A Decade of Community: Lampo Celebrates Ten Years
You can’t survive in the restaurant industry without flexibility. Almost every day, there’s a new challenge. Adjust. Adapt. Or fail.
But, as vital to success as flexibility is, so too is consistency. Adhere to a vision. In Charlottesville, few restaurants do that like Lampo. More than a decade ago, a group of friends working at Tavola had a vision. Bring Neapolitan pizza to Charlottesville. As food lovers, Loren Mendosa, Mitchell Beerens, Andrew Cole, and Shelly Robb had traveled to other cities for Neapolitan pizza and longed to enjoy it in Charlottesville. So, they created it themselves.
What’s remarkable about their vision is how true they have stayed to it. This preview of Lampo was published ten years ago today. And yet, a decade later, it reads like it could have been written yesterday, touting ingredient-driven fare like traditional pizza that cooks in seconds, porchetta panuozzo, and a kale salad with a cult following. While some restaurants chase the next trend, Lampo’s menu in year ten is nearly the same as day one.
It turns out they knew what they were doing. Is there a more beloved restaurant in Charlottesville? No restaurant has more appearances in Five Finds on Friday, where seventy times a Charlottesville chef or personality has named a Lampo dish one of their favorites in the city. Those seventy appearances name twenty-two different dishes, with the most acclaim going to the same porchetta panuozzo that the preview article described before Lampo even opened. “I’m personally most excited about the porchetta panouzzo,” said Mendosa in 2014. “Melted provolone with broccoli rabe, aioli, and crispy pork skin, I mean it sells itself.” That it has.
Lampo’s decade of success has rested on the owners’ adherence to a vision and uncompromising commitment to the attention to detail it requires. In 2014, to bring Neapolitan pizza to Charlottesville (and its top-ranked sandwich), they imported a three-ton oven from Italy and lowered it through the ceiling of a tiny Charlottesville building that barely could fit it. Ten years later, that oven has produced more than a quarter of a million pizzas.
With a Pandemic, Pivots
Of course, Lampo has had flexibility, too. Circumstances demanded it. Halfway through its existence, in March 2020 Lampo switched from a restaurant that never offers takeout (except snow days!) to one that only offers takeout. This was a matter of sheer survival. “We put our heads together and brainstormed ideas on how to stay operational,” said Beerens. “How would we do so while being safe to the customer and still provide for the staff that was furloughed?” Almost overnight, they devised a contact-free system that was so efficient it actually increased pizza sales over pre-pandemic business. Meanwhile, all gratuities went to staff. “The community showed up in a major way,” said Beerens. “They tipped so well that we were able to provide support for all of the staff until the government came through with its own financial aid programs.”
The next year, Lampo opened a new takeout location, and closed the original restaurant. In August 2022, the original location, the “OG,” reopened for on-site service. And last year, they added a cocktail bar next door, Bar Baleno.
Never For Money, Always for Love
It takes more than good food to sustain a decade of success. As written before, there are only two kinds of restaurants in the world. Those with love, and all the rest. In the case of Lampo, it is a love of community.
“I struggle to find the words to properly describe how lucky I’ve been to grow up in the Charlottesville food community,” said Mendosa. “The camaraderie with other chefs and restaurant workers, the incredible farmers and producers, and the customers who appreciate good food — we truly have a special mix here in our little town and it’s incredible.” For Robb, the sense of community is especially strong with industry peers. “There is a sense of unity and camaraderie in the restaurant scene here from the wild hours we work, the stresses we bear, and the specific laughter and lightness that only we can bring each other,” said Robb.
And for Beerens, it’s an even tighter community: Belmont. Lampo, he says, is a love letter to the neighborhood it calls home. Roughly half of Lampo’s business comes from Belmont residents, most of whom walk to the restaurant. “They’ve shown us so much love over the years, and it’s been truly life-changing,” said Beerens. “I’d like to reflect as much as I can back, for as long as they’ll have it.”
To show a little of that love, Lampo is hosting a 10th Anniversary dinner on January 18 and bringing back some of the most beloved specials over the years. Favorites like clam pizza, the original beet salad, dry-aged steaks, and almond bread pudding, a dessert so delicious regulars used to wait all year for it. Requests for reservations may be made here.
And read on for an in-depth Q&A with Beerens about Lampo’s decade of success.