Tag: Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint

Categories
Food & Drink Living

Staff picks: What we’re eating (and drinking) now

Mochiko Hawaiian Food and Deli at 5th Street Station is a staff favorite—and a unique spot in Charlottesville. Photo: Paul Whicheloe

The only thing better than working in the C-VILLE Weekly newsroom is leaving it to get a drink and a bite to eat. The paper’s writers and editors are just like you: Our pockets aren’t very deep but we love the city’s vibrant and diverse food scene. Here are a few of our favorite places and things.

Laura Longhine, editor

Recent find: El Salvadoran and Mexican food at the Marathon gas station on Rio Road (by Greenbrier Drive). Cheap, authentic, and delicious. Try the sopes al pastor or pupusas.

Cheap eats: Bodo’s!

Go-to spot: Bizou for lunch, Oakhart Social for dinner and drinks. For an ex-New Yorker, Oakhart’s dining room feels like home. The sausage pizza is reliably great, plus they usually have a lovely salad and a funky natural wine or two on the menu.

Splurge: C&O. Even after all this time, there’s nothing more satisfying than a slow-paced dinner here by the wood stove, with delicious cocktails and classics like the trout amandine and steak chinoise. Plus, I love a restaurant that still gives you a bread basket.

Go-to brew: Mosaic Pale Ale at Random Row is my absolute favorite beer in town.

As the name suggests, the la familia chicken dinner is a family favorite at Al Carbon. Photo: Tom McGovern

Family meal: La familia chicken dinner to go from Al Carbon—a whole bird plus three sides and two salsas for $21.50. We also love to get a table at Milan—friendly service, a kids menu, and naan to keep everyone happy.

Food with friends: Beer Run—get the nachos!

Guilty pleasure: The old-fashioned layer cake at MarieBette; almost too pretty to eat.

Local place I’m dying to try: Comal, the new Mexican place in Belmont.

Out-of-town restaurant: Una Pizza Napoletana, in NYC. Take the Amtrak. It’s worth it.

Max March, editorial designer

Recent find: Lately, I’ve been enjoying cocktails with bitter aperitifs like Campari and Aperol. I like the interplay of sweet and bitter of the 23 Skidoo at Brasserie Saison. My go-to these days is a boulevardier—a bourbon drink with Campari—at the cicchetti bar at Tavola.

Best meal ever: Restaurant Week 2014, at C&O. This wonderful dish stands out in my memory: braised beef and potato gnocchi and some kind of wine sauce (with mushrooms, I think). Along with the soft lighting and good friends around a long table, eating a stick-to-your-ribs meal like that really made a regular weekend meal feel like a holiday.

Cheap eats: Something needs to be said about Maya’s $12 menu on Tuesday. Maya serves that classic nouveau-Southern cuisine that is so satisfying, and a good portion of the menu is pretty affordable that night.

Splurge: Our special-occasion spot is Tavola. The food is always amazing. I often end up ordering too much because there are so many must-haves. Gotta have the mussels. Burrata is non-negotiable. More wine? Yes, please. Carbonara. Bolognese. They serve their steak with agrodolce and gorgonzola that provides this sweet/tangy/funky combo you won’t find anywhere else. Beet risotto equals best risotto. Oh yeah, they have an amazing cocktail bar in the back! Just…maybe bring friends and share to help out your wallet.

Go-to bar: Champion Brewery. Location is perfect for me. People are great.  Love the beer (some of my favorites in town). They have really solid bar food (J.M. Stock hot dogs, burgers, pretzels with beer cheese), and I’d put their nachos up against Beer Run’s any day (fight me). I also love that on any given day you might stop by to find some off-the-wall event happening. Ballet on the patio. An astronomy lesson from a UVA prof. Game nights. My fave is Tuesday night, when “Jeopardy!” is on, they turn off the music and turn up Trebek and the whole bar shouts out answers (questions) together. There aren’t a lot of bars in town that create an atmosphere of easy community like this one does.

Food with friends: This is where Mas really shines for me. My tip is to order a large sangria and quickly realize you’re all a little tipsier than you thought you’d be. Go-to dishes are the roasted tomatoes, and carne asada. Obviously you’ve got to order tapas staples like papas bravas and bacon-wrapped dates. Try the boquerones if you’re nasty (I am).

Brunch: Most underrated brunch in town is Miller’s. Chicken & waffles, a great biscuit and gravy, eggs benny, with all the boozy breakfast cocktails you could want. And it doesn’t break the bank.

Joe Bargmann, living/special publications editor

Recent find: Early Mountain Vineyards has a new chef and a carefully curated menu with a focus on local ingredients—delicious stuff, especially the pork
belly with shredded red cabbage. Also, the vineyard setting in the rolling hills of Madison is beautiful.

Go-to bar: Jack Brown’s Beer & Burgers. My girlfriend objects because of the gratuitous and sexist chandelier of bras (and I don’t disagree with her), but I like the smashburgers, dive-bar vibe, and friendly staff.

Late night: Miller’s on the Downtown Mall. Dark-wood saloon atmosphere, dim lighting, and amazing mac ‘n’ cheese (finished in a skillet and served folded-over, like an omelet, with a crisp shell).

Guilty pleasure: A good cut of beef from J.M. Stock. Pricey, for sure, but always worth it.

Happy hour: Tilman’s. Good deals and a sweet little tasting menu. I love the bruschetta with melted brie, prosciutto, and fig preserves.

Local place I’m dying to try: Prime 109, if my GoFundMe reaches its goal.

Out-of-town restaurant: En Su Boca, in Richmond. Killer margaritas and modern Tex-Mex food in a funky space where everyone has at least one tattoo.

Susan Sorensen, copy editor

Cheap eats: The Villa Diner. Breakfast is served until 4pm, portions are generous (and tasty), and nobody makes a better toasted pecan waffle (for $6.95, people!).

Go-to spot: Citizen Burger Bar for sweet potato fries and the “red” vegan burger. I know, I know: Who in the hell eats vegetarian at CBB?! I do—and it’s delicious.

Splurge: The Farmhouse at Veritas. The four-course menu (with wine pairings) changes every week, and costs $85 (plus tax and tip) per person.

Go-to bar: The Timberwood Grill. It’s pretty much in our Earlysville backyard, the beer menu is immense and well-curated, and it’s a swell place to watch UVA sports surrounded by lots of other Hoos fans. 

Brunch: Boylan Heights on the Corner. Our daughter’s a UVA second-year, and if we promise to pay for brunch (after noon, of course!) for her and her three adorable roommates, we get proof of life every couple months or so.

Late night: The Whiskey Jar. A mess of sides—mac ‘n’ cheese, corn bread, pimento cheese, ham biscuits, French fries—is perfect for soaking up a long night’s worth of alcohol. Last call is at 2 a.m. on weekends.

Guilty pleasure: Four scoops (dulce de leche, hazelnut, gianduia, and milk and cherry) from Splendora’s.

Happy hour: Rapture. Cheap cabernet, right across from our office on the Downtown Mall. ’Nuff said.

Out-of-town restaurant: Founding Farmers in Washington, D.C. The food’s terrific (try the chicken and waffles or the chicken pot pie),
and most of it comes from a bunch of family farms in North Dakota.

Erin O’Hare, arts reporter

Cheap eats: Vita Nova Pizza’s bell pepper and onion slice is hands-down the best bang for my four bucks.

Go-to spot: Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar—specifically, for the Goatherder plate, and for the amazing and delicious variety of teas hot and cold. Also, the milkshakes.

Brunch: Bluegrass Grill, where my favorite is the Hungry Norman, the perfect savory-sweet breakfast plate. When I have visitors in town on a weekday, I always take them here, because it’s the only time there’s no wait for a table.

Late night: C&O, because ’round midnight is the best time to nom a gooey grilled cheese soaked in tomato soup, a belly filler for $10.

Out-of-town restaurant: Kuba Kuba in Richmond! The paella options and the tres leches cake are so delicious, I don’t even know what to say about them except that you should go get them, but if you’re in my way, I’ll probably try to cut you in line.

Matt Weyrich, news reporter

Recent find (food): The Nook. The All The Way breakfast with a couple pieces of toast has quickly become my go-to.

Recent find (drink): South Street Brewery. The mystery beer that doesn’t yet have a name is fantastic and was easily the highlight of the flight I tasted.

Cheap eats: Brazos Tacos. If I had to have one meal item every day for the rest of my life, it just might be Brazos La Tia taco (picadillo beef, mashed potatoes, corn pico, white onion, queso fresco, and cilantro).

Go-to spot: Asado Wing and Taco Company. I love the wings and always seem to have good interactions with other people sitting at the bar.

Go-to bar: Draft Taproom. Sixty taps and more than a dozen TVs make for an awesome combination if you’re looking to watch sports with a beer in your hand all night.

Go-to brew: Three Notch’d. I pass by it on my way home from work every day, and sometimes I just can’t help myself.

Food with friends: The Whiskey Jar. I’m a big burger guy and my favorite in Charlottesville so far is definitely the Crunch Burger.

Brunch: Bodo’s. I’ve been to Bodo’s 19 times since I started at C-VILLE Weekly in June, and I have absolutely no shame in admitting it.

Late night: Jack Brown’s Beer & Burgers. I went to college at JMU and the vibe is exactly like the location in Harrisonburg, so it feels like home to me.

Happy hour: Random Row. You can’t beat the $2 happy hour on Thursdays.

Out-of-town restaurant: O’Neill’s Grill in Harrisonburg. I’m not much
of a dessert guy, but I cannot go there without having the cookie skillet.

Brielle Entzminger, news reporter

Recent find (food): Mochiko Hawaiian Food and Deli. It just opened at 5th Street Station.

Recent find (drink): The amazing sweet wines at Barboursville Vineyards.

Cheap eats: Any bowl at Poke Sushi Bowl with the coconut cream sauce.

Splurge: Sakura Japanese Steakhouse, about $60-70 with tip for two people.

Go-to bar: Skybar because of its nice view of the city.

Brunch: The Shebeen. Amazing mimosas and moderately priced South African food.

Happy hour: Guadalajara’s $7 jumbo margaritas on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Out-of-town restaurant: Bottoms Up Pizza, in Richmond. Pizzas are huge, thick, delicious, and come in all kinds of unique combinations.

Categories
News

In brief: Happy hour, Master Charles, prof charged and more

Being able to advertise $1-off drinks for happy hour is a “great business opportunity” to bring more people out and to compete with bars on the Corner, says Kelly Creighton, bartender at Jack Brown’s. Eze Amos

Dead or alive

Virginia’s General Assembly has been hard at it for three weeks now, tackling the 2,000 or so bills legislators filed. While most bills will die quietly in subcommittee, here are a few survivors—and committee casualties.

Alive

A judge has already ruled Virginia’s law that suspends driver’s licenses for unpaid court fines is likely unconstitutional. The Senate got with the program January 25, and passed a bill that repeals the state “debtor’s prison” law 36-4.

Finding out about the best happy hour could get easier, thanks to legislation allowing the advertising of drink specials that has passed both the House and Senate. This, too, was preceded by a lawsuit in which a northern Virginia restaurant owner claimed ABC regs violated free speech.

A bill that would exempt menstrual products from sales tax cleared a Senate committee 14-1 January 25, but the “Dignity Act” still needs to make it out of a House subcommittee.

While all the gun safety bills championed by Governor Ralph Northam died in subcommittee, Republican Senator Dick Black’s packing heat in church bill cleared the Senate January 24 in a 21-19 vote on party lines.

Dead

A bill that would allow localities to set their own minimum wage was killed in a House subcommittee 5-1 January 22.

Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to have driver’s licenses in Virginia, and that won’t change with the January 23 demise on party lines of a Senate bill that would have allowed temporary driver privilege cards.

Delegate David Toscano’s measure to limit campaign contributions by utilities like Dominion to $500 died in a House subcommittee January 24.

Quote of the week

“It doesn’t help us as a community for our mayor to be out there in the public criticizing the people who live here.”—Adam Healey, Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau interim executive director, on marketing guru Jerry Miller’s Facebook live, to which Mayor Nikuyah Walker replied, “[Y]ou are the type of citizen who allows the soul of Charlottesville to remain ugly.”

In brief

Experiment gone wrong

The mother of a Greer Elementary student said her 6-year-old was traumatized by a social experiment teacher Vicky Chen conducted. Chen, who has been placed on administrative leave, separated her students by eye color, and gave candy to only the ones with blue eyes for her MLK Day-themed lesson on equal opportunity and inclusiveness. Activists say Chen further marginalized students of color, who typically have brown eyes.

Another creative writing prof

UVA Professor Jeffery Allen has been placed on administrative leave with pay after being charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery in November. He follows English Department colleague John Casey, who was on leave for a year and then retired in December after a disciplinary panel found he violated policies on inappropriate sexual contact with a student.

Synchronicity swami

Master Charles developed high-tech meditation at Synchronicity. Photo courtesy Synchronicity

Master Charles Cannon, founder of the Faber spiritual community, died January 24 at age 73. In 2008, Cannon was in Mumbai at the Oberoi Hotel when it was attacked by terrorists and 162 people were killed, including father and daughter Alan and Naomi Scherr, who were with a group from Synchronicity. After the attack, Cannon and Kia Scherr, wife and mother of the two slain Nelson County residents, called for compassion and forgiveness of the murderers.

Juneteenth organizer

California-born Tamyra Turner, 73, a former Charlottesville School Board member who started the city’s Juneteenth celebration in 2000, died January 16. A professor of English literature who taught most recently at PVCC, she met her husband, former Charlottesville NAACP president Rick Turner, at Stanford. She served on a number of boards, including the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and the Virginia Festival of the Book steering committee.

Bye, Buyaki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The man who wore a Confederate flag-patterned tie to a county school board discussion of  banning Confederate imagery will not seek another term. Jason Buyaki, who’s been on the board since 2011, also caught the ears of community parents and activists in October when he questioned climate change and the nature of fossil fuels.

National spotlight

Charlottesville native Natalie Hoffman was convicted January 18 after leaving water and food for migrants crossing the desert into Arizona. Hoffman, who was working with the group No More Deaths, was charged with entering and driving in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge without a permit.

New clerk

City Council hired Lynchburg deputy council clerk Kyna Thomas to become its clerk and chief of staff for $105,000. City spokesman Brian Wheeler, who makes $116K, has filled in since former council clerk Paige Rice took the chief of staff job in July for $98,000 and left in September.

Child porn charges

Forrest Butler, ACPD

Albemarle police charged Avocado Capital co-founder Forrest Butler, 58, with two counts of child pornography distribution January 22. He was released from jail on bond and will appear in court April 8.

Wawa on the way?

The county’s Architectural Review Board has approved plans for a Wawa convenience store and gas station off Route 29 and Proffit Road. It could be built by the end of the year, as long as the Board of Supervisors gives it a thumbs up.

Free tax help

The local branch of the United Way is offering free tax preparation for most taxpayers with household incomes of $55,000 or less. Through its program called Cville Tax Aid, partners such as the UVA Community Credit Union have prepared nearly 20,000 returns since 2007, and organizers expect to help more than 2,700 community members this year. To schedule an appointment, call United Way at 434-972-1703 or visit www.CvilleTaxAid.org.

Categories
Living

Show some love for Virginia-made libations

Alec Spidalieri at Junction is shaking things up for Virginia Spirits Month with the Chai Tai, made with dark chai spice rum from Culpeper’s Belmont Farm’s Kopper Kettle, and the Other Woman, featuring rose-infused Belle Isle premium moonshine. Photo by Amy Jackson

Bottoms up, y’all. It’s Virginia Spirits Month here in the commonwealth, sponsored by the Virginia Distillers Association and meant to spotlight Virginia-made spirits. Many local bartenders do so all year ’round, but there are a few special cocktails this month that are worth sidling up to the bar for.

Junction’s Alec Spidalieri is shaking things up with the Rum Communion, the Stablemate, the Chai Tai and the Other Woman. The Rum Communion is “an upscale, seasonal daiquiri for fall,” says Spidalieri, and is made with Charlottesville’s own Vitae Spirits golden rum. Spidalieri washes each bottle of golden rum with one pound of brown butter—he whisks the rum and butter together, then freezes the mixture overnight, skims off the butter, strains and rebottles the rum—then combines the butter-washed rum with a cordial made from grilled pineapple and fresh lime juice, aggressively shaken, strained and served up.

“It’s a rich but balanced cocktail that packs a lot of flavor with butter and caramel notes,” says Spidalieri.

The Chai Tai’s components, dark chai spice rum from Culpeper’s Belmont Farm’s Kopper Kettle combined with Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, lime and orgeat (“a sort of floral almond milk syrup,” Spidalieri explains), give this take on a classic mai tai “a new dimension of spice character that makes it perfect for late summer/early fall,” says Spidalieri.

Over at The Alley Light, in addition to the popular Rose Hill Ruby with Vitae Spirits platinum rum, Micah LeMon’s making a Virginia Alexander, made with Bowman Brothers bourbon, Vitae Spirits golden rum, P.Boo’s salted rum caramel (which LeMon makes himself), cream, egg white and black salt, and the Ugly Stick, concocted with Copper Fox rye, Virginia black birch (another LeMon creation), smoked maple, Zucca and black walnut bitters. LeMon says he’s also hitting a lot of folks with the Ugly Stick, perhaps due in no small part to the Copper Fox rye, made in Sperryville, which LeMon says “is an anomalous and interesting distillate” that tastes more Scotch-y than most whiskeys because of its high barley content.

Tavola, Whiskey Jar, Rapture and The Local are participating in Virginia Spirits Month, too, as are Charlottesville ABC stores, where you can taste some local spirits during in-store events.

Bowled over

Charlottesville’s super into bowls, with spots like Roots Natural Kitchen, Chopt, Poke Sushi Bowl and The Salad Maker, which all rolled into town over the last couple of years. Now we have two more: Citizen Bowl and b.good.

Citizen Bowl is open from 11am-3pm Monday through Friday in the Penny Heart private event space on the Downtown Mall (it’s the spot previously occupied by Eleven Months Presents: Sorry It’s Over and, before that, Yearbook Taco). Citizen Bowl offers eight different specialty bowls, all of which are gluten-free, such as the Fall Harvest (quinoa, power greens, beets, sweet potato, toasted pumpkin seeds, apple, chevre, balsamic) and the #umami (brown rice, power greens, local mushrooms, toasted sesame seeds, jalapeno, cilantro, edamame, arctic char, cilantro lime dressing), and make-your-own custom bowls.

Our bowls runneth over as casual farm-to-fork chain b.good is scheduled to open this week in the north wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center, between Pink Palm and Penelope, with an array of grains and greens salads. The menu also promises burgers—beef, turkey, veggie—and chicken sandwiches made a few different ways, such as the Cousin Oliver (lettuce, tomato, onions, homemade pickles) or the El Guapo (bacon, homemade jalapeno slaw, jalapeno ranch), plus sides like sweet potato fries, avocado toast and eggplant meatballs, as well as smoothies, milkshakes and kids’ meals.

Hurricane relief

A few local food-and-drink spots are contributing to relief efforts for the damage caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which together killed more than 150 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean.

For an entire week in late August/early September, Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint, which has 10 locations throughout the southern United States, including one on Second Street SE off the Downtown Mall, donated 100 percent of its profits—totaling $34,236.61—to the American Red Cross to assist with Harvey relief.

This past weekend, Shenandoah Joe and Three Notch’d Brewing Company combined efforts to gather supplies for those affected. They’d hoped to fill a 48-foot trailer to send down to the people in southern Florida whose lives were “turned upside down” by Hurricane Irma, says Shenandoah Joe owner Dave Fafara. Although they collected quite a bit, including boxes of nonperishable canned and boxed food, clothes, diapers, cleaning supplies and more than 100 cases of water, plus $600 in cash donated by City Market vendors on Saturday, they didn’t get enough to fill a trailer on their own, so they’re combining with a similar Greene County effort to send a truck of supplies down this week. Someone even donated a car seat, says Fafara, adding that “it was good to see the community do something for people they don’t know.”