On the seminal hip-hop album Enter the Wu-Tang, an interviewer asks the renowned rappers about their ultimate goal. Before Raekwon offers a dubious, circuitous response, Method Man sums it up: “Domination, baby.”
Presumably that’s also the endgame for Daniel Kaufman, the Public Fish & Oyster proprietor who’s moving his empire from sea to land with a new eatery, Black Cow Chophouse. The traditional steakhouse opened on Main Street in the old Zinc/Threepenny/Little Star location on February 15. A week before opening, Kaufman spoke to Knife & Fork about where Black Cow fits in his own ultimate goal.
Knife & Fork: Why a steakhouse,
why now?
Daniel Kaufman: I said many times that after COVID I was never opening another restaurant. The only person I would have opened a restaurant with was my former chef, Gregg Dionne. He was the longest-serving chef at Public. So, I said, if Gregg wants to do something, I’ll do it. He said he had an idea, and Black Cow was born.
How closely related to Public is this concept?
We considered putting something in the name like, by “Public Fish & Oyster”—I think we’ve developed a pretty good reputation there. I think people like us, and we do things the right way. But each restaurant operates completely independently. There are some dishes that read the same on both menus—when things are tried and trusted, it makes sense to keep doing them.
What’s on the menu at Black Cow?
Product is at the center of what we do. We are not associating with a specific farm or doing all dry-aged or all local. We don’t want to put ourselves in a box. If we find some good wagyu from Australia, we’ll make it available. We want to offer delicious and good value food, regardless of how long it has been aged. We’ll do some game, pork, and lamb, but beef is very much the heart of what we are doing.
That approach actually sounds similar to what you do at Public.
That’s a good way to look at it. If I see good oysters available, I will buy them and make them available. I certainly buy from a handful of Virginia producers every single week, but we also do oysters from the Northeast, the Northwest, and even New Zealand and Mexico.
Can we assume the sides and other dishes will be seasonal?
Absolutely. We have a “little salad” we are going to include with every steak. Whenever you used to go to a restaurant, you got a salad; we’re throwing it back to those days. I was talking to Chef about what the salad would look like and he said, “Why the hell would I sell a salad with tomato, when you can only get a good tomato three months of the year?” Seasonality is very much the thing. If it’s not good, we don’t want to sell it.
What kind of bar program are you planning?
Our bar manager is Scott Coales, who has a lot of experience running beverage programs. He has put together an awesome craft cocktail list, and I’m working on the wine. We’ll have eight carefully selected draft taps. One thing that has been very successful at Public, and we would like to replicate at Black Cow, is the happy hour. At Public, we do dollar off raw oysters from 4 to 6pm. Here, while for the most part we don’t do composed dishes, the one exception is that from 4:30 to 6pm for happy hour, we’ll have a chef’s choice steak frites for 16 bucks.
What’s unique about Black Cow compared to other traditional steakhouses?
Little Star was a great restaurant. They were succeeding. They just didn’t want to do it anymore. And one thing that they had that we might not have otherwise done on our own, is this grill—the most magnificent grill. Every piece of meat is going to be done over oak wood smoke on that grill. The flavor is absolutely unbelievable.
There’s been some change on West Main Street lately. What’s your take?
I’ve been hearing for nine years about how things are changing. But Oakhart and Maya and Orzo, those guys are all killing it. I wouldn’t want to be in any other neighborhood in Charlottesville. It’s a beautiful street and at the center of everything. I have been very lucky and privileged to be supported by this community for nine years now, and I really hope they welcome this as a new addition to West Main.