plate of fried chicken in front of you, you need something light and crisp as a complement. Finally, cabbage has a job.

“I like the coleslaw component in any kind of smoked or fried meat dish—the roughage,” says Brian Ashworth of Ace Biscuit & Barbecue. “Sometimes it’s overlooked…but you have to have something fibrous to process the heavy meats. It’s about balance.”

Coleslaw starts with a shaved or chopped cabbage base, but from there it can go in a couple directions. Should it have green and/or red cabbage? Onion? Carrot? Vinegary or creamy dressing?

For Harrison Keevil of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, coleslaw is all those veggies, a light, apple cider vinegar-heavy dressing, salt and heaps of black pepper tossed to order to maintain freshness and keep the red cabbage from bleeding. “That way it’s still really bright and crisp and you taste all the flavors,” he says.

For Ashworth, the ideal coleslaw is a similar mayo-based (“always Duke’s”) but not-too-creamy dressing on green cabbage, carrot and julienned red onion. For folks who don’t love raw onion, he says the dressing draws out some of the raw flavor and melds everything together.

The kicker for Ashworth—a hit of horseradish. “It’s my grandmother’s recipe,” he says.—SG

Lard knocks

Plain Oreos are pretty much inedible. So people have been dunking them in milk, mixing them in ice cream and coating them with all manner of ganache for years.

But what happens when you take the detestable plain Oreo, coat it in pancake batter and deep fry it? Dessert magic, Jack Brown’s-style.

“People come here specifically looking for them,” says Amanda Nuckolls, Jack Brown’s general manager.

It’s a simple recipe: Pull cookie from box, coat in pancake batter (also from a box), fry to golden brown in 350-degree peanut oil, shower with powdered sugar.

The treats are pretty simple to eat, too. One local glutton has put away 22 fried sandwich cookies in a sitting. Why is the exact number on record? JB’s runs a year-long fried Oreo-eating contest. “It’s a lot of sugar,” Nuckolls says. “You need recovery time.”—SG

Bubblin’ up

They’re in front of nearly every diner when you walk into Peter Chang China Grill around dinnertime, and they’re hard to miss—puffy, pillow-like rounds of crisped dough, nestled side-by-side along with dipping sauce.

“It is the best appetizer,” says Dine Suseno, restaurant manager. “Every single table orders the bubble pancake.”

Should you be ordering the scallion bubble pancake like everyone else? And what the heck is it? Yes. And: a batter of green onion, flour, egg, canola oil, water, salt and pepper, flash-fried in a wok in smoking vegetable oil. The spherical, hollow cakes are served hot with a yellow curry sauce for dunking freshly torn bits.

According to Suseno, it’s the hot cooking oil and use of a quality carbon steel wok that give the scallion pancake its signature bubble look and airy texture.

And while there’s some internet squabble about the origin of the scallion bubble cake, Suseno says it’s traditional to Chinese culture, and Peter Chang’s version is a faithful rendition: “We make it oniony, but not too oniony.” He says in China, similar cakes are often eaten as a snack and beloved by adults and youth alike. “It is like having fun with the kids—it’s something different,” he says. “The kids get very excited about it.”—SG

Go ape

Love Sushi King in Seminole Square lures diners with the promise of all-you-can eat sushi rolls and sashimi, plus a bevy of other treats. But hiding amid its chef’s special rolls, you’ll find something truly unexpected: the Crazy Monkey Roll, built around a core of deep-fried banana.

Banana? Fried? In sushi? “Crazy” sounds about right, but we’re here to tell you it works. Chunks of squishy, caramelized, tempura-battered banana provide just the right amount of sweetness—intense but not overwhelming—with surprising floral, tropical notes. The banana’s joined by rice-flour crunchies for a nice contrast in texture. Then it’s wrapped in rice, nori and a thin blanket of crabmeat, drizzled with savory mayo and special sauce.—NA

Deep-fried side

While Boylan Heights’ version of potato salad—a homemade recipe that champions bacon, sweet pickles and a special blend of spices—would be a real crowd-pleaser at a Fourth of July picnic, we wouldn’t recommend it. You’d miss the just-out-of-the-fryer crispy skin that tops the dish and makes it particularly noteworthy. We’re talking fireworks.—CH

Pickle perfection

Smoked Kitchen & Tap’s fried pickles stand out from the first bite.

Other local deep-fried dills come out mushy and bland, with batter that sloughs off as you try to eat them. But Smoked’s thin-sliced chips pack a satisfying crunch, even after a trip home in a takeout container. The pickles themselves—pungently sour, with a surprising kick of heat—seem to become one with the batter.

Kitchen manager Daniel Shifflett and Smoked co-owners Justin van der Linde and Kelley Tripp first cooked up fried pickles as a monthly special around the end of last year, choosing chips over spears as a personal pickle preference. “We experimented with the spears,” Shifflett says, “and we just couldn’t get the right crunch and the batter to stay on there the way we like to.”

Smoked dredges its pickles in the same mix of flour and spices it uses for its fried chicken. “We fry them really fast and at a high temp,” Shifflett says, “so they crisp up well. At a lower temp, they have a tendency to soak up the grease.”—NA

Smoke pointers

When choosing an oil for frying, it’s all about smoke point (or temperature where the fat starts to burn), according to Maya Restaurant chef Christian Kelly.

“Basically, it boils down to how clean an oil is, so my go-to is pretty standard issue canola oil,” he says.

Oils with lots of particulates—looking at you extra virgin olive oil—have the lowest smoke points. Heat ’em high, and the little organic
bits start to burn, your house fills with smoke and any food you cook in the oil tastes bitter
and acrid.

While higher smoke point oils are often desirable, each has drawbacks. Kelly admits some folks have an aversion to canola oil for health reasons. Clean oils are typically neutral, so you don’t get the flavor of a good EVOO. And some high smoke point oils—now looking your way, peanut—can trigger allergic reactions. “I wish I could use peanut oil, but I try to steer clear of it,” says Harrison Keevil of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen.

The sweet spot for cooking most dishes, fried or otherwise, is 350 degrees. Canola, vegetable, peanut and sunflower oil don’t start smoking until at least 400. Kelly uses deep fryers with canola oil for his oysters and renowned pimento cheese fritters. “350 seems to be the perfect temperature for crisping things up without much oil saturation,” he says.

Kelly pivots for fried chicken on Sunday nights. Pan-frying the bird so moisture escapes through the top, he uses a house mixture of canola and olive oil that’s brought right to the smoke point. “You’re looking for the shimmer on the surface
of the oil,” he says. “It’s usually just before it starts smoking.”

Keevil does fried chicken at a slightly lower temp—300 degrees. That ensures the poultry is cooked through before the outer breading begins to burn.

For hearty vegetables, like sweet potatoes, Kelly subscribes to the twice-fried method. Blanch the veggies at 250, he says, then crisp at 350 right before serving. And remember to change your oil frequently. “Sweet potatoes have a lot of sugar in them that comes out while they’re being fried,” he says. “That can give them a slightly more bitter flavor.”—SG

Oceans ate

Local restaurant kitchens don’t clam up when it comes to fried seafood

One hot New England summer day long ago, my dad took my brother and me to a fair, not far from the ocean, complete with skee-ball games, bumper cars and, of course, fried dough and seafood stands as far as the eye could see. When the sun went down and a breeze started to come in off the water, we sat under a party tent to eat from red and white food trays full of French fries, chicken nuggets and lobster rolls.

As the people at the picnic table next to ours slurped steamed littleneck clams from the shell, my dad asserted, “Can you imagine the poor bastard who was so hungry he decided to eat one of those?”

“Ewww!” my brother and I cried, our noses wrinkling at the thought of a cold, slimy clam sliding down the backs of our throats.

But you’d be hard-pressed to feel sorry for anyone who had a plate of fried seafood in front of them—fried clams, fried oysters, fish ‘n’ chips, calamari, the smooth, briny flesh ensconced in a hot, seasoned crust. Mmm.

Charlottesville may be a few hours from the coast, but that doesn’t stop some local restaurants from going out of their way to secure delicious seafood to serve here in the mountains, bringing the spirit of shore summers in New England, the mid-Atlantic and even the Gulf Coast to our tables.

Fried oysters: Public Fish & Oyster

This seafood restaurant and raw bar offers oysters many ways: raw, roasted and wrapped in bacon, broiled oysters Rockefeller, in ceviche, and fried, the most popular option.

The fried oysters are the only appetizer more popular than French fries, and it’s easy to see why: Raw oysters are dipped in buttermilk, then breaded in seasoned cornmeal rather than flour (keepin’ it gluten-free) before they’re fried and served hot with a vermouth aioli and pickled red onion for some bite. Public brings in oysters from all over—coastal Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay, New England and elsewhere —and uses whatever’s most abundantly available for the fried bivalves, which tend to lose their flavor fried in a seasoned breading.

Shrimp po’boy: Southern Crescent

This small New Orleans-infused eatery located on the first floor of a house on Hinton Avenue in Belmont has quite a bit of seafood on its menu, from eggs Chesapeake to gumbo and no fewer than four po’boy sandwich options, all stuffed with seafood.

For its fried shrimp po’boy, Southern Crescent uses wild-caught shrimp from either the Gulf or Carolina Coast, breading and dropping it into 100 percent peanut oil for a clean fry. The sandwich comes fully dressed, with sliced heirloom tomatoes and remoulade, plus a side of housemade purple potato chips.

All of Southern Crescent’s po’boys are served on Leidenheimer Baking Company’s New Orleans French bread, a key ingredient for an authentic po’boy. Southern Crescent co-owner Lucinda Ewell says that after Hurricane Katrina put much of New Orleans under water in 2005, no true New Orleans restaurant would make and serve a po’boy until Leidenheimer Bakery was back up and running.

Fried clams: Tavola

Fried clams aren’t a regular offering at Italian eatery Tavola, but when they’re on the menu, they go fast, gobbled up just a day or two after arriving, fresh, at the restaurant.

As with any fried seafood dish, “The most important thing is the ingredient itself,” says Tavola co-owner and chef Michael Keaveny, which is why he gets clams from Ipswich, Massachusetts (where the fried clam originated, according to New England lore). A high-quality, briny clam is flavorful on its own, which is why Keaveny uses a simple but classic breading technique and frying method that involves dipping the clam in whole milk, then in all-purpose flour before sending it for a swim in very hot canola oil.

Keaveny keeps the oil hot because a higher oil temperature means a faster fry, which usually results in a crispier crust and a less soggy clam.

“We don’t make a dime off them because we eat most of them,” Keaveny says, laughing. “It’s about me being able to indulge myself, my staff, our customers.”—EO

Summer is a lighthearted time. While in colder months we may enjoy ruminating on deep thoughts while swirling something weighty in our glass—like port, or a full-bodied Sangiovese—summer calls for beverages that are pure fun, just like our pastimes.

But is it as simple as just switching from red to white when sunny days arrive? Hardly. Unexpected varietals can enliven summer hangouts. Local wineries offer fabulous places to sip and enjoy yourself. And, at any time of year, knowing a few good bottles to look for can make selection a lot easier.

Here’s your guide to drinking your way through summer.

White

We hit up the new owners of Market Street Wine, Siân Richards and Thadd McQuade, to be our summer wine gurus. Yes, they agreed, white wines are the first line of defense against summer heat—but don’t go too heavy on the alcohol content. “In general, lower alcohol can help offset the heat of summer, and bright crisp wines, as well as wines with bubbles, can be really refreshing,” Richards says.

The retailers’ favorite white varietals? Start with Vinho Verde—the name of a grape-growing region in Portugal as well as the name of wines made from the grapes that are indigenous there. They may or may not be lightly fizzy, but in general Vinho Verde is affordable and has a light alcohol content. Quinta de Santiago 2016 Branco Alvarinho is from the northern part of the region and has a creamy texture with a crisp edge and a rich, fruity flavor.

Then there’s Chenin Blanc. “You can find versions that go from simple and clean, to incredibly complex and expressive, depending on the occasion and the budget,” says Richards. Try Domaine Huet “Le Haut-Lieu” Vouvray Sec, which offers fruity and floral notes and a round texture.

Pét-nats, or pétillant naturels, are “a great bubbly choice,” she says, “and offer some different nuances than the Prosecco and Cava we are mostly all familiar with.” They’re definitely trendy right now, but what’s old is new again: Pét-nats are the oldest type of sparkling wines. Try the Meinklang Foam white, made from Pinot Gris grapes and featuring a fruity nose with a bubbly cider-like finish.

Going local? Favorite whites from our region include Early Mountain Petit Manseng, a denser, richer white than many; Blenheim Claim House white, a blend with notes of honeysuckle, green apple and pear; and Stinson Wildkat, made from the ancient varietal Rkatsiteli.

Berry nice

Looking for something different? Head out to the back roads of Nellysford and visit Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery. Besides mead—a fermented honey drink—the winery offers summery fruit wines. There are versions made from blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums and even elderberries. And when the crop comes in well, the farm also offers pick-your-own blackberries in season (late July into August).

Rosé

“Broadly speaking, you shouldn’t think too hard about rosé,” says Richards. That said, “There are really beautiful and nuanced rosés that can serve for an occasion or stand up to a nice meal.” She and McQuade recommend exploring options from less-familiar regions: not just Tavel and Provence but also the Loire, Spain, Austria and California. “You can find very light and crisp rosés, ones that are pretty full bodied and even ones that are more ‘serious’ and savory,” Richards says.

Try Ameztoi “Rubentis” Rosado Txakolina, a rosé from Spain’s Basque Country with tart fruit and a ballet-pink color. The almost electric hue of Zoe Rosé, from Greece, shows how much variability there can be in the color of rosé; look for hints of juniper and rose in the nose and a balanced palate.

Locally, Blenheim Vineyards’ Rosé is made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Mourvedre grapes left “on the skins” for 72 hours—this is the part of the winemaking process that gives rosé its pink color. The Blenheim rosé begins with strawberry and honey on the nose and delivers a refreshing watermelon finish.

But where do I drink?

With a vibrant local wine scene like the one in central Virginia, there’s no reason to confine your wine drinking to home sweet home. Head out to a winery and enjoy the vino along with a view. Grace Estate Winery offers a free hangout every Friday evening from 6 to 9pm, with local musicians and food vendors, plus discounts on Grace Estate wines. King Family Vineyards hosts polo matches every Sunday through October 7, which you can watch for free, as well as Wine Wednesday from 5 to 8pm (grab some Moe’s Original BBQ while you’re at it). Veritas Vineyard & Winery is the home of Starry Nights monthly music and dinner events, and its Terrace always offers light fare including sandwiches and charcuterie and cheese plates —or you can bring your own picnic. Watch Blenheim Vineyards’ schedule for food trucks, live music and even art workshops. Early Mountain Vineyards offers a full fine-dining menu, as well as simpler wine tastings, and sometimes hosts live music. Afton Mountain Vineyards and Wisdom Oak Winery both offer a low-key experience, all about the wine and the setting; at either place, you’re welcome to bring a picnic to enjoy along with your tasting. Barboursville Vineyards, where the Virginia wine industry was born, might also boast the coolest architectural feature of any local winery— the ruins of a grand house designed by Thomas Jefferson. Bring your own food, taste wine in the Library 1821 tasting room where chefs pair small dishes with the wines, or go all the way and enjoy dinner in the elegant Palladio restaurant.

Red

Reds can serve better than you’d think in summertime. Consider casual-style wines that are meant for simple meals and easygoing occasions. “Especially among natural wine makers, gluggable or ‘glou glou’ wines are really pretty popular right now,” Richards says.

Try the rustic Chilean Pipeño, made from the grape País, the first varietal brought to the Americas by the Spanish. “They can be served with a slight chill and are good with most of the obvious summertime meals,” says Richards, who likes Viño Maitia 2016 Aupa Pipeño, with its notes of raspberry and cherry.

Beaujolais “is delicious and is still a bit underrated, so offers great value,” she says. “The best of Beaujolais still comes in way under the price of the best of more sought-after wines like Burgundy.” She and McQuade recommend Chateau Cambon 2016, which the New York Times called a “bright, earthy, lip-smacking, slightly rustic straight Beaujolais.”

If you’ve never experienced a sparkling red, like Lambrusco or Gragnano, summer would be the time to try them. “Perfect with pizza or a picnic,” says Richards. Check out Paltrinieri 2016 Radice, which offers an acidic palate of strawberry and pink grapefruit.

The gurus recommend Stinson Vineyards’ Cabernet Franc, and the Cab Franc from King Family Vineyards is also a fresh choice for summer.

One glance at Zocalo’s drink menu on a warm day and there’s no question what you’ll imbibe: a margarita. The question then becomes, which margarita? Zocalo offers a few, and it can be hard to decide between a salty-but-sweet classic or a smoky Mezcal (for the uninitiated, Mezcal is to tequila what Scotch is to whiskey).

For those who simply cannot decide, you no longer have to. Zocalo has introduced a margarita flight, where $20 gets you four mini margs: original, Mezcal, blood orange (on the sweeter side) and jalapeño (this one has a li’l kick to it). Served with or without salt in four small glasses on a wooden paddle, they amount to about two regular-size margaritas, so it’s a decent serving of drink.

Zocalo bar manager Peter Larson says that the margarita flights pair well with Zocalo’s Yucatan-style pork chop, as the versatile dish’s peppery, earthy, semi-sweet flavor profile and slightly acidic bite complements all four of the margarita flavors.

If you’re more of the snacking type, Larson recommends ordering the raspberry-chili glazed cheese fritters (even better: They’re half price during happy hour), which would go well with the margarita flight or its brethren, a mojito flight featuring original, lychee, blood orange and passionfruit flavors.

“I could never live without cheese!” That was one of Ashley Addington’s mottoes. She’d been vegetarian since she was a tween, after seeing videos of animals being “processed” in what was supposed to be a humane facility. “It really upset me…to watch a life violently end for someone’s five-minute meal didn’t make sense to me,” she says. She knew she’d never eat animals again.

She’d always thought veganism—eliminating all animal products, not just meat, from one’s diet—was extreme. But once she realized veganism better aligned with her values of not wanting animals to suffer in any way for her sake, she decided to try it.

Addington, who works for a local solar energy company, blogs about veganism (as well as motherhood and transitioning to a zero-waste lifestyle) on ashleyjanethevegan.wordpress.com, where she keeps an impressive log of where to get vegan eats in town (including vegan cheese). Here, she shares some advice for anyone interested in going vegan.

K&F: How was the transition from vegetarian to vegan?

Addington: Making the switch seemed daunting. I enjoyed the taste of some meats and especially cheese and ice cream. I asked myself, “What do vegans even eat?” And most importantly, “How will I live without cheese?” What helped me wrap my mind around it was advice from a longtime vegan friend: Replace one thing at a time, one day at a time. I felt less pressure to be perfect and I was pretty much vegan within a week. Don’t aim for perfection immediately—just start!

What was the easiest part of going vegan? The hardest part?

The easiest part was aligning my diet with my values, as I had been fighting with my conscience while I ate animal products and parts. The hardest part was learning to navigate eating with friends and family, and at restaurants. Now it’s second nature.

What might people be surprised to learn is easy about a vegan lifestyle?

Veganism can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. You can meal prep around plant-based staples like bananas, oats, beans, rice, corn, potatoes, etc. for dollars a day. Or you can eat expensive, processed and packaged vegan food, or, if you have the means, gourmet vegan burgers and fancy cultured vegan cheese.

Veganism can also be as healthy or unhealthy as you make it. You can gorge on French fries, chips, bread, faux meats, Taco Bell burritos and vegan ice cream…or you can stick to whole foods and plant-based meals.

What is it like to be vegan in Charlottesville?

Larger cities do have higher concentrations of fully vegan restaurants and vegan options. For this reason, my husband and I take trips to vegan- friendly cities like Montreal, and for date nights we might drive to Richmond or Washington, D.C. Charlottesville is adapting, though. I see new vegan offerings all the time; even barbecue places here offer vegan sides and some even do smoked pulled tofu with barbecue sauce. If I have to be at a certain restaurant for family or work, I’ve had luck politely asking the kitchen to make me something vegan.

What is your advice to someone contemplating a vegan lifestyle?

Try it! Remember: Replace one item at a time, one day at a time. Read labels. So many things are already accidentally vegan.

Ashley Jane’s four local faves

Bodo’s Bagels 

“They’re completely vegan and inexpensive; the PB&J and hummus sandwiches are especially good.”

Texas hummus at Continental Divide

“A classic. One of my favorite hummus recipes in town.”

The Impossible Burger at Boylan Heights

“It bleeds like a burger and tastes like one. It’s pretty crazy.”

Anything from
Juice Laundry 

“In addition to juice and smoothies, this all-vegan, sustainable company often serves hot food like chili with cashew sour cream or broccoli cheddar soup.”

Looking for a quick, tasty meal? Here’s an option that might not be on your radar—arepas from the Latin grocery La Guadalupana. What’s an arepa, you ask? It’s somewhere between a sandwich and a taco, it’s a staple of Venezuelan cooking and it’s delicious.

The Carlton Road business has been around for almost two decades, but new owners Johan Torres and Fernando Salazar, both from Venezuela, and Ygnacio Velasquez, who’s from Mexico, decided to add arepas to the Mexican standards their menu already offered. “Charlottesville people love gourmet food,” says Torres, who wanted to expand his clientele. A savory, affordable lunch seems like a great way to do it.

An arepa starts with a cornmeal cake that gets fried on the griddle before opening to receive any of a number of fillings. Torres and his partners put some standards on the menu—like the Pelúa Arepa, which is the arepa version of a cheeseburger, with shredded beef and cheddar—as well as some new inventions of their own. (Torres’ wife Veronica, who grew up in Argentina, influenced the La Sureña option with its chimichurri sauce on grilled steak.)

Chicken-lovers will go for the California Girl (with avocado, cheese and bacon) and Reina Pepiada (chicken salad with avocado), and vegetarians have yummy options too, like black beans with queso fresco and avocado.

The Pabellón will connect you to the culture of Venezuela, where one might often be served a plate of shredded beef, queso fresco, fried egg, beans and sweet plantains—here all those ingredients get combined inside an arepa, with the corn cake bringing its own sweet flavor to the mix. Did we mention those crispy corn cakes? Delicioso.

Diane Burns’ journey has taken her to some pretty interesting places—but it’s a good bet that her current place of work, Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, is one of the most beautiful. Burns is the on-site horticulturist, and she tends neat garden beds that hug the perimeter of the tasting room and spill down the hill—all of it overlooking Pippin Hill’s layered green vista.

Burns has managed the gardens here for the last two years, a role that puts her in close collaboration with Pippin Hill’s chef, Ian Rynecki. “It’s a joint effort,” she says, for the two of them to imagine how the vegetables and herbs she grows can become part of the seasonal menus he creates. It’s not just a matter of using greens in a salad, though Rynecki certainly does; he’s also dreaming up ways to incorporate more unusual ingredients, like the edible purple blossoms from Burns’ chives that garnish a farro dish in spring.

Before Burns came to Pippin Hill, she had a garden business of her own for 15 years, designing and planting ornamental gardens for private clients. Her early career, though, was completely unrelated. Right out of college, she took a job in D.C. with the U.S. Department of State, helping to coordinate security for American embassies overseas. The work took her to a number of locations abroad, including Morocco.

But by the time her two children were born, she and her husband were ready for a change. “I always knew that [career] wasn’t me,” she says. Having moved to Lake Monticello, Burns focused on raising her kids and figuring out what was next, and a tree ID class at PVCC led her to the answer: horticulture.

“I’ve always loved the outdoors,” she says, crediting PVCC professor and horticulturist Ian Robertson with inspiring her to pursue gardening. She worked as a garden guide at Monticello for a time, where she gained “a good appreciation for Jefferson’s contributions to American gardening.”

Now, at Pippin Hill, she’s shifted from ornamental gardening to growing food, something that Jefferson certainly would appreciate.

“It’s a huge switch,” she says. “I’ve always had a home vegetable garden as an adult, but this has pushed me beyond my comfort zone.”

Closest to where winery guests sit to dine and sip, garden beds hold African blue basil, edible marigolds for garnishes and bountiful garlic. As one follows the paths further afield —and visitors often do, many times with Burns accompanying them on an impromptu “walk-around”—the crops change to herbs, greens, espaliered Kieffer pears, figs, edible calendula flowers, potatoes and many others. Uphill grows a mini apple orchard, and downhill lives a flock of laying hens in a picture-perfect coop.

Not only is all of this food destined for Pippin Hill’s kitchen—this spring, for example, Rynecki has used red Russian kale, mustard greens, turnips, radishes, pea shoots and more—but the gardens must contribute to the Pippin Hill visuals, which are nothing to sneeze at.

The work promises “constants of learning,” she says. “It’s rewarding to see everything I do being appreciated.”