Tag: Curtis Shaver

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Knife & Fork Living

5 super summer salads: Easy-peasy recipes from local chefs

Ira Wallace of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange gives the classic Cobb salad a Southern twist with black-eyed peas and toasted pecans. Photo: Staff

Summer is the time to eat your colors. Yellow corn is at its sweetest, red tomatoes their juiciest, and the greens are just as green as could be. We’ve rounded up salad recipes from five local chefs that showcase the season’s leading stars along with some unexpected guest appearances: a piquant pinch of mint or sweet burst of watermelon. As with any great summer salad, these are best served outside, on a generous plate, and with your favorite cold beverage. Mangia!

1) Southern-style Cobb salad with black-eyed peas

From Ira Wallace, education and variety selection coordinator, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

A slight twist on the traditional Cobb salad, with toasted pecans and a Greek-yogurt blue-cheese dressing that you might want to slather on everything all summer.

Serves three to four

Ingredients

6 cups chopped romaine or mixed green lettuces

2 cups fresh black-eyed peas lightly simmered with 1/2 small onion, chopped, or 1 clove garlic, chopped

(Alternative: 1 15 oz. can seasoned black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed well)

3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

2 boneless chicken breasts, grilled and cubed (optional)

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (substitute sharp, dry cheddar,
if desired)

1/2 cup fresh steamed sweet corn, kernels cut from cob, or thawed frozen sweet corn

1 sweet red pepper, cored, deseeded, and julienned

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced

Blue-cheese Greek-yogurt dressing

1/2 to 1 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp. mayonnaise

1 tbsp. minced fresh garlic

1 tbsp. white vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Add all dressing ingredients to large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Place in container, cover, and refrigerate until chilled.

Place lettuce on platter. In separate rows, arrange chicken, black-eyed peas, red pepper, tomatoes, pecans, avocado, cheese, corn, and eggs on top of lettuce. Pass around dressing.

Pair with: A nice glass of sweet tea

 

Peloton Station’s Curtis Shaver likes his beer—and knows how to turn a salad into a meal. Photo: Tom McGovern

2) Steak and onion rings salad

From Curtis Shaver, general manager and chef, Peloton Station

This savory mélange would satisfy even the hungriest salad-as-a-main-course skeptic.

Serves two to four

Salad ingredients

2 7 oz. Seven Hills Food Co. flat iron steaks (also called shoulder top blade steak)

6 oz. local arugula

2 ears fresh corn

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted,
and sliced

6 radishes, sliced thin

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 English cucumber, sliced thin

3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

1 red onion, sliced into rings

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour, seasoned to taste (salt, pepper, paprika, and others as desired)

3 cups canola or other preferred oil for frying onion rings

Greek vinaigrette dressing ingredients

3 cups extra virgin olive oil

2 1/2 tbsp. garlic powder

2 1/2 tbsp. dried oregano

2 1/2 tbsp. dried basil

2 tbsp. black pepper

2 tbsp. sea salt

2 tbsp. onion powder

2 tbsp. dijon mustard

Instructions

Prepare grill. Oil, salt, and pepper steaks, and grill to medium rare. Set aside. Grill corn until charred and slice off kernels. Set aside. Heat frying oil to 375 degrees in deep skillet. Soak onion rings in buttermilk, remove from liquid, and toss in seasoned flour. Fry onions until golden brown, remove from oil, and drain.

Place all dressing ingredients except oil in blender and mix well. Slowly add oil to emulsify. Refrigerate until ready to serve salad.

In a large mixing bowl combine arugula, corn, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, and dressing. Divide mixture evenly among serving plates. Place avocado slices on salad. Slice steak on a bias and place on top of avocados. Finish by topping with onion rings.

Pair with: Champion Brewing Company True Love American Lager

Peppery arugula meets sweet roasted tomatoes in Forage chef Megan Kiernan’s creation. Photo: Tom McGovern

3) Roasted Sungold tomato and arugula orzo salad with pistachio pesto and blue cheese

From Megan Kiernan, product development chef and founder, Forage

Chef Kiernan calls this “the regular pasta salad’s more elegant cousin.” We agree that the recipe would impress guests at any picnic or dinner party.

Serves four

Ingredients

2 pints Sungold cherry tomatoes

1 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 lb. orzo

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

2 1/2 cups chopped arugula or
baby arugula

Salt and pepper to taste

Grilled or roasted chicken (optional), boned, and cut up any way you prefer

Pistachio pesto dressing

1/2 cup packed basil leaves

1 handful mint leaves

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shelled pistachios

2 small cloves (or one large clove) garlic

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil (or a bit more, to taste)

Salt to taste (at least 1/2 tsp.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss tomatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place on sheet tray and roast for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 250 degrees and continue roasting for two hours, tossing occasionally.

Combine basil, mint, pistachios, garlic, lemon juice, and a big pinch of salt in a food processor. Blend well, periodically streaming in olive oil. Stop to taste. Add more salt and lemon juice as desired. If pesto is too thick, thin with additional olive oil.

Cook orzo following packaging instructions. Run under cool water while straining. Combine with pesto, adding heaping teaspoons to taste. Toss in arugula and red onions. Gently fold in tomatoes and blue cheese. Add more salt, pepper, or pesto as desired.

Pair with: Potter’s Craft Passion Fruit Mosaic cider

 

Unexpected bursts of flavor—fresh dill, fried sardines, hickory syrup—enliven this beauty from Oakhart Social’s Tristan Wraight. Photo: Tom McGovern

4) Sweet and salty summer salad

From Tristan Wraight, executive chef, Oakhart Social

“For me, I need a salad to have a sweet element, a salty element, and crunchy element,” says chef Tristan Wraight. Here, he rounds out the essentials with some soft herbs and an acidic dressing.

Serves four

Ingredients

2 cups watermelon, cubed (Wraight sources his from Pleasant Pasture Farms, in Virginia Beach.)

8 radishes, quartered (also from Pleasant Pasture)

1 cup Lunix (red oak-leaf) lettuce

1/4 cup shaved fennel

2 tbsp. sunflower seeds, sautéed until golden brown

1 tbsp. fried charales (or fried sardines) tossed in Old Bay Seasoning

Fresh Thai basil and dill to taste, chopped

Pinch of Maldon sea salt

Hickory-syrup vinaigrette

2 tbsp. shallots, minced

2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice

2 tbsp. hickory syrup (can also use Grade-A maple syrup)

1 cup grape seed oil

1 tsp. kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Soak minced shallots in lemon
and lime juice for 10 minutes. Add syrup and salt, and whisk in oil. Toss with salad ingredients in a large bowl.

Pair with: A dry white wine with mineral palate, like Albariño. Best local choice: Horton Vineyards 2017 Rkatsiteli

 

Pearl Island Catering chef Javier Figueroa-Ray balances the sweetness of watermelon and pineapple with the earthy flavors of kale and walnuts. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

5) Pearl Island summer salad

From Javier Figueroa-Ray, executive chef, Pearl Island Catering

Don’t forget the fruit! Pearl Island’s summer salad sweetens things up with tropical pineapple and the emblematic food of the season: fresh watermelon.

Serves four

Ingredients

8 oz. organic kale

8 oz. organic baby spinach

1 1/2 cups watermelon, cubed

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, cubed

1 cup carrots, grated (reserve some for garnish)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Shallot vinaigrette dressing

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp. dijon mustard

1 tbsp. fresh shallots, minced

1 cup brown sugar (or less, to taste)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Place walnuts on baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, and roast at 350 degrees for five to ten minutes, or until fragrant.

In a large bowl combine kale, spinach, watermelon, pineapple, and carrots, and toss together.

Place dressing ingredients in blender and mix well, about one minute at high speed.

Transfer salad ingredients to platter, drizzle with dressing, and top with walnuts and carrots.

Pair with: Stinson Vineyard’s sauvignon blanc

Categories
Knife & Fork

10 hot* new restaurants: A diverse collection of upstarts drives a local dining boom

“Happier cows make better meat” is just one of the motto-ish lines you’ll find on the website for Albemarle’s Sherwood Farms, where Prime 109 sources its dry-aged cuts. Here, a Kansas City strip steak gets a boost from roasted Meyer lemons and garlic. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

The restaurant business, like any industry, goes in cycles. Grow, contract, repeat. Here in Charlottesville, our last boom came in 2014, a year that brought Lampo, The Alley Light, Oakhart Social, Parallel 38, Public Fish & Oyster, MarieBette, Rock Salt, Red Pump Kitchen, and Al Carbon, among others.

Now, after a slight lull, the area’s restaurant scene is resurgent, with a burst of openings in the past 18 months. The 10 we feature here are all good, and a few are exceptional. But what stands out as much as their quality is their variety. A bicycle bar. A lavish steakhouse. Tibetan food. A sake brewery. A pie shop with tapas. Greek fast-casual. Mexican- and Spanish-inspired cuisine. Thai. Korean. Nearly every new entry has given Charlottesville something it lacked. While our area’s restaurant scene has long punched above its weight, the latest additions remind us that even in the best food communities, there’s always room to grow.

 

* What makes a new restaurant “hot?” In a word, popularity. Whether it cooks with gas or a wood-fired oven, a restaurant that draws a crowd soon after opening—particularly in a city with so many options for dining out—is hot. Please write to joe@c-ville.com with comments. We welcome, nay, encourage debate!

(Ed. note: Restaurants are presented in alphabetical order.)

Cava’s greens and grains bowl is a riot of colors, fresh flavors, and savory sauces. Photo: Max March

Cava

Before the chain Cava was born, its three founding owners ran just a single full-service Greek restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, Cava Mezze, which they launched in 2006. From there, the owners—all first-generation Greek-Americans—took the red-hot concept of fast casual and applied it to the food of their birthplace. The result is a rapidly growing chain that now has more than 70 locations. Guests line up at the counter, survey an array of greens, grains, Greek spreads, meats, and other toppings, and then point away to build their own bowl, salad, or pita wrap. At the Charlottesville outpost, there is little evidence that expansion has diluted quality. The owners’ passion for good eating and well-sourced ingredients is unmistakable.

Cuisine Greek fast casual

Owner’s pick Greens and grains bowl with rice, chicken, braised lamb shoulder, harissa, tzatziki, vegetables, and seasonal dressing ($9.87).

Crowd favorites Black lentils, harissa spread, spicy lamb meatballs. Toppings: roasted vegetables, pickled banana peppers, tomato-and-onion salad, cabbage slaw. Dressing, lemon herb tahini vinaigrette.

Vitals 1200 Emmet St. N., 227-4800, cava.com

 

Most people would call Chimm a Thai restaurant, but other southeast Asian foods—Vietnamese and Indonesian, for instance—fill out the expansive menu. Photo: Tom McGovern

Chimm

The owners of the popular Thai Cuisine & Noodle House noticed a lack of Thai food south of town, and filled the void with their new restaurant in The Yard at 5th Street Station. In addition to the standard menu items of many Thai restaurants—pad thai, pad kee mao (also called drunken noodles), massaman curry—Chimm makes a point of featuring less common dishes, like Isan Style Som Tum (papaya salad made with fermented fish sauce) and Bah Mee Haeng (dry egg-noodle bowl). As diners become accustomed to the unusual dishes, Chimm plans to introduce more and more of them. Keep an eye out for occasional lunch banh mi specials, which require reservations and always sell out in advance.

Cuisine Thai

Chef’s pick Boat Noodle Soup ($12.50): rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, and bean sprouts in a dark, meaty housemade broth, with scallions, cilantro, fried garlic, and spicy chili sauce. In true Bangkok floating-market style, the broth made from marrow and saignant meat juice is slightly gelatinous.

Crowd favorite Khao Soi ($13.50): egg noodles with chicken in homemade curry paste, topped with wonton crisps and cilantro, served with pickled mustard greens, red onion, chili oil, and lime.

Vitals 5th Street Station, 365 Merchant Walk Square, 288-1120, chimmtaste.com

 

Chef Lobsang Gyaltsen presents a Tibetan favorite, jasha kam trak: crispy chicken with vegetables and spicy sauce. Photo: Levi Cheff

Druknya House

If you’ve never had Tibetan food before, Druknya House is a great place to start. Hearty starches like barley, noodles, and potatoes dominate the food of a region known for mountains and wintry weather. Though Tibet has a cuisine all its own, its closest cousins are the foods of Himalayan neighbors, such as Nepal and Northeast India, with flavors like ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Yet, because the spicing of Tibetan food is often restrained, it’s approachable for most diners. In the kitchen at Druknya House is Lobsang Gyaltsen, a monk who studied Buddhist philosophy for two decades before turning to cooking to pursue an interest in healthy eating. While his menu does include unusual foods like chilay khatsu (spicy braised cow’s tongue), much of what Gyaltsen makes is comforting and restorative, like soups, noodle bowls, and Tibet’s beloved momos (dumplings filled with beef, chicken, or vegetables).

Cuisine Tibetan

Chef’s pick Ten Thuk Soup ($11), traditional Eastern Tibetan style hand-pulled noodles simmered in beef broth over greens.

Crowd favorites Jasha Kam Trak ($13): crispy chicken with mixed peppers, celery, scallions, and chef’s spice blend; Tsampa ($4): grilled brown mushrooms in melted butter, dusted with roasted barley flour.

Vitals 2208 Fontaine Ave., 995-5539, druknyahouse.com

 

Little Star is all about artful presentation and ambiance. You’d smell smoke from the wood-fired oven if this photo were scratch-and-sniff. Photo: John Robinson

Little Star

In partnership with Oakhart Social, chef Ryan Collins has brightened the former service station on West Main where other attempted restaurants have gone dark. From high-top tables, guests can now whet their appetites by gazing into the hearth where much of the food is cooked. The menu borrows from Spain and Mexico, two countries whose cuisines Collins came to love during eight years working for celebrity chef José Andrés, including three as head chef of the Washington, D.C., Mexican restaurant Oyamel. With small plates and large family-style platters, Collins intends all of his food for sharing. New York City transplant Joel Cuellar, a veteran of the spirits and cocktail industry, ensures that the bar does justice to the quality of the kitchen.

Cuisine Hearth-cooked American, inspired by Mexico and Spain

Chef’s pick Sunny Side Eggs ($10): fried eggs with salsa negra, green onion, sesame seeds, grilled bread, and hickory syrup. “It’s fatty, sweet, smoky, spicy, herbal, and salty,” says Collins. “And, every menu needs eggs.”

Crowd favorite Pan tomate ($8): grilled Albemarle Baking Company pan Estrella bread with grated tomato, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt.

Vitals 420 W. Main St., 252-2502, littlestarrestaurant.com

 

At Mangione’s on Main, specials like tender braised lamb shank with polenta and a splash of greens join a menu of Italian-American favorites, served family style. Photo: Levi Cheff

Mangione’s on Main

Tread lightly when remaking a former restaurant beloved by regulars. That’s what first-time restaurant owners Bert Crinks and Elaina Mangione have been doing since moving from northern Virginia to Charlottesville and buying the Italian-American restaurant Bella’s. Aside from a new name, changes have come gradually. The wood floors have been refinished and the walls freshly painted, but most of Bella’s menu of family-style Italian-American dishes remains the same, now joined by weekly specials from chef Mick Markley (formerly of Mas and Lynchburg’s Emerald Stone Grille).

Cuisine Italian-American

Chef’s pick Rosa di parma ($24): butterflied pork loin, stuffed with prosciutto, sage, and mozzarella, then slow roasted with potatoes and vegetables with pan sauce.

Crowd favorite Rigatoni al Forno ($23): Italian sausage and rigatoni tossed in ragu bolognese made with ground veal, beef, and pork, then topped with mozzarella cheese and baked.

Vitals 707 W. Main St., 327-4833, mangionesonmain.com

 

Maru deepens the culinary diversity on the Downtown Mall, with Korean delicacies like crispy fried squid. Photo: Tom McGovern

Maru

This is not your old-school mom-and-pop place. In the former home of Eppie’s restaurant on the Downtown Mall, industry veterans Steven Kim and his wife, Kay, have created an airy, contemporary Korean restaurant with an open kitchen and exposed brick walls. The menu also is modern, combining traditional Korean dishes like bibimbap and kimchi jeon with modern flourishes, like the use of melted cheese, a fairly recent phenomenon in Korea. There’s even a (delicious) bulgogi steak and cheese.

Cuisine Korean

Chef’s pick Bulgogi Plate ($17): thinly sliced beef in a sweet soy marinade, grilled with onion and served with rice, lettuce wrap, homemade ssam sauce, and daily banchan.

Crowd favorite Dolsot Bibimbap ($12): rice served with a medley of vegetables, topped with a sunny-side-up egg, spicy gochujang sauce, and choice of beef, pork, chicken, or tofu.

Vitals 412 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 956-4110

 

 

North American Sake Brewery’s Tekka Poke Don features diced yellowfin tuna and salmon marinated in sweet soy sauce, plus a mélange of ginger, scallion, sesame seed, radish, cucumber, and flying-fish roe, served over sticky rice. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

North American Sake Brewery

Food was not the first thing on the minds of owners Jeremy Goldstein and Andrew Centofante when they prepared to open Virginia’s first sake brewery last year. But when Culinary Institute of America alum Peter Robertson, of famed local food truck Côte-Rôtie, came on board as chef, he proposed creating a menu of Japanese-style small plates designed to pair with sake. The food does much more than complement the wine—it uses sake as an ingredient, too, along with brewing byproducts like koji, a mold prized by chefs for its ability to transform flavor. Though Robertson has moved on, he leaves behind a menu he helped to create and a kitchen run by his former cook Don Van Remoortere, a certified BBQ judge who marries American smoking techniques with Japanese flavors.

Cuisine Japanese-American

Chef’s pick Diamond Joe Brisket Platter ($16): Slow smoked prime beef brisket rubbed with ground espresso beans, Szechuan pepper, and sea salt, served with a side of soy “jus.” “The power move,” says Remoortere, “is to order it with two steamed bao buns with a side of housemade spicy sambal and a heap of kimchi to make a pair of towering brisket sammies.”

Crowd favorite That Chick Teri rice bowl ($14). Roasted teriyaki chicken with bell pepper, onions, carrots, garlic, sesame seeds, aioli, and crispy fried onions.

Vitals 522 Second St. SE, 767-8105, pourmeone.com

 

The Rivanna Trail sandwich: a baguette piled high with green-pea kofta, cucumber-radish salad, pickled carrots, and green harissa and feta-yogurt sauces. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Peloton Station

Who knew that Curtis Shaver’s three passions would go together so well? The Hamiltons’ chef emerged from the kitchen last year to help turn a classic-car sales and service shop into a tavern celebrating a few of his favorite things: beer, bicycles, and sandwiches. Part pub, part sports bar, part bicycle shop, Peloton Station showcases the type of over-the-top sandwiches that earned Shaver a following at Hamiltons’ “sandwich lab.” Draught beers and wines are well chosen, and there are plenty of TVs to entertain you while you eat, drink, and wait for your bicycle to complete its tune-up.

Cuisine Sandwiches, pub grub, unconventional brunch fare

Owner’s picks Big Mike ($12): grilled mortadella, salami, capicolla, provolone, mozzarella, and cherry pepper olive salad on a pressed baguette; The Peg ($11): smoked house pastrami, gruyere cheese, pickled cabbage, and comeback sauce, on toasted multigrain rye.

Crowd favorite O-Hill Burger ($13): burger with muenster cheese, fried mushrooms, black pepper bacon, onion marmalade.

Vitals 114 10th St. NW, 284-7785, peletonstation.com

 

Prime 109 brings yet another fine-dining experience to the Downtown Mall. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Prime 109

No recent opening made a bigger splash than the Lampo team’s steakhouse in the former Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall. In a stunning room with soaring ceilings, the featured product is one rarely seen: local, heritage beef, dry-aged 60 days or more. Beyond the steaks à la carte, there’s a separate menu of cheffy salads, pastas, and entrées from a talented kitchen staff led by Ian Redshaw, a James Beard Award semifinalist in the 2019 Rising Star Chef of the Year category. While Prime 109’s steak prices range from roughly $25 to $85, pastas and other entrées—also excellently prepared—are less expensive, and an ever-changing bar menu offers inspired sandwiches and snacks Monday through Wednesday. Along with well-chosen wines, there’s a serious bar program for cocktail enthusiasts.

Cuisine Steakhouse-plus

Chef’s pick Prime 109 Burger ($14): 70/30 blend of dry-aged to fresh beef (ribeye and tenderloin), American cheese, pickles, onion, primal sauce, on a sesame seed bun.

Crowd favorite Steak Frites ($24): butcher’s selection cut, peppercorn cognac double-cream sauce, and thrice-cooked fries.

Vitals 300 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 422-5094, prime109steakhouse.com

 

Former Mas tapas chef Tomas Rahal stirs things up with his new venture, Quality Pie. Photo: John Robinson

Quality Pie

When the local institution Spudnuts closed in 2016, its prime location at the gateway between Belmont and downtown instantly became one of the more coveted restaurant spots in town. The prize went to former Mas tapas chef Tomas Rahal, who converted the timeworn space into a bright, colorful pie shop. While the pies are stellar, the restaurant offers a whole lot more, with a menu that changes throughout the day. For breakfast, there are egg sandwiches, tarts, and papas bravas; at lunch, soups, salads, and creative sandwiches like a grilled octopus banh mi on charcoal bread; and, in late afternoon and early evening, wine, sherry, and tapas, like boquerones and bacon-wrapped dates. Plus, regardless of the hour, you can drop in for Rahal’s excellent breads, pastries, and other baked goods.

Cuisine Baked goods, sandwiches, and tapas

Chef’s pick Wild blueberry sourdough waffle ($8).

Crowd favorite Avocado toast with egg ($10).

Vitals 309 Avon St., 284-5120, qualitypieva.com

 

Categories
Living

Eat, drink, and tune up: Peloton Station puts the pedal to the metal when it comes to sandwiches

You can tune up your bicycle and enjoy a sandwich and a beer at Peloton Station. The cycle-centric tavern and bike kitchen opens August 16 on 10th Street NW. Photo by Stephen Barling

What’s better than ending a long bike ride by tucking into a premium sandwich and a craft beer on tap? How about getting your flat fixed, or your bike tuned up while you relax in the comfortable setting of Peloton Station, the cycle-centric tavern and bike kitchen collaboration between Greg Vogler, Curtis Shaver, and Bill Hamilton, of the Hamilton family of restaurants.

Shaver, Peloton’s general manager and chef, avid cyclist, and part-time bike mechanic, will remain as executive chef at Hamiltons’ at First & Main restaurant, with longtime sous chef Jeremy Webb taking over as chef de cuisine, but will be leading the peloton at Peloton, which opens August 16 at 114 10th St. NW.

Curtis Shaver is general manager and chef at Peloton Station. Photo by Stephen Barling

Vogler says the cycle-centric tavern and bike kitchen seemed a natural fit with Shaver at the helm: “This is really the passion mash-up of our chef, general manager, owner, and partner Curtis Shaver: cycling, great food, and great drink.” He adds that Peloton Station, open from 11am-11pm, will feature “killer sandwiches, great craft draft beers, tallboys, and bikes.”

Popular in Europe, bike cafés are only starting to show up in the United States, and Vogler says the timing was right.

“Charlottesville’s ready for something like this,” he says. “We’re ready to fix your flat and offer you a sandwich and beer. Our hope is to be the hub of the Charlottesville cycling community—we need to earn that and we’re going to.”

With Shaver—who built up a near-cult following with his Sandwich Lab at Hamiltons’—in charge, the sandwiches should be first-rate.

“The sandwiches are going to be elevated—for instance, your classic Italian sandwich kicked up a notch,” Vogler says. “I’m really proud of the green pea kofta. It’s hard to do vegetarian sandwich and that’s a place where our chef…that’s evidence of his skills, making it so flavorful and interesting.”

The tavern also boasts seasoned Charlottesville bar scene veterans who promise to make memorable, one-of-a-kind cocktails.

Even the drinking water is elevated to a higher level at Peloton, with a water bottle fountain built into the wall for refills (just in case the place inspires you to get back on the road after your break).

Beer garden

The seventh annual Virginia Craft Brewers Fest will be held from 2-8pm, Saturday, August 18, at the Three Notch’d Brewing Company’s new Craft Kitchen & Brewery in the IX Art Park.

The largest independent Virginia-only craft beer festival in the Commonwealth is part of Virginia Craft Beer Month, and features tastings poured by award-winning brewmasters, a sours garden, music, food pairings, and more from nearly 100 Virginia craft brewers and vendors.

But what will we eat with our Take It Away sandwich?

It’s hard to find anyone who isn’t sick and tired of the excessive amount of rain this summer. And now regional weather-related woes have sprouted even bigger problems, what with widespread delays in the harvesting of potatoes, according to the Mount Jackson-based Route 11 Chips.

“We’ve been making chips for 25-plus years and have never seen a season like this,” says Sarah Cohen, founder and president of Route 11 Potato Chips. “It started out too hot and dry, and then there was a nonstop deluge of rain for weeks and no sunshine, making for nightmarish conditions for growers from North Carolina to Virginia to New Jersey.”

Potato crops require sun and well-drained soil, so a hot and rainy summer like the one we’ve had is less than ideal for growers (and for those of us who like a side of chips with our summer sandwiches). “Because we couldn’t get potatoes, we’ve had to take off a running total of 14 days of production this summer.”

According to information released by the company, “Continued heavy rains across the East Coast are continuing to cause a delay in the harvest of potatoes. 2018 is the first year we’ve experienced these types of potato shortages. We took advantage of our brief window of dry days to run the maximum production we could. As you know, we cook to order so that you always get the freshest chips possible from us. Because we do not stockpile large quantities of chips, this bizarre weather has affected our inventory quickly.”

The company says there could be a one-week delay in fulfilling some orders, and it expects to resume production at full speed as soon as potatoes become regularly available. Which would be none too soon, as a week without a bag of their fiery Mama Zuma’s Revenge habanero mash-and-barbecue chips could be tragic.

Goodbye, hello

La Cocina del Sol Mexican Restaurant in Crozet has closed its doors. No word on reasons behind the closure. And fans of Monique Boatwright’s confections will be happy to know that while she closed the Shark, Too iLab café, she is focusing on Shark Mountain Chocolate and making chocolate in Charlottesville.

Categories
Living

Say cheese: Tilman’s helps you make the right choices

Courtenay Tyler and Derek Mansfield recently opened Tilman’s, a Downtown Mall cheese, wine and charcuterie-focused shop, which also offers sandwiches, salads and desserts. Photo by Amy Jackson

Derek Mansfield and Courtenay Tyler know that shopping for the perfect wine and cheese can be tough. They’re hoping to take the intimidation factor down a few notches, though, with Tilman’s, their cheese shop and wine bar that opened last week on the Downtown Mall.

Mansfield and Tyler met while working at Relay Foods, and as the company wound down in preparation for its merger with Door to Door Organics earlier this year, the two colleagues started talking about what it would be like to hang their own shingle here in Charlottesville. Tilman’s, named for the popular department store that occupied the building in the 1930s, is the result of those conversations and months of planning.

Wine, cheese and charcuterie are the focus at Tilman’s, which offers a variety of composed cheese and charcuterie boards available to eat at the marble-topped bar, perhaps with one of the nine wines offered by the glass or a pint of beer on tap. Customers can sample a cheese before they buy, and knowledgeable staff is happy to answer questions, make recommendations and sub different cheeses in and out if you’re not a fan of blue or goat. There are sandwiches (like the prosciutto and fig, and Italian pork) and salads, too, and desserts such as chocolate cake with merlot and chocolate ganache, and a goat cheese tartlet with roasted pistachios and honey. The shop also has a retail element offering about 40 different bottles of wine, cheese to go, boxes of crackers, baguettes, containers of Found. Market Co. shortbreads (bee sting and salted rosemary among them), Blanchard’s coffees, jars of chutney, specialty snacks and more. Taylor’s pimento cheese recipe, which Mansfield says will be familiar to Relay Foods customers, makes an appearance on the menu as well.

Mansfield says he wants Tilman’s, which is open from 11am to 9pm  Monday through Saturday, and from 10am to 5pm Sundays, to be a welcoming spot, the kind of place where people can come in with a book or laptop and hang out for a few hours.

Pack lunch

Chef Curtis Shaver’s Sandwich Lab has been a bit elusive as of late. For those unfamiliar with Sandwich Lab, we’ll get you up to speed: In 2014, Shaver, executive chef at Hamiltons’ at First & Main, put together a once-a-month, one-day only, delightfully-over-the-top sandwich available for lunchtime pickup at the Downtown Mall restaurant.

Although the sandwiches regularly sold out, Sandwich Lab’s frequency has waned.

Fans of Shaver’s sammies, get ready to rejoice, because come spring 2018, Shaver will be making sandwiches for a sandwich joint-cum-bike repair shop, Peloton Station, at 114 10th St. NW, in the former Cville Classic Cars space. (In a bike race, the peloton is the main pack of riders who save energy by riding close to other riders to reduce drag.) Peloton Station, which Shaver is opening in partnership with Hamiltons’ owner Bill Hamilton and managing partner Greg Vogler, is intended as a space for cycling enthusiasts to grab a bite to eat and a beer after a ride, and even have their bike repaired while they wait.

Shaver, a former part-time bike mechanic and riding enthusiast, has long wanted to combine cooking and riding, and the timing seemed right, Vogler says. These sorts of bike cafés have popped up in European cities and in places like Asheville, North Carolina, and the Peloton Station partners think Charlottesville’s ready for one, too.

In addition to chef sandwiches and beer, Peloton Station will offer happy hour tune-ups, repair clinics, community builds and a chill atmosphere for bikers and non-bikers alike. Shaver says that some Sandwich Lab favorites will be on the Peloton Station menu, and, just in case you were wondering, no, Sandwich Lab probably isn’t gone forever.

Double or nothing

According to a post on Sugar Shack Charlottesville’s Facebook page, the reason the build-out is taking so long is that an expanded patio is being added to the 1001 W. Main St. space because this Sugar Shack location will also include owner and donut aficionado Ian Kelley’s other project: Luther Burger. It’s the second Sugar Shack to include a Luther Burger (the other is in North Chesterfield), which promises beef, turkey and veggie burgers served on buns made from Sugar Shack donut dough, and, according to the Facebook post, “the best waffle fries in your life.”

Mooning over baked goods

Vegan and gluten-free baked goods gluttons have probably already heard of Moon Maiden’s Delights, whose sprouted-grain, gluten-free and vegan cakes and pastries, such as cranberry pear rolls with carob frosting and berry garnish and salty maple-glazed coconut brownies, are sold at City Market, Rebecca’s Natural Foods and Java Java. But for those who aren’t familiar with the bakery, now you’ve been introduced, and at a most convenient time: Moon Maiden’s Delights has opened a brick-and-mortar location on the Downtown Mall, in York Place. Owner and baker Sidney Hall recently moved to town and says the bakery has helped her get to know the community.