2008, one mouthful at a time

Another year over for Restaurantarama and never a dull moment. In addition to the typically tumultuous attrition around here, there were a few closings that really surprised the stockings off us: Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse, Boheme and OXO among them. The loss of Casella’s Italian to Richmond-based chain, Tara Thai, the loss of just about everything in Scottsville and the uprooting of Just Curry to make room for CVS left us lamenting this global economic mess that has local restaurateurs on the edge and landlords selling out to new tenants too big to fail.

But other stuff made us cheer for this year: Aroma’s Cafe moving to a prime spot at Barracks; The Box opening to much fanfare and chugging along despite the on-again, off-again construction of the Landmark Hotel in its face; Belmont getting the The Local and Bel Rio; and the Ix Building becoming a food destination in its own right thanks to the efforts of Al Dente and Al Hamraa owner Karim Sellam.

Size does matter

One of the biggest trends we witnessed this year was the growing popularity of the small

plate. After three years as runner-up, Spanish-themed tapas shop Mas bested Zocalo as favorite restaurant in our annual C-VILLE readers’ poll; Richmond-based Si Tapas opened a location in the old Starr Hill Brewery space; Zinc revamped its menu to cater to small plates and Michael Fitzgerald opened small plate/fancy drink Mexican venue Ventana in the old Kiki spot.

What to expect in 2009

In addition to what’s already on Restaurantarama’s radar—Chuck Adcock’s new place in the old Northern Exposure spot; something taking over

OXO’s space—we have a few predictions just based on our own prescience. Our crystal ball bets for the next food year:

(1) Taking the small plate sensation one step further, a budding entrepreneur will open an amuse bouche restaurant where the entire menu consists of one-bite meals. It will be called “morsel.” (that’s lower case “m” with a period) and will be vaguely French in flavor. Drinks will be fancy and full of expensive exotic fruit juices to make up for the lack of food-based revenue.

(2) The city will give up on the Mall rebricking project and declare the entire space a free-for-all patio and café zone to completely even out the score among the eateries. Whoever sets up their tables and condiments first gets the crowd. If there’s nowhere to walk, there’s nowhere to trip.

(3) Reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times will continue to hack out monthly stories about food tours of quaint little Charlottesville. Jinx Kern will relocate his barbeque shack to the sprawling, long vacant Asian Buffet space on Route 29N to accommodate the growing throngs of tour buses.

(4) Based on the success of the upcoming International Food and Wine Experience, Charlottesville will succeed Las Vegas as the new “it” place for celebrity chef outposts. Wolfgang Puck will open an eatery in the old Hardware Store spot (if Urban Outfitters bails), but he’ll joust with the Board of Architectural Review over his use of too much mosaic tile on the façade.

(5) Local food will become standard at Charlottesville restaurants; Sysco will be run out of town; and Tomas Rahal will begin raising and slaughtering his own heirloom pigs in the parking lot behind Mas until Belmont neighbors complain about the painfully loud oinks and the Virginia Department of Agriculture shuts him down. Rahal and Richard Bean will begin campaigning for the Libertarian presidential ticket in 2012. Their platform: “You should be able to put lipstick on a pig and do whatever else you want with him as long as it’s all done within 100 miles of your house.”

Until then, Happy New Year foodies!