Author: Faith Schweikert

There are those who love wine and then there are those who live for it. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of two live-for-it wine directors, Tavola and Fleurie have earned an Award of Excellence and a Best Award of Excellence, respectively, for the first time from Wine Spectator magazine.

“I’d love for Fleurie to, in time, become a wine destination restaurant and awards like this certainly help spread the word,” says Erin Scala, the sommelier at Fleurie and Petit Pois (as well as a contributing writer for C-VILLE Weekly) for the past two years.

“The magazine seeks out the best wine lists from [applicants] around the globe by comparing each restaurant and winery’s food, presentation of list, diversity, size of selection and level of commitment to providing a solid wine experience,” says Gillian Sciaretta, Wine Spectator’s director of restaurant awards program.

The list of 3,595 wine selections includes 2,414 in the Award of Excellence category (including The Downtown Grille), 1,093 in the Best Award of Excellence category and just 88 in the Grand Award category. All 50 states and nearly 70 other countries and territories were represented in this year’s list.

At Tavola, wine director Wells Blanchard says he has “a fondness for rare and obscure grape varietals” and is able to combine quality and affordability in wines with these features. He inherited a list that had most of the famous Italian regions represented, as well as some California and French, then tailored it to make half the wines Italian, categorized by light, medium and full-bodied to aid in customer selection.

“Being honored with an award as a family-owned restaurant with a list of only 95 wines —well, it makes me proud,” says Blanchard. “It’s also nice because everyone looking for a Spectator-rated restaurant now knows that Tavola has a list that they can get into.”

Sciaretta found that Scala’s attention to detail is exactly why Fleurie made the list. The Fleurie wine list, which boasts more than 350 varieties, has great “vertical depth of producers, a superior presentation and a unique breadth across regions,” says Sciaretta.

But for Scala, it’s more than just an award. “Awards are always great,” she says, “but really the most important thing is that people have a nice wine experience when they come to dine at the restaurant.”

Beef—it’s what’s for dinner

In case you couldn’t get enough of Timbercreek Market at breakfast, lunch and snack time, it’s added dinner to its menu.

Beginning July 21, every Thursday through Saturday, Executive Chef Allie Redshaw will be easing the “what’s for dinner?” stress with a farm-to-fork menu that’s a smidge fancier than Timbercreek’s lunch menu, featuring beef tartare, stuffed pork loin and watermelon and beet salad.

Based on the success of its farm dinner and private events, Timbercreek decided it was time to take the plunge and join the supper scene. Make reservations at info@timbercreekmarket.com.

Expansion practice

Every so often Charlottesville boasts a beautiful, sunny day where the mere thought of sitting inside seems like a crime.

This, Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar owner Charles Roumeliotes says, is the reason the restaurant decided to add a patio. In December, when Orzo expanded into The Frenchman’s Corner next door, it gained a third more space and access to the outside.

“It just made sense to add a patio because of that,” Roumeliotes says of the area that officially opened last week. “We were definitely at a disadvantage compared to other restaurants with outdoor seating in those shoulder months where it’s 70 degrees and people are looking for places where they can be outside.”

The design was completed in collaboration with resident artist Laura Wooten, and added eight tables—enough seating for 25 people.

Tasty tidbits

Global grounds…Perhaps because UVA is always encouraging students to study abroad, the place that keeps those students awake on Grounds is too. Greenberry’s, a local, small-batch coffeeshop, is set to open its first location in Japan this fall. Pour me another…The Georgia peach may be a classic but right now it’s all about the Shenandoah Peach, from the Virginia Distillery Company. The drink is the first full-sized cocktail to be served at the whiskey company’s visitors center since the passage of a recent Virginia law allowing for a three-ounce serving per person, per day.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but, in this case, it takes a family to build a restaurant. Los Jarochos, Charlottesville’s newest Mexican restaurant, has gotten the entire Hernandez clan to contribute to the West Main space that formerly housed Horse & Hound Gastropub.

Despite the change in ownership, much of the look of the restaurant remains the same, with an open floor plan and a coin-covered bar. The interior, however, was painted a new shade of bright red by the father of owner and general manager Sandy Zuniga Hernandez before the restaurant’s June 27 grand opening. And the family continues to pitch in: Hernandez’s mother helped create recipes for the menu, and Hernandez’s boyfriend, Victor Marquez, does all the cooking.

“We’re very family-oriented here,” she says. “We work as a team because it’s the best way to do things.”

Los Jarochos, which means “originating from the Mexican state of Veracruz,” where Hernandez and her family are from, has a mission larger than serving customers breakfast, lunch and dinner. She laments that “Mexican places all have the same fajitas and the same flour quesadillas and chimichangas.”

“We want to serve real, authentic Mexican food,” Hernandez says. “I want people to know our culture, to have another perspective of Mexican food than burritos that aren’t really Mexican and what they’re used to getting.”

So far, the most popular menu items have been the breakfast tortillas with eggs and pork loin with mango sauce at dinner.

Hernandez says the restaurant’s opening, which was delayed several months due to permit restrictions, has been a whirlwind. The 22-year-old accounting student at PVCC fell in love with the restaurant environment after working as a waitress at El Jaripeo.

“When you get here we want you to sit down, taste the flavors and feel at home,” she says. “We’re trying to do the same things that we like when we go to a restaurant.”

Get your grub on

It’s that time again—when you suddenly make plans with people you haven’t seen in ages, just so you can eat at as many restaurants as possible in a nine-day period (no? maybe it’s just us). Restaurant Week is back from July 15-23, with 37 local restaurants creating special menus that highlight what they do best. New restaurants added to the lineup this time around are Tavern & Grocery, The Bebedero, The Fitzroy, Fellini’s and Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar. Price points for the prix-fixe meals are $19, $29 and $39. And you can feel good about spending a little (or a lot of) money: Proceeds benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Start poring over the menus now at charlottesvillerestaurantweek.com.

Tasty tidbits

Sweet summertime…It’s finally July and the fruit’s all here. The Pie Chest is transitioning to its summer menu with lots of blackberries, cherries and peaches from the Local Food Hub. Better with age…The sugaristas at Paradox Pastry celebrated the cafe’s recent fourth birthday by posting a Facebook photo of all the cookbooks that served as inspiration before it opened. Last-place winner…Despite coming in dead last behind Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Harrisonburg in a Twitter poll about where Sugar Shack Donuts & Coffee’s next location should be, the franchise will be making its way to Charlottesville. The company says, “It’s a definite without a definite timeline.”

We’re all guilty of it—a cupcake for a snack…an entire Benny Deluca’s pizza for dinner. It happens. Charlottesville, however, has embraced the perfect antidote for indulging in all the tantalizing foods the city has to offer: plenty of juice options. Whether found in a bottle, such as the locally owned Lumi juice, or made fresh daily from organic fruits and vegetables, juices can provide health benefits and be a tasty treat at the same time. So, grab your straws and start slurping.

The Juice Laundry

Clean Green

Kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, apple, parsley, ginger
and lemon

$5 for 9 oz.; $9 for 17 oz.

It’s what non-juice drinkers fear: the unidentifiable green beverage. But to The Juice Laundry founder/owner Mike Keenan, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

“A lot of people who try really potent green juice may be turned off by it, but really quickly people develop a taste and craving for it and how it makes you feel, what it does for your body and your energy level,” Keenan says. “When your body feels like that, you don’t want to go back to feeling sluggish.”

The Juice Laundry’s 25 different juices, shots and smoothies are 100 percent “no questions asked, 365-days-a-year organic.”

The Juice Place

Corpse Reviver

Ginger, orange juice, oil of oregano and reishi (an herbal Chinese mushroom)

$3.25 for a shot

The team behind C’ville’s newest juice location, on the Downtown Mall, created several juice and smoothie variations, playing with temperature and texture, before deciding on the final menu of 10 signature juices and six smoothies. The Juice Place’s Corpse Reviver shot is a healthy take on the classic cocktail.

“I put it on the menu as a joke. …Then I made one just because you have to try it out, and it was delicious,” says General Manager Hadley Rodland. “It’s got a lot of health benefits, [and] it’s eye-opening, putting you back on your feet from a rough night before.

“The first thing you taste and smell is oil of oregano. Then really powerful reishi, then [you] finish with orange, so the last taste in your mouth is with pure, fresh-squeezed orange juice, like a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. It’s euphoric, almost.”

Integral Yoga Natural Foods

Liver Flusher

Beet, grapefruit, lemon, ginger, milk thistle extract and cayenne

$5 for 8 oz.; $8 for 16 oz.

General Manager Wahe Guru Singh likes to think Integral Yoga Natural Foods, the oldest standing organic food outlet in Charlottesville, had a hand in bringing the juice craze to town. Its juice bar has been operating for more than 20 years, with a blend of local, organic fruits and vegetables and herbal extracts and spices linked to better health.

The Liver Flusher, for instance, is made with ingredients such as milk thistle and lemon juice that are traditionally used to detoxify the liver, with “a little ginger and cayenne to give it a bit of a kick.”

Gypsy Juice

Sage peach lemonade

$3-4 for 16 oz.

You’ll find it at festivals, you’ll find it at farmers markets and, if all goes as planned, you’ll find it at a Nelson County storefront before too long.

Gypsy Juice, true to its name, isn’t a conventional juice producer. It doesn’t promise that its juices are organic, and it uses imported fruits and vegetables when they can’t be found locally. Its owners are focused on something else.

“We’re more into creating unique flavors than worrying about if the fruits are local or organic,” owner/operator KC Sperry says about options that include iced raspberry rose green tea and iced peach ginger black tea. “We’re fun and unique…we don’t pretend to be cold-pressed like other juice places.”

Smojo smoothie & juice truck

Cucumber, kale, white beet, ginger and pear

$4.50 for 16 oz.

Smojo owner/operator Beth Harley came up with the idea of adding seltzer to freshly squeezed juice, such as grapefruit, carrot and lime, for a refreshing respite while enduring the heat inside her smoothie truck.

“We offer the option of juice over ice and seltzer, which I think people really like and will bring them into the juice realm,” Harley says.

The Smojo truck, with its signature smoothies and juices, can be found on Mondays at the UVA Research Park, Thursdays at the Uteam Farmers Market and often at Sprint Pavilion events. Harley is currently looking for a permanent brick-and-mortar home near UVA.

Related Links: Jan. 15, 2014: Juice junky