Photo Courtesy of Steve Trumbull / CVILLEIMAGES.COM
THEN: Spudnut Coffee Shop, opened 1969; closed December 2016.
NOW: Quality Pie, opened July 2018.
It’s fair to say Spudnut Coffee Shop, formerly located at 309 Avon St. in Belmont, was a C’ville institution. And when the owners announced its closure in late 2016, it was a sad day for potato flour donut lovers everywhere.
The original Spudnuts was founded more than 2,000 miles away in Salt Lake City in 1940 by brothers Al and Bob Pelton. In 1946, the pair started franchising locations nationwide.
Richard Wingfield and his wife Fay opened Charlottesville’s branch in 1969—his daughter Lori Fitzgerald and husband Mike would keep the legacy going when they took over the shop in 2005. While Lori said the donut bakery was still doing well as a business as of late 2016, she expressed a desire to move on. “Sometimes you feel like it’s time to do something else,” she told C-VILLE Weekly.
Before Spudnuts, in the early 20th century, a dwelling occupied the site where the current one-story commercial building sits, according to city records. The “utilitarian” but still iconic white concrete block and brick structure that we see now was built around 1961, after the Belmont Bridge was completed.
Quality Pie, purveyors of baked goods, sandwiches, and small plates (and sometimes donut-shaped beignets—#spiritofspudnuts), took over the old Spudnuts space in summer 2018, led by chef Tomas Rahal, formerly of Mas Tapas.
Spudnuts had more than 600 outlets in North America across its lifespan. But when the Charlottesville shop closed, it was one of the brand’s last remaining locations on the East Coast.
“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.
Quality Pie, in the former Spudnuts space on Avon Street, is dishing out sweet and savory pies, as well as grain bowls and sandwiches, such as an octopus bahn mi. Photo by Martyn Kyle
By Jenny Gardiner
The recent summer heat seems to demand curative sweets to help temper the constant weather discomforts. Luckily, sugary treats (and more!) are featured on the menu at two new Charlottesville eateries opening this week.
If you’re like Homer Simpson (and who isn’t?), you probably live for your next delicious donut. Fortunately, Sugar Shack has arrived on West Main Street with everything from maple bacon to Samoas—yes, like the Girl Scout cookie—donuts. One Sugar Shack location even offers up a fried chicken donut.
“The kitchen has the freedom to make whatever they want,” says manager Virginia Williams, adding that she “whipped up a pink rosé rose glaze” in honor of “The Bachelorette” episode that filmed recently at the chain’s Richmond flagship.
Other innovative flavors include Baby Ruth, Fruit Loops and Party Time (covered in M&Ms, sprinkles and Oreos), plus many vegan options. Everything is made fresh, without preservatives.
Sugar Shack on West Main Street sweetens the deal with several donut varieties made without preservatives, as well as a Luther Burger counter for a savory option. Photo by Morgan Salyer
The restaurant offers a free donut daily via its Facebook page, provided you’re willing to show up with, say, your latest purchase from Amazon or wearing white sneakers. Fair warning: You could even be asked to sing or dance for that donut.
And fittingly, at the home of the former Spudnuts Donut shop comes another sweet surrender, in the form of Mas Tapas founder Tomas Rahal’s much anticipated Quality Pie.
Rahal—with the help of friends in the food community—gutted the building and gave it a bright, cheery interior with apple-green walls featuring prints from former Charlottesville artist Steve Keene, and cherry-red stools that once graced the old Woolworth’s lunch counter downtown.
Rahal says he had been eyeing the Spudnuts site for a decade.
“I wanted to do a daytime coffee and bake shop, and I wanted to stay in Belmont,” he says. “I love the neighborhood, and all of our customers. The Spudnuts building was iconic and I hope Quality Pie becomes iconic as well.”
With his new restaurant, Rahal plans to continue collaborating with schools to promote the farm-to-table approach to eating.
“We’ve got a great garden here and will work with the City Schoolyard Project like we did at Mas, and we’re working with Clark Elementary,” he says. The garden has already yielded beets, chard, carrots, Romaine lettuce and herbs, all of which will be used in the restaurant.
Sweets might rule at both restaurants, but savory will vie for attention as well. Tucked inside Sugar Shack is a separate counter for the restaurant’s sister enterprise, Luther Burger, named after the late R&B singer Luther Vandross’ substitution of a donut for a hamburger bun. Diners will have the option of eating their burger sandwiched between two glazed donut halves, or settling for a mainstream potato—or even a lettuce—bun. Besides beef and turkey patties, the restaurant will offer crab and vegan patties, along with vegan cheese and sauces.
And the rotating menu at Quality Pie will include sweet and savory pies (don’t miss the blueberry!), artisanal sourdough bread and biscuits, including “our own version of a signature dish with rye and Iberico ham,” Rahal says.
They’ll also offer a variety of “fun sandwiches, including an octopus bahn mi, in which you will get some of the trademark Spanish flair with a slightly different format,” he says.
In addition, there will be healthy lunches and grain bowls, and, as soon as they get their ABC license, beer, wine and cider “to sit outside on a beautiful day by the garden and relax.”
Both restaurants opened Monday, July 2. Sugar Shack’s hours are 7am-2pm opening week, with hours extended to 6am-6pm daily afterward. Quality Pie is open 7am-8pm weekdays and 10am-3pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Quiet closing
Zzaam! Fresh Korean Grill on Emmet Street near Barracks Road has shuttered its doors with little fanfare. A notice on the restaurant’s Facebook page announced the closing, effective May 31, to the dismay of hundreds of customers who posted their disappointment on the store’s homepage. “This is really depressing,” said Jonathan Morataya. “This place got me by some of my toughest economic times while enrolled at UVA, and I was introduced to many Korean-themed dishes. Zzaam Charlottesville, you will be missed.”
The Yard food hall at 5th Street Station is slated to open in May, and Basil Mediterranean, Extreme Pizza and Chim, an Asian street food restaurant, are among its first tenants. Photo by Skycladap.com
By Sam Padgett and Erin O’Hare
The Yard food hall at 5th Street Station is gearing up to open in May, in the building next to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Jeff Garrison, the project’s lead, says he wanted to “create an active community-engaged area…a great area to hang out.” And so The Yard put extra emphasis on seating, including a shaded outdoor patio and complimentary WiFi. Additionally, if Garrison can obtain a coveted festival liquor license for the space, drinks can be openly carried between the businesses, which is beneficial because The Yard could also serve as an entertainment venue. As for the food half of the hall, The Yard already has leases from Basil Mediterranean Bistro & Wine Bar, Extreme Pizza and Chim, an Asian street food restaurant. While the first restaurants are going to be opening this May, The Yard will continue to add more options.
Fresh start
Back in December, we reported that The Villa Diner would be moving to a new location in town, as its current home at 129 Emmet St. N will soon be demolished when the University of Virginia begins to develop the land at the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road later this year.
Now we can report that The Villa’s moving down the road, into the former location of the Royal Indian Restaurant at 1250 Emmet St. N, adjacent to the new Zaxby’s. Villa Diner co-owner Jenifer Beachley describes the relocation as “terrifyingly exciting.” She says that the same atmosphere and service that customers have come to expect at The Villa will move with the business, and there will be a few additions to the menu. The Villa’s final day in its current location will be Memorial Day, and the Beachleys expect the new location to open in June.
Best of the South
In Southern Living magazine’s 2018 Best of the South poll, Charlottesville was named the eighth best food town in the region (food cities are in a different category). In that same poll, Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton was named the best brewery in Virginia.
And in Garden & Gun magazine’s Southern Craft Brewery bracket, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, whose flagship is in Richmond but operates a pilot brewery and taproom in Charlottesville, made it to the final matchup out of a field of 32 breweries, to take on Scofflaw Brewing Company of Atlanta for the championship. Hardywood was named the bracket winner on Tuesday.
Losing a gem
Pearl’s Bake Shoppe, known around town for its vegan cupcake offerings, among other sweet treats, closed its Charlottesville location on March 24. According to information posted to the bakery’s Facebook page, the owners have chosen to focus attention on their Richmond location instead.
Another closing
Water Street Restaurant—or, chef Brice Cunningham’s rebranded Tempo—closed after service on March 31. The eatery, which served upscale casual French and American cuisine, opened in September 2016.
Brunch game just got stronger
In a March 12 Facebook post, Kung Fu Tea Charlottesville at 1001 W. Main St. announced that it will soon begin serving dim sum (and judging by the hundreds of comments and shares on the post, folks are excited about it). For those unfamiliar with dim sum, it’s a style of Chinese (usually Cantonese) cuisine served with tea for a brunch-type meal. The bite-sized portions of food—think steamed buns, steamed vegetables, slow-roasted meats, congee soups and even dessert dim sum such as egg tarts—are served on small plates or nestled inside little steam baskets.
Quality time
In the last few weeks, a Facebook page called Quality Pie has popped up and begun sharing photos of baked goods, as well as both interior and exterior shots of the former Spudnuts donut shop on Avon Street in Belmont. It appears as though the bakery is the work of former Mas Tapas chef Tomas Rahal.
