James Beard Local Dish: Ivy Inn’s Pork Rib Chop
It’s James Beard Foundation’s Local Dish. Throughout September and October, select top restaurants across the country are creating a dish that conveys their local cuisine, and donating $1 from the sale of each dish to the educational efforts of the James Beard Foundation. Among the participants are Charlottesville’s own Ivy Inn, where, to reflect local Virginia cuisine, chef-owner Angelo Vangelopoulos has created a Pork Rib Chop with andouille sausage, spoonbread, purple black-eye peas & lima beans, and smoked tomato-bacon jus ($27). “Pork, corn products, and beans are all an integral part of our Virginia culinary heritage,” says Vangelopoulos, “and I can’t wait to share this with our customers.”
It is truly a Local Dish. The pork rib chop is from Double H Farm in Wingina, with sausage from The Rock Barn in Arrington. The spoonbread is made of cornmeal from Wade’s Mill in Raphine. The purple black eye peas and lima beans are from Goldman Farm in Cullen. And, the tomatoes are from Harvest Thyme Herbs in Staunton. In Vangelopoulos’ own words:
I’m excited to feature two of our local pork producers who do an outstanding job with their products. Pork is something we do so well here in Central Virginia that it seems a no-brainer to be the central part of this dish. Jim and Georgia at Wade’s Mill operate an 18th-century water-powered mill that is one of the last of its kind. I’ve been using their cornmeal and grits for as long as I’ve been cooking at the Ivy Inn. Goldman Farm grows a variety of beans and peas, and The Local Food Hub keeps us well supplied from them and several other farmers in the region. Phil and Deirdre Armstrong are specialty produce/herb farmers at Harvest Thyme who grow quite simply the prettiest and best taken care for vegetables I have ever seen. We smoked a large batch of their Brandywine tomatoes to make the jus for this dish.”
