Tag: Fleurie

Categories
Culture Living

Something to Grouse about

The Pink Grouse’s Chef de Cuisine Dennis Merritt says he was inspired to become a chef after watching a seed grow into a plant and became something nourishing. Publicity photo

Foodies rejoice! Charlottesville’s high-end dining circuit just got a little larger with the reopening of The Pink Grouse, the signature restaurant at the Quirk Hotel. Initially unveiled along with the hotel in March of 2020, The Pink Grouse’s launch was short-lived due to widespread shutdowns in April. The extra time was used to fine-tune the restaurant’s vision and bring on Chef de Cuisine Dennis Merritt. The result is a contemporary take on American food, driven home by a modern dining room, open kitchen, and creative platings.

Merritt got his start as sous chef at The Clifton, and has spent the last 10 years honing his craft at several of the country’s top restaurants, including Chicago’s Roister. When asked what he was most excited for, regarding his return to Charlottesville, Merritt says, “Being able to show my interpretations of both new and classic dishes.” One example that speaks to the avant-garde spirit of The Pink Grouse is the vivid White Stone oysters topped with coconut, passion fruit mousse, pickled mango, and calabrian chilis.

Keep the Kouign-amann coming

In August, MarieBette Café was awarded a $25,000 grant from Discover’s Eat It Forward program, which supports Black-owned businesses countrywide. It’s no secret that COVID-19 has put tremendous strain on the restaurant industry, especially in Black communities, and the Eat It Forward program aims to protect these “cornerstones of community” by offering awards based on customer nominations. On its Instagram, MarieBette writes, “To say that we are excited for how much this helps us in this difficult time would be an understatement. We are so proud to be part of the Charlottesville community.”

Meet me on the patio

Many of our iconic restaurants have begun to reopen after months of closure, adding or adjusting patio spaces, and dining outside never tasted so good.

Among them is Tavola,* now offering reservations (are pigs flying too?) for limited indoor, plus outdoor dining, where guests can enjoy a new patio along with the much-missed Italian food and wine. Paradox Pastry has repaved its patio into a larger and more accommodating space, and Little Star and Oakhart Social have both tented their spacious outdoor dining areas. Diners have also gained new appreciation for a long list of reopened al fresco spots on the Downtown Mall, including Rapture, The Fitzroy, Chap’s, and Fleurie (check out its beautifully appointed deck!).

New beginnings

Splendora’s, the Downtown Mall gelato café, closed its doors last month after 16 years of creating frozen masterpieces from imaginative ingredients. (We are still dreaming of the Strawberry Pink Peppercorn and the Miso Cherry.)

Owner PK Ross hopes to use this transition as an opportunity to focus on collaborating with other businesses, meaning we may see Splendora’s on some of our favorite menus in the near future. Splendy’s is still offering pickup and delivery through the rest of September, while Ross searches for a new location off the mall. More information can be found on Splendora’s Facebook page.

Bluegrass Grill & Bakery, a favorite brunch spot for locals in the know since 2001, was forced to vacate its downtown location when the pandemic struck. But never fear, the biscuit making will continue. Bluegrass recently partnered with Devils Backbone to operate a pop-up restaurant at The Summit, a repurposed train station on DB’s Roseland property. For the next three months, find BGB’s classic, Southern dishes served by familiar faces, now in the spectacular foothills of the Blue Ridge.

And sadly, BreadWorks Bakery & Deli, which has provided job training and employment to people with disabilities since 1967, will close its doors due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus.—Will Ham

*co-owned by C-VILLE’s Culture editor Tami Keaveny

Categories
Coronavirus News

In brief: Stay home

Governor Northam's stay-home order will be active until June 10.

Settle in

“Our message today is very clear: That is to stay home,” said Governor Ralph Northam at the beginning of a March 30 press conference.

On March 27, the governor issued Executive Order 53, which shut down schools for the rest of the year, closed all “non-essential” businesses, and asked everyone to social distance, in hopes of slowing the spread of COVID-19. But over the weekend, photos of crowded beaches in places like Norfolk showed that many Virginians weren’t taking Northam’s suggestions seriously. Late last week, Charlottesville’s City Council wrote an open letter to the governor, urging him to “implement stricter measures.”

Monday’s Executive Order 55 is more direct, and requires everyone to stay home unless they are seeking medical attention, buying food or other essential supplies, caring for a family member, or “engaging in outdoor activity, including exercise.” Public beaches and campgrounds are closed.

In-person gatherings of 10 or more people are now punishable by a Class 1 misdemeanor. Northam said last week that the state is “certainly not looking to put people in jails,” but that law enforcement will be taking steps when necessary to break up groups.

Not much should change here in Charlottesville, where the city had already shut down most public spaces. Essential businesses like grocery stores will stay open, and restaurants and retail stores will still be allowed to offer online ordering (or in-person shopping with no more than 10 customers at a time) and curbside pickup or delivery.

The executive order will be in effect until at least June 10. “To date, this has been a suggestion,” Northam said on Monday. “Today, it’s an order.”

______________________

______________________

Quote of the Week

“This is a little bit of medical trivia for you. Certainly nothing against our retail stores that sell clothing, and especially neckties, but neckties actually harbor contagious pathogens.”

­—Governor Ralph Northam, on his new look. He hasn’t worn a tie in two weeks, reports the Virginian-Pilot.

______________________

In Brief

Senior scare

Despite limiting visitors and other safety measures, The Colonnades, a nursing home in Albemarle County, confirmed March 27 that there is a case of COVID-19 within its community. The facility has since ramped up its prevention efforts, including ending communal dining and screening all residents and staff for symptoms daily. A resident at The Lodge at Old Trail in Crozet also tested positive for the virus last week.

Farm fresh

As restaurants close or pivot to take-out, some have dropped their weekly orders from local farms. But Brian Helleberg, owner of downtown French spots Fleurie and Petit Pois, has taken a more creative tack. After donating food to his staff, he’s now repurposing his deliveries into a CSA. For $109, customers can purchase a weekly basket of kitchen staples, from veggies to meats, and can add other foods, including ready-to-go meals. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the restaurants’ longtime partner, City Schoolyard Garden.

A hoopless backboard at Washington Park. Staff photo

Hoop dreams

Neighborhood Development Services closed all of the city’s basketball courts last week due to the coronavirus, but that order was seemingly not enough to keep locals from shooting hoops. So NDS removed the rims from the backboards at multiple courts, including Washington Park. Die-hard ballers will have to get creative.

Keep up the pace

Those who signed up for the Charlottesville Ten Miler don’t have to let months of training go down the drain. From now until April 4, all are welcome to participate in a virtual race by running 10 miles by themselves on the official course, or a different route, and recording their times on the Ten Miler website. Don’t want to leave the house? No worries—you can run it out on the treadmill.

 

Categories
Living

Liquid gold: Local cidery and coffee roaster garner national awards

The Harrison apple, an heirloom variety once thought to be extinct, was reintroduced by Tom Burford of Albemarle CiderWorks—and used to make an award-winning cider. Photo: Courtesy Albemarle CiderWorks

On Friday, January 17, Albemarle CiderWorks and Mudhouse Coffee Roasters scored top honors in the 2020 Good Food Awards in San Francisco. Among more than 2,000 entrants, the cidery and coffee producer were regional (South) winners in their respective categories—ACW for its Harrison cider, and Mudhouse for its Geisha Moras Negras roast. Bestowed annually by the creators of Slow Food Nations, the awards recognize “players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic, and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture.”

Albemarle CiderWorks’ Harrison cider took top regional (South) honors at the annual Good Foods Awards in San Francisco. Photo: Courtesy Albemarle CiderWorks

As the name suggests, the ACW cider is made from the Harrison apple, an 18th-century variety that fell out of use and was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in the late 1970s. Years later, ACW’s Thomas Burford became the first contemporary orchardist to cultivate the yellow, black-speckled Harrison, and today it is widely grown and popular among cider makers (but too ugly for supermarket sales).

The story of Mudhouse’s award winner begins in 1960, when the Geisha coffee variety was introduced in Panama. Mudhouse sources its beans from a third-generation family farm there. Grown at an altitude of about 5,400 feet, the fruit is hand-picked by migrant laborers from the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous region, and it is quite precious. Eight ounces of Mudhouse’s Moras Negras will set you back $75. That’s more than most of us would be willing to pay. But at the 2006 Best of Panama event, an executive from Vermont’s Green Mountain Coffee remarked, “I am the least religious person here and when I tasted this coffee I saw the face of God in a cup.”

If you’re into that sort of thing, you can buy the stuff at mudhouse.com.

Speaking of awards…

Five local vineyards wowed the judges at the 2020 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, securing prestigious awards and doing the Monticello American Viticultural Area proud. Jefferson and Barboursville vineyards, Veritas Vineyard & Winery, and Trump Winery earned Double Gold designations for five wines, and newcomer Hark Vineyards was the only Best in Class winner from Virginia, singled out in the classic packaging category for its 2017 chardonnay label design. The Chronicle’s annual event is the largest in North America, drawing 6,700 entries from 1,000 wineries this year. Judges dole out Double Gold medals sparingly but found worthy recipients in the Jefferson Vineyards 2018 viognier, Barboursville’s 2018 vermentino, and Trump Winery’s 2016 meritage (a red blend consisting primarily of cabernet franc). Veritas nabbed two double-golds for cabernet franc bottlings, the 2017 reserve and 2017 standard in the $40-and-over and under-$30 categories, respectively.

This is nuts!

Sorry, fans of dairy alternatives like soy and almond milk, you may have to adapt to new terminology. A bill just cleared the Virginia House Agriculture Subcommittee defining milk as “the lacteal secretion, practically free of colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of a healthy hooved mammal.” The measure is intended to protect the commonwealth’s dairy industry from the surge in popularity of plant-based “milk” products. The legislation is moooving up the lawmaking food chain for further consideration.

Munch madness

C-VILLE’s Restaurant Week 2020 kicks off Friday, January 24, with 40 restaurants offering three-course meals for $29 or $39 (plus tax and a huge tip, please)—and presenting some tantalizing dishes. We’ve got our hungry little eyes on a few, including: Little Star’s seared rockfish with escarole, chipotle, manchego, and pimento fundito; Fleurie’s pan-roasted Polyface Farm chicken with braised cabbage and bacon; Kama’s grilled Virginia oysters with uni butter; 1799 at The Clifton’s rainbow trout with sweet potato, kale, and orange emulsion; Three Notch’d’s truffled mushroom ragout with potato gnocchi, vegetarian bordelaise, baked kale, and pecorino; and to top things off, Common House (aka Vinegar Hall)’s buttermilk panna cotta with persimmon jam. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, so eat up!

Bird is the word

Bowerbird Bakeshop, that is. The team behind the City Market stalwart recently announced a brick-and-mortar location at the Tenth Street Warehouses this spring. On Monday, co-owners Earl Vallery and Maria Niechwiadowicz surpassed their $5,555 GoFundMe target (by about $500) to defray part of the $70,000 start-up costs. Ten percent of all donations above the goal benefit City of Promise, the nonprofit working to empower underserved populations in Charlottesville.

Movin’ on up

It’s last call at Ace Biscuit & BBQ’s Henry Street location. The charming storefront next to Vitae Spirits will close on January 26 as the kings of carbo-loading move to bigger digs at 600 Concord Ave., just a couple of blocks away. No opening date at the new location has been announced.

Plus ça change

Less than a year after taking the helm at Gordonsville’s Rochambeau, Michelin-starred chef Bernard Guillot has returned to France, citing personal reasons. But the restaurant won’t miss a beat, as Jean-Louis and Karen Dumonet step in to fill the void in early February. The couple met long ago at cooking school in Paris and have been collaborating on restaurants all over the world for 35-plus years. Their latest project, Dumonet, was a popular French bistro in Brooklyn.

It’s mai-tai o’clock somewhere

Now that it’s actually cold outside, Brasserie Saison is hosting a Tropical Tiki Getaway so you can mind-trip to a warm, sandy beach. The intimate downstairs Coat Room will be decorated like a luau (we see a fake palm tree in our future) and paper-umbrella cocktails will be served. Wear your Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops. 6-10pm, Thursday, January 30. 111 E. Main St., Downtown Mall, 202-7027, brasseriesaison.net.

Categories
Food & Drink Living

BYOW: How, when, and where to bring your own wine out to dinner

Brian Helleberg of Fleurie.

It’s been nearly a decade since Virginia made it legal for folks to bring their own vino to restaurants. The Corkage Bill of 2011 effectively gives diners more wines to choose from, and in some cases, a less expensive option to ordering from a restaurant’s list. “We have to provide value, whatever the customer wants,” says Brian Helleberg, owner of Fleurie and Petit Pois.

Most local restaurants offer corkage for $10 to $35. For the fee, diners’ bottles are treated with the same care as in-house wines —decanted, poured, and served in proper stemware. Most restaurants also prefer to be notified by diners before they show up with their own bottles. In fact, it’s proper etiquette (just like tipping as if you’d bought the wine in-house is), so call ahead, and you’ll receive a warm welcome.

“It’s great when someone has a special wine,” Helleberg says. “It’s flattering to the restaurant.”

Where to bring your own

C&O Restaurant

Want to BYO without having to CYA? C&O charges a flat fee and “passes no judgment,” catering manager Cristelle Koerper says. That means everything’s fair game, from non-vintage plonk to ’98 Petrus.

Cost: $25, no restrictions or discounts

515 E. Water St. 971-7044,
candorestaurant.com

Ivy Inn

About four or five Ivy Inn customers bring their own bottles of wine per week, a spokesperson says. And it’s usually a special wine for a special occasion—exactly what the Ivy Inn is known for.

Cost: $25, no restrictions or discounts

2244 Old Ivy Rd., 977-1222,
ivyinn restaurant.com

Fleurie

What’s the best wine to bring out to dinner? That tasty little number you bought while touring local vineyards. “If it’s a local winery, it’s nice to have that relationship,” Helleberg says.”We get people in who’ve been sent from a wine tasting to Fleurie.”

Cost: $25 for Virginia wines; $35 for others

108 Third St. NE, 971-7800,

fleurierestaurant.com

Mangione’s on Main

Regulars at Mangione’s predecessor Bella’s were long known to carry in wine for the restaurant’s low corkage fee of $15. The owners who took over the space in January have stuck with the policy.

Cost: $15, no restrictions or discounts

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

The Whiskey Jar

As with most things, The Whiskey Jar keeps it unpretentious when it comes to corkage. It offers the least expensive fee in town (matched only by Bebedero). There’s occasionally some confusion about the corkage fee at the Jar, but tell ’em owner Will Richey himself confirmed it’s $10.

Cost: $10, free for Wine Guild of Charlottesville members

227 W. Main St., 202-1549,

thewhiskeyjarcville.com

Categories
Living

Sammy love in the new year: Guest sandwiches are back at Keevil & Keevil

The first “guest chef” sandwich to debut at Keevil & Keevil this year is a bologna wonder from Mason Hereford, of New Orleans’ Turkey and the Wolf. Photo courtesy Keevil & Keevil

After a consulting gig at Commonwealth Restaurant & Sky Bar, Harrison Keevil is back full-time at Keevil & Keevil, with some new ideas for the store he co-owns with his wife Jennifer.

“We’re bringing back the guest sandwiches —where I ask friends what their dream sandwich is and try to make it come to life with local ingredients,” Keevil says. He’ll start with a take on Charlottesville native/UVA grad Mason Hereford’s famed bologna sandwich.

Hereford’s New Orleans sandwich shop, Turkey and the Wolf, was voted Bon Appetit’s best restaurant in America in 2017, and was also a James Beard finalist for best new restaurant that year. He’s famed for turning your average sandwich into a work of wonder.

“Mason asked us to make an all-Virginia version of his fried bologna sandwich,” Keevil says. Hereford shared a family recipe for mustard, which will be mixed with Duke’s mayonnaise. The bologna is made from local grass-fed beef, the bread comes from Albemarle Baking Company, and it’s all topped off with Route 11 Potato Chips.

Other chefs with guest sandwich offerings in the months to come will include Jason Alley, owner of Pasture and Comfort in Richmond, and Trigg Brown, formerly of Ten and Blue Light, and now co-owner of Win Son, a Taiwanese-American restaurant in Brooklyn.

The chef whose sandwiches sell the most during this multi-month smackdown will make a $500 donation to the charity of his choice, and Keevil & Keevil will then match the donation for Therapeutic Adventures, in honor of a friend of Harrison’s who passed away last summer and had lived a very full life with only one leg.

Keevil says they’ve got some other new things brewing at the shop, including seasonally focused sandwiches and pick up/takeaway dinners.

“We’ll do some beef bourguignon, lasagna, and some more heartier stuff during the winter, keeping an eye on the weather,” he says. “If it’s going to warm up, we’ll do some lighter stuff, and if it’s colder, we’ll do more braising. We’ll have delicious stuff people can grab and take home to feed their family. Now that I’m back in the kitchen full-time, I have a lot of ideas and energy and a lot of new time to dedicate to creating delicious food here.”

So long, farewell to Jose De Brito

After a year at the helm of Fleurie’s kitchen, esteemed local chef Jose De Brito is leaving to return home to Washington, Virginia, where he and his wife settled when he worked at the Inn at Little Washington.

De Brito, who at times could be as professionally elusive as Peter Chang once was, rose to prominence when he headed the kitchen at The Alley Light, earning praise in the food world with his French cuisine.

Fleurie owner Brian Helleberg says he hates to lose a gifted chef but understood his need to return home.

“Chef Jose had been keeping an apartment in Charlottesville for the work week and was missing his wife and home in Little Washington,” he says. “It was certainly a privilege to have him as the chef and although I’ll miss his presence, I’ll look forward to continuing our friendship.”

Helleberg says Fleurie is in good hands with Joe Walker, the new chef de cuisine.

“Walker is going to surprise some people when they see just how good he is,” he says. “Chef Joe has been immersed in great kitchen culture and Michelin star food his whole career, and I think Jose would be the first to agree that his ceiling isn’t even visible from here.”

No sweet ending for Sweethaus

Sweethaus, the sole remaining cupcakery in Charlottesville, unceremoniously closed its doors days before Christmas with no explanation. The store’s other two locations, in Ivy and Brooklyn, appear to have closed as well.

A little nookie

The Nook is under new management, sort of, after owner Stu Rifkin sold his share of the business to longtime co-owner Gina Wood.

More downtown pastries on the way

Looks like MarieBette’s satellite shop on Water Street should be opened by the end of the month. Co-owner Jason Becton said they fell behind due to some contractor issues, but are hoping for a late-January launch.

Categories
Living

Loco for Mono Loco: Latin American favorite closes after 20 years

Mono Loco fans came out in droves for the final days of the popular downtown Latin American restaurant. Photo by Eze Amos

Mono Loco regulars were recently issued a pink slip with the announcement of the closing, after 20 years, of the venerable downtown eatery.

The restaurant, known for its friendly staff, fun atmosphere and Latin American cuisine, shuttered its doors after service on Saturday, July 28.

“Our lease was up and it was time for us to focus our energy in different directions,” says Joe Hall, vice president of business development for Red Light Management. “Mono Loco had a great run. We appreciate our employees, our customers who made Mono what it is and for the opportunity to serve Charlottesville for that long. It’s been an honor.”

In with the new

Cava restaurant is now open. Known for its fast-casual Mediterranean cuisine, the restaurant is located in the new Emmet Street Station (1200 Emmet St. N.), where the former Exxon station was, across from Barracks Road Shopping Center. Hours are 10:45am to 10pm.

And next door to CAVA is MOD Pizza, a fast-growing, Seattle-based joint that serves up individual artisan-style pizzas made on demand, allowing customers to create their own pies and salads with fresh-pressed dough, signature sauces and more than 30 toppings. It opened July 27.

In honor of its grand opening, MOD donated 100 percent of its first-day pizza sales to the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention for teens and young adults; 100 percent of pizza sales from its soft opening went to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

MOD’s hours are 10:30am to 10pm Sun through Thursday, and 10:30am to 11pm Friday and Saturday.

Expanding options

Foods of All Nations has ventured beyond Ivy Road with the opening of its new Foods of All Nations Café in the UVA Research Park north of town, in Town Center Three at 995 Research Park Blvd. A go-to grocery destination for more than 50 years, FoAN has long been known as the place to find hard-to-find ingredients from around the world.

The new café features curated products from local vendors such as MarieBette Café & Bakery, Schuyler Greens and Lumi Juice.

Open from 8am to 5pm, it has both hot and cold breakfast and lunch options, freshly baked goods and desserts, an espresso bar, a salad bar and dinner carryout items. Located adjacent to The Hub, the research park’s open, airy, casual meeting/dining/event space, the café will also offer an outdoor dining space.

Wine wins

Fleurie restaurant made the Wine Enthusiast’s America’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants of 2018, which “is a pretty big deal for our little Charlottesville restaurant,” says Fleurie sommelier Melissa Boardman.

Fleurie is also among the five local restaurants that have earned a 2018 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for their wine lists. This is the first year that Red Pump Kitchen and Bizou have earned the honor; Tavola and Fleurie have been honorees since 2016, and the Downtown Grille since 2000. Says Red Pump’s sommelier, T.C. Whysall, “Winning this award shows how hard my team works together to give unique wine and dining experiences with their knowledge of the list and pairings with the menu.”

To market, to market

The official Charlottesville City Market has been cancelled for August 11 due to the City’s operations schedule changes for the anniversary of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally.
However, a number of farmers and vendors who regularly sell at the City Market instead intend to sell their produce and wares at the IX Art Park 7 am-noon on Saturday August 11. Details here.

Feeling the jolt

Coffee-lovers at the University of Virginia’s i.Lab are going to have to look elsewhere for the perfect brew. Shark Mountain Coffee and Chocolate recently announced the permanent closing of its i.Lab location. No word yet on future plans for the company, but a Facebook post hinted at something to come: “We’re always scheming,” it said.

Categories
Living

Blue Moon pop-ups feed the community

Laura Galgano, owner of Blue Moon Diner, hopes to have brunch pop-ups in the Snowing in Space Lab on West Main Street about every other month. Photo by Eze Amos

Although Blue Moon Diner is closed during construction of 600 West Main, the six-story mixed-use building going up behind the restaurant, that hasn’t stopped owner Laura Galgano from serving her customers.

“I am a social being, and quite simply, [I] want to know what folks are up to, how their lives are and what new and fun things they’ve gotten to try,” Galgano says. It’s a reason why, in August and September, she and a few other Blue Moon staffers hosted Blue Moon pop-up brunches in Snowing In Space Coffee’s Space Lab at 705 W. Main St., serving a limited menu of biscuits and sausage gravy, pancakes and a variation on a grits bowl.

At the first pop-up on August 19, just a week after the deadly August 12 white supremacist rally, Galgano realized how much she missed her regulars. That day, there was “lots of hugging, and ‘Where were you?,’ ‘So glad you’re safe,’ etc.,” says Galgano. “Blue Moon has always been more than just a diner, and using the pop-ups as a way to check in with each other, and keep that notion of community at the fore, is very important to us.”

During one of the September pop-ups, Galgano saw four orders of pancakes for two people, and she stuck her head out of the kitchen to make sure there hadn’t been a mistake. But when she did, she saw two Charlottesville Derby Dames, Blue Moon regulars who’d come in to load up on the beloved diner staple after a training workout. “One of the skaters was housesitting for two other skaters, and planned to leave them each their own serving of pancakes to enjoy on their return,” says Galgano.

It’s been a treat for the Snowing In Space folks, too. “We are huge fans of Blue Moon Diner ourselves,” says the coffee spot’s manager Julia Minnerly, “and being able to offer such a community favorite was a big hit.”

Galgano says that more Blue Moon pop-up brunches will happen soon; the details haven’t been hammered out quite yet, but she hopes to have one every other month or so.

“I like that we’re just down the street, in the same neighborhood, and partnering with a newer business,” Galgano says. “These kinds of collaborations help to continue the sense of community that Blue Moon so values: We all succeed together.”

Lunch spot haven

On Wednesday, September 20, The Haven hosted its first weekly home-cooked lunch for members of the Charlottesville community, serving a meal that included a cheese plate or spinach salad, meatloaf or vegetarian lentil loaf, roasted herb potatoes, broccoli with lemon-butter sauce, homemade peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

About 26 people showed up for the inaugural meal, says Diana Boeke, The Haven’s director of community engagement, who notes they can accommodate up to 40 people for each lunch. Home cooks and regular shelter guests, who prepared and served the meals to customers, “were very excited and making sure they made everyone feel at home,” Boeke says, noting that for many attendees, it was their first time in the day shelter. “The big round tables that seat up to eight mean that you’ll meet new people, so even people that came alone became part of the community there.”

The menu will change each week (the September 27 lunch included salad, chili, cornbread and a strawberries and cream dessert), and Boeke says The Haven hopes to find a few other home cooks—perhaps people from other countries who could share specialty dishes—to help with the public lunches. The kitchen managers already plan and prepare breakfasts for more than 60 people, 365 days a year.

The home-cooked lunches are served from noon to 1:30pm every Wednesday and give members of the Charlottesville community, including guests of the day shelter (who are not asked to pay the $10 donation for the meal), the chance to get to know one another.

Do the Cheffle

Frank Paris III, who closed his downtown ramen and donut shop Miso Sweet in August, is now executive chef at Heirloom, the rooftop restaurant and bar at the Graduate Charlottesville hotel at 1309 W. Main St. on the UVA Corner. He’s currently working on a new menu.

C-VILLE’s At the Table columnist C. Simon Davidson reports on his Charlottesville 29 blog that after a yearlong stint cooking at the Michelin-starred Inn at Little Washington, chef Jose de Brito is back in town as chef de cuisine of Fleurie, located at 108 Third St. NE, and consultant to the Downtown Mall’s Petit Pois. The former Alley Light head chef and former chef-owner of Ciboulette, which inhabited a space in the Main Street Market building years ago, told Davidson he’s ready to cook French food again, which he says is his specialty.