Tag: Grit Coffee

Categories
Culture Food & Drink Living

Shots that satisfy

It’s been a tough year for restaurants, and it remains a serious challenge for many to stay open. Sadly, we’ve already lost some local favorites, and there may be more to come. However, in the midst of it all, there are amazing stories of adaptation, re-invention, pivoting, and even new businesses opening against the odds. Here are some recent Instagram favorites that offer a glimpse of not just delicious eats, but the resilience and heart of our food community. —Paul H. Ting

@ironpaffles
The fried chicken and mac’n’cheese from Iron Paffles and Coffee is a must-try dish. The paffle is unique to Charlottesville, and an invention of resilient chef-owner Kathryn Matthews. During the last week of 2019, Matthews was involved in a serious car accident that left her unable to perform even simple tasks, and just one week after she returned to work, the coronavirus shutdowns began. Her dining room remains closed, but online ordering, delivery, and takeout are keeping the business going.

@little.star.cville
Little Star was really coming into its own as it celebrated one year in business at the beginning of 2020. With the onset of colder weather, tents have been installed over the restaurant’s outdoor patio. This monkfish, beans, and clam dish is representative of chef Ryan Smith’s food, which features unique ingredient combinations, sauces with impactful flavor, and beautiful plating.

@zynodoa
Zynodoa in nearby Staunton has installed heaters for diners who want to enjoy dishes like this one outdoors. Featuring a beautiful pork chop from Autumn Olive Farms (@autumn_olive_farms), a local farm best known for supplying high-quality products to many area restaurants. The farm went through its own pivot during the pandemic, and started selling directly to consumers.

@cville.foodie
Our local farmers’ markets and food trucks have provided many of us with a variety of delicious options. Two favorites are Sweet Jane’s Kitchen (@sweetjaneskitchen_va) and Tacos Gomez (@tacos_gomez). Sweet Jane’s offers freshly made crab cakes at markets in Charlottesville and Richmond, either cooked and ready to eat or ready to prepare at home. Tacos Gomez food truck has a devoted following, and looking at their Torta Cubana it’s easy to see why.

@sshanesy
As much effort and courage as it takes to keep a restaurant going right now, it takes perhaps more courage to open a new restaurant during a pandemic. In January 2020, brothers John and Scott Shanesy announced plans to partner in Belle (@bellecville), and move from coffee to a restaurant and bakery with a focus on breakfast and lunch. It’s truly heartening to see them go from selling baked goods out of a dining room that was closed before it even opened, to becoming a beloved Belmont neighborhood small business.

@rationsandoldfashioneds
The Wool Factory (@the_wool_factory) planned to open its multi-use space by hosting two weddings in April 2020. Despite the setback of having its first several events canceled, the property pressed on with a socially distanced opening of Selvedge Brewing (@selvedgebrewing) in the summer. The kitchen at Selvedge, helmed by chef Tucker Yoder, serves an elevated version of brewpub food. The Selvedge Burger is made with local beef and is as satisfying as it looks.

@coucourachou
Chef Rachel DeJong, who earned her diplôme de pâtisserie in Paris, and serves as the executive pastry chef for The Wool Factory, recently launched her own project, a bakery called Cou Cou Rachou, which will open soon. Until it does, her classic French breads and pastries are available at The Wool Factory, Grit Coffee, and Brasserie Saison. These perfect canelés are beautiful to look at, taste even better than they look, and, like all of her products, have received rave reviews.

@fowlmouthedchicken
Chef Harrison Keevil deserves special mention—and not just for his delicious food, like this boneless fried half chicken with black pepper honey. Keevil started a free meal program in response to COVID-19 to combat food insecurity and feed area residents in need. At last count, he has cooked and delivered over 31,000 meals locally. Bravo Harrison!

Categories
News

Being the change: Local mother starts cafe to employ adults with disabilities

Katie Kishore’s Kindness Cafe + Play will employ adults with cognitive disabilities. PC: John Robinson

2014 was a life-changing year for Katie Kishore. That April, she and her husband Kris welcomed their second daughter, Kiran, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. And just two weeks later, Kris passed away from cancer.

For the next few years, Kishore, a former teacher at Jackson-Via Elementary, focused on caring for Kiran and her oldest daughter, Mira, as well as grieving the loss of her husband. But in 2017, her life took yet another shift when a friend sent her a 90 second video about Bitty & Beau’s, a coffee shop employing people with cognitive disabilities in Wilmington, North Carolina.

After taking a road trip with her daughters and visiting the shop herself, Kishore became “really motivated” to bring the idea to Charlottesville. She too wanted to provide meaningful employment for adults with cognitive disabilities—the majority of whom are unemployed or underemployed, according to the Arc of the Piedmont. 

She created an online fundraiser for her coffee shop, naming it Kindness Cafe + Play—a nod to Kris, who was known for his kindness to everyone. The fundraiser surpassed its goal in just three days, and Kishore soon connected with Jessica Maslaney, CEO of the Piedmont Family YMCA. Maslaney believed the cafe would be a wonderful opportunity for the community, and invited Kishore to start the cafe right in the YMCA lobby.

Kishore received even more community support from Innisfree Village, a voluntary community for adults with intellectual disabilities, and Grit Coffee, which pledged to train employees and provide coffee for the cafe. The Arc of the Piedmont, which also serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, volunteered to be the cafe’s fiscal sponsor. 

“Charlottesville is just full of community-oriented people,” she says. “It became really clear to me pretty early on that Charlottesville would support [the cafe and] benefit from it.” 

Kindness will employ both disabled and typically abled adults, says Kishore. It has already hired eight adults with cognitive disabilities, who will be trained, mentored, and paired with the role they are best suited for. Kishore and another typically abled adult will also be on staff. 

The cafe will start off with limited hours as well: Tuesday to Friday, 7:30 to 11:30 am. However, Kishore plans to eventually expand the cafe’s hours and staff. 

The cafe will sell coffee, espresso, kombucha, and food options, including baked goods from BreadWorks (which also employs adults with disabilities). It will feature spaces for reading, conversation, and small group gatherings.

“Our mission…[is] to create a space for people with and without disabilities to interact as peers,” says Kishore. “The hope is that we change the lives of our employees and their families by providing this opportunity…[and] of many of our customers, as they have the opportunity to interact with adults with cognitive disabilities in a new way.”

A UVA alum who played varsity soccer and basketball (and was inducted into the Virginia-DC Soccer Hall of Fame last year), Kishore says she has received a lot of support from former teammates and coaches—and people who weren’t even at UVA when she was. 

“We’ve just been so pleased with the people who’ve been attracted to this. That goes for the people we’ve hired, the volunteers that’ve been supporting us, the businesses…and individuals” she says. “It’s been really inspiring.”

Kindness Cafe + Play is expected to open in February.

Categories
C-BIZ

Have caffeine, will work: The best C’ville coffee shops for working remotely

Photos: Stephen Barling, Jack Looney, Eze Amos, Tom McGovern

What could be better than getting out of your home office or work site for a few hours, sipping a macchiato, and getting sh*t done in a buzzy coffee shop? Luckily for us, options abound in Charlottesville. Here are our top five picks for the local java spots most conducive to that sweet #teleworklife. (Note: All locations listed offer free Wi-Fi plus outlets to plug in.)

Shenandoah Joe (945 Preston Ave.)

Vibe: Restoration Hardware-meets-“Friends’” Central Perk. Think industrial concrete floors, black, white and beige tones—a super-chill, meditative space to get some work done. That’s Shenandoah Joe’s on Preston Avenue. Take a seat at one of the communal tables, comfy sofas, or oversized armchairs. The cozy yet minimalist-modern space always seems to be teeming with coffee- imbibers, but you can still likely find a place to perch with your laptop. Noise levels are moderate at its busiest. Plus, you are right across the street from what is destined to be another future tele-working hotspot, Dairy Market, so when you’ve worn out your welcome here, you’ll be able to hop across the street.

Mudhouse (213 W. Main St., Downtown Mall)

Vibe: Like walking into a friend’s moody yet welcoming den. The Downtown Mall is where all the action happens, and the Mudhouse is often the center of the buzz. Walk inside and you’ll find a certain gravitas, with well-worn wooden floors and a long, tufted black leather sofa with tables and chairs buttressing one side of the wall. A pillow-strewn window banquette and solitary leather chairs offer additional seating, as does a mallside patio. While the downtown Mudhouse likely sees more of a “who’s who” of C’ville for those remote workers looking to make an impromptu connection, it can also be too crowded for comfort. The local chain’s newest location on 10th Street, just off West Main, is light and airy–ideal for those of us who need a little more space.

Belle Coffee & Wine (407 Monticello Rd.)

Vibe: European-style café meets neighborhood hang space. One of the newest coffee shops on the block, Belle, is just that—a beautiful space. The name, of course, is a play on the neighborhood where it resides, Belmont. Chill out and get some work done amidst Belle’s cool Euro vibes—white and blue tones, blonde wood tables, and a giant map of Belmont on the far wall above a cushy brown leather sofa. Music selections run to adult contempo for the millennial generation with some throwbacks for the rest of us–everything from Bread and Hall & Oates to Haley Reinhart and Lord Huron. Can’t find room inside? Stake out a picnic table on the banana tree-curtained patio or a seat in one of the bistro-style chairs under the yellow awning.

Grit Coffee (2035 Bond St., Ste. #185)

Vibe: Do work, drink coffee, then reward yourself with shopping. While you may think the Downtown Mall location of Grit Coffee would be the best tele-work option out of its multiple local cafes, its stylish outpost at The Shops at Stonefield is even better. The café is outfitted with giant white orb-shaped pendant lights, lots of tables to spread out (but don’t—share that space with your fellow itinerant workers!), a wide, sunny yellow banquette, and stools and bar tables. The buzz is low-key and contemplative—overhead music plays at a gentle decibel. And if the weather is nice, you can grab a seat at one of the purple sidewalk chairs outside. Side note: Grit is ever- expanding—a new café opened recently at the bottom of Pantops and another from the Grit Coffee team is coming to the under-construction Wool Factory.

Snowing in Space (705 W. Main St.)

Vibe: Bold, bright, and colorful West Main Street café filled with murals. Let the artfully disembodied head of Bill Murray (whose film Groundhog Day inspired the coffee shop’s name) spark some work creativity. The Murray mural and frenetic color scheme are the first things that capture your attention when you walk in. Ample seating is available (try to score one of the booths, upholstered in sparkly fuchsia fabric), while the likes of Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Incubus play on the overhead speakers. The café’s undertone of coolness tempers the loudness of the wall graphics–and the music. Snowing in Space may be best for the kind of work that requires free-flowing idea generation and creative thinking, maybe less so for hammering out that tedious RFP proposal or white paper. Grab a can of nitro cold brew coffee on the way out for the all-nighter or early morning work sesh at home.

Categories
Knife & Fork

Cup of mud, meet glass of grape: Local cafes offer coffee and wine side-by-side.

Bright and breezy, the dining room at Belle is perfect for enjoying a light meal and a beverage (caffeine or alcohol, your call). Photo: Stephen Barling

In a town obsessed with coffee and wine, it was only a matter of time before the two beloved beverages started shacking up. Cafes in Europe have long kept both on the menu, and now a host of local java joints and new establishments are following suit.

“I think most people love cafes, even if they don’t know it, and creating a comfortable space where you can get great coffee, great and quick bites to eat, and some wine when ready has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” says Andy McClure, who opened Belle Coffee & Wine last spring in the former La Taza space in Belmont. “Having a 2-year-old certainly helps with opening early, too!” (McClure owns The Virginian Restaurant Company, which is best known for Citizen Burger on the Downtown Mall.)

In uniting coffee and wine under one roof, Belle joins local stalwart C’ville Coffee & Wine; Crozet’s Rocket Coffee, which recently added a tasting room for offerings from nearby Lovingston Winery; Charlottesville’s Smallest Wine Shop, whose modest by-the-glass selection enhances the ever-eclectic offerings at Milli Coffee Roasters; and local chain Grit Coffee, which has served wine alongside its house-roasted coffee at its Stonefield location since 2017.

“We’ve been interested in the relationship between coffee and wine for a number of years,” says Grit co-owner Brandon Wooten. “Both coffee and wine can easily be enjoyed by novices but also can be explored in a way that brings other levels of enjoyment.” But Wooten says it’s been tough to add wine to an existing cafe: Once customers think of a place as a coffee shop, “it’s a challenge for them also to view that as a place to drink wine or beer.”

To rectify that, Wooten and partners Brad Uhl and Dan FitzHenry will be combining coffee and wine from the start at The Workshop—part of The Wool Factory, the food-and-drink conglomerate opening later this year in the Woolen Mills development. “The Workshop will primarily be a bottle shop focused on selling interesting small-batch wines,” Wooten says. Those offerings will include international vintages alongside passion projects from area winemakers. As for coffee, “this space will be different from a normal Grit Coffee location in that there will be a much bigger focus on coffee tasting and telling the story about the factors that go into delivering really great coffee,” Wooten says.

McClure also champions a more thoughtful approach to these often-gulped offerings. “I think the European style of coffee drinking is something we can all appreciate,” he says. “Less rushing and more a fundamental part of the eating or drinking part of the day.”

Since Belle opened in late April, McClure and his team have been busy tweaking the menu of locally roasted Trager Brothers coffee, wine by the glass and bottle, light breakfast and lunch items, and happy hour snacks. “I am still not done messing around with the offerings,” McClure says, “but I do see a finish line at this point.” It’s easy for McClure to stay hands-on; he lives two blocks away. “This was designed for Belmont specifically. I am hoping it’s a great fit for years to come.”

For Rocket Coffee’s Scott Link, adding wines was a practical proposition. He’s already brought in pastries, sandwiches, and barbecue to help draw a more varied audience to his converted gas station near downtown Crozet. “Things have been going well for the coffee shop in the mornings,” Link says, “but we were not hitting our daily traffic targets and needed to help stimulate traffic in the afternoons.”

Link had space free to rent and had already been considering adding beer and wine, and Lovingston Winery wanted to open a tasting room in the area. It’s too early to tell how the new offerings will work out, Link says, but “the place feels better, and initial response has been positive.”

Matching coffee, a stimulant, with alcohol, a depressant, might seem odd. But Belle’s McClure says there’s a good reason for this unusual combination. “Every drink should be delicious, but it also serves a purpose. We love wine, and when you love it too much at one time, that’s when it may be time for an espresso.”