Fans of Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen can now enjoy a Chris Long sub, Bum Steer and Five Easy Pieces at Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery on Rockfish Gap Turnpike in Crozet. The restaurant operates out of a Pro Re Nata-owned food truck on the brewery property, providing food to patrons and offering both pick-up and delivery services to the Crozet community. Littlejohn’s Restaurants Inc. president Colleen Morrissey says customers can choose from a menu that includes the most popular sandwiches and subs from Littlejohn’s location on the UVA Corner, plus smaller snacks, burgers and fries.
Littlejohn’s at ProReNata also offers weekend specials such as sandwiches made with, or made to pair with, one of the brewery’s beers. “Our team is having fun being creative and reacting to the customers’ requests,” Morrissey says. “We’re changing the menu periodically to reflect the requests we receive.”
Chopt, chopt
First, the Corner got Roots Natural Kitchen. Then The Salad Maker opened downtown. Now, Chopt is set to move into the former Ruby Tuesday space at Barracks Road Shopping Center in the second half of 2017.
The chain, which has multiple locations in New York, North Carolina and in the Washington, D.C., area, says on its website that its fresh salads “push the boundaries of what a salad can be, looking ahead to a future where vegetable eating—and better fast food—is the norm.”
According to a Chopt representative, the restaurant will be company owned and operated.
“At Chopt, we believe that we are part of a movement to change the way America eats, and have always looked to forward-thinking students and communities as our partners,” the representative says, citing Charlottesville’s reputation as an “open-minded, health-oriented” community of foodies as a reason for the chain opening a spot here.
Cheese, please
We’ve got plenty of burger joints here in town, but Phil’s Steaks, currently building out the former Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins spot at 1509 University Ave. on the Corner, is hoping to steer Charlottesville toward a different beef-consumption method: the Philly cheesesteak.
Phil’s head chef and co-owner Kevin McConnell and two of his friends started Phil’s, a New York City-based food truck, five years ago. Though the truck has a modest menu, offering only authentic cheesesteaks, made with tender sirloin steak, mushrooms and onions, served on bread from Philadelphia’s Amoroso’s Baking Company and smothered in either Cheez Whiz, white American or provolone cheese, and twice-fried fries, it made a name for itself.
McConnell says this first brick-and-mortar Phil’s Steaks location, set to open in mid-March, will be a lunch and late-night spot that caters to the college crowd, serving the truck’s staples plus a few new options like chicken steaks, veggie steaks and onion rings.
Cold spell
Splendora’s is again offering all-you-can-eat gelato Wednesdays during January and February. Fork over $10 and you’ll get scoop after scoop, so long as you follow these rules:
1. No cup sharing.
2. You must stay in Splendora’s—no leaving and coming back.
3. You will get a new cup for every scoop, but keep your spoon.
4. Please don’t have food delivered to Splendora’s
5. Don’t eat so much you die or vomit.