Dean Maupin – C-VILLE Weekly

Water Street construction closure affects businesses

Anyone attempting to drive east down Water Street over the past couple weeks has noticed a large traffic sign intercepting her mission—and some business owners in that area aren’t happy about it.

Construction of a seven-unit mixed-use building at 550 E. Water St. (called 550 Water Street) will cause intermittent lane closure for the next nine months, according to city spokesperson Miriam Dickler.

“It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much the partial closing has impacted our business, but I can definitely say it is significant,” says Ashley Williams, the general manager and marketing director at Water Street, the eatery located at 117 Fifth St. SE in the former Tempo space, which has only been open since the end of September.

There have been several instances when customers have wanted to eat at her restaurant for dinner, she says, but they were driving in from the west on Water Street or tried to make a left-hand turn after crossing over the Downtown Mall on Fourth Street, and were not able to do so.

“It is far from an easy one-block detour, and I have talked to many potential diners who have said that they ended up giving up because they got turned around or got stuck in traffic and just decided to go somewhere else,” she says.

A small parking lot once leased by C&O Restaurant, which sold to 550 Water Street developers for more than $1 million, is also blocked by the closure.

“When Dave [Simpson] sold me the restaurant, he said that parking lot could go at any time,” C&O chef and proprietor Dean Maupin says. “Of course, that day came and went, but honestly it has not affected anything at all.”

Though it has been more inconvenient for patrons, Maupin says “everyone seems to be taking it in stride and we really appreciate that.”

As a way around the detour, he says his crew has started offering complimentary valet service to guests on Friday and Saturday evenings.

“I’m just thankful the construction noise ends at 5 every day,” he says.

Dickler says the city is working on a plan to open the street to two-way traffic once the current utility work in the roadway is complete, which should happen on February 3. After that, the detour will only be in effect during the day, and two-way traffic will resume on nights and weekends. This will last for about four weeks.

At the beginning of March, the concrete barriers will return, but two-way traffic will be maintained by using the loading and valet parking spaces along Water Street. Two valet spaces will be moved one block down on Water Street, and two will move around the corner on Fifth Street. There will be one additional detour toward the end of the project to install gas to the new building and repave the roadway.

“Unfortunately, road projects often come with unavoidable impacts to businesses and property owners,” says Dickler. “Our staff works with those owners and the project team to mitigate those impacts as much as possible.”

Though the road closure is temporary, one business owner says blocked views of the mountains and Charlottesville favorites such as the Pink Warehouse are forever.

Nora Ayala, the owner of Low—vintage clothing, records and antiques, says before she moved into her Fifth Street location in 2010, she knew 550 Water Street would be built, but “I really, really dislike that every open space on Water Street is going to be gone,” she says. “It’ll be so cold.”

This isn’t the only inconvenience downtown visitors and workers can expect on Water Street, and perhaps it foreshadows the construction and detours stemming from West2nd, the fleet of luxury condos going in at the current City Market site later this year. Stay tuned.

Keeping tradition: Local native Dean Maupin carries the torch at C&O

If a Major League Baseball pundit were to assess Charlottesville’s roster of chefs, he might compare it to one of those baseball franchises built on players acquired from other teams. Most of Charlottesville’s top restaurants, it seems, are run by chefs who came here from somewhere else.

Then there is Dean Maupin. A native of Crozet and a longtime area resident, Maupin’s local roots run deep. It is those roots, in my view, that made Maupin the ideal person—perhaps the only person—to take over the C&O, the legendary Charlottesville restaurant he acquired last year.

Sure, Maupin’s culinary credentials are impeccable: executive chef of Fossett’s Restaurant at Keswick Hall, which Condé Nast ranked the best hotel in North America for food; executive chef of Clifton Inn, one of just 50 American restaurants to earn Relais & Chateaux status; and, for a short time, sous chef of the hugely influential but now closed Metropolitain in downtown Charlottesville.

But, culinary talent aside, what made Maupin the perfect torch bearer of the restaurant at the heart of Charlottesville dining is that he is homegrown—just like the man who handed him the torch, the late Dave Simpson, who died earlier this year. Looking back now, it seems hard to imagine the transition occurring any other way. Dave Simpson ran the C&O for nearly three decades. And, to run it for the next several decades, Simpson hand-picked a homegrown chef who first worked there as a line cook in 1995.

A recent dinner at the C&O with my wife confirmed the prudence of Simpson’s decision. We had perfect company: Pat Simpson, who was married to Dave for 25 years, and Adam Frazier, their nephew, who worked at the restaurant for several years before opening The Local in 2008. Maupin and his staff showcased the C&O’s present excellence, while Simpson and Frazier regaled us with stories of its past.

Maupin promised no major changes when he took over the C&O. From his years in Charlottesville, he gained the wisdom to tread carefully with a legend in his hands. Still, like any lifelong chef, Maupin has his own vision, and has allowed himself some tweaks.

So, our dinner blended C&O classics with Maupin’s innovations. Pat Simpson began with C&O’s famous vegetable soup, which for years has fed weary, post-shift Charlottesville chefs seeking refuge at the bar. “As good as ever,” she said. My request that the kitchen order for me was rewarded with a bowl of ricotta gnocchi with tender, braised lamb from Retreat Farm, in a rosemary-laced sauce, topped with shavings of Everona cheese.

For entrées, my wife and Frazier both chose steak Chinoise, a Dave Simpson creation on the menu since the 1970s. “It’s pure C&O,” Maupin said. Steak marinated in ginger, garlic, tamari, oil and black pepper, is seared in a cast iron skillet, and served in a reduced pan sauce of tamari, cream, ginger and scallions. Though originally made with flank steak, Maupin uses tenderloin, elevating the famous dish on even “more of a pedestal,” he said.

My entrée was an intoxicating bouillabaisse. “The key is the broth,” said Maupin of the labor-intensive lobster stock, simmered for hours with fennel, leeks, onion, tarragon, bay leaves, peppercorns and tomato paste. After several more steps (and hours), you have an extraordinary stew of monkfish, scallops and mussels. I was glad to have heeded our server’s advice to stir in the dollop of saffron garlic rouille.

Two common themes ran through the stories of C&O’s past: family and home. “As soon as you enter, it feels like home,” said Simpson, where “familiarity” meets “conviviality.” Maupin later echoed the sentiment. From the first time he worked at the C&O, he said, “it just felt like you were part of a family.” In fact, Maupin credits the staff as the key to the restaurant’s identity. “Interesting, sweet, smart and genuine people make this place what it is,” he said.

The family theme permeated our desserts as well, which all bear the stamp of Maupin’s wife Erin, a brilliant pastry chef who retired to raise their three children. Most notable is the sticky toffee pudding that first won her raves at Clifton Inn, where she once worked with Maupin. Another family standout, and also a Clifton holdover, is the Coupe Ellery—a grown-up sundae named after their 6-year-old daughter, with house-churned vanilla ice cream, whipped white chocolate, toasted almonds, Belgian chocolate sauce and raspberries. Our own 6-year-old daughter would love this, my wife and I agreed, as we cleaned the bowl.

Few restaurants mean more to Charlottesville than the C&O. What a special gift Maupin has given us by sustaining a place that, as Pat Simpson puts it, is the “flagship restaurant of Charlottesville.”

“The C&O has a sense of place in the community and downtown,” said Maupin. “My role in it all is to simply guide it onward, taking care of the cast.”

Thank you, Dean. Thank you, Dave.