Author: restaurantarama

It’s getting so that we actually have to look where we’re going when we walk along the Downtown Mall. No more staring at our shoes hoping to avoid tripping over the grout-thirsty uneven bricks. The bigger danger these days is walking smack into the chained-off alfresco dining area of one of the Mall’s many restaurants or colliding with one of the many servers who themselves are nervously teetering across the bumpy bricks to the patio seats with trays of drinks and piping hot food in hand. Restaurantarama now counts 27 dining establishments with outside seating either in front of their doors or along the middle of the Mall or both. And it’s no wonder the restaurant folks are carving up the pedestrian thoroughfare with metal tables and chairs—we in Charlottesville just love to fancy ourselves Mr. Jefferson’s children with our European-style cosmopolitan airs and our love of café chowing and piazza people watching. Of course, open-air dining comes with its own dangers. Rarely do we sit down for a tasty meal in the Mall sunshine without catching a very irresponsible dog owner leaving a very unsavory pile of dog doo in our midst, and God help your appetite if you end up across from the busking flute player.

You’ve been warned: Hamiltons’ at First & Main’s General Manager Daniel Page says he keeps a watchful eye on the forecast and discourages the use of its outdoor Mall space if rain is predicted.

But the real hazard out there this time of year is the sudden summer storm. Just the other day while traipsing along the Mall after a downpour, negotiating the ragged road underfoot, the landmines of metal furniture and the dog piles, we noticed the folks at Hamiltons’ at First & Main cleaning up a table that had overturned in the storm, breaking a set of their signature blue glasses in the process. That made us wonder: Just how do restaurants reconcile outdoor seating and inclement weather? We checked in with Hamilton’s for some insight:

Daniel Page, Hamilton’s general manager, tells us he tries to be proactive about the weather, but that scrambling in the rain is just part of serving on the Mall (he says they lost an umbrella half way down the block in the last storm). He does carefully watch the forecast, however, and discourages folks from sitting outdoors if rain is predicted. And he never take reservations for the patio even when the sun is shining. "We are responsible for their dining experience, and we just can’t take a chance," he says. But not seating the patio has got to hurt the bottom line, right?  Revenue is definitely impacted, he says—the patio adds space for 32 more diners (the inside dining room seats 60). And rain means a lot fewer mouths to feed. In fact, Page spoke to Restaurantarama just after calling to give his patio server the night off—with a thundercloud overhead, it just wasn’t worth having her come to work.

On deck

Undeterred by stories of broken glass and wayward umbrellas, the folks at the Clifton Inn just added their own outdoor dining area this month. And manager Depne Candir says Clifton’s back deck already has become the most popular spot to enjoy its signature gourmet fare, thanks to the mountain views and sounds of nature in Clifton’s secluded surroundings. Hey, it’s no busking banjo player, but we imagine that chirping birds and crickets must be a decent meal soundtrack too.

Cooks in the kitchen

We are a little disappointed to inform you that one of our superstar chefs, Blue Light Grill‘s Reed Anderson, is leaving our little Charlottesville nest for his next culinary adventure: a chance to cook at Arnolfo, a Michelin-rated-two-star restaurant outside of Tuscany. Anderson’s last day at Blue Light is August 4. And just who will next oversee Blue Light’s Southeast Asian-inspired seafood fare? It’s a mystery. Michael Keaveny, director of operations for Coran Capshaw‘s Central Restaurant Group, tells us they are still looking for Anderson’s replacement. Anderson does inform us, however, that the new guy or gal likely will come from outside Charlottesville. We will keep you posted.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com.

We at Restaurantarama have been telling you about some major shake-ups and shake-downs in the local dining scene. We’ve been dropping big names and getting all philosophical about hot spots closing and hip new joints burgeoning. Well, this week we are relieved to tell you about a person you’ve probably never heard of and a place you’ve probably never been. Don’t you just feel all clean and refreshed already? Of course, Russell Smith hopes you’ll soon know his name or at least the name of his new restaurant in Crozet, Flavor’s Café, which opened on June 8, and that you’ll soon get intimate with his “jazzed-up Southern cuisine.” Smith opened Flavor’s in the old Ombra’s Cafe space where he’d been general manager before he took over the restaurant from Ombra’s absentee owner. Before Ombra’s, Smith tried running a catering operation out of the Shell station on Preston Avenue, and before that, he perfected his homestyle Southern fare working for UVA Catering. In total, he has spent 27 years in the food service industry, yet Flavor’s is his first restaurant. And like any restaurant rookie and chef/owner, Smith is kind of a one-man show. When he’s not smoking the pork for Flavor’s BBQ sandwich with his signature “House Voodoo Sauce” or cooking up hickory-scented spiced shrimp with “secret powder,” he’s pounding the pavement to drum up catering business for Flavor’s and he’s managing the restaurant’s day-to-day operations. And when he’s not doing any of that, he’s trying to finish painting the sign for out front. Currently, the only indication that there’s delicious down-home grub like collard greens and macaroni and cheese at Flavor’s somewhat nondescript location in Crozet Square is a red banner that says, “We’re Open”—which is just about as to-the-point and free of airs as Smith himself. When Restaurantarama came a-calling, Smith simply said, “Where have you been?”

Music to our tastebuds: Flavor’s Café owner Russell Smith is dishing up “jazzed-up Southern cuisine” in Crozet.

Indeed, we have no excuse for not getting off our rear ends sooner and venturing out to Crozet country for its latest culinary development where Smith says he’s filling a local void with his casual setting and cuisine that leans toward the seafood end of the Southern spectrum. “I brought oysters on the half-shell to Crozet,” he claims proudly. And while he will gladly serve you a ubiquitous Southern fried chicken dinner, he’s much more jazzed about his Veal Oscar with Crab and Asparagus over Garlic Linguini. The one thing he can’t yet serve you, however, is a Southern-style cocktail. That’s because Smith has discovered the most difficult part of starting a restaurant—that blasted ABC license paperwork. But with Smith’s sweat equity heavily invested, Restaurantarama bets there soon will be a frosty beverage to accompany your unpretentious plate of Southern hospitality and a sign alerting you to the delicious Flavor’s awaiting inside.

Eat good

Sometimes a good meal can restore your faith in humanity. Like when you bite into a beautifully assembled piece of sushi, don’t you just get all proud that we are a species with opposable thumbs? Or when you savor a plate of pasta puttanesca, don’t you just want to bow down to the person who discovered roasting garlic in olive oil is just about the most amazing flavor this side of heaven? Well, here’s another faith-restoring culinary achievement: Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar’s 10 percent Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, Orzo donates 10 percent of the revenue generated that day to a local charity. A new charity is selected to collect the proceeds from each month. In June, Orzo collected $1,213 for The Cancer Center, and so far in July, it has collected $600 for Building Goodness. Now that’s what we call eating good!

Just when we were getting used to all the hip new dining joints on W. Main Street (so-called Midtown), along comes someone with an idea to up the sleek, modern, cool factor on the Corner. What’s next, a martini bar in the Meadowbrook Shopping Center? Asian fusion at the Tavern? There soon may come a day, folks, when we will have to don skinny jeans and oversized shades just to feel worthy of some grub around here, but for now we’ll work on our best ironic hipster gazes in time for the late summer opening of 1517 in the old Jabberwocky space.

The “Jab” served its last round of sliders on Saturday, July 14, and as of press time, renovations to the 4,500 square-foot space were scheduled to begin in earnest on Sunday. 1517 will be a “metropolitan experience,” says owner Andy McClure, with a more upscale menu of salads, sandwiches and entrees, a line of signature martinis and cocktails and a sophisticated new interior by STOA Design+ Construction (the firm that gave us Downtown’s cooler-than-thou spots, X Lounge and Zocalo). McClure says even the Jabberwocky façade is getting a makeover to replace the ubiquitous Corner brick frontage.

Extreme makeover: Owner Andy McClure is turning Jabberwocky into 1517, where the number of hip details and menu items will make you feel positively metropolitan.

And truly, we don’t blame McClure for wanting to do something crazy like bring a more urban feel to the Corner pub crawl scene. After all, he and his brother Patrick could only have gotten a little bored owning another Corner staple, the Southern-style UVA dive bar, the 80-year old Virginian (which they purchased in 2001), as well as the other Southern-style dive bar, West Main (the former Awful Arthur’s spot, which they purchased in 2004). And though McClure says the Jabberwocky also was doing well and generating profits, he just couldn’t ignore the nagging thought that there was an opportunity to “distinguish ourselves from anything else on this side of town.”

Does the complete overhaul and new upscale bent have anything to do with Jabberwocky’s controversial no-white-t-shirt dress code and resulting uproar? Absolutely not, McClure says. And he hopes 1517 will appeal to a broader audience as well as Jab’s former clientele—just those who are willing to pay a bit more for some gourmet fare to munch on while they play pool in the back game room or cheer on the Cavs on sleek new flat screen TVs.

McClure says 1517 will continue Jabberwocky’s “great beer list,” but other than that and the TVs and pool table, the new place will have “absolutely no relationship to the Jabberwocky concept.” Really, no crusties? O.K., there will be crusties, he says, but the cheesy, rolled up slices of pizza-like heaven will also be getting a hip, new name.  Oh, and McClure says he just can’t part with the Saturday night ‘80s dance party, so that will continue when 1517 opens in about four weeks. But amateur singers take note: You’ll now have to frequent one of the 30,000 other karaoke spots in town to get your voice on. 

Grape news

We just knew there was something robust and earthy and with just a hint of oak fermenting in the mind of Charlottesville wine man Michael Shaps. After the winemaker left his longtime position with the King Family Vineyards and, along with his partners, sold Downtown wine bar Vavino (now Enoteca) to Coran Capshaw’s restaurant empire, we worried about losing one of our grapest (we couldn’t help it) local resources. But not to fear—Shaps is working on a new winery project with Philip Stafford (one of the founders of C&O and the Market Street Wineshop) in Keane. We can’t tell you much more than that while the ABC license is pending, but stay tuned for more juice on this story.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 31.

The waters are getting rocky here in the Charlottesville dining scene, and it’s not just the little fish that are getting swept out with the tide these days. Two big whoppers expired in the span of one week: Coran Capshaw’s Starr Hill announced its closure on Thursday, June 28, and Patricia Kluge’s Fuel Co. closed its doors on Saturday, June 30. And Restaurantarama soon learned we were not alone in being taken completely off guard, at least with respect to the latter. It turns out even Charlottesville’s Mayor David Brown himself was caught unawares by Fuel Co.’s sudden death. When Brown showed up for dinner that Saturday night along with a contingent of visitors from Charlottesville’s Italian sister city, Poggio a Caiano, the group was surprised by the very unsisterly greeting of Fuel’s locked doors. The mayor had made reservations of course—the Italians were traveling all the way across the Atlantic for dinner after all. But even our fearless leader was denied advance warning of the closure. No worries, though. The folks at Bohème came to the rescue, moved around a few tables in the middle of their dinner service and quickly made room for the Italians who happily blew through a few bottles of wine and three or four courses starting with a succulent duck confit appetizer, says Bohème owner Tom Fussell.

Someone wants to sell Basil according to an online ad, but owner Raif Antar says it’s not him.

With a disastrous international incident narrowly avoided, however, Restaurantarama began to wonder: Shouldn’t we have seen this storm coming?

In the case of Fuel, it turns out the writing was definitely on the wall long before the paper went up on the windows. In the four short years of its existence, the gas station/c-store/wine bar and bistro gobbled up and spat out six different chefs and five different general managers. We caught up with one such former Fuel alumnus, Ken Wooten, one of the owners of Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar, for some scoop. Wooten was general manger No. 2 and the one with the longest tenure: two years. Before managing Fuel, he was manager of the Kluge Estate Farm Shop and, before that, he was Patricia Kluge’s butler (yep, apparently butlers exist outside “Benson” reruns). As for the abrupt closure, Wooten says, “I wasn’t surprised it went down that way.” Wooten, who says he was fired by Patricia Kluge, says the place was “a vanity project,” and was “hemorrhaging about $100,000 a month” when he came on board. The Kluge Estate’s PR representative, Theresa Bertrand from Deussen Global Communications in New York, said the organization had no comment to that and gave us this prepared statement: “After three years of operation, Fuel Co. will close its doors on Monday, July 2. Although we love the concept and enjoyed serving the Charlottesville community with the restaurant, the dramatic growth of Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard and Vineyard Estates requires us to give those businesses more of our time and attention. We are happy to announce that Fuel Co. will continue to provide catering services and a venue, and we sincerely thank our customers for their patronage and loyalty.”

As to Wooten’s claims of the place being a bleeder, he blames it on highly compensated “consultant chefs” from New York, who he says were spending only about three days a week on the premises at the beginning, expensive ingredients that spoiled before they could be used and a facility that just couldn’t fill the seats, what with the gas pumps taking up all the room for parking.

For sale or not for sale?

From now on, we at Restaurantarama will be keeping our ears open and our eyes peeled for signs of impending doom. For curiosity’s sake, though, we conducted an online search of restaurants for sale in the city and discovered a listing for Basil, a Mediterranean bistro “in the heart of the University of Virginia.” But when we called Basil owner Raif Antar for information, he very curtly told us, “The restaurant is not for sale.” Hmmm. How then to explain the listing for a Mediterranean bistro, called Basil, on the Corner, next to Catwalk Clothing? Could there be another Basil Mediterranean bistro on another Corner next to another Catwalk Clothing? Perhaps in Poggio a Caiano, Italy? With some pressing, Antar did say, “Everything’s for sale for a price,” but insisted Basil is not.

As always, fair diners, we’ll keep you posted on these and other developments, but for now, buckle up—we think we’re in for a bumpy ride.

It was the start of summertime, and enoteca—the new Italian wine & panini bar in the old Vavino space—could not have picked a better date—June 21—to celebrate its grand opening. While the sunlight lingered on the longest day of the year, Restaurantarama guiltlessly sipped prosecco frizzante (that’s sparkling wine with just a whisper of bubbles) and munched on antipasti well past 8pm on a weeknight. Coincidence? Probably not. The solstice dovetailed nicely with the ultimate vision for the place that managers Megan Headley and Marisa Catalano told us about a few weeks ago—that of a “time portal” where patrons savor their wine and bruschetta while “letting the night take shape.”

Our night shaped up to be just as much a literary study as a viticultural one. Perusing the long list of 80-plus wines, we learned from the tasting notes that a 2001 Amarone della Valpolicella is “transcendental” and a 2005 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is “without airs.” Yikes, that’s a little intimidating—Restaurantarama’s taste buds are still struggling to understand the concept of “full-bodied.” No worries, though. The enoteca staff has been studying hard, they tell us, to guide patrons through the exhaustive menu. The wine list includes a red and a white selection from each of Italy’s wine regions from Piemonte to Sicily, one such helpful and well-trained server told us. And many of the selections are available by the bottle, by the six-ounce glass and by a convenient three-ounce tasting size.

This is definitely not the place to get a cheap buzz on or to tank up on eats before heading to a Live Arts show. This is a place to swirl and sniff and linger over your formaggi or share your bowl of Marcona almonds roasted in sea salt and thyme with newfound friends seated next to you at the long, communal tables. Just do like the Europeans do and pretend every day is the longest day of the year

Sweet parting

It is with some sadness that Restaurantarama reports that Sweet Peas Neighborhood Bistro & Pour House at Lake Monticello will indeed be sold, but not to the winner of the contest we told you about a few months ago. Owner Joanna Yoakam told us she and her husband Dean received lots of responses from all over the country to their win-a-bistro essay contest. “People went crazy with creativity” she told us—one entrant sent them a huge bouquet of sweet peas and another sent his essay in the form of a menu. Unfortunately, the Yoakams did not receive enough entry fees (of $199 each) to cover their bank loan, and so they had to sell the family bistro the conventional way. Though the sale is still pending, Yoakam says she’ll likely turn over the keys around June 30. She expects the place will be closed for a few weeks of transition, but will reopen with a similar down-home menu of steaks and pasta that her loyal customers have grown to love.

Restaurantarama is still holding out hope that the win-a-restaurant concept will catch on so that aspiring entrepreneurs with more chutzpa than money will have a chance to enter the crazy culinary world.

Quick bites

Testing our mastery of the international language of food, Restaurantarama recently stopped by for some Mexican sweets at Las Palmas Bakery in the new Woolen Mills Pointe shopping center on Carlton Road. (That’s the same outer-Belmont dining spot that has given us Pad Thai.) The new bakery is the Charlottesville outpost of the Culpeper establishment of the same name. It’s short on English but long on yummy baked treats like empanada, which Restaurantarama did not have to consult the Pocket Dictionary of Ethnic Foods to determine means “pastry stuffed with sweet goodness.”

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.

Get hoppy: Taylor Smack, Mandi Smack and Matt Nucci (left to right) are cultivating the main ingredient for their Blue Mountain brews coming this fall.

Picture this: You’re relaxing with friends on a balmy afternoon and enjoying the Blue Ridge Mountain views while you snack on a plate of cheese and charcuterie. You’re swirling your glass with pinky held high and feeling übersophisticated as you comment on the color and aroma of your…beer?  Yep, that’s right. Such scenes are not the exclusive province of the Chardonnay and Cab Franc peddlers, say the folks at Blue Ridge Mountain Brewery and Hop Farm—a new brewery and tasting room slated to open on Critzer Shop Road in Afton this fall. Taylor Smack, South Street Brewery’s nationally decorated brew master for the last six years, has left that establishment to launch the “farm brewery” along with his wife, Mandi Smack, and friend Matt Nucci. Smack says Charlottesville is a savvy beer drinking area and is ready for an experience that’s a little more cerebral—“a little more touch and feel than walking into a brew pub and ordering a plate of nachos.”

To create an atmosphere more conducive to sipping a crafted beverage than pounding a brewski, Blue Mountain will offer indoor bistro seating by a fireplace of local river rock and alfresco munching (on light fare such as cheese, meats and gourmet sandwiches) on a patio overlooking the mountains and the hops growing on the brewery’s four acres. As for the main attraction, a tasting bar will offer samplings of six different styles of brew from a pale ale to a lager to “big, high alcohol style” beers, says Smack. There also will be seasonal selections including a strawberry wheat varietal to take advantage of the strawberry crops growing nearby. All will be served in their appropriately shaped glass to emphasize their particular flavors and colors. Did you think only winos were glass snobs? And all the selections will be brewed with the farm’s own hops, cultivated yeast and Shenandoah Valley-bred water, meaning the brewery will have a claim to “agricultural authenticity,” says Smack.

Patrons will be able to tour the state of the art brewery, which at four times the size of South Street’s facility, will produce up to 3,500 barrels a year (that’s about 7,000 kegs) expected to be available by six-pack at local stores and on tap at local restaurants. Blue Mountain plans to open its doors in time for Octoberfest. To that Restaurantarama says Prost!

Wunder-ful

In the same spirit of less pounding and more sipping, the Ix project folks (the gang refurbishing the old Frank Ix and Sons factory building Downtown) say a German-style biergarten will be the first restaurant to open in the Piazza planned for the center of the development. Inspired by the success of last summer’s Wunderkammer carnival at the Ix ruins? Not exactly, this place would be PG-rated—a “family place” says Katrin Naess, a native of Bavaria (as is Ix developer Ludwig Kuttner) who is consulting with the Ix project. She says Charlottesville’s Blue Ridge Mountains remind her of pre-Alps Bavaria, and she’s hoping to bring a more Bavarian sensibility to local imbibing—to create a culture “where you don’t get drunk, but sit and meet with your friends and family.” Naess says the place would feature authentic German-style food incorporating local ingredients and locally-brewed German style beers. She’s already talking with the Blue Mountain folks about providing the brewing. But don’t grab your lederhosen just yet—Naess says the biergarten is at least two years off.

In other beer news, Starr Hill Brewery’s planned tasting room at the old ConAgra building in Crozet, which we told you about last year, is getting a lot of other media buzz as the brewery gets ready to open the doors for tours mid-summer or early fall, and rumor has it yet another brewery/brew pub may be coming to the Afton/Crozet area—more on that later. Look out Fort Collins, Colorado—Central Virginia may be fast becoming the new center of the beer-drinking universe. Monticello beer trail, anyone?

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.

Usually, Restaurantarama is interested in food before anything else (natch). As doggedly as bears seeking honey, we sniff out all that is fried, fricasseed, boiled, baked, chopped, tossed, smoked, steamed, poached and pickled in this here town of ours. However, once in a while we must pause to consider that restaurants are not only places to find grub. They’re also buildings, businesses and parts of the community. Such is the mindset with which we bring you some news about Mel’s Café, the neighborhood standby on W. Main Street.

Kiss these grits: Mel Walker and his diner are getting lots of well-deserved love from the community—thanks to cash and in-kind donations, Mel’s sign will soon get a makeover.

The story begins with the fact that owner Mel Walker is such a good guy that the nonprofit Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries bestowed on him its second annual Beloved Community award this past Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the words of Rydell Payne, executive director of the organization: “We thought Mel was quite creative at using his culinary skills to serve our community in such a rich way”—by donating food and labor to local programs.

That’s truly sweet, and so is the fact that Abundant Life raised $850—which was then matched by local company Hightech Signs—toward a new sign for Mel’s. (The existing one, Walker himself estimates, might be as old as 40; it’s not looking too pretty.) And here the feel-good vibes get complicated.

“I wanted to remove the arrow with the Christmas-tree lights,” explains Ben Foster of Hightech Signs. Instead, he envisioned a new outline with two circular faces extending beyond the shape of the sign. But whereas Foster displays zero sentimentality about the funky ol’ dinosaur that’s there now, it apparently makes the city’s Board of Architectural Review feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic. In its May 15 meeting, the BAR asked Foster to preserve the existing outline (“It’s a historic outline,” says Foster, chuckling), keeping his new circles inside the lines and letting the arrow remain.

And so he shall. The spruced-up sign, Foster says, should be finished in about a month—arrow included. This all reminds us of last year’s fracas between the BAR and the Melting Pot, also signage-related—though the fondue place is a national chain in a high-end Downtown building, while Mel’s is a homegrown greasy spoon whose owner exhibits the utmost modesty: “This is my home, so I try to help the local people out when I can.”

Moral of the story? Doing something nice for somebody can be a lot more complicated than you’d expect. Still, stopping by Mel’s for a hamburger is probably a good deed, plain and simple. Just look for the arrow.

The new South

Aside from the menu, the new Southern-cuisine restaurant Maya—not far from Mel’s—is not particularly reminiscent of the South. But that’s fine with us: We feel no need for more Cracker Barrels in this world, and when we showed up for dinner recently we found the clean, modern-industrial looks of the space a lot more appealing than a faux-”Waltons” theme would have been.

Still, the menu clearly recalled the kind of fare John-Boy might have noshed: collards, ham gravy, grits. And there’s a Gulf of Mexico influence—fried oysters with spicy remoulade. The deal is, when you get an entrée you also pick two sides from a long, tempting list (sweet potato fries, red rice and chorizo, cornbread, beets…) and then try to resist piling on more at extra cost.

Our companions insisted on describing their meals of ribs and pork chops with terms like “tasty,” “good” and “I like it a lot,” so we can’t offer too many specifics on those. But we found the macaroni and cheese deliciously tangy, and the fried okra irresistible. Also, two words: “soul pickle.” Try it.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.

Restaurantarama has been dying to tell you this for quite some time: Revolutionary Soup is coming to the Corner!

Why have we been so antsy about busting this out? Well, two reasons—one, we consider it noteworthy when a completely homegrown business takes a great leap forward, as when Brix Marketplace recently expanded to Pantops or Shenandoah Joe morphed from roastery to café-and-roastery. And two, Rev Soup owner Will Richey understandably wanted to hold off on the story until he could officially sign his name to the former First Wok space on 14th Street. Just like when we get a wicked jones for a wild mushroom wrap that we can’t immediately satisfy, having to wait made us all the hungrier.

You say you want an evolution? How about Will Richey bringing Rev Soup to the Corner.

Anyway, the time has arrived for a second Rev Soup. Why now? “The biggest driving force was the fact that I’ve really got a tight staff at Rev 1,” Richey says. “I said why not? I’m young, I’ll throw myself into the chaos of the world now while I can still take it.”

Specifically, that would be the chaos of the Corner lunch scene. We wouldn’t necessarily say that ‘Hoos are revolutionary types—this ain’t Berkeley, after all—but we see no reason why they won’t eat soup for lunch. “Our food and our philosophy is the healthy, the local,” says Richey. “I think students are starting to appreciate that type of stuff more.”

Yeah, but will they pay for it? Richey thinks they’ll meet him in the middle. “When I experiment [Downtown] I come out with higher end items,” he says, mimicking himself: “Wouldn’t it be great if we served caviar salad?” For the academic crowd, he’ll reign himself in a bit. “We’ll have all the basics and when I do put a special out, it’ll be a $4.50 or $5 special as opposed to a $7.50 or $8 special,” he says.

Likewise on a budget, Richey will keep the First Wok furniture and leave the space largely as it is, save for some painting and light renovation. He says he intends to move quickly and open as soon as June 18. Oh, here’s one way this second Soup represents a true revolution: possible outdoor seating.

Smoother

Also betting on the idea that students will spring for a healthy bite is a quartet of entrepreneurs who plan to open a juice and smoothie bar called Sublime. It’ll be in the Dixie Divas spot, maybe by August, and look for it to function on a higher plane than your average blender chain.

The temptation to make a pun on “fruity” is almost too great to bear when someone talks about the connection between smoothies and chakras. But we actually think it’s very cool that Geoff Robinson, Tim Rose, Julia Jondahl and Stuart Madany plan to combine their experiences in both restaurants and various healing practices like reiki and nutritional counseling.

The upshot? “People on the go will be able to grab fresh squeezed juice and some other small freshly made items of the highest quality, and get it in their bodies and get the quick vitality and energy from it,” says Robinson. So: smoothies, juices, and little bites like spring rolls and lettuce wraps, many made with local and organic produce. And if you want to get really serious, you can order a smoothie designed in color and ingredients to specifically stimulate one of your seven chakras—for example, for the root chakra, a bright red one made from beets, carrots and ginger.

The theory behind all this? “That’s a whole course in itself,” says Robinson. Or you can just get some juice.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.

We have a new dining experience to tell you about: It’s called eating at home. O.K., eating at home is not really Restaurantarama’s forte. If left to our own devices we’d be scarfing down mac ‘n’ cheese in front of the TV every night like the rest of America. We much prefer the more civilized culinary experience provided by, say, Eppies, where macaroni & cheese is prepared for us, from scratch, sans nasty pot of caked-on, processed cheese-like product soaking in our sinks for days on end. Well, what if we told you there’s a place where you can make your own meals—stay with us—but you do none of the menu planning, shopping, chopping or cleaning yourself and you end up with gourmet-sounding entrees like Grilled Honey-Lemon Tilapia and Marmalade-Glazed Pork Chops to enjoy in front of the comforts of your own TV? Such place is called Super Suppers and it just opened on Route 29N. Yes, there’s some hands-on labor involved at this make-your-own-dinner shop, but all of the really unpleasant work is done for you. In less than an hour and half, you can assemble 10 entrees that serve 4-6 people each. Each entree is prepped and ready for you to mix it all together at five little gourmet kitchen stands throughout the shop.

Jill Costello made a business out of her favorite hobby: stacking away frozen meals for friends and family in need. You can create your own stash at Super Suppers on Route 29N

And if you have a smaller family and really want to pack your freezer, you could split the make-your-own entrees in half plus pick up a few of the ready-made entrees prepared by franchise owner Jill Costello and her staff in the Grab & Go or Fresh & Go cases, and you’ll have a month’s worth of meals in less time than it takes Restaurantarama to scrub the mac ‘n’ cheese pot! And it’s all at a savings of about $125 off your monthly grocery bill, Costello says. (We’re not exactly sure how she gets that figure, but it sounds great to us!)

We have no idea what a freezer full of meals looks like what with the package of fudge pops and the hamburger patties circa summer of ’05 as the sole contents of Restaurantarama’s icebox, but we imagine it must be pretty satisfying for those

I-wish-I-were-more-like-Martha-Stewart moments and helpful for those housebound times during a snow storm, for instance, or after you’ve had a baby or when you just—gasp—don’t want to eat out.

Costello tells us that Super Suppers’ mission is to “get families back to the table.” Restaurantarama can get behind that.

Fallen Starr

Just when W. Main Street was getting really interesting again with the recent openings of Maya, Horse & Hound and Zinc, the dining spot that played a major part in the street’s resurgence, Starr Hill Music Hall and Restaurant, is shutting its doors after eight years (bringing restaurant mogul Coran Capshaw’s dining holdings down to seven). We checked in with Maya co-owner Christian Kelly to get his reaction. “It’s a bummer, “ he said. “It’s definitely going to affect everybody on the street.” Kelly says that the music hall has been a factor in drawing people off the Mall and into his restaurant, which has gotten slammed with the “pretheater” crowd before Starr Hill shows.

As for where you’re going to go for your Jomo Lager, well if Starr Hill’s master brewer Mark Thompson has his way, just about anywhere you can buy brewskis these days. Thompson told us about his plans for world domination when the brewery had taken up shop in Crozet in the gargantuan old ConAgra building last year. “We are going to be the next national beer brand,” Thompson said. Still, if you’re looking for a bit more atmosphere than your local 7-Eleven, the brewery plans to open a tasting room by mid-summer to early fall so you can enjoy the views of Jarman’s Gap as you sip your ale. Or you can go to the corner mart and get yourself a chili dog with your Starr Hill brew. Your choice.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.

You could think of Megan Headley and Marisa Catalano as young restaurateurs bursting with idealism (“It should be pure joy to go to work,” says Headley of the attitude she hopes their staff will sport) or as savvy and well-traveled foodie pros with the backing of a major local developer (that would be Coran Capshaw). Either way, you’d be correct. They describe their vision for the former Vavino space, which Capshaw bought last year, in ambitious terms: a “time portal” whisking patrons away to a more pleasant universe, a wine list that will be largely exclusive in Charlottesville, and authenticity—the authentic kind, that is. They’re calling it enoteca, an Italian term for wine bar.

Megan Headley, left, and Marisa Catalano are overseeing the transformation of one wine bar (Vavino) into another (enoteca). Now that’ll be Italian.

They also offer the same logic that many, many stewards of new restaurants do: “Charlottesville doesn’t have a place like [this],” says Headley. What is the empty niche, exactly? Well, it’s one of those behavior things: Headley and Catalano would like to offer not only Italian wines and simple food, but a different way of structuring one’s time. You show up for a glass of wine, it’s all very cosy and friendly, and so you end up hanging around eating bruschette and salad and drinking more wine and why not a piece of torta and a macchiato? In other words, says Headley, “it’s organic in the sense of letting the night take shape”—very Italian indeed.

To that end, the blond-wood look of Vavino is being replaced with a darker, more rustic feel (though the old zinc bar will remain, anchoring the “sleek Italian design” part of the decor equation.) There will be communal seating, too, so you can chat with your neighbor in that gregarious Mediterranean way.

Whether this is truly unprecedented in Charlottesville we do not know, but we know we like the sound of this food: mix-and-match bruschette toppings, panini, cheese and meat arrangements and salads. And wines from little, tucked-away wineries in various pockets of Italia are fine with us, too.

Headley and Catalano say they’re currently stuffing knowledge into the brains of their staff, who can then reliably educate you about the subtleties of this and that varietal—all while employing correct Italian pronunciation. The two women themselves learned the ropes while traveling through restaurant gigs and cooking schools in New York, San Francisco and Florence: an enviable education, if you ask us. (They also worked together recently teaching cooking classes at The Seasonal Cook.) Enviable, too, is their position: bringing a wine bar concept to a former wine bar, under the wing of the biggest restaurateur in town. We’ll all be able to see the result—ambitious, gregarious, and impeccably pronounced—in the first week of June.

Quick bites

There are a couple of long-awaited opening days that will have happened by the time you read this. For one: Maya was scheduled to come online on May 26. Though it’s easy to say that it’s appropriate for a Southern-themed place to bloom in the former Southern Culture spot on W. Main Street, this is really a completely new venture: new owners (Peter Castiglione and Christian Kelly), new menu and totally revamped space.

For another, we hear that the Court Square Tavern will have reopened after more than a year of recovering from a fire in March 2006. Another appropriate segue: It may be nonsmoking this time.

Finally, some tempting morsels for you. A new addition to the juice scene is coming to the Corner. And two beloved Downtown lunch spots are expected to soon expand to other parts of our fair city. More on all these stories soon.

Got some restaurant scoop? Send your tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.