Tag: Found. Market Co.

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Culture Living

Share the (common)wealth: A guide to local gourmet gifts

With 16 flavors to choose from, Gearharts Fine Chocolates are best purchased in large assortments. Photo by Eze Amos

Many of us are eagerly anticipating the chance to turn the page on what has been a unique and challenging year. However, at least one challenge remains before we can put 2020 behind us—shopping for holiday gifts. 

There is perhaps no better time to shop local. Not only can you avoid possible shipping delays, but putting your money to work in our community and supporting small businesses in desperate need of every dollar can make a huge difference this year. If you have area artisans, makers, crafters, or restaurants that you treasure, give them a boost!

Wine lovers are easy to please—especially if the gift recipient isn’t from Virginia—by sharing some wine from any of our area’s producers. One high-impact option is the 2017 Rise from Early Mountain Vineyards (earlymountain.com). This concentrated and complex red blend, from the excellent 2017 vintage, is the winery’s flagship offering , and should age well for many years to come. Plus, a beautiful custom wooden box is included.

Another option for the wine enthusiast is a unique and beautiful wine stopper. Kirk McCauley (kirkmccauley.com), a woodturner from North Garden, handcrafts wine stoppers and other products (vases, bowls, furniture, chess sets, etc.) from local wood. The result is a one-of-a kind, breathtaking piece that anyone would be pleased to receive.

Fans of distilled products are lucky that two small-batch, craft producers are located in Charlottesville. Vitae Spirits (vitaespirits.com) makes a wide range of products including rum, gin, orange liqueur, and more. Its coffee liqueur, produced in collaboration with Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, is a favorite. Spirit Lab Distilling (spiritlabdistilling.com) produces single-malt whiskey, gin, brandy, grappa, etc. in small batches with an intense focus on local ingredients. Spirit Lab’s single-malt whiskey pays homage to traditionally produced Scotch whiskey, while simultaneously blazing a bold trail for a true expression of Virginia.

For the sweets lover on your list, something from Gearharts Fine Chocolates (gearhartschocolates.com) is always appreciated. Founded in 2001 in Charlottesville, the shop has been a mainstay for artisan chocolates, and with a signature line consisting of 16 tempting flavors, an assortment box is the way to go.

For someone who prefers caramel to chocolate, look no further than La Vache Microcreamery (lavachemicrocreamery.com). The caramels are available in traditional flavors such as fleur de sel and double espresso, and seasonal flavors that vary depending on the time of the year. The molasses ginger is particularly well suited for the holidays. These little packages of pleasure are crafted by hand, in small batches, without preservatives, and with ingredients sourced “as locally as possible.”

The Little Things Shortbread from FOUND. Market co (foundmarketco.com) has developed a bit of a cult following among those who have been lucky enough to taste it. In addition to the classic honey recipe, there are six flavor options, ranging from chocolate chip to cinnamon chai to salted rosemary. 

JAM according to Daniel (accordingtodaniel.com) started as a weekly stand at City Market over a decade ago. To say that Daniel Perry is obsessed with jam would be a true understatement—he offers what seems like a hundred different seasonal jam recipes, all made from local fruit sourced from farms within 60 miles of Charlottesville. In addition, he now offers gift boxes that combine some of the most popular jam flavors with herbal teas grown on Fairweather Farm in nearby Nelson County, where Rachel Williamson runs a “one-woman, one-acre” farm.

A different sort of farming is happening in Batesville at Elysium Honey Company (elysiumhoney.com). Like many wine producers, Elysium is focused on how the  environment (soil, climate, type of flower, etc.) influences the taste of the final product. The Virginia Wildflower honey is harvested from and around Albemarle County, and represents the sweetest taste of the Virginia Piedmont area.

Two local producers can help with the cooks on your list. Blanc Creatives (blanccreatives.com) has earned national recognition for its line of carbon steel pans. In addition, it offers products such as handmade wooden kitchen tools, serving boards, and barware. Monolith Knives (monolithknives.com) hand forges one-of-a-kind steel kitchen knives that are designed to last a lifetime. Monolith will work with customers to customize every detail of the knife from the type and intended use, to the length, materials, and look of the handle and blade.

Want to feel really good about your gift? Go with a gift card. There is an extra benefit right now to purchasing gift cards at local restaurants. Whether redeemed now for takeout and delivery or saved in anticipation of gathering again, the immediate income is something that independent restaurants need.

And you can give a gift to the restaurant industry by writing to your Congressional representatives to tell them to support the Restaurants Act, which provides needed financial aid and relief for independent restaurants. This will help ensure that our favorite establishments will be here in the future—a gift we all want.

Categories
Living

Local restaurant openings and closings in April

Once Kathyrn Matthews, who grew up in England, got a taste of American-style breakfast, she set out to capture those flavors with a puff pastry-waffle hybrid known as the paffle. Photo by Tom McGovern

In April, six food places in Charlottesville opened their doors: Found. Market Co., Vu Noodles and Pearl Island Catering in the Jefferson School Café, Iron Paffles and Coffee, Snowing in Space Coffee Co., Mama Meals at Charlottesville Cooking School and Oliva.


Categories
Living

Cookie-focused company settles into new home

Found. Market Co., which doubles as a remade furniture workshop and bakehouse, specializes in cookies as well as farmhouse-style baked goods such as muffins and tea cakes. Photo by Tom McGovern

Calling all cookie monsters: Found. Market Co. at 221 Carlton Rd. (the former Kathy’s Produce spot) is here for all of your cookie needs. In addition to functioning as a gathering space and remade furniture workshop, Found. is a bakehouse specializing in cookies—pick up some salted rosemary shortbread, a batch of classic cookies or frozen cookie dough to scoop and bake at home whenever a cookie craving strikes—as well as farmhouse-style baked goods such as muffins and tea cakes, plus comfort foods like Bavarian pretzels, chicken salad and pub cheese.

If that salted rosemary shortbread sounds familiar, it should—Found. started as a wholesale bakery under the name The Bees Knees Kitchen, and it’s been selling shortbread-style cookies at Feast! and Blenheim Vineyards for a few years. The Bees Knees Kitchen eventually grew out of its certified home kitchen and into this larger, industrial-sized space and new name, says co-owner Kelsey Gillian.

Having managed an organic farm for the last 16 years, the Found. team’s “nature is to cook and bake from the field, gather for family dinners and share good food with friends,” says Gillian, adding that it’s all about creating homegrown, handmade “tasty food, imperfections and all.”

New food pairing

Charlottesville has plenty of cuisine options—Mexican, Italian, French, Indian, American—but even in our chock-full-o-restaurants city, it’s rare to find two very different cuisines under a single roof.

Vu Noodles and Pearl Island Catering have teamed up to serve lunch at the Jefferson School City Center café at 233 Fourth St. NW from 11am to 2pm Monday through Friday. (Don’t worry—Vu Noodles will still be served at The Spot/Greenie’s, and Pearl Island isn’t abandoning its catering.)

The menu is a relief for those who can’t decide on just one type of cuisine for their midday meal (or is that just us?). Vu Noodles’ spring rolls, the banh mi sandwich, tofu caramelized onions and various noodle dishes are on the menu alongside Pearl Island dishes such as the Caribbean-seasoned, slow-roasted pulled pork, Haitian-inspired sweet and spicy chicken with gravy, Creole beans and fried plantains.

One more Reason to love beer

In a town where breweries rival Starbucks in numbers, yet another place to imbibe in new brews will open in June.

Childhood friends and Charlottesville natives Patrick Adair, Mark Fulton and Jeff Raileanu are teaming up to open Reason Beer in a warehouse space next to Costco. Adair, director of sales, says the more breweries the better.

“Charlottesville is getting a reputation as a beer town, and that’s awesome,” he says. “We are fortunate enough to be at a time when craft beer seems to sell itself these days.”

To understand the brewery is to understand head brewer Fulton’s background as former head brewer at the venerable Maine Beer Company. In the early days of craft beer there was a focus on making IPAs as bitter as possible but breweries like Maine Beer Company were pioneers in producing beers with balanced hop and malt profiles. Fulton will bring this perspective to Reason, where they will focus on low-alcohol, fresh, hoppy beers.

The brewery is installing a 30-barrel (that’s 930 gallons) brewhouse and will also put in a bottling line that will package 16.9-ounce bottles, a format Adair says is just the right size for drinking by yourself, but also big enough to share.

“I think our focus on balance, approachability, innovation and food pairing will be what distinguishes Reason Beer,” says Adair.—Derek Young

The toast of Tom Tom

Six of Charlottesville’s top chefs went head-to-head in the Iron Chef City Market competition for which each had to create a 100 percent locally sourced dish with a budget of $50, 20 minutes to shop and 30 minutes to cook. Chef Chris Jack of Wild Wolf Brewing Company took the title with a dish of pan-seared duck heart, spicy chocolate granola-crusted duck liver and sautéed oyster mushrooms with purple scallions, wilted arugula and spicy strawberry rhubarb jam.

In the craft cocktail competition at the Tom Tom Founders Festival, Patrick McClure of Lost Saint won over the judges with his Lil’ Rhuby Fizzle, made from sweet strawberry juice from Agriberry Farm, tart rhubarb juice from Radical Roots Farm, Boar Creek Appalachian whiskey and Homestead Creamery cream and egg white. The Flora, a Baker’s gin, strawberry shrub, mint and basil syrup, lemon, cava and cracked pepper cocktail concocted by Oakhart Social’s Brendan Cartin, was the crowd favorite.