Tag: Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria

Categories
Culture

Small Bites: April 6

Pizza has long been a favorite carry-out food, and that hasn't changed during quarantine. Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria recently posted this photo of a dizzying pizza box tower and asked followers to guess how many. Photo courtesy Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria

Stepping up to serve free meals

In these trying times for the restaurant industry, chef Harrison Keevil of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen is using his talents to serve others. What originally started as a free lunch (about 20 meals each weekday), has expanded to include breakfast and dinner, and by April 13, Keevil is planning to offer 500 meals a day out of his kitchen. He’s currently funding it himself and taking donations at @keevil-kitchen. He’s also keeping it local by using as many area sources as possible—think Caromont cheese, Albemarle Baking Company pastry, and locally grown vegetables. If you know of someone in need, email keevilkitchen@gmail.com for delivery coordination.

Local bartenders get creative

With no bar to tend to at the moment, Tavola’s cicchetti bar team recently launched a Cocktail Quarantine video series. Episode one featured “quarantinis:” Husband and wife duo Rebecca Edwards and Steve Yang, both recently recognized as top 100 bartenders in the U.S., shook up their favorite variations on the martini. The best part? They’re taking requests. Go to @cocktailcoupleva on Instagram or tavola cicchetti bar on Facebook, and send a direct message or leave a comment with your cocktail of choice. Don’t forget to leave a virtual tip!

In the same spirit, The Local’s beverage director Alec Spidalieri developed a cocktail recipe book, which is available on a pay-what-you-can basis as a downloadable PDF. Visit his website for payment information and to download the content.

It’s five o’clock…on Zoom?

What would we do without Zoom and Facebook Live? In the time of social distancing, these platforms are allowing friends to connect and businesses to creatively reach their customers. The Wine Guild of Charlottesville and King Family Vineyards are hosting happy hours and virtual tastings, which allow people to come together while keeping their distance. Want to join the fun? Follow the Wine Guild and King Family on social media for upcoming virtual events.

Survival by takeout

Quarantine is for pizza lovers, or at least that’s the way it seems. Both Crozet Pizza and North Garden’s Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie have added additional phone lines to keep up with ordering demand. And a recent Instagram post from Lampo showed to-go pizza boxes piled high, and asked followers to guess the number of boxes shown. Those feeling fancy have takeout options too, with restaurants including The Farmhouse at Veritas and C&O now offering multi-course meals for pickup. Bet you never thought you’d enjoy steak chinoise in your pajamas, did you?

 

Categories
Living

Chef exits: Ian Redshaw departs Lampo, Prime 109

Redshaw split with partner chefs Loren Mendosa and Mitchell Bereens—C-VILLE Weekly’s Best Chef winners in 2015 and 2019, respectively—reportedly to spend more time with his family (he and his wife, Allie, have two children) and launch a private supper club. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Renowned local chef Ian Redshaw has left the building—or rather, buildings, plural. Redshaw parted ways earlier this month with his fellow partners of two high-profile restaurants he helped put on the map: Lampo, the Neapolitan pizzeria in Belmont, and Prime 109, the upscale steakhouse on the Downtown Mall. Voted Best Chef in 2018 by C-VILLE Weekly readers, Redshaw also received major national recognition as a semifinalist for the 2019 James Beard Awards Best Rising Star Chef of the Year. The Charlottesville 29 food blog reported on Monday that Redshaw split with chefs Loren Mendosa and Mitchell Bereens—C-VILLE’s Best Chef winners in 2015 and 2019, respectively—to spend more time with his family (he and his wife, Allie, also a chef, have two children) and launch a private supper club.

Can craze

On the heels of the successful launch of Charlottesville’s Waterbird Spirits canned cocktails, which sold out hours after a shipment of 42 cases hit the shelves at Kroger, Richmond’s Belle Isle Moonshine announced September 24 that it would introduce a line of sparkling pop-top drinks. Flavors including grapefruit and blood orange will be spiked with Belle Isle’s moonshine.

Nibbles

Charlottesville’s famed Sandwich Lab, which started in Hamiltons’ at First & Main on the Downtown Mall, is making a comeback on Thursday, September 25, at Peloton Station, the new home of former Hamiltons’ chef Curtis Shaver. • Early Mountain Vineyards introduced chef Tim Moore last week at a tasting-menu dinner at the Madison winery. A seven-year veteran of The Inn at Little Washington, a three Michelin star restaurant, Moore will head up Early Mountain’s fine-dining program. • Grit Coffee is officially open in its new Pantops location, in the Riverside Village development on Stony Point Road. • Bonefish Grill in Hollymead Town Center is celebrating National Seafood Month with a three-course lobster meal for $19.99 every Thursday in October. • Over in Staunton, Blu Point Seafood Co., a venture by the fine folks behind Zynodoa restaurant, jumps into the deep end with a grand opening Friday, October 4. “The Chesapeake Bay meets the New England shore,” is Blu Point’s motto. We’re buying it! blupointseafoodco.com

Categories
Living

Going once, going twice: Luxe restaurant auctions raise money for local food bank

Lampo co-owner Loren Mendosa says the auctions are a great way to give back to the community. Photo by Rammelkamp Foto
By Meg Irvin

Brewing a Charlottesville beer with Champion. A holiday party for 50 at Duner’s. The ultimate tailgate party from Maya. These experiences and many more will be available to the highest bidder in a series of restaurant auctions, which kicked off June 17 and benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

Simon Davidson, an attorney (and occasional C-VILLE contributor) who runs local food blog Charlottesville 29, first held the auctions in 2016, a result of wondering what would happen if the 29 restaurants he highlights each year could give back to the community in some way. That “what if?” surpassed Davidson’s wildest expectations, and ultimately raised approximately $80,000—the equivalent of about 320,000 meals—for the food bank.

The auctions paused for two years, in part because Davidson was sensitive to the fact that many of the items were a big ask for restaurant owners. But this year, several of them expressed interest in bringing the campaign back to life. “The restaurant industry is known for pretty tight margins,” Davidson says. “The fact that restaurants would be so generous in creating these experiences speaks to how special the food community in Charlottesville really is.”

Special scarcely begins to describe Lampo’s contribution—the brick-by-brick construction in the winner’s backyard of a pizza oven designed like the one at the restaurant. When the installation is complete, sometime in 2020, the Lampo team will provide all the ingredients and on-site cooking for a pizza party. The value of the package is about $30,000.

“This seemed like a cool way to be able to share our knowledge of pizza ovens and give back,” says Loren Mendosa, co-owner of Lampo. “I’m excited about the materials and working with Corry Blanc from Blanc Creatives.” (The company has been recognized for its excellence in creating hand-forged iron cookware.)

Other partnerships can be found throughout the auction. A Szechuan Corkage Dinner for 10 at Peter Chang’s will include custom wine pairings selected by Erin Scala, owner of Keswick’s In Vino Veritas. “I’m honored to be involved and to team up with such a great restaurant to raise money for the food bank,” Scala says.

Though bids can run high—one has already reached more than $12,000—group bidding is encouraged to make the extravagant experiences more accessible. In that spirit, Bodo’s Bagels wanted its addition to the auctions to reflect its “everyone is welcome” philosophy. The result? A raffle, where for $5 a pop one lucky winner could win the opportunity to chow down at Bodo’s every day for a year.

“The auctions provide a wonderful financial boost, and the awareness is tremendous,” says Millie Winstead, director of development for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. “Our clients are one illness or a really harsh weather month away from not being able to get food on the table. I’m just blown away by those who are so willing to share their skills and their connections so more people can eat.”

Ready to bid? One auction is announced each day on charlottesville29.com, and stays open for at least 30 days. With events like a margarita party at Al Carbon, an Indian feast for 50 at Milan, a Super Bowl bash at Oakhart Social, and “the wine dinner of a lifetime” at Fleurie still available, the incentive is pretty strong.

Categories
Living

Raising the steaks: Downtown steakhouse is primed for launch

Prime 109, the Downtown Mall steakhouse that’s the brainchild of the team behind Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria, is slated to open later this month. Image: Signe Clayton

Prime 109, the much-anticipated local-farm-centered steakhouse located in the former Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall, opens this month after nearly two years of planning and design.

The restaurant is the brainchild of the Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria team of Ian Redshaw, Loren Mendosa, Andrew Cole, Shelly Robb, and Mitchell Beerens, and it will showcase the cooking of Bill Scatena, formerly of Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, as chef de cuisine.

What’s the number?

Prime 109 takes its name from steakhouse slang for prime rib. When a steakhouse orders “prime 109” from a butcher, the butcher knows to send over roast-ready prime rib of beef. Ian Redshaw, executive chef at Prime 109, is especially excited for the restaurant’s namesake item, a Virginia-raised, 109-day dry-aged 109 steak.

Sharing center stage with Prime 109’s locally grown and produced food will be the interior Beaux-Arts décor of its 100-year-old neoclassical building, an architectural gem from a bygone era.

Redshaw, Prime 109’s executive chef, says the intent behind the restaurant is to feature the bounty of central Virginia’s food while operating in the most sustainable way possible.

“Creating a sustainable cooking community is really hard in Charlottesville because a lot of people outsource everything,” says Redshaw. “We’re trying to keep everything local as much as possible, from our beef all the way down the line, so it’s really to walk the walk of a local restaurant. With Virginia being such a great place to [raise] livestock, it fits hand in hand. Through the community we can vertically integrate everything we have. It creates a language everyone understands—we can tell a farmer ‘I need to talk to you about a cow we need 24 months from now’—and they like that!”

Redshaw adds that we here in Charlottesville are fortunate to have such amazing food grown and sold right in our proverbial (and sometimes literal) backyards.

“We’re trying to feature the bounty of the Shenandoah Valley. It’s such a big bread basket that people forget about it—but it’s some of the best vegetables and livestock around.”

Redshaw reassures Lampo fans currently fretting about the team redirecting its focus to this much larger venture: “Because of our management structure, it’ll just run as Lampo has run; you’ll see the familiar faces, Mitch and Loren will be there. A lot of the partners are pulling double duty to make sure it’s the same experience for our customers.” Cole will be Prime 109’s wine director and Beerens its pastry chef.

Prime 109’s options run the gamut from, well, steak, naturally, to a meatless Bolognese that Redshaw says is particularly delicious.

And, of course, there’s the steak so exciting, they named the entire restaurant after it, the prime 109, which Redshaw says is local pastured beef meticulously dry-aged and cooked to the customer’s liking.

He says they have a dry-aging facility at Seven Hills Food Co. in Lynchburg, a wholesaler of premium pastured Virginia family-farm-raised beef, whose mission is to connect local meat producers with local meat consumers.

“We have a lot of stuff going on in-house, but they do the majority of the processing there [at Seven Hills]—we’re bringing the beef in to them, and we teamed up with them as the livestock producer to help us out in this way.”

Sharing center stage with the locally grown and produced food will be the interior Beaux-Arts décor of the 100-year-old neoclassical building, an architectural gem from a bygone era. Two rows of Corinthian columns, which repeat the design and grandeur of the columns that front the building’s façade, grace the cavernous open space inside of the building, and support gilded coffered ceilings that invite your gaze. Banquettes flanking either side of the restaurant—decorated by local design company Jaid—are showcased by burnished maple floors reclaimed from a mid-19th-century building.

Just past the main dining area on the left is a butchering area and the main production part of the kitchen, where diners can sit at the chef’s table in front of the custom-built, wood-fired grill created by Corry Blanc of Blanc Creatives. Directly across from this is the bar, which will be headed up by Abraham Hawkins, formerly of the C&O.

The polished Carrara white tile flooring leads to a marble staircase that ascends to the mezzanine-level private dining space, which seats 40, overlooks the restaurant below, and lends an up-close look at the space’s gorgeous architectural flourishes.

Redshaw is thrilled to see the Prime 109 team’s dream of a truly local restaurant come to fruition.

“It’s been a huge undertaking with local artisans to bring everything in—from beef producers to blacksmiths to all of our plates are handmade in North Carolina. This collaboration with all local and regional artisans lets us show off what Virginia and the region has to offer.”