Tag: Food truck

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Hometown hero: Angelic Jenkins breaks new ground on the local food scene

Soul food chef Angelic Jenkins checks on construction progress at the future Dairy Market food hall, where she and her husband, Charles, were the first tenants to sign a lease. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Angelic Jenkins felt worried as she walked into the community meeting. A big development, Dairy Central, was getting started on Preston Avenue, and talk among folks in the adjoining, predominantly African-American neighborhood of 10th and Page had not been good. Charlottesville has a woeful history of displacing black residents, and this new place, they feared, would be just another chapter in that book.

“When the story first came out, there was a lot of backlash, especially on social media,” says Jenkins, 51, co-founder and -owner with her husband, Charles, of Angelic’s Kitchen and Catering. “A lot of my close friends who live there in the neighborhood were very negative. They said, ‘They’re going to come in here and take over the neighborhood, where there’s already nothing for us.’”

With a scheduled opening in early 2020, Dairy Market is poised to join the food hall trend, while also adding to Charlottesville’s growing reputation as a food and drink destination. Photo: Courtesy of Dairy Market

A lifelong Charlottesville resident, Jenkins felt differently, but she was afraid to express her opinion publicly. After years of operating her soul food business out of a truck, she was the first entrepreneur to sign a lease for the initial phase of the project, the Dairy Market food hall, an ambitious concept—and part of the larger Dairy Central development—led by Charlottesville’s Stony Point Design/Build. The Dairy Market is scheduled to open in the spring of 2020, with Starr Hill Brewery as an anchor tenant, according to the developer.

The Jenkins got in on the ground floor—609 square feet of it, to be precise—after hearing from Stony Point president Chris Henry, back in 2018. At the community meeting, Henry said that Dairy Central would be open to all, with a public space offering food from 18 vendors and live entertainment.

“Everyone is welcome—he made that very clear,” Jenkins says. “When I walked into that meeting and saw a lot of individuals who live in that neighborhood, it calmed my soul. When people saw me walk in, an African American woman who had the opportunity to open a restaurant there, I think it calmed their soul also.”

Jenkins has worked for 19 years as the head of HR for the DoubleTree by Hilton, but five years ago she and her husband bought a food truck and launched Angelic’s Kitchen. Her specialty is fried fish, a Southern staple she fell in love with as a child attending festivals with her mother.

“I was intrigued by all the tents and people selling food outdoors,” she says. “When I did my first festival, I got a head rush from it.”

She served some of the food left over from the event at a family gathering. “And they said, ‘Why don’t you sell some of these dinners?’ I did that for a couple of days and realized, oh my gosh, there’s a lot of money to be made. Then I decided, okay, I’m going to do this the legal way,” she says with a laugh.

She entered a program for entrepreneurs at the Community Investment Collaborative, received her catering license, and went on to rent a nearby commercial kitchen, Bread and Roses. At CIC she also found a manufacturer for her fish breading. She had it bagged so she could coat and cook fillets on the spot at festivals.

Those took place in the summer, but Jenkins wanted to extend her selling season, so in October 2018 she and Charles bought a food truck to make the rounds at local wineries and fall events. “Someone approached me at a festival and told me about some kind of building that would be opening on Preston Avenue in 2020,” Angelic says. “She gave me her card, but I thought nothing of it. But I saw the woman again, and she said, ‘We’re having a meeting about that project I mentioned.’”

She was heartened to see Chris Henry at the first meeting she attended. “He said, ‘Everyone in the neighborhood is welcome.’ That made me feel good. They want the local people involved.”

The Jenkins received a call from Henry’s office soon after the community meeting, and after hearing the details of the planned food hall, they signed a five-year lease.

Today, they’re awaiting approval of their architectural plans for their space in the Dairy Market, and Charles is speaking with retailers about selling Angelic’s Kitchen fish breading.

“The business is growing,” she says. “We’re just really excited about the opportunity to have our own place, so people have access to us every day, versus trying to catch us at the food truck.”

Jenkins’ fried fish will be the central menu item at the Dairy Market space, but other soul food—mac ‘n’ cheese, collard greens, barbecue chicken quarters, and more—will be offered.

What I like most about [the Dairy Market] is that they’re focused on local entrepreneurs,” she says. “I never expected to have a restaurant. It’s a chance I can’t resist.”

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Living

Take the cannoli: A New York state of mind leads to Sicily Rose

Sicily Rose, which opens at IX Art Park in September, will feature made-to-order cannoli and a full-scale Italian coffee bar. Photo by Tom McGovern

Milli Joe owner Nick Leichtentritt has always had a special place in his heart for simple Italian cannoli, and he’s planning to bring his favorite dessert to Charlottesville at Sicily Rose, an Italian coffee and cannoli bar opening in September in the Studio IX space.

“Sicily Rose is a project I’ve actually been working on and thinking about for a couple years now,” he says. “I grew up in an Italian family in New York, so cannoli were always a go-to dessert for us, and now every time I find a good one I’m reminded of my childhood. The shop is named in honor of my Sicilian grandmother, Rose, who shared her love of Italian bakeries with all of her grandkids, and whose kitchen in New York was home to some of my earliest and fondest memories. She was in large part responsible for my lifelong love of food and the desire to share it with friends and family.”

 

Sicily Rose will feature a full-scale Italian coffee bar as well as American coffee favorites from Milli Joe. The made-to-order cannoli bar will stick to the traditional favorites.

“We’re not going to do a bunch of crazy flavors,” Leichtentritt says. “Instead we will have one style of fresh-made cannoli shells and a simple, authentic cannoli cream, which we will make in-house and fill to order. The cannoli will be topped with a choice of chocolate, pistachio, almond, or candied orange.”

Leichtentritt says he’ll also carry some unique Italian treats as well as local chocolates, local beer, and Italian wine.

Waffling around

There’s a new waffle kid in town: Good Waffles & Co. food truck has been making inroads over the past several months. The brainchild of newlyweds Steven and Danielle Stitz, Good Waffles combines their passions—he’s been cooking in the Charlottesville area for more than a decade, including a stint at the Clifton Inn, and she’s a graphic designer by training.

“We merged our love of both to start a business that we could do together,” Danielle says. “We love Charlottesville and being a part of this wonderful community. Owning our food trucks has allowed us the chance to meet so many great people here, and we hope to be around for a long time, serving up our waffles.”

The style they serve is the bubble waffle—the circular waffles are pocketed with bubbles to better hold accompanying sauces and ice cream, and they come in sweet and savory forms.

“A bubble waffle is basically a Hong Kong Egg Waffle,” Danielle says. “But we’ve adapted it with our recipe to fit our menu. It has beautiful round bubbles all over it. You can fork it, slice it, or my favorite: pull it apart with your hands.”

Steven recommends the classic chicken and waffles, with a mix of housemade Georgia mustard and North Carolina sauces with a homemade pickle. Danielle favors the lemon berry: a bubble waffle with vanilla ice cream, Meyer lemon curd and plenty of blueberries.

“We make what we love, and we love waffles with soul,” she says. “Add some fried chicken or some ice cream atop—you can’t go wrong. You could say that we picked the food, but really the bubble waffles picked us!”

Oakhart Social keeps growing

Oakhart Social has launched a private dining room above Public Fish & Oyster (in the former home of Opal Yoga, which has moved). The space seats up to 52 people, and boasts polished hardwoods and exposed brick, with wood paneling flanking a fully stocked bar.

Benjamin Clore, co-owner of Oakhart Social, says the private space that opened in April was used for overflow seating for graduation, and is now available for those seeking to host private functions.

Clore says the master plan involves a rooftop restaurant above Oakhart Social, in which the back half of the rooftop will be a building with an open kitchen and bar design similar in concept to that of Mas Tapas, with the kitchen on one side, and bar seating on the other. The front half will be open-air patio seating. Clore said all city approvals have been met but the project is on hold while they finalize the opening of their next venture, Little Star (across the street in the old Threepenny Café site).

“Little Star will feature American food with Spanish and Latin influences, and small plates like at Oakhart, largely wood-fired,” Clore says, adding it should open in October or November.

Get ’em while they’re hot

Wegmans will host its Hatch Chile Festival August 24-26. The festival, held over the next several weeks at select Wegmans locations throughout the country, has become a popular annual event, and originated as a way for the grocery store to promote a unique seasonal item, says the store’s media relations manager, Valerie Fox.

Fox says they’ll have a chile roaster set up near the entrance, and various departments at the grocery store will offer products that creatively incorporate Hatch chilies into their selections.

The chilies, grown in Hatch, New Mexico, the chile capital of the world, are a popular ingredient in Southwestern cooking, Fox says. Harvested four weeks each year, the chiles have a thicker wall than more common ones like the Anaheim, thus holding up nicely in recipes and freezing for year-round use.

Categories
Living

Some food trucks are putting down roots while restaurants hit the road

Morsel Compass Mobile Kitchen co-owner Keely Hass is opening Morsel Compass West with Jennifer Blanchard in Crozet’s Piedmont Place, also the future home of Smoked BBQ Co.’s restaurant. Photo by Tom McGovern

It’s that time of year again—when it’s so hot outside you dream of lounging in the air conditioning. But we know one thing that will motivate you to venture outside: food. Lucky for us, the food truck scene here is exploding with new trucks. We counted more than 15 roaming the city on any given day, and even a few brick-and-mortar places are jumping on the bandwagon and going mobile. But it goes both ways: Some of these freestanding kitchens are becoming so successful, they’re opening permanent locations. And none too soon—we’re sweltering just thinking about how hot it must be in a food truck kitchen in 100-degree heat.

106 Street Food

After working on the culinary scene for two decades, chef Will Cooper has opened his own business. Hitting town about two months ago, 106 Street Food dishes up classic American fare with a dash of Southwest-, Latin- and Asian-inspired flair. Cooper was so gung-ho about opening his own mobile kitchen he built the truck himself. In between his stints at Bella’s Restaurant, the Glass House Kitchen and Rapture, Cooper also worked in construction, and knew enough to put his truck together in four months.

On the menu you’ll find massive, mouthwatering sandwiches, like the 16-hour smoked brisket. But Cooper’s favorite is the pork schnitzel. Inside a hearty pretzel bun lies a deep-fried, panko-crusted pork loin topped with an egg, arugula, white cheddar and lemon caper aioli.

Smoked BBQ Co.

Smoked BBQ Co. is “the little wagon that could.” Owner Justin van der Linde and sous chef Kent Morris started out with a barbecue cart in downtown Charlottesville, but now they’re making the move to open their own restaurants—yes, plural—both in downtown Crozet’s Piedmont Place, a mixed-use building that’s still under construction. Their first-floor eatery, Smoked Kitchen and Tap, will focus on barbecue—ribs, brisket and pulled pork—along with Southern-style sides, and will be family-friendly. The fourth-floor restaurant, The Rooftop, takes advantage of the 50-foot overlook of the Blue Ridge Mountains with an open fire pit and heated terrace. On the menu is woodstone oven pizzas with a Southern twist, accompanied by craft cocktails. “We’ll have probably the best views in town,” van der Linde says.

Even with opening two restaurants simultaneously, the duo plans to keep its food truck, which features hickory-smoked barbecue, slathered with its signature dry rubs and sauces, in rotation.

Morsel Compass

We know and love them for their international-inspired tacos topped with everything from Korean pulled-pork barbecue to chicken souvlaki. But now Jennifer Blanchard and Keely Hass, owners of Morsel Compass Mobile Kitchen, are laying down roots and opening up Morsel Compass West, a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Piedmont Place. “It’s more than tacos,” Blanchard says. “Our menu’s going to be, pardon the compass reference here, all over the map. We get to pretty much do our wildest dreams.”

They’re going to do all the things they couldn’t do before on a food truck: bake, make soups and, what they’re most excited for, breakfast. But for devoted fans of the food truck, there’s no need to worry. “The truck is still going to go out,” assures Blanchard. “[It’s] a huge part that got us to where we are.”

Moe’s Original Bar B Que

Ashleigh and Mike Abrams just celebrated Moe’s Original Bar B Que’s one-year anniversary in Charlottesville, and now they’re joining the food truck craze. The Asheville, North Carolina, natives are featuring “Southern soul food revival” dishes including award-winning Alabama-style pulled pork, St. Louis ribs and homemade sides, in their new mobile kitchen. The truck is making stops at local wineries and breweries such as King Family Vineyards and Starr Hill Brewery.

So far, the Abramses are loving the attention they’re getting thanks to their food truck. “It’s like a rolling billboard,” says Ashleigh. “There’s a lot of potential for us to get our name out and spread the word that we’re over here on Ivy Road. And we wanted to branch out into the community.”