Tag: Littlejohn’s

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Culture Food & Drink Living

Smoke at the Jar and race-y sandwiches at Little Star

ABC is upping its slice game. Photo by John Robinson

By Will Ham

New year, new nosh

Dairy Market continues to expand its offerings with Saturday’s grand opening of Springhouse Sundries. Springhouse is designed by members of the Wine Guild of Charlottesville, including former Tavola wine director Priscilla Martin Curley, as an affordable place to discover high-quality wines and beers with the help of in-house wine experts. Want to make a picnic? The new shop promises an array of charcuterie and fine cheeses to pair with your vino.

If the line out the door is any indication, Albemarle Baking Company is holding steady, despite the economic downturn. The longtime local favorite is now selling cake by the slice in different flavors depending on the day, as well as king cakes for the upcoming Mardi Gras season.

Mellow Mushroom is also adding to its menu with a new selection of health-conscious “lifestyle pies” that include gluten-free, vegan, and keto options. In addition, the Corner mainstay is offering pizza and wing Super Bowl deals, as well as large pies for just $10 on Mondays.

Little Star has expanded its takeout hours, and is now open from 11:30am to 7:30pm, Wednesday through Saturday. And new to its menu is limited availability Italian sports car-themed deli sandwiches, such as the Alfa Spider, a spicy combo of ham, mortadella, salami, marinated tomato, lettuce, onion, aged pecorino, hot peppers, and house dressing on ABC semolina Italian loaf. Be sure to order ahead because these sammies have been racing out the door, often sold out by noon each day.

What is that smoke we smell floating in from nearby? It must be The Whiskey Jar’s can’t-miss Wednesday special: whiskey-infused, hickory-smoked brisket. If you’re equally starved for live music, the Jar remains a great place to hear Charlottesville musicians in a distanced setting.

Bread and butter investment

One local food and drink establishment has adopted a creative strategy to cope with the pandemic strain. The Wool Factory, a polished collection of dining venues inside a reclaimed textile factory, is offering gift cards in the form of investment bonds. This new initiative gives patrons an opportunity to purchase gift cards that appreciate over time: up to 50 percent of their original value after a year. The food and bev cards are redeemable at Selvedge Brewing, The Workshop, and the soon-to-open restaurant Broadcloth, and are available in amounts of $50, $100, and $500.

Closed doors

Last month we published a roundup of the restaurants we lost last year. Unfortunately, the list continues to grow. Littlejohn’s Delicatessen, a staple for UVA students and C’ville residents alike, closed temporarily at the start of the pandemic. While it has not issued an official statement of closure, it seems unlikely that it will reopen on the Corner. We also lost several locally owned and operated franchises, which employed over 80 full- and part-time workers: Wendy’s on Route 29, Hardees on Pantops, and Burger King at Barracks Road. Additionally, Glaze Burger & Donut is closing its doors at the end of the month. These closures once again remind us that our local dining establishments are counting on steady support from the community to stay in business. Check out our list of area restaurants doing takeout and curbside at cville.com.

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Living

Don’t call it a comeback: UVA alum hopes to recapture Littlejohn’s former glory

Christian Trendel, the new owner of Littlejohn’s, has expanded the Corner eatery’s menu. Photo by Ashley Twiggs

Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen, an institution on the Corner for 40-plus years, has undergone a renaissance under new owner Christian Trendel, who was brought in by the family of founder John Crafaik, Jr.

“Littlejohn’s used to be a fixture on the Corner,” Trendel says. “And we’re trying to bring it back to that status.”

A UVA graduate, Trendel says it’s kind of like old home day now that he’s back, albeit on the other side of the counter. “I first walked in here in 1980, as a student,” he says. “I never thought I’d be owning Littlejohn’s.”

Trendel, who’s worked with a number of Charlottesville restaurants, says he’s lowered prices, beefed up the quality of the meats and cheeses, hired new staff, and expanded the menu to include deli classics in addition to the specialty sandwiches Littlejohn’s is known for. The restaurant is also back to being open till 3am, which no doubt appeals to its target audience.

“Right now, we’ve never been better,” Trendel says. “We’ve surprised a lot of old-timers who remember it exactly like it used to be, which is great, but also those who have noticed the quality improving a lot.”

Bucha bottom dollar

Waynesboro’s Blue Ridge Bucha is a winner of the national SCORE awards, which recognize the achievements of U.S. entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Owners Kate and Ethan Zuckerman, who started their kombucha business eight years ago, were awarded Outstanding American Manufacturing Small Business for making an environmental impact with their handcrafted organic kombucha, a naturally carbonated, fermented tea.

The Zuckermans have gone from selling their product out of the back of an old Honda Civic to distributing the kombucha to more than 50 chain markets in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. They remain committed to making a large economic and social impact in the community while maintaining as small a footprint as possible: Their refillable bottles and innovative draft systems have kept 750,000 bottles out of landfills.

Here today, gone tomorrow

Kebabish we hardly knew ye. The Water Street restaurant, which featured Nepali, Indian, and Turkish cuisine, hadn’t been open long last year before closing for renovations, which never seemed to materialize. The restaurant is now officially shuttered.

Qdoba Mexican Eats, a fast-casual chain, has closed after a long run on the Corner. No word on why it’s leaving the student-heavy dining corridor, or what will replace it.

Finger-lickin’ in Ruckersville

Greene County resident Keith Simmons adds to the ’cue scene with the opening of his new restaurant, The Wolf’s Fixins Barbecue in Ruckersville.

Simmons, who began smoking meats when he was a teenager, became a caterer but longed to start his own restaurant. A decade later, his dream has finally come true. While he’s new to the business of running a restaurant, that shouldn’t stand in his way—Simmons says he had no experience with construction, either, but that didn’t stop him from building out the restaurant himself.

Categories
Living

Cornering the market: A Hoos who of late-night student haunts

If you’re on the Corner at 2am (we know, us either), beware the long lines at Littlejohn’s, which is often teeming with hungry students who just spilled out of nearby bars. Rammelkamp Foto

By Ben Hitchcock and Gracie Kreth

It’s 1:44am on a Friday. All is quiet, but in a few minutes, everything will change when popular student watering holes Trinity, Boylan Heights, Coupes’ and other Corner bars flip on the lights, signaling the end of night. But just because the drinks have stopped flowing, that doesn’t mean a Wahoo’s night is over. Every weekend during the school year, as Charlottesville sleeps, hungry students descend on the Corner’s robust array of late-night eateries. Here are five of the most popular after-last-call snack destinations for UVA students.—Ben Hitchcock and Gracie Kreth

1. Sheetz

Yes, Sheetz. The gas station chain opened a location on University Avenue this past year, bringing all the glamour of a highway rest stop to the university’s venerable Corner. Sheetz’s hot dogs, mozzarella sticks and made-to-order sandwiches are some of the cheapest eats on the Corner—previously frozen or not, the inexpensive food is popular among students, especially after six vodka cranberries. Sheetz has computerized kiosks for orders, which are great for avoiding human contact when you’re slurring your words.

2. The White Spot

The White Spot is one of the Corner’s oldest businesses, but the greasy spoon is not immune to late-night boozy disarray. After a certain hour, it’s not uncommon to see a hungry student hop behind the counter and flip burgers to his heart’s content.

Many of the White Spot’s menu items toe the line between inventive and hitting the spot after a few (or several) white Russians. The go-to soak-up-the-booze menu items: the Gus burger, a hamburger topped with a fried egg, and the Grillswith, two grilled Krispy Kreme donuts covered with ice cream.

3. Marco & Luca

When potential clients have many choices and severely impaired decision-making skills, location becomes crucial. Fortunately, Marco & Luca is located just across the street from Coupe’s—as students stagger up the stairs from the bar, the first place that meets their eye is the dumpling shop.

Marco & Luca keeps its menu simple—perfect for college students fumbling to pull crumpled bills from their wallets—and recently expanded its menu from five items to a whopping seven. Tough luck, vegans, this is a pork-dumpling-only kind of place.

While the food is tasty, the best part of an evening at Marco & Luca is watching drunk people try to use chopsticks.

4. Christian’s Pizza

Christian’s Pizza on the Downtown Mall is a wholesome staple of life in Charlottesville, while late-night Christian’s on the Corner is loud and lively, a hub of oily, pepperoni-scented chaos.

Sharing a wall with popular bar Boylan Heights, Christian’s is dependably crowded, especially just after last call. The line snakes around the interior of the store, and wobbly students laugh and argue as they size up the offerings.

The staff serves pizza every night with stone-faced disinterest—there’s no level of drunken shenanigans they haven’t seen before. Slices have been flung, and Parmesan cheese has reached places where Parmesan cheese should never go.

5. Littlejohn’s

Littlejohn’s used to corner the late-night market for its 24-hour service, but the addition of Sheetz last year caused it to share its crown. No matter, not much has changed at this sandwich-slinging refuge, where it’s not uncommon to see students catching a few seconds of shut-eye while they wait for their companions to finish the last bites of their Reubens or Chipotle chicken sandwiches. There’s something calming about knowing no matter what went down that night, Littlejohn’s remains a beacon of light, a place of respite where the scent of deli meat lingers in the air.

Categories
Living

Local restaurant openings and closings in January

J.R. Hadley, co-owner of Cho’s Nachos and Beer, says the restaurant employs a special distribution method to ensure each chip is covered with toppings—not a naked chip in sight. Photo by John Robinson

In January, four places in Charlottesville opened their doors: Cho’s Nachos and Beer, Champion Richmond, Littlejohn’s at Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery, and Junction. Parallel 38 closed in its Shops at Stonefield location, and announced in May it was reopening on West Main Street.


Categories
Living

Littlejohn’s opens a Pro Re Nata outpost

Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen outpost at Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery serves sandwich staples, such as the Chris Long sub, along with smaller snacks, burgers and fries. Rammelkamp Foto

Fans of Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen can now enjoy a Chris Long sub, Bum Steer and Five Easy Pieces at Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery on Rockfish Gap Turnpike in Crozet. The restaurant operates out of a Pro Re Nata-owned food truck on the brewery property, providing food to patrons and offering both pick-up and delivery services to the Crozet community. Littlejohn’s Restaurants Inc. president Colleen Morrissey says customers can choose from a menu that includes the most popular sandwiches and subs from Littlejohn’s location on the UVA Corner, plus smaller snacks, burgers and fries.

Littlejohn’s at ProReNata also offers weekend specials such as sandwiches made with, or made to pair with, one of the brewery’s beers. “Our team is having fun being creative and reacting to the customers’ requests,” Morrissey says. “We’re changing the menu periodically to reflect the requests we receive.”

Chopt, chopt

First, the Corner got Roots Natural Kitchen. Then The Salad Maker opened downtown. Now, Chopt is set to move into the former Ruby Tuesday space at Barracks Road Shopping Center in the second half of 2017.

The chain, which has multiple locations in New York, North Carolina and in the Washington, D.C., area, says on its website that its fresh salads “push the boundaries of what a salad can be, looking ahead to a future where vegetable eating—and better fast food—is the norm.”

According to a Chopt representative, the restaurant will be company owned and operated.

“At Chopt, we believe that we are part of a movement to change the way America eats, and have always looked to forward-thinking students and communities as our partners,” the representative says, citing Charlottesville’s reputation as an “open-minded, health-oriented” community of foodies as a reason for the chain opening a spot here.

Cheese, please

We’ve got plenty of burger joints here in town, but Phil’s Steaks, currently building out the former Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins spot at 1509 University Ave. on the Corner, is hoping to steer Charlottesville toward a different beef-consumption method: the Philly cheesesteak.

Phil’s head chef and co-owner Kevin McConnell and two of his friends started Phil’s, a New York City-based food truck, five years ago. Though the truck has a modest menu, offering only authentic cheesesteaks, made with tender sirloin steak, mushrooms and onions, served on bread from Philadelphia’s Amoroso’s Baking Company and smothered in either Cheez Whiz, white American or provolone cheese, and twice-fried fries, it made a name for itself.

McConnell says this first brick-and-mortar Phil’s Steaks location, set to open in mid-March, will be a lunch and late-night spot that caters to the college crowd, serving the truck’s staples plus a few new options like chicken steaks, veggie steaks and onion rings.

Cold spell

Splendora’s is again offering all-you-can-eat gelato Wednesdays during January and February. Fork over $10 and you’ll get scoop after scoop, so long as you follow these rules:

1. No cup sharing.

2. You must stay in Splendora’s—no leaving and coming back.

3. You will get a new cup for every scoop, but keep your spoon.

4. Please don’t have food delivered to Splendora’s

5. Don’t eat so much you die or vomit.