2015 & 2016 Dishes of the Year at Prime 109’s Bar
by Charlottesville29
General Tso’s Sweetbreads at Lampo
Some say Wednesday is the best night to enjoy Prime 109, particularly in the bar, where a jazz trio (Adam Larrabee, Brian Caputo & Randall Pharr) performs each week while guests enjoy Abraham Hawkins’ latest cocktail creation. Tonight, the Wednesday bar gets better still with the addition of the 2015 and 2016 Dishes of the Year.
The 2015 Dish of the Year was General Tso’s Sweetbreads, a rare special menu item at Lampo, created by chef Ian Redshaw. The 2016 Dish of the Year was another Redshaw special at Lampo, Szechuan Pastrami Panuozzo. Now chef at Prime 109, Redshaw is featuring both dishes tonight in the bar.
Channeling China via Italy, the sweetbreads are tossed in a sauce of honey, Calabrian chili, garlic scapes, and a fermented fish sauce called garum. They come with truffled Carolina gold rice and broccolini. For the pastrami sandwich, without the use of Lampo’s pizza oven for panuozzo bread, Redshaw made a few tweaks. On rye from Albemarle Baking Company, Redshaw’s own Sherwood Farm Szechuan pastrami joins burnt corn aioli and a slaw of Brussels sprouts and ramps.
Jazz, Abe’s cocktails, and two dishes of the year. Sounds like a solid hump day.