Norkeita Goins launched Caked Up Cville and uses bright, imaginative ingredients that make her cupcakes stand out. Photo: Staff Photo
By Chris Martin
Based on the astonishing number of bakers and bakeries in Charlottesville, the city appears to have a voracious appetite for carbs. A quick search on Google lists almost 30 area bakeries, cake spots, bagel makers, patisseries, and farmers’ market stands that offer a wide variety of floury treats. What follows is a sampling of a few of them.
Norkeita Goins of Caked Up Cville began baking to pass the time when she was furloughed at the beginning of the pandemic. “I started baking again, posting on Facebook, and I made an Instagram,” says Goins. “It seems like it happened overnight…it doesn’t feel like a whole year has passed already.” Goins uses abstract layers of bright buttercream, curated sprinkles, and gold details in sweets that stand out. For fall, she’s planning a pumpkin oreo cheesecake cupcake, and will incorporate Chinese five-spice powder into her bakes to accentuate the season’s flavors. Goins takes orders via cakedupcville.com, and her creations are on Instagram @cakedup_cville. Catch her at the City Market on November 6.
Drew Reynolds is one of the talented bakers who works at Bowerbird Bakeshop. With a line cook origin story, he made bread at C&O Restaurant, on top of food prep and dinner service. His penchant for pastry landed him a gig at Albemarle Baking Company, and as his time and his experience increased, so did his creativity. Reynolds’ current offerings include a spiced pear butter and marsala zabaglione eclair, an Italian-style whipped custard piped inside pâte à choux, macarons, and more. Peep him on Instagram @druhoo_98.
Mary Schwartz got her start by working in the front of house at Charlottesville’s Sweethaus cupcakery, and was baking in her spare time before she began working at the Ivy Inn a few days a week to learn more about pastry. When it became clear that breadmaking was her passion, Schwartz made the jump to Albemarle Baking Company, where she’s been developing her talents for the past four years under the mentorship of bakery owner Gerry Newman.
Schwartz says Newman has taught her to see the fruition of fermentation, and understand the daily changes in the dough. She says that “seeing the racks filled and the bread looking good,” it’s satisfying, “knowing that what we did was the right thing.” Schwartz is currently developing a pickled grape loaf by pickling local grapes with white vinegar, tarragon, and garlic, and utilizing them in the levain. Find her on Instagram @maryfschwartz.
In another realm of delicious things, Sidney Hall of Moon Maiden’s Delights creates plant-based and gluten-free pastries. She mills, soaks, and sprouts the specialty seeds, nuts, legumes, and flours she uses, and, with incredible mindfulness to nutrient density and wellness, she creates an option to indulge without compromise. “I so delight in being able to share delicious, gentle food with folks who have different dietary restrictions, as I myself have been on a healing journey for some time,” says Hall.
She says she’ll be bringing her signature turmeric black pepper coffee cake back to the IX Art Park Saturday market. She also loves to work with carob in the fall, and its complex caramel and coffee flavor might be the perfect complement to a cardamom and green apple pastry that she has in the works. Look for Hall at IX, or Moon Maiden’s Delights on Instagram @moon.maidens.delights.
Vincent Derquenne is not simply a baker, he’s one of the chef-partners behind Bizou, Luce, Bang!, The Space, and Crush Pad Wines, along with Tim Burgess. What you may not know is that Derquenne has been producing all the croissants for Bizou’s brunch for the majority of the past 10 years—by hand. Humbly, he says he’s turned over croissant production to a recently purchased sheeter, but transitioning from hand lamination is no easy feat for the French chef. Derquenne can be found all over C’ville, hopping between his restaurants, and if you’re lucky, you might hear tales of his time cooking at the Eiffel Tower. More on Derquenne at bizoudowntown.com.
Slow cookin’ to victory: As every child knows, there’s more than one way to eat your greens (or accidentally spill them to a pet under the table). Lucky for all of us, the chefs at the annual Greens Cookoff know how to tantalize taste buds with greens and two other ultimate homestyle comfort foods: mac ‘n’ cheese and pound cake. Cook along while you watch the pros from Angelic’s Kitchen, Pearl Island, Royalty Eats, Soul Food Joint, Chimm, Bizou, Blue Moon Diner, Maya, and The Whiskey Jar battle for the crown in a virtual competition.
Mochiko Hawaiian Food and Deli at 5th Street Station is a staff favorite—and a unique spot in Charlottesville. Photo: Paul Whicheloe
The only thing better than working in the C-VILLE Weekly newsroom is leaving it to get a drink and a bite to eat. The paper’s writers and editors are just like you: Our pockets aren’t very deep but we love the city’s vibrant and diverse food scene. Here are a few of our favorite places and things.
Laura Longhine, editor
Recent find: El Salvadoran and Mexican food at the Marathon gas station on Rio Road (by Greenbrier Drive). Cheap, authentic, and delicious. Try the sopes al pastor or pupusas.
Cheap eats: Bodo’s!
Go-to spot: Bizou for lunch, Oakhart Social for dinner and drinks. For an ex-New Yorker, Oakhart’s dining room feels like home. The sausage pizza is reliably great, plus they usually have a lovely salad and a funky natural wine or two on the menu.
Splurge: C&O. Even after all this time, there’s nothing more satisfying than a slow-paced dinner here by the wood stove, with delicious cocktails and classics like the trout amandine and steak chinoise. Plus, I love a restaurant that still gives you a bread basket.
Go-to brew: Mosaic Pale Ale at Random Row is my absolute favorite beer in town.
As the name suggests, the la familia chicken dinner is a family favorite at Al Carbon. Photo: Tom McGovern
Family meal: La familia chicken dinner to go from Al Carbon—a whole bird plus three sides and two salsas for $21.50. We also love to get a table at Milan—friendly service, a kids menu, and naan to keep everyone happy.
Food with friends: Beer Run—get the nachos!
Guilty pleasure: The old-fashioned layer cake at MarieBette; almost too pretty to eat.
Local place I’m dying to try: Comal, the new Mexican place in Belmont.
Out-of-town restaurant: Una Pizza Napoletana, in NYC. Take the Amtrak. It’s worth it.
Max March, editorial designer
Recent find: Lately, I’ve been enjoying cocktails with bitter aperitifs like Campari and Aperol. I like the interplay of sweet and bitter of the 23 Skidoo at Brasserie Saison. My go-to these days is a boulevardier—a bourbon drink with Campari—at the cicchetti bar at Tavola.
Best meal ever: Restaurant Week 2014, at C&O. This wonderful dish stands out in my memory: braised beef and potato gnocchi and some kind of wine sauce (with mushrooms, I think). Along with the soft lighting and good friends around a long table, eating a stick-to-your-ribs meal like that really made a regular weekend meal feel like a holiday.
Cheap eats: Something needs to be said about Maya’s $12 menu on Tuesday. Maya serves that classic nouveau-Southern cuisine that is so satisfying, and a good portion of the menu is pretty affordable that night.
Splurge: Our special-occasion spot is Tavola. The food is always amazing. I often end up ordering too much because there are so many must-haves. Gotta have the mussels. Burrata is non-negotiable. More wine? Yes, please. Carbonara. Bolognese. They serve their steak with agrodolce and gorgonzola that provides this sweet/tangy/funky combo you won’t find anywhere else. Beet risotto equals best risotto. Oh yeah, they have an amazing cocktail bar in the back! Just…maybe bring friends and share to help out your wallet.
Go-to bar: Champion Brewery. Location is perfect for me. People are great. Love the beer (some of my favorites in town). They have really solid bar food (J.M. Stock hot dogs, burgers, pretzels with beer cheese), and I’d put their nachos up against Beer Run’s any day (fight me). I also love that on any given day you might stop by to find some off-the-wall event happening. Ballet on the patio. An astronomy lesson from a UVA prof. Game nights. My fave is Tuesday night, when “Jeopardy!” is on, they turn off the music and turn up Trebek and the whole bar shouts out answers (questions) together. There aren’t a lot of bars in town that create an atmosphere of easy community like this one does.
Food with friends: This is where Mas really shines for me. My tip is to order a large sangria and quickly realize you’re all a little tipsier than you thought you’d be. Go-to dishes are the roasted tomatoes, and carne asada. Obviously you’ve got to order tapas staples like papas bravas and bacon-wrapped dates. Try the boquerones if you’re nasty (I am).
Brunch: Most underrated brunch in town is Miller’s. Chicken & waffles, a great biscuit and gravy, eggs benny, with all the boozy breakfast cocktails you could want. And it doesn’t break the bank.
Joe Bargmann, living/special publications editor
Recent find: Early Mountain Vineyards has a new chef and a carefully curated menu with a focus on local ingredients—delicious stuff, especially the pork
belly with shredded red cabbage. Also, the vineyard setting in the rolling hills of Madison is beautiful.
Go-to bar: Jack Brown’s Beer & Burgers. My girlfriend objects because of the gratuitous and sexist chandelier of bras (and I don’t disagree with her), but I like the smashburgers, dive-bar vibe, and friendly staff.
Late night: Miller’s on the Downtown Mall. Dark-wood saloon atmosphere, dim lighting, and amazing mac ‘n’ cheese (finished in a skillet and served folded-over, like an omelet, with a crisp shell).
Guilty pleasure: A good cut of beef from J.M. Stock. Pricey, for sure, but always worth it.
Happy hour: Tilman’s. Good deals and a sweet little tasting menu. I love the bruschetta with melted brie, prosciutto, and fig preserves.
Local place I’m dying to try: Prime 109, if my GoFundMe reaches its goal.
Out-of-town restaurant: En Su Boca, in Richmond. Killer margaritas and modern Tex-Mex food in a funky space where everyone has at least one tattoo.
Susan Sorensen, copy editor
Cheap eats: The Villa Diner. Breakfast is served until 4pm, portions are generous (and tasty), and nobody makes a better toasted pecan waffle (for $6.95, people!).
Go-to spot: Citizen Burger Bar for sweet potato fries and the “red” vegan burger. I know, I know: Who in the hell eats vegetarian at CBB?! I do—and it’s delicious.
Splurge: The Farmhouse at Veritas. The four-course menu (with wine pairings) changes every week, and costs $85 (plus tax and tip) per person.
Go-to bar: The Timberwood Grill. It’s pretty much in our Earlysville backyard, the beer menu is immense and well-curated, and it’s a swell place to watch UVA sports surrounded by lots of other Hoos fans.
Brunch: Boylan Heights on the Corner. Our daughter’s a UVA second-year, and if we promise to pay for brunch (after noon, of course!) for her and her three adorable roommates, we get proof of life every couple months or so.
Late night: The Whiskey Jar. A mess of sides—mac ‘n’ cheese, corn bread, pimento cheese, ham biscuits, French fries—is perfect for soaking up a long night’s worth of alcohol. Last call is at 2 a.m. on weekends.
Guilty pleasure: Four scoops (dulce de leche, hazelnut, gianduia, and milk and cherry) from Splendora’s.
Happy hour: Rapture. Cheap cabernet, right across from our office on the Downtown Mall. ’Nuff said.
Out-of-town restaurant: Founding Farmers in Washington, D.C. The food’s terrific (try the chicken and waffles or the chicken pot pie),
and most of it comes from a bunch of family farms in North Dakota.
Erin O’Hare, arts reporter
Cheap eats: Vita Nova Pizza’s bell pepper and onion slice is hands-down the best bang for my four bucks.
Go-to spot: Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar—specifically, for the Goatherder plate, and for the amazing and delicious variety of teas hot and cold. Also, the milkshakes.
Brunch: Bluegrass Grill, where my favorite is the Hungry Norman, the perfect savory-sweet breakfast plate. When I have visitors in town on a weekday, I always take them here, because it’s the only time there’s no wait for a table.
Late night: C&O, because ’round midnight is the best time to nom a gooey grilled cheese soaked in tomato soup, a belly filler for $10.
Out-of-town restaurant: Kuba Kuba in Richmond! The paella options and the tres leches cake are so delicious, I don’t even know what to say about them except that you should go get them, but if you’re in my way, I’ll probably try to cut you in line.
Matt Weyrich, news reporter
Recent find (food): The Nook. The All The Way breakfast with a couple pieces of toast has quickly become my go-to.
Recent find (drink): South Street Brewery. The mystery beer that doesn’t yet have a name is fantastic and was easily the highlight of the flight I tasted.
Cheap eats: Brazos Tacos. If I had to have one meal item every day for the rest of my life, it just might be Brazos La Tia taco (picadillo beef, mashed potatoes, corn pico, white onion, queso fresco, and cilantro).
Go-to spot: Asado Wing and Taco Company. I love the wings and always seem to have good interactions with other people sitting at the bar.
Go-to bar: Draft Taproom. Sixty taps and more than a dozen TVs make for an awesome combination if you’re looking to watch sports with a beer in your hand all night.
Go-to brew: Three Notch’d. I pass by it on my way home from work every day, and sometimes I just can’t help myself.
Food with friends: The Whiskey Jar. I’m a big burger guy and my favorite in Charlottesville so far is definitely the Crunch Burger.
Brunch: Bodo’s. I’ve been to Bodo’s 19 times since I started at C-VILLE Weekly in June, and I have absolutely no shame in admitting it.
Late night: Jack Brown’s Beer & Burgers. I went to college at JMU and the vibe is exactly like the location in Harrisonburg, so it feels like home to me.
Happy hour: Random Row. You can’t beat the $2 happy hour on Thursdays.
Out-of-town restaurant: O’Neill’s Grill in Harrisonburg. I’m not much
of a dessert guy, but I cannot go there without having the cookie skillet.
Brielle Entzminger, news reporter
Recent find (food): Mochiko Hawaiian Food and Deli. It just opened at 5th Street Station.
Recent find (drink): The amazing sweet wines at Barboursville Vineyards.
Cheap eats: Any bowl at Poke Sushi Bowl with the coconut cream sauce.
Splurge: Sakura Japanese Steakhouse, about $60-70 with tip for two people.
Go-to bar: Skybar because of its nice view of the city.
Brunch: The Shebeen. Amazing mimosas and moderately priced South African food.
Happy hour: Guadalajara’s $7 jumbo margaritas on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Out-of-town restaurant: Bottoms Up Pizza, in Richmond. Pizzas are huge, thick, delicious, and come in all kinds of unique combinations.
At Bizou, Ryan Ferguson’s Bear Dog Farm oyster mushrooms add a fresh, local highlight to comfort dishes during the colder months. Photo by Tom McGovern
Why do summer and fall harvests get all the food love around here? Sure, there are peaches and berries and juicy tomatoes, and beers to pair with tacos to be eaten outside. But winter offers a pretty flavorful bounty that allows chefs to indulge in all that our farms have to offer: leafy greens, Brussels sprouts, squash, kohlrabi, radishes, mushrooms, trout, beef shanks and much more. “We’re so fortunate to live in an area where it’s possible to obtain impeccable local produce during all four seasons,” says Rachel Gendreau, general manager at Bizou, where winter ingredients make up most of the current menu.
But for some, the winter months are challenging, so it’s a chance for them to get creative in the kitchen, incorporating cozy flavors, fanciful techniques and vintage recipes to keep us all happy and well-fed during these hibernating months. Here’s what a few area chefs and bakers have to offer this season.
Bizou
At Bizou, co-owner and executive chef Vincent Derquenne creates much of his winter menu from local farms’ bounty.
He uses grey dove oyster mushrooms from Ryan Ferguson’s Bear Dog Farm here in Charlottesville in a number of lunch and dinner dishes like hand-cut truffle gnocchi and crispy pan-seared rainbow trout from Ellen Nagase’s Rag Mountain Trout. The mushrooms “are almost other-worldly in appearance—perfectly formed, velvety in texture with a luminous gray hue,” says Gendreau.
In the colder months, Derquenne slow-braises beef shanks from Seven Hills Food Company, serving them pot-roast style with pan jus, roasted root vegetables and creamy polenta. There’s pork shoulder from Buckingham Berkshires, which Derquenne and the rest of his culinary team use to make, cure and smoke all of Bizou’s sausage and charcuterie in-house.
Gendreau says that Derquenne also relies heavily on winter produce and eggs from Wayside Produce. “We typically buy an array of whatever the Mason family has available each week, which lately has included delicata squash, kohlrabi, spinach, lacinato kale, hakurei turnips, watermelon radishes, red rain mizuna greens and fresh pastured eggs.” Derquenne sautés the winter greens with turnips, radishes and shaved garlic as a nourishing set-up for the fish specials. Bizou also offers winter squashes stuffed with coconut curried vegetables and quinoa pilaf, and winter salads with kohlrabi shaved over Brussels sprouts and Fuji apples tossed with fresh persimmon, candied walnuts and vegan Dijon mustard vinaigrette.
The Pie Chest
“The winter menu has been the most difficult one to assemble,” says Rachel Pennington, head baker at The Pie Chest and The Whiskey Jar, and it’s not just for variety: “I’ve found it has taken time to get some customers used to the fact that we are sticking to the seasons for better or worse—no blueberries in December,” she says.
Pennington approaches winter pie-baking by selecting what’s in season—apples, cranberries, butternut squash, root vegetables—and varying those themes. For example, she says, cranberries appear in an apple pie, a white chocolate cream pie and in a savory butternut squash and béchamel pot pie.
But it’s not all about the produce: Pennington has embraced the “desperation pie”—desserts that use simple, easy-access and common ingredients like eggs, sugar, buttermilk and vinegar to make, say, an egg custard or maple chess pie (both of which appear on The Pie Chest winter menu).
When creating the winter menu, Pennington also asked herself, “What brings comfort? It’s cold, so what would be a comforting thing to eat?” These questions led to the creation of the peanut butter jam pie (with homemade jams made from canned summer fruits), oatmeal chocolate chip pie (basically a rich, gooey, deep-dish cookie) and the sausage, biscuit and gravy savory pie, topped with a biscuit instead of a traditional pie crust. Pennington says that most customers dump that one upside-down onto a plate, smothering the biscuit in warm gravy.
Splendora’s
“I mostly hate winter because it means pants and shoes,” says PK Ross, owner and gelato goddess at Splendora’s Gelato, “but I’m coming around to what it has to offer flavor-wise,” especially as far as citrus flavors and boozy infusions go.
“I’m definitely not getting scurvy this year,” she jokes. She gives a roasted almond orange vanilla gelato a “heady orange bite” by peeling oranges with as little pith as possible, then blanching them over and over before cooking them down in their juice and sugars. Ross says she learned that technique from The Alley Light’s bar manager, Micah LeMon, who learned the technique from former Alley Light chef Jose De Brito, who she imagines learned from “a fancy French chef.”
She’s also chopping oven-candied blood orange slices into a fennel-based gelato—“the blood orange slices, when done right, gain a cracker-like consistency,” Ross says (she’s eaten them with cheese)—for her pint club. In addition, she’s experimenting with preserved lemons, cooking the peels to pull most of the bitterness from the pith while preserving the citric nature of the lemon. “At the moment, I have Meyer lemons curing naked and then a wackadoo set of lemons where the cure is salt, sugar and espresso grinds” that’ll make their way into gelato.
Citrus not your thing? Ross is angling to create bourbon/whiskey in tea and stout flavors, and she’s been soaking golden raisins in Los Amantes Mezcal Joven since November. That mezcal raisin flavor, which has a hint of smokiness undercut by the sweetness of the raisins, is in Splendora’s case right now.
