Morsel Compass

Piedmont Place becomes area’s newest food destination

Crozet’s Piedmont Place has just about everything under its roof: multiple restaurants, an ice cream shop, a yoga studio, a bookstore and apartments. It also has a restaurant and bar on top of its roof. Located at 2025 Library Way in downtown Crozet, the building boasts spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains from every room. The views are nice and all, but we’re all about the food, so here’s a quick guide to what’s available to eat and drink at Piedmont Place.

The Rooftop

Ride the Piedmont Place elevator all the way to the top for small plates, craft cocktails and wood-fired pizzas from the Smoked BBQ Co. team.

The details: The Rooftop opened Friday, March 10. Open 5pm-midnight Thursday through Saturday; 5-9pm Sunday.

Pro tip: With lounge furniture, outdoor heaters and blankets, this will be a hangout spot for every season.

Don’t miss: The views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, of course!

Smoked Kitchen & Tap

You know exactly what you’re getting into here—slow-cooked, hickory-smoked barbecue, with secret dry rubs and sauces made from scratch. You’ll get all of the sandwiches—pulled pork and brisket—cole slaw and potato salad the Smoked BBQ Co. food cart is known for. And in addition to the robust barbecue offerings, the expanded menu includes appetizers, house milkshakes, burgers and vegetarian options.

The details: Eat in or take out 11am-9pm Tuesday through Thursday; 11am-10pm Friday and Saturday; and 11am-8pm Sunday. Closed Monday.

Pro tip: Try all five of the sauces: Spicy Red, Honey Red, Carolina Fire, Sweet Virginia Blue and the Low-Country Mustard. Each one comes out of a slightly different barbecue tradition and gives a different flavor to the ’cue.

Don’t miss: The pulled pork with a few sides (we suggest the potato salad and the creamed corn with smoked jalapeño) and the key lime pie for dessert.

One of Charlottesville’s favorite food trucks is serving more than tacos at its first stationary location, but it’s still the same homemade food the truck is known for.

The details: Take out or eat in 11am-7pm Tuesday through Saturday; 11am-2pm Sunday. Closed Monday.

Pro tip: Small space, small menu. Check Facebook or morselcompass.com for daily specials.

Don’t miss: The grilled Brie, fig jam, apple and arugula sandwich on Tuscan bread. Oh yeah, and the tacos, which come in pairs.

Blue Ridge Bottle Shop

Blue Ridge Bottle Shop is a bit like Charlottesville’s beloved Beer Run, but on a smaller scale and with much better views. Stocked with a nice variety of domestic and imported canned and bottled beers, wines, ciders and a few goodies such as beef jerky, popcorn, Mad Hatter hot sauces, Gearharts chocolates and Hubs Virginia Peanuts, it’s a good spot to hit on the way home from work or en route to a party. And you can sample a variety of beer and cider from kegs on tap before you make your final selections.

The details: Mix a six-pack or fill your growler from 11am-8pm Tuesday through Saturday; noon-5pm Sunday. Closed Monday.

Pro tip: Ask the expert staff for their opinions on the brews and vintages.

Don’t miss: The shelf near the door stocked with six-packs of cans from Virginia breweries—Starr Hill, Three Notch’d, Hardywood, Pale Fire and others.

Smojo

Smoothies, juices and salads, oh my! Stop in to Smojo for a quick meal or snack. For those who need a little extra boost, they sell organic coffee, too.

The details: Snag your treat to-go 7:30am-6:30pm Monday through Friday; 9am-5pm Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Pro tip: Owner Beth Hartley is a trained chef who interned at The Inn at Little Washington, so you can expect these blends to be as tasty as they are good for you. Six ounces of a blended juice costs $3.50; smoothies cost around $6. Add a scoop of granola, protein powder, chia seed or turmeric to any smoothie for a little extra dough.

Don’t miss: The heart beet juice, made of pomegranate, pear, beet, lemon and ginger; or the sweet green smoothie, a blend of kiwi, cashew milk, kale, banana, pineapple and apple.

Crozet Creamery

“Eighteen luscious, scrumptious flavors—chocolate, lime and cherry. Coffee, pumpkin, fudge-banana, caramel cream and boysenberry,” begins Shel Silverstein’s “Eighteen Flavors” poem about the delights (and disappointments) of ice cream. Crozet Creamery’s ice cream case boasts a different combo of 18 luscious, scrumptious homemade flavors each day, all of which can be scooped solo or made into a sundae.

The details: Get the scoop noon-9pm Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Monday.

Pro tip: No dairy? No problem. There are always some non-dairy flavors like raspberry, lemon and coconut chip ready for the scooping.

Don’t miss: The fun flavors like Rice Krispie treat, glazed Krispy Kreme, cinnamon bun and crazy vanilla, and the wide variety of peanut butter and chocolate flavors—on a recent day, they had peanut butter cup, peanut butter swirl (with Reese’s pieces) and chocolate peanut butter in the case.

Some food trucks are putting down roots while restaurants hit the road

It’s that time of year again—when it’s so hot outside you dream of lounging in the air conditioning. But we know one thing that will motivate you to venture outside: food. Lucky for us, the food truck scene here is exploding with new trucks. We counted more than 15 roaming the city on any given day, and even a few brick-and-mortar places are jumping on the bandwagon and going mobile. But it goes both ways: Some of these freestanding kitchens are becoming so successful, they’re opening permanent locations. And none too soon—we’re sweltering just thinking about how hot it must be in a food truck kitchen in 100-degree heat.

106 Street Food

After working on the culinary scene for two decades, chef Will Cooper has opened his own business. Hitting town about two months ago, 106 Street Food dishes up classic American fare with a dash of Southwest-, Latin- and Asian-inspired flair. Cooper was so gung-ho about opening his own mobile kitchen he built the truck himself. In between his stints at Bella’s Restaurant, the Glass House Kitchen and Rapture, Cooper also worked in construction, and knew enough to put his truck together in four months.

On the menu you’ll find massive, mouthwatering sandwiches, like the 16-hour smoked brisket. But Cooper’s favorite is the pork schnitzel. Inside a hearty pretzel bun lies a deep-fried, panko-crusted pork loin topped with an egg, arugula, white cheddar and lemon caper aioli.

Smoked BBQ Co.

Smoked BBQ Co. is “the little wagon that could.” Owner Justin van der Linde and sous chef Kent Morris started out with a barbecue cart in downtown Charlottesville, but now they’re making the move to open their own restaurants—yes, plural—both in downtown Crozet’s Piedmont Place, a mixed-use building that’s still under construction. Their first-floor eatery, Smoked Kitchen and Tap, will focus on barbecue—ribs, brisket and pulled pork—along with Southern-style sides, and will be family-friendly. The fourth-floor restaurant, The Rooftop, takes advantage of the 50-foot overlook of the Blue Ridge Mountains with an open fire pit and heated terrace. On the menu is woodstone oven pizzas with a Southern twist, accompanied by craft cocktails. “We’ll have probably the best views in town,” van der Linde says.

Even with opening two restaurants simultaneously, the duo plans to keep its food truck, which features hickory-smoked barbecue, slathered with its signature dry rubs and sauces, in rotation.

Morsel Compass

We know and love them for their international-inspired tacos topped with everything from Korean pulled-pork barbecue to chicken souvlaki. But now Jennifer Blanchard and Keely Hass, owners of Morsel Compass Mobile Kitchen, are laying down roots and opening up Morsel Compass West, a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Piedmont Place. “It’s more than tacos,” Blanchard says. “Our menu’s going to be, pardon the compass reference here, all over the map. We get to pretty much do our wildest dreams.”

They’re going to do all the things they couldn’t do before on a food truck: bake, make soups and, what they’re most excited for, breakfast. But for devoted fans of the food truck, there’s no need to worry. “The truck is still going to go out,” assures Blanchard. “[It’s] a huge part that got us to where we are.”

Moe’s Original Bar B Que

Ashleigh and Mike Abrams just celebrated Moe’s Original Bar B Que’s one-year anniversary in Charlottesville, and now they’re joining the food truck craze. The Asheville, North Carolina, natives are featuring “Southern soul food revival” dishes including award-winning Alabama-style pulled pork, St. Louis ribs and homemade sides, in their new mobile kitchen. The truck is making stops at local wineries and breweries such as King Family Vineyards and Starr Hill Brewery.

So far, the Abramses are loving the attention they’re getting thanks to their food truck. “It’s like a rolling billboard,” says Ashleigh. “There’s a lot of potential for us to get our name out and spread the word that we’re over here on Ivy Road. And we wanted to branch out into the community.”