Work crews removed the statue of General Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal on Richmond’s Monument Avenue earlier this month. PC: Eze Amos
Statue disposal
Many of Richmond’s Monument Avenue Confederate statues are gone, but debate over their removal continues, and people have wondered where the toppled statues are being stored. This week, some sharp-eyed Richmonders noticed a large collection of monument-shaped tarps standing around the city’s wastewater treatment plant. It’s about as close as you can get to literally flushing the things down the toilet.
PC: Castle Hill Gaming
Prime real estate
It looks like a slot machine. It plays like a slot machine. But actually, it’s a “skill game.” Now, these games are legal in Virginia—and there are more than a dozen lined up in a glamorous former bank building downtown. The space is currently home to high-end steakhouse Prime 109, which was shuttered by the economic crash. The new scene inside the building has left some in town wondering if there’s a swanky casino in Charlottesville’s future.
Prime 109 boss Loren Mendosa insists that “right now there’s not much to talk about.” Sure, it could be a casino eventually, but Mendosa says things are happening fast, and he has “no idea what the actual thing would look like.” Still, he’s rolling the dice on the idea.
The Prime team hurriedly carted the machines into the space at the 11th hour. On July 1, all previously installed skill game machines became legal, though the law change doesn’t allow new machines to be installed. “If we don’t have the machines installed by June 30th, there’s no chance of even talking about it,” Mendosa says.
“It’s definitely not [a casino] right now. Who knows?…It might be a lot of different things,” he says about his restaurant full of quasi-gambling machines.
__________________
Quote of the week
“When you go outside and say, ‘I can’t breathe with this mask on; I’m gonna take it off,’ try breathing with COVID.”
—area resident Stacey Washington, who contracted the virus after taking her mask off at a family Fourth of July celebration.
__________________
In brief
Teacher troubles
On July 9, Albemarle County schools laid out plans for in-person reopening this fall. It quickly came to light, though, that the plan had been created without getting feedback from ACPS teachers, reports The Daily Progress. Teachers and staff have since circulated an open letter advocating against in-person instruction, calling the proposal “unequivocally unsafe for Albemarle County staff and families.”
Party’s over
As coronavirus cases increase every day, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker urged local residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home as much as possible, among other safety precautions, in a press conference on Monday afternoon. Walker also denounced the large gatherings being held around town—including parties on UVA’s frat row.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker reminded residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home. PC: Eze Amos
New faces
Norfolk Delegate Jay Jones and Alexandria Delegate Hala Ayala have announced 2021 campaigns for lieutenant governor of Virginia, joining Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan—both running for governor—as the third and fourth people of color under the age of 50 to announce a Democratic run at statewide office. Meanwhile, Terry McAuliffe still lurks in the wings, having pulled almost $2 million into his PAC this spring.
Tiki terror
Early Monday morning, two local activists awoke to find blazing tiki torches in their yards—an eerie reminder of the KKK rally held nearly three years ago at the University of Virginia. (Another activist found an unlit, discarded torch.) The act was “without a doubt intentional,” according to a Medium post by Showing Up for Racial Justice.
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
“Happier cows make better meat” is just one of the motto-ish lines you’ll find on the website for Albemarle’s Sherwood Farms, where Prime 109 sources its dry-aged cuts. Here, a Kansas City strip steak gets a boost from roasted Meyer lemons and garlic. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
The restaurant business, like any industry, goes in cycles. Grow, contract, repeat. Here in Charlottesville, our last boom came in 2014, a year that brought Lampo, The Alley Light, Oakhart Social, Parallel 38, Public Fish & Oyster, MarieBette, Rock Salt, Red Pump Kitchen, and Al Carbon, among others.
Now, after a slight lull, the area’s restaurant scene is resurgent, with a burst of openings in the past 18 months. The 10 we feature here are all good, and a few are exceptional. But what stands out as much as their quality is their variety. A bicycle bar. A lavish steakhouse. Tibetan food. A sake brewery. A pie shop with tapas. Greek fast-casual. Mexican- and Spanish-inspired cuisine. Thai. Korean. Nearly every new entry has given Charlottesville something it lacked. While our area’s restaurant scene has long punched above its weight, the latest additions remind us that even in the best food communities, there’s always room to grow.
* What makes a new restaurant “hot?” In a word, popularity. Whether it cooks with gas or a wood-fired oven, a restaurant that draws a crowd soon after opening—particularly in a city with so many options for dining out—is hot. Please write to joe@c-ville.com with comments. We welcome, nay, encourage debate!
(Ed. note: Restaurants are presented in alphabetical order.)
Cava’s greens and grains bowl is a riot of colors, fresh flavors, and savory sauces. Photo: Max March
Cava
Before the chain Cava was born, its three founding owners ran just a single full-service Greek restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, Cava Mezze, which they launched in 2006. From there, the owners—all first-generation Greek-Americans—took the red-hot concept of fast casual and applied it to the food of their birthplace. The result is a rapidly growing chain that now has more than 70 locations. Guests line up at the counter, survey an array of greens, grains, Greek spreads, meats, and other toppings, and then point away to build their own bowl, salad, or pita wrap. At the Charlottesville outpost, there is little evidence that expansion has diluted quality. The owners’ passion for good eating and well-sourced ingredients is unmistakable.
Cuisine Greek fast casual
Owner’s pick Greens and grains bowl with rice, chicken, braised lamb shoulder, harissa, tzatziki, vegetables, and seasonal dressing ($9.87).
Most people would call Chimm a Thai restaurant, but other southeast Asian foods—Vietnamese and Indonesian, for instance—fill out the expansive menu. Photo: Tom McGovern
Chimm
The owners of the popular Thai Cuisine & Noodle House noticed a lack of Thai food south of town, and filled the void with their new restaurant in The Yard at 5th Street Station. In addition to the standard menu items of many Thai restaurants—pad thai, pad kee mao (also called drunken noodles), massaman curry—Chimm makes a point of featuring less common dishes, like Isan Style Som Tum (papaya salad made with fermented fish sauce) and Bah Mee Haeng (dry egg-noodle bowl). As diners become accustomed to the unusual dishes, Chimm plans to introduce more and more of them. Keep an eye out for occasional lunch banh mi specials, which require reservations and always sell out in advance.
Cuisine Thai
Chef’s pick Boat Noodle Soup ($12.50): rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, and bean sprouts in a dark, meaty housemade broth, with scallions, cilantro, fried garlic, and spicy chili sauce. In true Bangkok floating-market style, the broth made from marrow and saignant meat juice is slightly gelatinous.
Crowd favorite Khao Soi ($13.50): egg noodles with chicken in homemade curry paste, topped with wonton crisps and cilantro, served with pickled mustard greens, red onion, chili oil, and lime.
Vitals 5th Street Station, 365 Merchant Walk Square, 288-1120, chimmtaste.com
Chef Lobsang Gyaltsen presents a Tibetan favorite, jasha kam trak: crispy chicken with vegetables and spicy sauce. Photo: Levi Cheff
Druknya House
If you’ve never had Tibetan food before, Druknya House is a great place to start. Hearty starches like barley, noodles, and potatoes dominate the food of a region known for mountains and wintry weather. Though Tibet has a cuisine all its own, its closest cousins are the foods of Himalayan neighbors, such as Nepal and Northeast India, with flavors like ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Yet, because the spicing of Tibetan food is often restrained, it’s approachable for most diners. In the kitchen at Druknya House is Lobsang Gyaltsen, a monk who studied Buddhist philosophy for two decades before turning to cooking to pursue an interest in healthy eating. While his menu does include unusual foods like chilay khatsu (spicy braised cow’s tongue), much of what Gyaltsen makes is comforting and restorative, like soups, noodle bowls, and Tibet’s beloved momos (dumplings filled with beef, chicken, or vegetables).
Cuisine Tibetan
Chef’s pick Ten Thuk Soup ($11), traditional Eastern Tibetan style hand-pulled noodles simmered in beef broth over greens.
Crowd favorites Jasha Kam Trak ($13): crispy chicken with mixed peppers, celery, scallions, and chef’s spice blend; Tsampa ($4): grilled brown mushrooms in melted butter, dusted with roasted barley flour.
Little Star is all about artful presentation and ambiance. You’d smell smoke from the wood-fired oven if this photo were scratch-and-sniff. Photo: John Robinson
Little Star
In partnership with Oakhart Social, chef Ryan Collins has brightened the former service station on West Main where other attempted restaurants have gone dark. From high-top tables, guests can now whet their appetites by gazing into the hearth where much of the food is cooked. The menu borrows from Spain and Mexico, two countries whose cuisines Collins came to love during eight years working for celebrity chef José Andrés, including three as head chef of the Washington, D.C., Mexican restaurant Oyamel. With small plates and large family-style platters, Collins intends all of his food for sharing. New York City transplant Joel Cuellar, a veteran of the spirits and cocktail industry, ensures that the bar does justice to the quality of the kitchen.
Cuisine Hearth-cooked American, inspired by Mexico and Spain
Chef’s pick Sunny Side Eggs ($10): fried eggs with salsa negra, green onion, sesame seeds, grilled bread, and hickory syrup. “It’s fatty, sweet, smoky, spicy, herbal, and salty,” says Collins. “And, every menu needs eggs.”
Crowd favorite Pan tomate ($8): grilled Albemarle Baking Company pan Estrella bread with grated tomato, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt.
Vitals 420 W. Main St., 252-2502, littlestarrestaurant.com
At Mangione’s on Main, specials like tender braised lamb shank with polenta and a splash of greens join a menu of Italian-American favorites, served family style. Photo: Levi Cheff
Mangione’s on Main
Tread lightly when remaking a former restaurant beloved by regulars. That’s what first-time restaurant owners Bert Crinks and Elaina Mangione have been doing since moving from northern Virginia to Charlottesville and buying the Italian-American restaurant Bella’s. Aside from a new name, changes have come gradually. The wood floors have been refinished and the walls freshly painted, but most of Bella’s menu of family-style Italian-American dishes remains the same, now joined by weekly specials from chef Mick Markley (formerly of Mas and Lynchburg’s Emerald Stone Grille).
Cuisine Italian-American
Chef’s pick Rosa di parma ($24): butterflied pork loin, stuffed with prosciutto, sage, and mozzarella, then slow roasted with potatoes and vegetables with pan sauce.
Crowd favorite Rigatoni al Forno ($23): Italian sausage and rigatoni tossed in ragu bolognese made with ground veal, beef, and pork, then topped with mozzarella cheese and baked.
Vitals 707 W. Main St., 327-4833, mangionesonmain.com
Maru deepens the culinary diversity on the Downtown Mall, with Korean delicacies like crispy fried squid. Photo: Tom McGovern
Maru
This is not your old-school mom-and-pop place. In the former home of Eppie’s restaurant on the Downtown Mall, industry veterans Steven Kim and his wife, Kay, have created an airy, contemporary Korean restaurant with an open kitchen and exposed brick walls. The menu also is modern, combining traditional Korean dishes like bibimbap and kimchi jeon with modern flourishes, like the use of melted cheese, a fairly recent phenomenon in Korea. There’s even a (delicious) bulgogi steak and cheese.
Cuisine Korean
Chef’s pick Bulgogi Plate ($17): thinly sliced beef in a sweet soy marinade, grilled with onion and served with rice, lettuce wrap, homemade ssam sauce, and daily banchan.
Crowd favorite Dolsot Bibimbap ($12): rice served with a medley of vegetables, topped with a sunny-side-up egg, spicy gochujang sauce, and choice of beef, pork, chicken, or tofu.
Vitals 412 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 956-4110
North American Sake Brewery’s Tekka Poke Don features diced yellowfin tuna and salmon marinated in sweet soy sauce, plus a mélange of ginger, scallion, sesame seed, radish, cucumber, and flying-fish roe, served over sticky rice. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
North American Sake Brewery
Food was not the first thing on the minds of owners Jeremy Goldstein and Andrew Centofante when they prepared to open Virginia’s first sake brewery last year. But when Culinary Institute of America alum Peter Robertson, of famed local food truck Côte-Rôtie, came on board as chef, he proposed creating a menu of Japanese-style small plates designed to pair with sake. The food does much more than complement the wine—it uses sake as an ingredient, too, along with brewing byproducts like koji, a mold prized by chefs for its ability to transform flavor. Though Robertson has moved on, he leaves behind a menu he helped to create and a kitchen run by his former cook Don Van Remoortere, a certified BBQ judge who marries American smoking techniques with Japanese flavors.
Cuisine Japanese-American
Chef’s pick Diamond Joe Brisket Platter ($16): Slow smoked prime beef brisket rubbed with ground espresso beans, Szechuan pepper, and sea salt, served with a side of soy “jus.” “The power move,” says Remoortere, “is to order it with two steamed bao buns with a side of housemade spicy sambal and a heap of kimchi to make a pair of towering brisket sammies.”
Crowd favorite That Chick Teri rice bowl ($14). Roasted teriyaki chicken with bell pepper, onions, carrots, garlic, sesame seeds, aioli, and crispy fried onions.
Vitals 522 Second St. SE, 767-8105, pourmeone.com
The Rivanna Trail sandwich: a baguette piled high with green-pea kofta, cucumber-radish salad, pickled carrots, and green harissa and feta-yogurt sauces. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Peloton Station
Who knew that Curtis Shaver’s three passions would go together so well? The Hamiltons’ chef emerged from the kitchen last year to help turn a classic-car sales and service shop into a tavern celebrating a few of his favorite things: beer, bicycles, and sandwiches. Part pub, part sports bar, part bicycle shop, Peloton Station showcases the type of over-the-top sandwiches that earned Shaver a following at Hamiltons’ “sandwich lab.” Draught beers and wines are well chosen, and there are plenty of TVs to entertain you while you eat, drink, and wait for your bicycle to complete its tune-up.
Cuisine Sandwiches, pub grub, unconventional brunch fare
Owner’s picks Big Mike ($12): grilled mortadella, salami, capicolla, provolone, mozzarella, and cherry pepper olive salad on a pressed baguette; The Peg ($11): smoked house pastrami, gruyere cheese, pickled cabbage, and comeback sauce, on toasted multigrain rye.
Crowd favorite O-Hill Burger ($13): burger with muenster cheese, fried mushrooms, black pepper bacon, onion marmalade.
Vitals 114 10th St. NW, 284-7785, peletonstation.com
Prime 109 brings yet another fine-dining experience to the Downtown Mall. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Prime 109
No recent opening made a bigger splash than the Lampo team’s steakhouse in the former Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall. In a stunning room with soaring ceilings, the featured product is one rarely seen: local, heritage beef, dry-aged 60 days or more. Beyond the steaks à la carte, there’s a separate menu of cheffy salads, pastas, and entrées from a talented kitchen staff led by Ian Redshaw, a James Beard Award semifinalist in the 2019 Rising Star Chef of the Year category. While Prime 109’s steak prices range from roughly $25 to $85, pastas and other entrées—also excellently prepared—are less expensive, and an ever-changing bar menu offers inspired sandwiches and snacks Monday through Wednesday. Along with well-chosen wines, there’s a serious bar program for cocktail enthusiasts.
Cuisine Steakhouse-plus
Chef’s pick Prime 109 Burger ($14): 70/30 blend of dry-aged to fresh beef (ribeye and tenderloin), American cheese, pickles, onion, primal sauce, on a sesame seed bun.
Vitals 300 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 422-5094, prime109steakhouse.com
Former Mas tapas chef Tomas Rahal stirs things up with his new venture, Quality Pie. Photo: John Robinson
Quality Pie
When the local institution Spudnuts closed in 2016, its prime location at the gateway between Belmont and downtown instantly became one of the more coveted restaurant spots in town. The prize went to former Mas tapas chef Tomas Rahal, who converted the timeworn space into a bright, colorful pie shop. While the pies are stellar, the restaurant offers a whole lot more, with a menu that changes throughout the day. For breakfast, there are egg sandwiches, tarts, and papas bravas; at lunch, soups, salads, and creative sandwiches like a grilled octopus banh mi on charcoal bread; and, in late afternoon and early evening, wine, sherry, and tapas, like boquerones and bacon-wrapped dates. Plus, regardless of the hour, you can drop in for Rahal’s excellent breads, pastries, and other baked goods.
Governor Ralph Northam says the New York Strip he recently enjoyed at Prime 109 was the “best piece of meat I’ve ever had.” Photo by Amy Jackson Smith
Where was the best steak of Governor Ralph Northam’s life? Right here in Charlottesville.
Northam was in town to speak at the inauguration of James Ryan as president of the University of Virginia, and joined me afterwards for dinner. Given the occasion and guest, I chose Prime 109, which opened last month in the former Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall. From my prior visits, the new steakhouse seemed worthy of the celebration: a spectacular space with food to match. Indeed, our steaks were extraordinary.
But, what makes the steaks so good? Sure, the chefs are part of the answer. It’s the same talented team that runs the acclaimed pizzeria Lampo. The answer really begins, though, with someone who does not even work at Prime 109—their meat supplier, Ryan Ford. For years, Ford has been working on a problem he first encountered while running a butcher shop selling Virginia meat. In short, Virginia has an abundance of great cattle, but no easy path from farm to table.
Ford’s solution is Seven Hills, a Lynchburg meat company he launched in 2015 that instantly became the commonwealth’s largest independent slaughter facility. Ford’s mission is to connect Virginia farmers who care about the quality of their product with consumers who care about where their food comes from. The key is “vertical integration,” Ford says. Instead of processing cattle and returning meat to farms, like some facilities do, Seven Hills buys cattle from farms and handles all the rest: processing, aging, packaging, and distribution.
Relieved of the burden of sales and distribution, farmers can focus on what they do best. “Let the farmers farm,” says Ford. Also benefiting are customers, who have greater access to Virginia beef than ever before. Seven Hills sources only from farms that meet its high standards, and its humane, state-of-the art facility allows it to trace everything it sells back to the originating farm.
Ford’s hope is that this can change the way we eat beef. He envisions a Virginia where consumers expect to know where their meat comes from, whether they’re buying it at the supermarket or ordering it at a restaurant, and even grow to learn which farms they like best. Northam is on board. “As I travel the commonwealth, I see folks making it a priority to know where their food is coming from,” said Northam. “This benefits everyone—prioritizing local farms helps our economy, and customers become better educated about their food choices.”
Prime 109, which buys all of its beef from Seven Hills, is on board too, buying entire animals at a time. This, Ford says, is unheard of among steakhouses, which generally buy pre-fabricated cuts of bestsellers. In a typical 800-pound animal, classic steakhouse cuts comprise just 10-20 percent of the meat. What to do with the rest?
Cue Ian Redshaw, winner of this year’s Best of C-VILLE award for Best Chef. Determined not to waste a thing, he breaks down whole sides of beef and finds uses for it all: roasts, braises, terrines, stocks, burgers, sausages, and more.
As a dinner guest, Northam, whom I had met briefly a few times before, could not have been more pleasant. He grew up on a farm on the Eastern Shore, and nine months as the commonwealth’s most powerful man have done nothing to his affable, aw shucks demeanor. “Hi, I’m Ralph,” he would introduce himself to servers. On being governor, he told me, “It’s almost surreal that I am doing this.”
We sat at the chef’s counter, a marble bar perched beside the open wood-fired grill where we watched Redshaw cook. The concept for the food is familiar steakhouse dishes, enhanced. Unlike many steakhouses, Prime 109 is doing some serious cooking, with a team of cooks who have been head chefs of other top kitchens, including Lampo, Tavola, and Pippin Hill.”
Take Northam’s wedge salad. Iceberg lettuce rests beneath Bayley Hazen blue cheese, pickled onions, confit tomatoes, and beef bacon made from the bellies of beef that’s been dry-aged for 200 days. In a riff on buttermilk dressing, Prime 109 creates an herb dressing from kefir (house made fermented milk), tart and creamy. “Delicious,” Northam said. “Could be a meal unto itself.”
In our Oysters Rockefeller, Northam was thrilled to find Tangier Island oysters. “I am biased, but it’s hard to beat oysters from the Eastern Shore,” said Northam, who once worked on a construction crew that built the runway for Tangier Island’s airport, and after his term hopes to resume growing oysters himself. Covered in sautéed spinach and then broiled, the oysters were topped with a fonduta made by applying nitrogen dioxide to a blend of raclette cheese, cream, and nutmeg. Dehydrated shallots added crunch and punch.
Tangier Island oysters made another appearance in a showstopper of a side, a special that evening: “Oysters and Pearls” stuffing. First, oysters were cooked sous-vide and emulsified, and the resulting liquid was poured over pieces of bread made from Prime 109’s Parker House roll dough, drizzled with beef marrow drippings. Whole smoked oysters were then stirred into the stuffing, and the whole thing was baked and topped with Osetra caviar. “Really nice,” said Northam.
Then there were the steaks. Prime 109 offers meat that’s been dry-aged—a process that tenderizes the beef and concentrates flavor. Meat ages better if hung in very large pieces or as a whole side, which Seven Hills does at its facility and Prime 109 continues at the restaurant for optimal aging. This is a costly process, in part because of the labor, but also because of the weight loss. A 16-ounce dry-aged steak might have been 18 or 20 ounces before aging. Buying whole carcasses and butchering meat in-house allows Prime 109 to cut costs, and pass on savings to guests.
To be sure, this does not mean the steaks are cheap. Prices per steak currently range from $24-86, and toppings are extra. But it does mean that Prime 109 can afford to offer a unique product that, to my knowledge, is available at no other steakhouse: Virginia heritage beef, aged for 60 days or more. As one friend described the experience: “Expensive but underpriced.”
Can you really taste the difference? As a barometer to compare with other steakhouses, Northam chose a classic cut, New York Strip. The verdict? “Best piece of meat I’ve ever had,” he said.
I asked Redshaw to choose mine, and my reward was a 200-day-aged picanha, topped with an indulgent blend of burgundy truffles, onions agrodolce made with fish sauce, house chimichurri sauce, béarnaise, and demi-glace. Oh my. “That looks like a work of art,” Northam said. Tasted like one, too. The toppings might have overwhelmed a lesser steak, but the long dry-aging gave the meat a concentrated, earthy flavor that, like a good blue cheese, held up well. Though I often enjoy steak unadorned, this was one of my best steak experiences in memory.
As governor, Northam considers it part of his job to be an ambassador for Virginia. “We have really been trying to promote farm-to-table,” says Northam. Prime 109 could be his chief of staff.
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.”
Prime 109, a steakhouse bent on highlighting products from three cornerstone farms, is slated to open in May in the former Bank of America space on the Downtown Mall. Staff photo
The owners of Lampo, the cozy Neapolitan pizzeria in Belmont, first started conceptualizing the idea of a local-farm-centered steakhouse after hearing from area producers that they were frustrated with the distribution process.
Enter Prime 109, a steakhouse bent on highlighting products from three cornerstone farms, which is slated to open in May in the former Bank of America space on the Downtown Mall. The restaurant will buy whole animals from farmers, a processor will do a basic breakdown of the animal, and Prime will finish dry-aging the beef and prepare individual cuts in-house.
A butchering area and the main production part of the kitchen will occupy a space on the far left of the 109-seat restaurant, and diners will have the opportunity to sit at the chef’s table in front of a custom-built, wood-fired grill from Corey Blanc, of Blanc Creatives, or at a table underneath an antique gilded ceiling.
The Prime 109 team wants to enhance the character of the space, built in 1915, by bringing in antique materials and putting down maple flooring from an 1860 building. New additions to the space include a carrara marble staircase.
“There’s something about the classic grandeur of a bank like this, and concept of the classic American steakhouse, that really fits well together,” says Prime 109 co-owner Loren Mendosa.
