Tag: Champion Brewing Co.

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Food & Drink Living

Staff picks: What we’re eating (and drinking) now

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.

Categories
Living

Thomas Jefferson—beer nerd? New Champion release honors TJ’s personal brewer

Research by J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, a Randolph College professor and beer historian, inspired a new brew based on one made more than 200 years ago. Photo: Good Beer Hunting

Thomas Jefferson was not an IPA guy.

We know this thanks to the scholarly efforts of J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, a Randolph College professor, whose research provides a fascinating account of the work of Jefferson’s enslaved brewer, Peter Hemings, a son of Elizabeth Hemings. Jackson-Beckham’s recently published article, “Missing Ingredients—The (Incomplete) Story of Thomas Jefferson’s Unsung Brewer,” inspired a new offering from Champion Brewing Company, created in collaboration with the professor and media company Good Beer Hunting. Called Intelligence and Diligence—qualities that Jefferson himself attributed to Hemings—the beer will be on tap at an upcoming event at Champion.

Jackson-Beckham’s article evolved from a tale she had often heard repeated during her decade studying the beer industry: America’s founding fathers all brewed their own beer. Given the hard labor of brewing—especially in the colonial era—Jackson-Beckham was skeptical. “The narrative always struck me as implausible,” she says.

In search of the truth, the Lynchburg resident started at Monticello, where, she learned, much of the beer was made by Peter Hemings, whose mother was a sister of Jefferson’s mistress Sally Hemings. As Jackson-Beckham’s article recounts, Hemings learned to brew while he was the principal cook at Jefferson’s estate. In 1821, Governor James Barbour—the namesake of Barboursville—enjoyed the beer so much during a stay at Monticello that he later wrote to Jefferson, asking for the recipe. Jefferson replied that he doubted someone could replicate Hemings’ magic from a recipe alone. The president credited the beer’s quality, in part, to his “servant of great intelligence and diligence, both of which are necessary.”

While Jackson-Beckham failed to discover an actual recipe, her findings were sufficient to create one closely approximating Hemings’ formula—with a modern twist. Jefferson wrote glowingly of Hemings’ brew, except once, when he noted that it had been “spoiled” by “over-hopping.” Given today’s popularity of aggressively hopped beers, Jackson-Beckham wonders whether Hemings may have been 200 years ahead of his time.

And so, Intelligence and Diligence is an homage to the Hemings beer Jefferson said was spoiled. As Hemings likely would have done, Champion and its brewing collaborators started with wheat and corn (along with a little barley for contemporary tastes). To that, they added a healthy dose of Magnum hops. The result is a hoppy wheat ale, 5.6 percent ABV and 56 IBU. Champion’s lead brewer Josh Skinner describes it as clean, bitter, and effervescent with dominant wheat flavors and subtle corn sweetness.

Champion founder Hunter Smith says he’s honored to be part of a project that celebrates the legacy of one of our area’s earliest brewers. The beer, Smith says, “represents another way Monticello and Charlottesville are making efforts to better understand the past and reconcile that with present realities.”

Want a taste?

The Intelligence and Diligence release party takes place at 5pm, February 22, at Champion, 324 Sixth St. SE. The first 50 guests will receive a commemorative glass; copies of Jackson-Beckham’s article, and the author herself will be on hand.

Correction February 14: The original version misidentified Jackson-Beckham as a Randolph-Macon professor instead of Randolph College in Lynchburg where she’s on the faculty.

Categories
Living

But baby it’s cold outside: Wine and beer delivered to your door

Market Street Wine’s Thadd McQuade says the shop delivers anywhere downtown, up to a case or two for free. Photo by Eze Amos

In case you need one more excuse to avoid going out in the frigid weather, Wegmans is now offering beer and wine delivery through Instacart.

“We know our customers are busy, and the holidays are no exception,” says Erica Tickle, Wegmans e-commerce group manager. “We wanted to help our customers spend less time prepping and more time celebrating.”

You can place your order on Instacart online or through the app, and orders will be delivered between 9am and 10pm.

It turns out wine delivery isn’t altogether new in the area, as several local wine shops have long provided delivery service.

Market Street Wine has been delivering for 30 years, say new owners Thadd McQuade and Siân Richards.

“This was established by [previous owner] Robert Harllee and we have carried it proudly on,” McQuade says. “We’ll deliver anywhere downtown—up to a case or two for free. We have a number of long-term clients who order a case from us every few weeks. We do everything from single gift bottles to large parties and weddings, and have delivered as far as 100 miles away.”

Foods of All Nations has also long been on board with this courtesy.

“We deliver whatever customers want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and we have for many, many years—as long as you’re 21 or older,” says Tom Walters, the store’s wine consultant. “We have some older clientele and regulars we deliver to on a regular basis and we deliver for special events, catering and things like that as needed too.”

Erin Scala, owner of Keswick’s In Vino Veritas, says she provides free neighborhood deliveries on certain days of the week—Glenmore and nearby get free Thursday delivery and Pen Park and downtown customers have free Friday deliveries. She adds that any order of $200 is eligible for free local delivery.

And Doug Hotz, manager/owner of Rio Hill Wine & Beer, says he also delivers within a 10-mile radius of the store, although there’s usually a fee. He adds that most people simply call ahead or email their order and pick it up at the shop. “It’s ready when they get here and they pull up and we load it up and they go.”

Anything to stay warm and dry.

Beer for a cause

Local breweries Devils Backbone, Champion, and Starr Hill have joined Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s effort to raise funds for California wildfire victims—with a collaborative beer.

Sierra Nevada, which originated in Chico, California, released its Resilience Butte County Proud IPA in a campaign to aid those who lost homes and property in the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California. They’ve enlisted brewers nationwide to also brew Resilience and donate 100 percent of beer sales to the Camp Fire Relief Fund.

A Blue Moon by spring?

Blue Moon Diner owner Laura Galgano is counting the minutes till she can open the doors to diner regulars.

“Our hopes were that we’d be back in business by January 1, but it’s looking more like March at this point,” she says. “We should be back in the space by January, but we won’t finish with our portion of the renovations until late February or early March.”

The beloved diner closed in May, 2017, in preparation for construction of Six Hundred West Main, the six-story apartment building (featuring a private art gallery as well as retail space) going up behind the restaurant. The complex didn’t end up breaking ground until almost a year after the diner closed, and is now set to open in fall 2019.

“We are very anxious to return to our wonderful, wonky diner space, and our wonderful, wonky diners!” says Galgano.

Tavern & Grocery hires a “Top New Chef”

Tavern & Grocery has hired Joe Wolfson, named one of the Top 100 New Chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine, to be its executive chef.

“He brings an exciting new menu to Tavern & Grocery, with dishes including sweetbreads, duck, and osso buco,” says restaurant owner Ashley Sieg, adding that in January the West Main eatery will introduce a Sunday Suppers feature, served family style.

Wolfson was the executive chef at the Old Stone Farmhouse on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Ms. Rose’s Fine Foods in Charleston, South Carolina.

Categories
Living

The ham biscuit is named Charlottesville’s signature dish

JM Stock Provisions tops its buttermilk-and-lard biscuit with tasso ham and a drizzle of honey and hot sauce. Photo by Tom McGovern

By Sam Padgett

Considering our broad food and drink world, it’s difficult to imagine a single dish that could represent the city’s local food scene. Charlottesville, on account of its geography and demographics, has a more dynamic selection of foods compared to the seafood-obsessed southeastern part of the state and metropolitan areas of Northern Virginia. However, difficult as it might be to identify the dish of the city, a panel of four judges assembled by the Tom Tom Founders Festival made the executive decision that it is the humble ham biscuit.

Leni Sorensen, a culinary historian and the writer behind the Indigo House blog, sees ham biscuits as an inevitability of living in Charlottesville. Sorensen moved here later in life, and the ubiquity of ham biscuits made an impression on her. “They’re everywhere,” she says. “They’re a part of every cocktail party, every museum opening, every kind of festive occasion. I personally know people who would not dream of having a party without ham biscuits.”

Besides its abundance, Sorensen sees the ham biscuit as something that cuts across all spectrums of dining, from gourmet to everyday. Locally, the adaptability of the ham biscuit is extraordinarily clear.

Specialty foods store Feast! has a 2-inch li’l cutie of a slider-style ham biscuit made with local sweet potato biscuits, local ham and a dollop of Virginia spicy plum chutney.

Timberlake Drugs makes its traditional version with a fluffy white biscuit and ham, and there’s the option to add egg and cheese, too.

JM Stock Provisions tops a buttermilk-and-lard biscuit with tasso (spicy, smoky, Louisiana-style ham) and a drizzle of both honey and hot sauce.

The Ivy Inn uses Kite’s Country ham, a sugar-cured ham from Madison County, served with hickory syrup mustard.

The Whiskey Jar also uses Kite’s ham and offers the option of adding egg and cheese.

Ace Biscuit & Barbecue, Fox’s Cafe, Tip Top Restaurant, Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, Bluegrass Grill & Bakery and plenty of other spots that we don’t have room to name here have ’em, too.

What’s your favorite local version of the ham biscuit? Tell us at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

Is this the best IPA ever?

Luddites might want to steer clear of Champion Brewing Company’s new ML IPA, which debuted last week during the Tom Tom Founders Festival. In conjunction with local startup Metis Machine Learning (the “ML” in the name), Champion’s newest beverage was designed via computer. Using machine learning algorithms, information about the nation’s top 10 best-selling IPAs, as well as Charlottesville’s 10 worst-selling IPAs, was fed into a program that output the desired parameters for the theoretical best IPA.

While there are plenty of variables that make up the taste of the beer, they analyzed the beers’ IBUs (International Bittering Unit, a measure of bitterness), SRM (Standard Reference Method, a color system brewers use to determine finished beer and malt color) and alcohol content.

The results for each variable were 60, 6 and 6, respectively, possibly stoking more fear of a machine uprising.

Michael Prichard, founder and CEO of Metis Machine, wants to quash those fears. “All we really wanted to do was arm the brewer with some information they could work with,” he says. “It’s still a craft; we don’t want people to think we’re trying to replace the brewer.”

Hunter Smith, president and head brewer at Champion, confirms: “At the end of the day, all I was given was some parameters. After that, it was brewing as usual.”

Prichard and Smith met at a machine learning talk about a year ago, and they decided to collaborate; it seemed appropriate to have the ML IPA ready to serve during the innovation-focused Tom Tom Festival.

The ML IPA, which could stay on the menu after Tom Tom if the demand is there, is, according to Smith, a “spot-on typical IPA.”

Market Street Wine opens

Back in February, we reported that Market Street Wineshop owner Robert Harllee had decided to retire and sell his shop at 311 E. Market St. to two longtime employees, Siân Richards and Thadd McQuade. Market Street Wineshop 2.0—now called Market Street Wine—will open this weekend, with an open house from 1 to 4pm on Saturday, April 21.—Erin O’Hare

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Metal Showcase prepares to crush it

Disintegration. Publicity photo

Whether you’re a metal devotee or your knowledge of the current scene is rusty, Champion Brewing Company’s third annual Metal Showcase (part of the Tom Tom Founders Festival) is the place to exercise your nod and crush cans of brewery favorites as mutant-hardcore and grind noise meet nuts-core metal and power violence in a show that features Suppression, Sete Star Sept, God’s America, Salvaticus and Disintegration.

Saturday, April 14. No cover, 7pm. Champion Brewing Company, 324 S. Sixth St. 295-2739.

Categories
Living

Brasserie Saison crafts new options for the local beer scene

Brasseries Saison, which specializes in Belgian cuisine and beers, opened in February on the Downtown Mall. Photo by Eze Amos

The idea of a restaurant and brewery on the Downtown Mall that specializes in Belgian cuisine and beers would have been completely absurd as few as five years ago. Today, with the mainstream dominance of craft beer culture in Charlottesville, it is practically a no-brainer. Charlottesvillians discuss new beers the way farmers talk about the weather.

Brasserie Saison was the brainchild of Hunter Smith, owner of Champion Brewing, and Will Richey, owner of The Whiskey Jar, The Alley Light and other downtown hot spots. Saison refers to the signature style of beer traditionally brewed on farms in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. Smith worked closely with Joshua Lawson Skinner, a brewer at Champion, to create a house saison that could represent the restaurant and brewery.

“It’s in the name, representing the region we wanted to focus on,” Smith says. “That’s our flagship and has been the most popular since we opened. We knew that we needed to knock that one out of the park. …The first [experimental] batch we were like, that’s kind of it. So it was almost a little bit stifling when you get it right the first time. I was looking forward to a couple of months of messing around with it!”

A first sip of the house saison reveals a smooth and aromatic beer, reminiscent of Belgium’s iconic Saison Dupont that has come to define the style among American brewers.

The saison is also used in cooking the house-style steamed mussels along with bacon, garlic and chilies.

Since the birth of the American craft beer movement in the early 1980s, Belgian beers have held a special place in the hearts of serious American beer-lovers. Within the confines of a country less than a third the size of Virginia, Belgium developed a wide range of unique beer styles using malts and yeasts that weren’t used anywhere else in the world. Think of it as the Galapagos of the beer universe. It was difficult to obtain those Belgian beers before craft beer became mainstream, and on the rare occasions when Belgian ales were available in the U.S. they had often suffered badly from long trips on container ships where they were exposed to extreme temperatures.

The allure of the exotic and unobtainable Belgian beers tempted many beer-lovers on this side of the Atlantic to try their hand at brewing their own. For decades, it was the only way to drink the stuff. Belgian beers became an unofficial litmus test among homebrewers, microbrewers and beer insiders. Anyone can make an acceptable IPA. If you can make a convincing Belgian saison or dubbel, you’re probably a highly skilled brewer.

Brasserie Saison’s dry-hopped version of the house saison and Belgian IPA both depart from the traditional Belgian beer style. Photo by Eze Amos
Brasserie Saison’s dry-hopped version of the house saison and Belgian IPA both depart from the traditional Belgian beer style. Photo by Eze Amos

Being asked to develop an entire menu of Belgian styles would be a dream come true for many American brewers.

“Yeah, it definitely is a dream assignment,” Skinner says. “I’ve been really passionate about Belgian beers even before I was a homebrewer. I have an idea in my mind of how they should be. It’s been a lot of fun to design and execute it and see it come to fruition.

“I’m really proud of the dubbel,” he says.  “…A lot of [dubbels] tend to become banana ester bombs or syrupy sweet. So we set out to make this one dry and not too estery or too phenolic. …A lot of that is fermentation temperature and the strain of Belgian yeast that you use.”

The dubbel was indeed a dry example of the style. There were subtle notes of caramel and a hint of butterscotch in the finish.

Among the beers that Skinner developed with Smith for Brasserie Saison, there are two that depart from a traditional approach.

One is a dry-hopped version of the house saison, which is everything that the standard version is but taken up an octave with a stronger nose, and pronounced notes of citrus and pine on the palate.

Dry-hopping, which originated in England, refers to the process of adding hops to the fermenting beer rather than during the earlier boiling process. American homebrewers picked up on the technique and experimented with it in every style of beer and variety of hops imaginable. Belgian brewers noticed what the Americans were doing and recently began copying the method and applying it to their own styles. Now, Skinner and Smith have borrowed it back in their dry-hopped saison.

Brasserie Saison’s second departure from tradition is its Belgian IPA. It is doubtful that any brewery in Belgium is making an IPA, but this is probably what it would taste like.

It has a clear, sharp flavor with the body of a saison and the hops of a thoughtful, restrained Pacific Northwest-style IPA.

I handed the glass to my photographer, Eze Amos. His eyes lit up as he drank it.

“Oh God, I love beer!” he said.

The Belgian IPA has a slight bubblegum taste that pops in for just a fraction of a second, then it disappears. A full marriage of American and Belgian styles.

I went back to a taste of the dubbel as Amos applied himself to the IPA in earnest.

“This might be the best IPA I have ever had,” Amos declared.

He’s not crazy.

Categories
Living

Cho’s Nachos has got it covered

J.R. Hadley, co-owner of Cho’s Nachos and Beer, says the restaurant employs a special distribution method to ensure each chip is covered with toppings—not a naked chip in sight. Photo by John Robinson

J.R. Hadley has eaten a lot of nachos. When traveling around the country to Pittsburgh Steelers games, Hadley and his friends often ordered nachos to go along with their cold beers at various bars and restaurants. They would rank the nachos according to chip integrity, dispersion of ingredients (nobody likes a naked chip), quality of the cheese and other toppings and, of course, overall taste.

“I’m a nacho snob,” the Boylan Heights owner admits. And at his new spot, Cho’s Nachos and Beer, set to open later this month in the former McGrady’s Irish Pub space on Grady Avenue, the nacho is king.

It’ll have share-size and individual portions of cheesy nachos with Cabot sharp white cheddar; TexMex nachos; short rib nachos; buffalo blue cheese nachos; tuna nachos with sushi-grade tuna, avocado, jalapeño peppers, wasabi aioli and pickled radish piled on top of wonton chips; dessert nachos such as s’mores nachos; plus sandwiches and salads for any nacho-haters.

Lindsey Daniels, who co-owns Cho’s with Hadley and Kristin Roth (who, along with her husband, Scott Roth, founded McGrady’s), says that Cho’s, which is slated to open by Super Bowl Sunday, will have a full bar with 15 beers on tap—“mostly craft, mostly local, from Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina,” she says—plus bottled beer, wine and cocktails.

As far as Hadley knows, this is the first nacho-concept restaurant in the country. “Most bar kitchens have nachos just because,” Hadley says. “But nachos is what we’ll do here.”

Champion expands

Champion Brewing Co. keeps on growing. In addition to its current brewing and taproom operation in Charlottesville and the planned opening of Brasserie Saison in February, Champion is set to open a brewpub by January 31 in downtown Richmond.

Champion president and head brewer Hunter Smith says the spot, located in an old bank building at 401 E. Grace St., differs quite a bit from Champion’s basic-but-comfortable Charlottesville taproom. Champion Richmond has vaulted ceilings and a mezzanine, and while it’s more than twice the size of the Charlottesville taproom, the Richmond location lacks an outdoor patio space.

Another difference? Champion Richmond will have food onsite: a tacos and tortas menu created by chef Jason Alley of Richmond’s Pasture and Comfort restaurants. 

Smith says the Richmond taproom will offer the same walk-up bar style that Charlottesville patrons have come to enjoy, plus a growler station, to-go beers and TVs for sports-watching.

Cary Carpenter, formerly of Parallel 38, The Whiskey Jar and Champion in Charlottesville, will manage the Richmond taproom.

Ken Rayher, former lead brewer at Richmond’s Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, will guide Champion’s Richmond brewing operation. Rayher, who’s really into lagers and has been brewing at Hardywood since 2013, plans to offer several new beers exclusive to the Richmond brewpub. “I tend to gravitate towards continental lagers and somewhat obscure historical styles, so look for some of the former that haven’t been done in Richmond before, and some new twists on the latter,” Rayher says. “I’ve been having a lot of fun playing around with refermentation on fruit and mixed fermentations lately.”

Categories
Living

Spudnuts closes after close to 50 years

Mike and Lori Fitzgerald took over Spudnuts from Lori’s father in 2005. Now the family, with son G. Michael, is closing the beloved potato donut shop after 47 years. Photo by Eze Amos

For years, Mike Fitzgerald has arrived at the Spudnut Shop at 309 Avon St. between 1 and 1:30am to get started on the day ahead. He’ll have a cup of coffee, check on the equipment and begin to make the first batch of potato flour donuts—he’ll mix the dough and let it rise, then roll it out, cut the donuts and fry them before glazing. If everything goes smoothly, it takes about three hours to make a single batch.

By the time Spudnuts opens at 6am, the first batch of donuts is ready and warm, and Mike’s wife, Lori, is at the counter, ready to nestle donuts into boxes for large orders, or to serve regulars their usual glazed donut—“the king of ’em all,” Lori says—and a cup of coffee.

The Fitzgeralds have run Spudnuts since 2005, after Lori’s father—Richard Wingfield, who opened the shop in 1969—passed away. Lori’s worked at the shop her entire life, and Mike started helping out shortly after he and Lori met, around 20 years ago. “He didn’t know how lucky he was—getting a wife and a donut shop,” Lori says, laughing.

So it was only after many, many months of careful consideration that the Fitzgeralds have decided to close their beloved Spudnuts at the end of December.

“Sometimes you feel like it’s time to do something else,” Lori says. “If you’ve been in a business [for this long], to carry on something that you take great care of is a lot of work. It keeps you awake for many hours.”

The couple says closing was a difficult decision to make, particularly because the business is doing well and they don’t feel overrun by other donut shops that have opened in town over the past few years. A while ago, they cut back Spudnuts’ hours, just to see how it went, how it felt.

Eventually, closing seemed like the right thing to do. Mike had wanted to spend more time with his father after closing the shop, but his father passed away last August.

The Fitzgeralds have thought a lot about what they’ll do next, and while they don’t have any definite plans (except for adopting a more regular sleep schedule), one thing is certain: The business is not for sale at this time.   

“It’s as much a loss for us as it is for Charlottesville,” Lori says. The Fitzgeralds’ son, G. Michael, grew up at Spudnuts—Lori remembers him sitting in a high chair, eating his lunch with regulars and bouncing between the tables in his walker, a coconut donut in hand. G. Michael, now a senior in high school, began working the register and making change when he was a kid and says he loved sitting on a ladder in the back room to get a bird’s-eye view of donut-making every morning before school.

“We’ve had more fun than heartache,” Lori says. Every morning, a group of 70-to-80-year-old locals sit together with their donuts and coffee at the table furthest from the door, talking. Lori says she’ll miss serving up a bit of sweetness to them first thing in the morning.

“My father used to say, ‘Brighten the corner where you are,’” Lori says. “Hopefully that’s what set us apart for all these years.”

A new saison

Restaurateur Wilson Richey thinks there’s a lot of great beer being brewed in and around Charlottesville. And while there’s plenty of good beer, he says there’s not a lot of high-quality, beer-inspired food being made to pair with it. Pizza and wings just don’t cut it, he says.

“Everyone loves beer, so why not present a cuisine that’s just as interesting and has a very long history?” Richey says about the inspiration for his newest restaurant, Brasserie Saison, set to open this February on the Downtown Mall in the former Jean Theory spot.

Brasserie Saison, a collaboration between Richey and Champion Brewing Co. owner Hunter Smith, will offer Benelux cuisine (food of the Low Countries: Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, with some Polish, Austrian and German influence) and exclusive specialty beers brewed on-site by Smith and the Champion team.

Richey, the man behind Revolutionary Soup, The Whiskey Jar, The Pie Chest, The Alley Light and The Bebedero, says the Brasserie Saison kitchen and brewing operations will go hand in hand; the menus will be planned far in advance to give brewers the time to brew complementary beers.

Tyler Teass, most recently executive sous chef at D.C.’s Rose’s Luxury restaurant, will lead the kitchen. Before landing in D.C., Teass worked as sous chef at the Clifton Inn and at L’etoile.

The Brasserie Saison menu will change with some regularity, but Richey says it’ll be heavy on vegetable-based and vegetarian dishes, like marinated beets and grilled endive, with a focus on local produce and proteins. They’ll also have smoked meat, duck sausage, carbonnade (beef braised in strong ale and served with egg noodles) and a mussels dish that Richey says is “not a precious little bit, but a big bowl with French fries and sauces.”

The beers will be “really unlike other beers we’ve done at Champion,” Smith says, such as lambics, saisons and Belgian wheat beers, brewed and kegged in a space underneath the restaurant, then hooked up to a draft system in the upstairs bar. All the beer brewed at Brasserie Saison will be sold there—nowhere else. They’ll probably fill growlers, Smith says, but they’ll likely cost more than normal, because of the specialty beer. 

Leah Peeks, beverage and events director for The Whiskey Jar, will have the same role at the Brasserie, running the bar program that, in addition to beer, will include cocktails and a wine list; she’ll bring over Reid Dougherty from The Whiskey Jar to manage day-to-day bar operations.

Brasserie Saison will seat 45 diners inside and another 30 on the patio. It’ll be open daily from 11am to 2:30pm for lunch and from 5 to 10pm for dinner, with late-night hours on the weekends.

Richey says they’ll have specials on both the food and bar menus—such as a curated list of Richey and Smith’s favorite bottled Belgian and Dutch beers—to keep customers intrigued.