By Sam Padgett and Erin O’Hare
Food cart Order Up!—not to be confused with Grubhub’s predecessor, OrderUp—recently set up shop in the former Catch the Chef spot on the Downtown Mall at the Third Street SE intersection, next to Virginia National Bank.
Owners Max and Troy Robinson, who have operated the food cart for a few years, were based out of their home turf in Greene County before deciding to plant themselves in the middle of downtown Charlottesville foot traffic.
The inspiration for Order Up! came during Max’s time working for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, when she struck up a friendship with Catch the Chef’s owner, Tyler Berry. After that, she was motivated to start her own mobile food service.
Order Up! chiefly serves a variety of typical grill foods like burgers, hot dogs, chili, etc., but the cart offers something unique to go alongside the classics: mambo sauce. When asked to describe the taste of mambo sauce, Max says it’s a “sweet sauce but with hint of spice.” While Troy admits he doesn’t know what’s in it, he says it tastes like “heaven,” and that even though it’s made for chicken, it can go on anything.
So far, Order Up! has provided catering for several events throughout the surrounding area, and it can be found on the mall from 10am to 3pm Monday through Friday.
Eater’s digest
Revolutionary Soup’s 14th Street location on the UVA Corner is temporarily closed for renovations, but it’s scheduled to reopen in the fall. And don’t worry: You can still get your soup fix at its location on Second Street SW, off the Downtown Mall.
Sugar Shack on West Main Street is set to open any day now. The donut bakery has been keeping us posted on its progress via Twitter (@cvilledonuts), and word is that its “open” sign will be turned on sometime this week, followed by that of its partner restaurant, Luther Burger, in the coming weeks. So keep your eyes peeled to this spot for updates.
Tiger Fuel Co. recently bought the Shell station on Preston Avenue and plans to transform the place into the sort of fancy market deli the company is known for (Tiger Fuel also owns Bellair Market and the Market at Mill Creek). For those who fear that the station’s fried chicken program will go away, a representative for the company says the fried chicken will remain, but we’ll believe it when we eat it for ourselves.
At 7pm on Friday, June 29, Mudhouse Coffee Roasters will host a latte art throwdown at its Downtown Mall location. There’s a $5 buy-in for latte artists hoping to win the $50 cash prize, and money raised from a raffle (among the prizes is a primo burr coffee grinder) will benefit victims of the June 3 eruption of Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego.