Tag: Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar

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Knife & Fork Magazines

All about that bass: Chef Harrison Keevil gets a dream gift (a guitar, not a fish)

Chef Keevil and his beloved Höfner bass at his Belmont shop, Keevil & Keevil. Photo: John Robinson

Sometimes, when you hear the name of a well-known local chef, you think of him only for his culinary exploits. You may recognize Harrison Keevil for his corner store in Belmont, Keevil & Keevil, where he offers great sandwiches, salads, and desserts, and prepares meals for home delivery. If you’re into the Charlottesville restaurant scene, you might also know that Keevil once ran his own place, Brookville, on the Downtown Mall, and recently helped to create the concept of “modern Virginia cuisine” that informs the menu—and serves as the tagline—at Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar.

All of these things are impressive, and Keevil certainly cuts a figure in the local food landscape. But he also plays a mean bass guitar. We discovered this in July, when Keevil posted a photograph of a black Höfner 500 four-string—the signature instrument of Paul McCartney—on his Instagram feed. We knew right away that Keevil is more than a casual bassist, otherwise the photo wouldn’t have also shown a daisy chain of effects pedals on the floor.

“I have wanted this bass for over 30 years (since my mom and dad introduced me to the Beatles), and @jpkeevil made it happen on my 37th bday,” he wrote. “So awesome!”

The awesomeness was a gift from his wife, Jennifer (@jpkeevil). It struck a profound chord for the chef, whose aunt, a Long Islander, was present at the 1965 Beatles concert at Shea Stadium that solidified the British Invasion. Keevil’s mom was the younger sister, not old enough to attend the show. But back in rural Goochland County, she and her husband made sure that young Harrison (after his grandfather’s surname, not George Harrison) got an earful of the Fab Four from an early age.

“The first album I got was Revolver,” Keevil says. “That one definitely opened the door.”

His next move was to get the Beatles songbook and learn to play their songs on his Dean bass. (Mind you, the kid was still in grade school at the time.) That was what he calls his “cheap and cheerful” bass—nothing compared to the Hofner that Jennifer bought for him.

Keevil went on to perform in a band in high school, and in another group in college. Neither was established enough even to have a name, but they scratched the itch that Keevil first felt when he heard Revolver. Come to think of it, the fact that that album marked the beginning of the Beatles’ psychedelic phase may partly explain why Keevil’s college group was a trippy jam band and not a pop band.

Not long after college, Keevil found his way to the French Culinary Institute, in Manhattan, which propelled him into his career as a chef. But the Beatles—and especially, McCartney—remained an inspiration to him, even after the ex-Beatle started Wings. “I was really into James Bond at one point, so I loved Paul’s music, you know, ‘Live and Let Die.’”

Today, Keevil plays his bass daily, just noodling around or perhaps playing a song or two. He’s practicing for the Party Like a Rock Star event October 18 at the Music Resource Center. Jennifer is on the MRC committee organizing the event, and Keevil will play a favorite song, the Foo Fighters’ “My Hero.”

Playing the Hofner is the equivalent of working with just the right knife in the kitchen. It feels good in your hands and is easy to use.

“The Hofner makes a big difference for me,” he says. “I love the bass and its association with McCartney, but there’s also something great about the fretboard. You can play it more like a guitar, you know, multiple notes at once as opposed to just one at a time.

We get it. Why be “just” a chef when you can be a bass player, too.

“Playing the Hofner is the equivalent of working with just the right knife in the kitchen,” he “It feels good in your hands and is easy to use.”

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Living Uncategorized

Eat, drink, repeat: A new chapter for Starr Hill, and other tasty news

Starr Hill Brewery plans to return to its Charlottesville roots next year, anchoring the multi-vendor food hall at Dairy Market, now being built on Preston Avenue. Rendering: Stony Point Design/Build

We thought summer was a time to relax. Not afraid to admit it—we were wrong. Restaurant openings, the arrival of a hot new chef, a unique Parisian-style wine-and-food event, and the return of a familiar player on the Charlottesville scene show that there’s no time like the present to charge ahead. Never mind the heat. A little sweat is good for the heart and soul. And the appetite, too,

A Starr is reborn

Starr Hill Brewery will celebrate a homecoming of sorts when it opens in 2020 at Dairy Market, now under construction on Preston Avenue. Although the brewery’s flagship is in Crozet, Starr Hill first operated as a music venue on West Main in Charlottesville, and featured acts like My Morning Jacket and the Avett Brothers from 1999 to 2007. Starr Hill’s departure from the city coincided with its incarnation in Crozet—in the former Conagra frozen food plant—where the emphasis shifted to beer, but music also remained on the menu. At the Dairy location, says Duke Hill, Starr Hill’s VP of sales, the music “will be local singer/songwriter focused” and “complement the overall feel of the room.”

It’ll be nice to have Starr Hill back in town—occupying 4,200 square feet inside and a 1,000-square-foot patio, no less. A five-barrel brewing system will allow the brewer to experiment with small-batch beers, as it joins 14 other Virginia food-and-drink purveyors, and artisans, following the food hall model found in other cities.

Before moving to Crozet, Starr Hill operated as a music venue on West Main Street from 1999 to 2007. Photo: Courtesy Starr Hill

Wining and dining

Will and Priscilla Martin Curley promised ambitious offerings when they became owners of the Charlottesville Wine Guild earlier this year, and they are about to deliver. Their debut event, Bar Naturel, is a pop-up wine bar with a Parisian-style menu by chef John Shanesy of Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, and baked goods by the chef’s brother, Scott Shanesy, of She Wolf Bakery in New York City. Will Curley will serve wine by the glass and bottle from a list hewing to the “naturel” theme: wines made with native yeasts and grapes that are organic, biodynamic, and sustainably grown, including a super-trendy orange wine too. The menu, with small to large plates priced at about $8-20, will feature French cheeses, housemade charcuterie like boudin noir and paté champignon, oysters on the half shell, sardines with goose fat and apricots, and the traditional delicacy lièvre à la royale, made with wild hare, foie gras, and polenta. Intrigued? You can satisfy your curiosity from 6-11pm, July 12, 19, and 26, at Citizen Bowl, 223 W. Main St., on the Downtown Mall. 202-4223, wine guildcville.com

Special sauce

A top food destination in Staunton is The Shack, domain of Ian Boden, twice a semifinalist in the James Beard Best Chef Mid-Atlantic category. Boden’s inventive use of Southern ingredients shines in dishes like grilled pork loin with fermented sweet potato grits, guinea hen with Carolina gold rice and butter beans—and also in The Shack’s sorghum yellow mustard barbecue sauce. Bloomberg Businessweek magazine recently chose the sweet-but-zippy stuff as one of the nation’s five best BBQ sauces in a taste test by 30 editors, declaring, “It’s equally at home on duck breast or baby back ribs.” Pick some up at The Shack (and use the 80-mile round-trip drive as an excuse to stay for dinner), or order online at theshackva.com/shop.

Open-and-shut cases

The Shops at Stonefield’s Midici: The Neapolitan Pizza Company has disappeared from the websites of both the restaurant chain and the shopping center, and no one is answering calls at the upscale joint. Evidently, the Charlottesville shop has gone dark, and we hear it will be replaced by an outpost of Matchbox, the Washington, D.C.-based wood-fired pizza conglomerate. Meanwhile, in the Pantops Shopping Center, Mi Casita has opened, offering “Latin American breakfast, burritos, tacos, pupusas, and much more,” according to its website. A fan of the new restaurant called C-VILLE Weekly to rave about Mi Casita’s food, which is centered on the cuisines of El Salvador and Honduras (hence, the pupusas). Finally, Madison’s Early Mountain Vineyards welcomes a new executive chef, Tim Moore. A sous chef for the past seven years at the renowned Inn at Little Washington, Moore steps into the kitchen at Early Mountain on the heels of Ryan Collins, now of Little Star on West Main Street.  

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C-BIZ

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PHOTO CREDIT: C’ville Images / cvilleimages.com

THEN: A&N, closed in 2006 / NOW: Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, opened in 2011

If you grew up in Charlottesville, you probably remember stopping by A&N in the summer to shop for back-to-school gear.

For several decades, A&N, a popular, Richmond-based sportswear chain founded in 1868, operated on the Downtown Mall (among other locations in Charlottesville and throughout Virginia) at 422 E. Main St. A&N—once known as Army-Navy Supply—was owned by the Sternheimer family, one of the “old-line families of Richmond retailing,” as one source described the business’s legacy to The Daily Progress when the chain shut down.

Prior to A&N, M.C. Thomas Furniture Co. operated at the 420-422 East Main St.address.

Built in 1920, the building that housed A&N was originally two stories, before the second story was either removed or compromised by a fire in the late 1960s, according to newspaper accounts. After A&N closed in late 2005, it became the local campaign office for Barack Obama, then an art gallery, and finally Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, which opened in 2011. A second story of sorts was re-added in the form of a rooftop terrace at Commonwealth.

A&N shuttered its remaining stores in 2008, after 140 years in the business. The closing came as a result of “heavy competition from large national chains and increasing economic pressures on consumers,” The Virginian-Pilot then reported, marking the end of an era for many.

PHOTO CREDIT: C’ville Images / cvilleimages.com

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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

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Living

At the Table: Revamped restaurant shows off Virginia’s riches

Leni Sorensen, retired African-American research historian for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, says Virginia cuisine is a melting pot of influences. Commonwealth Restaurant's ham hock meatballs "scream Virginia," says chef Reggie Calhoun. Photo by Eze Amos

Is there such a thing as “Virginia cuisine”? It’s an old question, and one I found myself revisiting after learning that Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar has a new motto: “modern Virginia cuisine.” What is Virginia cuisine—modern or otherwise? And, is Commonwealth’s any good?

To help answer these questions, I called Dr. Leni Sorensen, who may know as much about Virginia food history as anyone alive. The retired African-American research historian for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello is a Virginia food historian who has cooked her way through much of Mary Randolph’s definitive 1824 cookbook, The Virginia House-Wife.

Commonwealth’s renewed focus on modern Virginia cuisine comes via Will Richey’s company, Ten Course Hospitality, which the restaurant’s owners hired this fall to revamp and manage the Downtown Mall eatery. For the menu that Richey envisioned, he could think of no better consultant than Harrison Keevil, an area chef well-versed in Virginia food. Now the co-owner of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, Keevil sourced almost every ingredient from Virginia at Brookville, his former restaurant. Together, Keevil and Commonwealth chef Reggie Calhoun developed a new Virginia menu.

Over a dinner of the fruits of their labor, Sorensen and I dove deep into the question of Virginia cuisine, starting from a premise that, at first glance, might seem tautological: Virginia cuisine is whatever people in Virginia typically cook and eat. But, to follow the logical consequences that flow from the premise is to reach several key insights. First, while history matters, it is not the only thing that matters. Yes, culinary tradition is worth preserving and informs what we eat today. But, to the moniker “true” Virginia cuisine, no period of time—not the 1700s nor the 2000s—can lay sole claim.   

Relatedly, there is no concept of “pure” Virginia cuisine unadulterated by outside influences. From its earliest days, our commonwealth’s food has been a melting pot of other cultural influences, applied to Virginia produce. “What we are really looking at,” Sorensen said, “is a tradition, at any given time, of including what’s available.” In early days, influences came from Europe and, through slavery, West Africa. More recently, our state has seen a burst of immigration of people from El Salvador, India and Mexico, among other places.

Commonwealth’s new menu reflects these concepts well. Keevil’s favorite menu item, for example, pork rinds with spicy pork dip, puts a modern twist on a classic Virginia ingredient. Traditionally prepared rinds, fried until puffy and crisp, are vessels to scoop ground Autumn Olive Farms pork, spiked with punchy flavors from Virginia’s more recent Asian cultural influences: fish sauce, cilantro, chili peppers and ginger. “Brilliant,” says Sorensen, who confesses to being “gobsmacked” by the dish.

Calhoun’s favorite dish, ham hock meatballs, “screams Virginia,” he says. After boiling hocks in chicken broth for four hours, Calhoun binds the picked meat with ground Autumn Olive pork, Timbercreek Farm beef, egg, panko, Parmesan, oregano, parsley, fennel seed and some of the broth. The delicious, plump meatballs were served atop blistered field peas, a classic Virginia crop, says Sorensen.

So too are cabbage and Brussels sprouts, which joined forces in a wintry cruciferous salad. A slaw of raw cabbage leaves and sprouts adorned charred slices of heart of cabbage, in a rich but balanced butter walnut vinaigrette, with crumbles of bacon and more walnuts. “Delicious and complex,” praises Sorensen.

Rockfish is another Virginia staple, and Calhoun gives it the royal treatment. Together with several mussels, a flaky, white filet of fish is bathed in a fumet made by reducing a broth of rockfish bones, onion, fennel, carrot and rosemary. “This is marvelous. Absolutely marvelous,” Sorensen says afer one bite.

And, finally, there was more pork, of course. This is Virginia, after all. The cut of the day was a grilled Timbercreek Farm pork chop that was so full of flavor that Sorensen and I were both astounded to learn it had not been brined. Instead, it had been simply grilled with salt and pepper. “We want the flavor of the pork to really shine,” Keevil says.

So, what to make of Commonwealth’s new take on Virginia cuisine? “If this is what they mean by it, I am impressed,” Sorensen says. “I expected it to be good, but this is better than good. It’s excellent.”

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Living

Bellair Market favorite lends inspiration

Bellair Market’s Jefferson sandwich, with turkey, cheddar cheese, lettuce, herbed mayo and cranberry relish on a French roll, served as inspiration for Charlottesville native Mason Hereford when he opened the New Orleans-based Turkey and the Wolf restaurant in July 2016. Photo by Cheryl Gerber

By C. Simon Davidson, Alexa Nash and Erin O’Hare

Bellair Market’s Jefferson sandwich—maple turkey, cranberry relish, cheddar cheese, lettuce and herb mayonnaise layered between two slices of pillowy French bread—is a lunch staple for many in town. But for Charlottesville native Mason Hereford, a quirky and imaginative chef with nostalgia for all things ’90s, it’s the sandwich that started it all (he ate two a week for a decade while he lived here). Hereford’s New Orleans sandwich shop, Turkey & The Wolf, known for its outrageously good bologna sandwiches, collard green melt, tomato sandwiches and a serious allegiance to Duke’s Mayo, was recently named the best new restaurant of 2017 by Bon Appétit magazine and landed on Food & Wine magazine’s top 10 best new restaurants of 2017 list.

Common vision

Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar is getting a makeover, and it’s brought in a couple of industry experts to help: restaurateur Will Richey, co-founder of Ten Course Hospitality and the brains behind The Alley Light, The Bebedero, Brasserie Saison, The Pie Chest, Revolutionary Soup and The Whiskey Jar; and chef Harrison Keevil, formerly of Brookville restaurant and currently of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen in Belmont. Richey and Keevil have assisted the Commonwealth kitchen crew in revamping the menu, while Ten Course Hospitality will assume management of the restaurant. Commonwealth’s kitchen team, led by chef Reggie Calhoun, will remain.

The result is what Richey calls “modern Virginia cuisine,” food grounded in Virginia’s culinary traditions but also drawing on cultures that have shaped what Virginia is today. A devout pork-lover, Keevil is particularly excited about the pork rinds with pork dip and the smoked trout dip. The new Commonwealth menu launched Monday, September 4.

Eater’s digest

Tilman’s, a cheese shop and wine bar, will open later this fall at 406 E. Main St. on the Downtown Mall, in the space most recently occupied by My Chocolate Shoppe. More details to come, but Tilman’s will serve cheese and charcuterie, salads, sandwiches and snacks, plus wine and beer. It’s not all eat-in, though—if you can’t pause to sit in the sunny space that extends all the way out to Water Street, you can buy food and drink for later.

Douglas Kim, the chef who helped craft the menu at Ten when the restaurant first launched, is opening his own restaurant, Jeju Noodle Bar, in New York City this fall, and it’s been named to Eater New York’s Most Anticipated Restaurants of Fall 2017 list. According to Eater, Kim, who previously cooked at Per Se and Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, will serve casual Korean ramyun at Jeju.

Last week, Jake Busching Wines launched Orphan No. 1, an experimental bronze wine made from surplus pinot gris grapes that were treated as red wine grapes (the juice is fermented in contact with the skins). The wine is a collaboration between many wine experts in town, including Busching, Joy Ting (winemaker and head enologist at Michael Shaps Wineworks), Paul Ting (Joy’s husband, and a member of the Wine Guild of Charlottesville), Priscilla Martin (general manager and wine director at Tavola) and Will Curley (wine buyer for Ten Course Hospitality and manager at Brasserie Saison). The wine is available for purchase in select locations in town, including jakebuschingwines.com and through the Wine Guild.

Four local vineyards—Early Mountain, Stinson, Veritas and Ankida Ridge—have teamed up to create the Commonwealth Collective, a collection of winemakers with their respective vintages using grapes unique to Virginia soil.

Chopt Salad opened two weeks ago in the Barracks Road Shopping Center. The company offers keep-you-full-until-dinner salads with handmade ingredients from local artisans such as MarieBette Café & Bakery.

Ethically raised meats from Virginia are the specialty of JM Stock Provisions, which has a flagship location in Charlottesville and a store in Richmond. But according to JM Stock partner James Lum III, the company will shutter the Richmond location so it can focus on expanding its wholesale business to Charlottesville and Richmond restaurants.

Categories
Living

Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar revamps menu, under new management

Smoked trout dip will be a new menu item when Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar relaunches with a new menu from Harrison Keevil and Will Richey Monday, September 4. Photo by Sara Miller

Commonwealth Restaurant and Skybar is getting a makeover. And, it’s bringing in some industry experts: restaurateur Will Richey and chef Harrison Keevil. Co-founder of Ten Course Hospitality, Richey has to his name The Alley Light, The Bebedero, Brasserie Saison, The Pie Chest, Revolutionary Soup and The Whiskey Jar. Keevil meanwhile co-owned Brookville restaurant with his wife before closing last year and opening Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen in Belmont. Richey and Keevil have helped the Commonwealth kitchen team revamp the menu, while Ten Course Hospitality will take over management of the restaurant. Commonwealth’s kitchen team, led by chef Reggie Calhoun, will remain.

The result is what Richey calls “modern Virginia cuisine,” food grounded in Virginia’s culinary traditions but also drawing on cultures that have shaped what Virginia is today. A devout pork lover, Keevil is particularly excited about the pork rinds with pork dip and the smoked trout dip. The new Commonwealth launches Monday, September 4.

For more details and the story behind the changes, see the full preview by C-VILLE food writer Simon Davidson at The Charlottesville 29.

 

Categories
Living

Dig in! It’s a full plate for Restaurant Week

Tommy Lasley, executive chef at Fry’s Spring Station, says the restaurant’s must-have Charlottesville Restaurant Week item is its pizza. Varieties include The Dude Abides, Happy Accident and Piggy Smalls. Photo by Sanjay Suchak

Hope you’re hungry: Charlottesville Restaurant Week is upon us, that glorious, twice-a-year event, this time featuring 42 restaurants (including five new participants) offering three-course menus at different price points: $19, $29 and $39. With $1 of each meal donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, you have an extra incentive to eat out July 14 through 23. Need another reason to partake, other than helping those in need? Some of the restaurants dish on don’t-miss Restaurant Week menu items, as well as new favorites. 

Rocksalt

Paul Chinco, executive chef

Don’t miss: Tomato gazpacho with crab salad

Debut dish: The tuna tartare; there might be some changes, but they will be simple changes that will elevate the dish.

Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar

Pete Evans, chef/partner

Don’t miss: The summer vegetable salad. It’s a mixture of grilled and raw summer veg with preserved lemon, feta and grilled fennel vinaigrette.

Debut dishes: There are a few dishes here that will be on our summer menu: the gazpacho, melon and cucumber salad, fish of the day, the salmon and the risotto.

Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar

Erica Vorhauer, wine director

Don’t miss: Our beet-infused risotto dish is a feast for vegetarians but can also be a delight to carnivores by adding steak.

Debut dish: Fresh, local peaches will be added to celebrate summer. We are the first restaurant to debut our friend Jake Busching’s beautiful viognier and cabernet franc, and Commonwealth will also launch its new wine list in time for Restaurant Week.

The Pub by Wegmans

Branden Cheney, manager

Don’t miss: Our chicken shawarma wrap. Our restaurant chefs spent some time perfecting the spices and ingredients to make them unique and as authentic as possible.

The Fitzroy

Richard Ridge, co-owner/operator

Don’t miss: The peach and cucumber salad. Cooling off by eating chilled fresh produce is my favorite way to begin a summer meal.

Fry’s Spring Station

Tommy Lasley, executive chef

Don’t miss: All of our pizzas. We get a five-day ferment on our dough, combined with our house cheese blend and all in-house made toppings make for great pies.

The Shebeen Pub & Braai

Walter Slawski, chef/owner

Don’t miss: A South African version of the Southern classic shrimp and grits, incorporating samp (cracked hominy), boerewors (our house-made South African sausage) and prawns in a prego sauce.

Timberwood Tap House

Brandon Masters, kitchen manager

Don’t miss: The chorizo fritters. Spanish Manchego cheese and Yukon gold potatoes are going to be the perfect vehicle to experience this traditional sausage.

Debut dish: Chocolate cheesecake bread pudding. We make a vanilla ice cream base as the binder, then fold in chocolate chips, crusty French bread and scoops of our house- made cheesecake with caramel and chocolate sauces, then more ice cream.

Jack’s Shop Kitchen

Eric Bein, chef/farmer

Don’t miss: Our pork belly dish, featuring pork and beets from Jack’s Shop Farm, potatoes from Edgewood Miller and watercress from Planet Earth Diversified.

Debut dish: Our fry pie, in hopes that it will become a mainstay. We would change the filling throughout the year to reflect the season.

The Bavarian Chef

Jerome Thalwitz, chef/owner

Don’t miss: The summer schnitzel. The traditional hand-breaded veal schnitzel is topped with grilled local tomatoes, buttery Gouda cheese and fresh pineapple. It is truly a taste of summer.

Debut dish: The Bavarian cream napoleon has a real shot at earning a permanent spot on our dessert menu. One guest called it “life changing.”

Tavern & Grocery

David Morgan, chef

Don’t miss: The pork shank. We are using a new farm, Buckingham Berkshires, and we are very excited to highlight them.

Debut dishes: Chicken wings and panzanella are late-summer favorites.

Categories
Living

Two chefs battle it out in the kitchen

Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar executive chef Reggie Calhoun and Miso Sweet Ramen + Donut Shop executive chef Frank Paris III will each cook four courses—the common ingredient being bacon—for Tin Whistle Irish Pub diners, who will vote for their favorite chef. Photo by CVille Photo & Video

Fans of bacon and friendly competition should head to the Tin Whistle Irish Pub at 609 E. Market St. on Monday night for a chef showdown. Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar executive chef Reggie Calhoun and Miso Sweet Ramen + Donut Shop executive chef Frank Paris III will each cook four courses—the common ingredient being bacon—for diners, who will chow down before voting for their favorite chef. Calhoun, who toppled Tastings chef Michael Berry in the most recent showdown, is back to defend his title. The chef showdown was started by Berry, Tin Whistle owner Jacie Dunkle and Fellini’s chef Chris Humphrey. “We all three thought this was a cool concept for this town,” says Dunkle. 

Calhoun and Paris will cook for two seatings—at 5:30 and 7:30pm—and it’s $55 for eight courses; or $65 for eight courses plus wine pairings. Diners can call the Tin Whistle at 202-8387 to reserve their spot.

Rally for Allie

On March 27, from 6-8 pm, Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards is hosting the Rally for Allie—a food and wine fundraiser for Allie Redshaw, a chef who recently lost her hand in a work accident. Guests will enjoy samples from top area chefs and producers, as well as Pippin Hill wines. There will also be a silent auction featuring unique experiences and donations from local vendors. Online bidding for the auction is already underway for items such as a James Beard dinner—a nine-course meal for 10 people prepared by all three Charlottesville-area chefs who have been named James Beard semi-finalists for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic: Ian Boden, Melissa Close-Hart and Angelo Vangelopoulos. All proceeds from the fundraiser and auction go directly to Redshaw’s recovery fund. Tickets are $50, available at eventbrite.com/e/rally-for-allie-tickets-32847544891. To view the auction items and place your bids, visit charlottesville29.com.—C. Simon Davidson

Open for business

Uncle Maddio’s Pizza opened March 17 at The Shops at Stonefield. Diners can create their own pizza from three crusts, 48 toppings and seven sauces, and the pies are ready to eat in under eight minutes. Maddio’s signature pizzas, such as the Steak & Blue, are available as well.

Shane Mitchell. Publicity photo
Shane Mitchell. Publicity photo

Six questions for Shane Mitchell

Shane Mitchell, author of Far Afield: Rare Food Encounters from Around the World, is a contributing editor for Saveur. Her writing has appeared in Serious Eats and Bon Appétit, and she was a 2016 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award finalist. But she doesn’t characterize herself as a food writer. “My work focuses on culture. But food is often the gateway in,” says Mitchell. “Almost everyone lights up and opens the door when I ask, ‘What’s for dinner?’” Mitchell is one of the featured food writers who will be reading from and talking about their work at this year’s Virginia Festival of the Book.

C-VILLE Weekly: What is your favorite food?

SM: Probably rice. Goes with almost everything. It appears on the table in all the regions where I travel most.

Least favorite food?

Oatmeal and okra. It’s a texture thing.

What was the first thing you wrote about food?

An ode to wild dandelion greens for Saveur magazine.

What’s the most recent thing you wrote about food?

Apart from Far Afield? Sandwiches called pani ca’ meusa [literally “bread with spleen”], a famous street snack in Palermo, Sicily. And an essay for The Sugarfiles, a Saveur project, about a caste of [silver]smiths who hammer tissue-thin edible silver and gold “vark” to cover traditional sweets in Jaipur.

If you could have any meal, anywhere, where would you go, and what would you eat there?

A modest izakaya [a Japanese gastropub] under the train tracks in Tokyo where the owner grills yakitori chicken wings over charcoal. He’s been doing it for 30 years and will never be rich or famous but has a loyal fan base.

What’s the story you can’t get out of your head/heart?

Sharing cups of tea with Sudanese refugees in a camp called The Jungle on the European migrant route.

Catch Mitchell this week at three panels, all of which are free and open to the public:

Adventures in Eating: Navigating the World for the Perfect Meal

With Jeffrey Greene, author of In Pursuit of Wild Edibles; Thursday, March 23, 10am; Barnes & Noble, Barracks Road Shopping Center

Cooking demos

With Sheri Castle, author of Rhubarb; and Ronni Lundy, author of Victuals

Thursday, March 23, noon; The Charlottesville Cooking School, 2041 Barracks Rd.

Food Traditions and Women Chefs

With Ashley Christensen, author of Poole’s, and Ronni Lundy

Thursday, March 23, 4pm; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, 233 Fourth St. NW

Categories
Living

Serve-yourself bar offers unique experience

Chris Kyle says that Draft, with about 60 different beers (30 of which are from Virginia), has the largest collection of local taps in the state. Photo by Tom Daly

The Downtown Mall’s newest bar doesn’t have a bartender. Technically, it doesn’t even have a bar. At Draft, there is no barrier between the customer and 60 taps of beer.

“It is pour-your-own, with no bartender,” says Chris Kyle, Draft’s technology manager.

On arrival, customers stop in at the front desk, where their IDs are checked and a credit card is swiped or cash is taken to activate an electronic pass card. Above each of the beer taps (plus four wines) is a touchscreen that displays the name, alcohol content, bitterness and other information about the beer, with a slot in which to place the pass card. Beer-lovers are only charged for the exact amount of beer they choose to dispense into their glass.

The magic is enabled by a wide range of technological innovations. Kegs of beer are transported into the basement on a special miniature elevator into a cold storage room. Beneath each keg (some of which are only five to 15 gallons to ensure that less-popular beers do not become stale) is a precise electronic scale that measures exactly how much beer is poured. Unlike most bars that only chill the kegs, Draft also refrigerates the beer lines all the way up to the tap.

Running a bar this way is a first for central Virginia. One Petersburg wine and beer retailer, The Bucket Trade, has a similar automated system with 16 taps that was installed months before Draft opened. Unlike Draft, The Bucket Trade also offers growlers for off-premises consumption.

“The card system that we have is in use in other parts of the state but not on this scale,” says Kyle. “We believe that in the Mid-Atlantic there is nothing like this.”

One of the first concerns about a bar without a bartender is how to stay on the right side of the regulations enforced by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

“That’s something we went after in the beginning,” says Rich Baker, general manager of Draft. “…We went directly to the ABC and explained how the concept worked and made sure that it met their requirements. It’s called a ‘virtual pitcher,’ which says that a customer can have a certain amount of beer but then they have to have an interaction with staff.”

When Draft’s computer logs that someone has poured 32 ounces, he is cut off until he speaks with a staff member to have another 32 ounces approved. No big deal—just a friendly chat with one of the hosts that demonstrates you aren’t sloppy drunk.

“I have to say, I was really impressed with not just the efficiency of how they operate but how they want to make sure that everyone is doing the right thing and following the law,” says Baker about ABC. “Even before we applied for a license they were courteous and helpful. Then going through the licensing process they kept us informed at every step of the way. …So maybe there’s a new ABC? Working with ABC was a great experience. They do care. They want to be business-friendly…our whole impression of them changed through this process.”

At a recent test run for friends and family, dozens of guests swiped their cards and filled glasses. But a funny thing happened: Almost nobody was holding a full-sized pint glass. Miniature tasting glasses were the most popular.

“It caused a little bit of surprise,” says Kyle. “We found that people were much less likely to pour a full pint of beer. People wanted to [sample] smaller pours and go back and try a few ounces at a time. I believe it is the largest collection of local taps in the state at 30 taps, plus 30 or so of national and international taps.”

“If you went to a [normal] bar and told a bartender, ‘I want to try all these different beers,’ they hate your guts!” says Baker.

Even the glassware (in three different sizes) is high tech.

“It’s called etched, laser-cut,” says Eric Lane, one of Draft’s hosts. “At the bottom of the glass they cut into it, where it is going to allow bubbles to form around where the cut is, where it is a little rougher than the rest of the glass. It will cause the carbonation to rise up and make any beer you are tasting a little more aromatic.”

Draft, which opened last weekend and operates as a sister restaurant to Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar across the Downtown Mall, also offers food, with a focus on light, quick fare, such as sandwiches, pretzel bites and a Greek-inspired take on nachos. In addition, a seafood steamer cranks out mussels, clams and shrimp, and a few heavier entrées are available for dinner. Draft is also open for lunch, but the focus is on beer and sports.

Twenty televisions ring the walls of the bar, four displaying the menu and 16 showing different live sporting events. But unlike many sports bars, patrons aren’t bombarded by the sound of roaring crowds, whistles and announcers. Like Draft’s beer offerings, you only get exactly as much as you want. The sets are all muted, and patrons are encouraged to use a free smartphone app called Tunity.

“If you point your phone at a TV that is playing a live event, the audio from that event will be streamed to your phone and you can listen with headphones,” says Kyle. Inexpensive headphones will be offered at the front desk.

No tipping is expected, but if you insist, the money is donated to charity—staff are all paid a living wage.

Some visitors may miss the presence of a bartender, but Draft’s managers believe that being freed from hustling out drinks and keeping track of tabs will free up staff to interact with customers and talk about beer. And there will never be another long wait for a bartender who is buried in orders—just fill up your glass yourself.

“At Draft you’ll never have to wait to get a drink,” Kyle says, “and you get to go home with your bartender every night!”

Contact Jackson Landers at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

This article was updated at 9:30am October 20 to reflect the bar system is the first of its kind in central Virginia.