Author: Shea Gibbs

Merope Pavlides and her husband Peter Emch didn’t come to Charlottesville on the best of terms. Their son was ill and being treated at the UVA Medical Center. Still, the couple was taken by the city’s “vibe and wonderful people” and uprooted from Baltimore to make Central Virginia their home.

Pavlides, a special needs educator and administrator who had worked in restaurants and catering years ago, decided Charlottesville would be the perfect place to get back into the food service business. Seven weeks ago, she and her husband launched Threepenny Café in the former Zinc space on West Main. Their aim is to offer thoughtfully sourced, high-end, eclectic food at affordable prices. And while the opening weeks have brought challenges to the first time restaurateurs, Pavlides said the restaurant is “getting better every day.”

“The big goal is to be consistent. That takes a lot of practice on the part of the chefs and making sure all of our recipes are specific and everyone is following them to a T,” Pavlides said. “As we’ve tweaked our menu, sometimes that’s harder. As the menu is solidified, I’m hoping we will achieve that kind of consistency on a regular basis.”

Any lack of consistency so far is not for lack of effort on the part of Pavlides, her husband, or their classically trained chef Eric Nittolo. When I told Pavlides about a mistake the kitchen and wait staff made while I was in for dinner last week—our waitress brought us the caramelized fig salad, presented it to the table, and only then told us the kitchen was out of figs and had substituted cherries—she said that was exactly the type of guidance the restaurant’s looking for to improve.

If history is any indication, Threepenny is in for a challenge to succeed in the space vacated by Zinc, a widely acclaimed restaurant run by chef Vu Nguyen. While the circumstances surrounding the Zinc closing remain hazy (Nguyen also shuttered his nearby Vietnamese street food spot Moto Pho Co. several months later), Pavlides said she and her Wall Street-trained husband did their due diligence before moving in.

“I can’t speak to why he decided to leave,” Pavlides said. “But the reasons he decided to move on did not give us pause. Our concept is a different concept.”

It’s not necessarily a unique one, but it’s interesting on its face. “Global cuisine” at reasonable prices, according to Nittolo, means small plates with European influences, soups and salads, cheeses from seven countries, classic entrées, and gourmet pizzas like the “French,” featuring foie gras, duck confit, dried cherries, le delice cheese, pistachios, and mushrooms. Nittolo said the strategy for keeping costs down is not to cut corners on product quality but to serve smaller portions.

“Originally the concept was global peasant food, and I thought it would be a lot of fun,” Nittolo said. “I come from a high-end background, and I’ve been able to take fine dining concepts and meld them into $19-and-under dishes.”

Some of those dishes need work—the pizzas can be on the greasy side, and the carne asada could use a remodel for aesthetic reasons—but Threepenny is keeping an open ear to diners’ likes and dislikes. The restaurant is rolling out a new dinner menu this week that Nittolo said will be even more focused on “responsible sourcing,” while adhering to the under-$19 maxim and introducing more dishes for those with dietary restrictions.

“You can always improve,” Nittolo said. “One of the things we are going to do is focus on the health advantages of the food.”

The dinner menu isn’t the only thing Threepenny is focused on, according to Pavlides. It’s also offering brunch service, hosting live music events, and planning to bring in local artists’ work to adorn the walls. It’s all in an effort to be a part of the community in addition to running a business, according to Pavlides.

Threepenny will hold its first charity event, a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS vaccine nonprofit Charity Treks, on Wednesday, June 4. Pavlides said the cause is one that she and her husband feel particularly strong about.

“We are not simply here to create a restaurant that is an island unto itself,” she said. “We want to be involved, and we have from the start looked for opportunities and partnerships to do that. That will continue to be an important part of what we want to do with this restaurant.”

Pavlides and her husband only hope diners feel the way they did when they first learned the former Zinc location was opening up.

“The place is fun and funky and allows for a great flow of customers around the restaurant,” she said. “We fell in love with Charlottesville and this space.”

If you put any thought at all into the food and drink you consume, chances are you think “chain restaurants” are about as good for your body as a Paula Deen cookbook. But times they are a chain-gin’.

Even dollar-hungry national restaurant groups have begun to recognize that consumers appreciate well-made products. For craft beer lovers especially, that means you can have a great beer-drinking experience in a Charlottesville restaurant that’s headquartered 250 miles away in North Carolina.

Both Brixx Wood Fired Pizza and Mellow Mushroom have gotten the memo. With rotating taps, loyalty clubs, and beer events rolled out the way only well funded conglomerates can, the two pizza joints deliver an experience that’s worth relaxing your buy local standards for at least a night.

The black sheep

Brixx’s Charlottesville location has gone rogue. Visit the Barracks Road pizza pub, and you’ll get something you won’t get at any other Brixx—a paper beer menu. It’s a necessity to keep the tap list rotating, according to general manager Casey Hall.

“Corporate likes the beer menus to be printed in the actual menu, but I decided to do this because those menus have to be ordered, and I couldn’t possibly change the kegs as often as I do,” she said. “I hate that. I don’t think a piece of paper should limit our beer list.”

Brixx’s 24 taps are instead limited only by Hall’s imagination and a few house rules. She tries to keep four or five imports on and devotes one tap to nitrogen carbonation (a carbon dioxide alternative that produces a creamier draft), one to cider, and one to root beer. When the restaurant isn’t hosting massive tap takeovers—one-night events devoted to single breweries—she tries to keep a balanced list with something for everyone. That’s a change from only a few years ago, according to Hall.

“I’m a huge hop head, so in the beginning I was putting on a lot of IPAs,” she said. “Then I heard a table saying, ‘this place always has IPAs, but they don’t have anything else.’ I realized I was making a beer list for myself.”

A list just for Hall likely wouldn’t be all bad. She got started in the brew game at Pizzeria Paradiso in Washington, D.C., where she was on the ground floor of developing a world-class beer list of 12 taps and more than 100 bottles. While living in D.C., she met and started a close relationship with Devils Backbone brewmaster Jason Oliver.

The one thing the local beer hounds can’t expect from Brixx is a decent bottle list. Hall said she had to downsize that part of the menu because too many bottles were breaking in the cooler, which is “broken money.” Man, that’s corporate talking.

National brand, local focus

Mellow Mushroom was founded in 1974 in Georgia, but visit the Charlottesville location on W. Main St., and you’ll have no trouble navigating the local beer scene. The menu features hashtags next to the local brews on tap, and anywhere from a third to half of the list will typically represent #DrinkLocal.

“Beyond general good beer, we really focus on local and regional beer,” beer buyer Greg Kane said. “We always try to carry Three Notch’d, Champion, Blue Mountain. There’s so much great beer in this area.”

Case in point: Mellow had Three Notch’d 40 Mile IPA and Hydraulian Red on tap last year before the brewery’s tap room was even open.

Mellow doesn’t stop at the local, but it does essentially stop at the U.S. border. Other than Guinness, all of the 39 taps at the restaurant pour American craft brew. The pub also disses bottles, but it does everything it can to make up for that misstep.

“At any point, we have 40-50 new beers in our keg room,” Kane said. “Right now, we are rotating 200 or more beers a year.”

With that much fluctuation, it can be difficult to keep servers up to speed. Kane said the only way to do it is to encourage the staff to try new brews through comped “shift beers.”

Like Brixx and most chain beer spots, Mellow hosts a lot of tap takeovers, as many as eight a year. There is a downside to those events, though—if you hit the bar in the days after the takeover, you’re going to find a repetitive tap list.

“That is the risk you run,” Kane said. “With [our recent] Devils Backbone tap takeover, we had some of their taps on for weeks. That’s why it’s safer to do it only with the breweries you know you love.”

And of course there is only one way to figure out which breweries you love. Say, any chance customers could get in on this shift-beer action?

Dr. Ho is battling constant pain.

The man who started the North Garden* cult favorite Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie and used to own the Blue Moon Diner* has been fighting a crippling disease for 17 years. He calls the ailment “late stage Lyme disease,” and while there is some disagreement among medical doctors about the condition’s veracity, it is certainly very real for Dr. Ho.

But he wanted to fight. He wanted a better life.

Danner got off the couch. He started spending time in the sauna, using an electromagnetic therapy machine, and going to the gym, no small feat for a man in the type of pain he describes. He committed himself to a vegan and raw food diet. He opened a new restaurant, “the smallest restaurant in Charlottesville”: Dr. Ho’s Holy Cow. The cubicle-sized joint on Second Street NW is also the only all-vegan restaurant in Charlottesville.

“Everything here is 100 percent vegan, and we don’t use any plastic at all,” Danner said. “We’re saving the planet one meal at a time, or doing our best to.”

Now, a typical day for Danner keeps him off his couch as long as he can stand it. He pulls himself out of bed and heads straight for Holy Cow. He starts a crock-pot full of his Jackalope Barbecue, which has the look of lightly sauced shredded pork but is actually minced and spiced jackfruit, a tree-borne, nutrient dense Asian fruit that’s growing in popularity. He makes his vegan and gluten-free buns out of pancake and masa flour. He sets up prep for the rest of the dishes on his small menu—doctored-up Amy’s organic chili for topping his Banger ‘n’ a Bun (a tofu-based vegan hot dog on a BreadWorks sunflower wheat roll), Chow-Chow slaw for his BBQ, heirloom tomato salsa for his pot pie (crushed chips covered with chili, vegan “cheddar,” and the salsa), olive tapenade for his smoked mushroom burger, and maybe some rice and beans, braised peppers and onions, or soup, depending on Danner’s mood.

Despite his illness, the 58-year-old’s mood is surprisingly upbeat. He can lapse into laments about his health or slow business from time to time, but Danner clearly has a passion for vegan eating. One day last week, I visited him just after 11am, the down time between opening and lunch. He was chewing on a celery stick and happily moving around his tiny kitchen with the help of a cane.

“Let’s get it on, baby!” he yelled when I suggested we try some food. On the menu for me was the Jackalope sandwich and the Banger, both of which were tasty, even for a meat-loving son of a bitch. No, the jackfruit doesn’t taste anything like smoked pulled pork, but Danner seasons it well, and the slaw helps sell the illusion you’re eating an actual barbecue sandwich. Nor does the Banger taste like meat, but again, the total package is enjoyable, with the beans making for a satisfying plant-based meal.

“I’m known for seasoning,” said Danner, adding that it’s not hard to develop flavor cooking without animal products. “Right now, I don’t eat any of this. I do it all by smell and seasoning and 42 years of cooking.”

The two folks who came to the counter when I was at Holy Cow were satisfied with Danner’s work. Teresa Hermann, a passionate vegan herself, took her meal to go, but she seemed pleased with how fast it came out and said the restaurant is “so needed in Charlottesville.” Brian Geiger said he enjoyed his smoked mushroom burger while seated next to me at the two-stool counter. He’s not a vegan, but he said the sammie was good enough to bring him back to Holy Cow in the future. Would the small lunch hold him over until dinner? He said he’d have to wait and see. (I, for one, found myself reaching for a snack come late afternoon.)

One thing that has always perplexed me: Do vegans want the meat-like experience? Making “burgers, dogs, and barbecue out of fungus, vegetables, and fruit,” as Danner puts it, strikes me as counterintuitive. Why not just do vegetables, legumes, and grains well?

“I think people are pleased with the flavor and the taste of it. It’s fast food, something they never get to have at home,” Danner said.

It’s a treat, he said, that doesn’t give you the heavy around the middle feeling a big juicy hamburger does. And for Dr. Ho, food is all about how it makes you feel.

*The May 14 print article contains several errors. Danner is a former owner of Blue Mono Diner, but Buzzy and Allison White founded the restaurant. Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie is in North Garden, not Batesville, and Danner’s full name is Horace Gerald Danner II. 

The bloody mary is kind of a one-trick pony. Rare is the person who steps up to the bar at last call and orders up a vodka and tomato.

No, the bloody is almost strictly the booze beverage of the recently out of bed. It’s the vehicle for your hair of the dog, the slave to your aching head.

That doesn’t mean the bloody mary is boring. It’s arguably the most customizable beverage on the planet. Would you like it mild or spicy? Thin or thick? Citrusy and bright or meaty and dank? Mmm. Meaty.

“Everybody enjoys their bloody mary a slightly different way,” said Cole Eure, general manager of Devils Backbone Basecamp Brewpub. “You can have a little bit of fun with it.”

Look no further than the existence of the bloody mary bar for proof of the drink’s customizability. What other drink would bartenders simply hand over to their patrons to create themselves? (None that I know of, although the possibilities of a well-planned do-it-yourself martini bar intrigue the lush within.) Charlottesville, unfortunately, claims relatively few places that allow you to make your own spicy tomato juice cocktail, but Fellini’s #9 rolls one out on Sundays that can help the DIY fanatic scratch that itch.

Fellini’s bloody bar may not blow you away with its garnishes—the standard fare of celery, carrots, pickles, and pepperoncini tend to wilt as the day wears on—but the selection of hot sauces will. The sheer number of them, including staples like Sriracha, Cholula, and Tabasco, as well as oddballs such as peri-peri and a frightening looking bottle containing the extract of the notorious ghost pepper, makes it difficult to have only one bloody at Fellini’s. You’ve got to go back again and again to truly test the effects of each sauce. Plus, Fellini’s keeps the cast of capsaicin-containing characters rotating, so be on the lookout for new sauces on each visit.

The real beauty of the Fellini’s bloody mary bar, though, might be where the cocktail starts. You can add horseradish, Worcestershire, and Old Bay at the bar, but the drink comes to the table with a nice bit of complexity built in.

“It’s our house bloody mary mix…tomato juice and a few secret ingredients,” bartender Katina Dell’Acqua-Lubich said. “That’s as specific as I can be.”

Now, say you want to create a customized bloody, but you’re not so keen on getting out of your seat once you’re in it. Find yourself a designated driver and go visit Eure at the Devils Backbone pub in Roseland. As with Fellini’s, you’ll only get the royal treatment on a Sunday, but the award-winning brewery does it right on the day of rest by bringing you a list of ingredients you can have the bartender add to your morning buzz bearer.

“We have a build-your-own burger bar, a build-your-own this and that, and that kind of transferred to the bloody mary bar,” Eure said.

First, select your base layer. You might want to lean toward the spicy option, as the standard mix is store bought Zing Zang—good, but available just about anywhere. Devils Backbone amps up its spicy version with the addition of Serrano peppers, chopped and allowed to steep for around 48 hours. Next, pick a garnish. The really amazing stuff, like oysters when in season and bacon, costs extra, but the brewpub includes a few nice options in the list price, as well. Finally, add a spice mix. You’re ready to roll.

Wait, did I say you were ready to roll? Not at a brewery of Devils Backbone’s ilk. Order yourself a beer to back up that bloody. The highly decorated Vienna Lager would certainly be one way to go, but try it with a Gold Leaf Lager instead. You won’t find the brewery’s pilsner in as many stores as its Vienna-style, and its lighter body contrasts more with a bloody mary’s heat.

If you’re willing to stop being a control freak for one morning of hangover curing, try a bloody at Mono Loco. The Downtown Latin restaurant has one of the best house-made bloody mixes in town for my money, and you can waltz in there and order one any time you like. Mono Loco’s bartenders chock the mix full of spices—red pepper, whole black peppercorns, green chilies—and it delivers a nice clean tomato flavor with notes of citrus. It’s spicy without reading “hot sauce” and hearty at the same time. You will literally have to chew portions of it.

I asked the bartender what was in the mix last time I was at Mono Loco. “You got some jalapeños in there,” he said.

So he’s not into details. But he wasn’t all bad—along with the delicious Mono Loco mix, he poured plenty of vodka in my glass.