The Charlottesville 29

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.

Q&A With Lampo Co-Owner Mitchell Beerens

Q. What was your initial vision for Lampo? 

A. We really wanted to root ourselves in Belmont. We had been working in that community for years and all of us lived in Belmont at the time. I think the world of Charlottesville and expressing my creativity in this industry will be my life’s work but I think Lampo was truly a love letter to the Belmont neighborhood specifically. I’ve never been associated with a restaurant that had so many customers that walk rather than drive. I’d wager that 50% or more of our business comes from the Downtown Belmont neighborhood. They’ve shown us so much love over the years, and it’s has been truly life changing. I’d like to reflect as much as I can back, for as long as they’ll have it.

Q. What does it mean to you to reach ten years? 

A. Ten years means everything to me. I worked for a very talented restaurateur during the Great Recession. He successfully captained the ship as we made it through the storm and eventually brought things back to “normal”. Payroll always went through and no one got laid off. That seemed to me to be the worst situation a restaurant could possibly go through. I figured that I had witnessed the impossible. He was brave and made sure we were all taken care of. I didn’t realize at the time that I was learning a lesson that would help me when I had my own business. The Covid 19 lockdown caused a tidal wave to run through the middle of the industry. So many talented people lost everything. We had to close down a steakhouse that we had recently opened and we were unsure if Lampo was going to suffer the same fate. We put our heads together and brainstormed ideas on how to stay operational. Most importantly, how would we do so while being safe to the customer and still provide for the staff that was furloughed. The community showed up in a major way. All tips were distributed amongst the whole staff, furloughed and all. 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. All of this is to say that we probably weren’t supposed to make it to 10 years. Part of me thinks we definitely weren’t supposed to. But the community stepped in and together we got through it. They reversed our fortunes and the fortunes of our entire staff. Lampo didn’t reach 10 years. Belmont did.

Q. What are your plans for the future? 

A. No plans. Oh dear god no plans! We have been content running operations as they are. We now own the building that Lampo is in and the one next to it. We do private events there and have a small bar to catch our own overflow on busy nights. Having Bar Baleno be just as accessible and beloved by the community as its neighborhood event space would be my personal focus but we are gonna let it grow organically. No set plans or anything like that. Just fairly priced, approachable, with yummy food and drinks. That’s kind of been our recipe for success so far. We also have a to-go location in IX Art Park. It was a byproduct of lockdown and it has served us so well as a commissary kitchen for Lampo OG and the events at Bar Baleno. We have developed a little system that allows us to reach as many people in our community as possible and we are happy fine tuning that machine for the time being. We definitely have ideas for the future but as for right now I’m just enjoying the company of our customers and our staff, spending less time cooking on the line and more time getting closer to them. It’s crazy how much the lockdown changed my ideas of what is important in my life and career. I’m content with the slow down in ambition and I think it is for the best.

Q. What does the Charlottesville food community mean to you? 

A. I moved here when I was 14 years old. I had never felt like I belonged anywhere, ever in my entire life. I have known that I wanted to be a chef since I was like 6 years old. The level of food that was being served in this city in the early 2000s, when I started to get serious about the craft, punched so far above its weight class. It cracked open a sleeping section of my mind. I jumped in, wide-eyed with curiosity, all these new ingredients that I had never cooked with before or even heard of like black truffles, chèvre, even that curly kale that I thought was only for decoration on buffets. These things weren’t so commonplace back then as they are now. My curiosity brought me into the fold but the people are what made me stay. A bunch of brilliant pirate types. Super smart but slightly dangerous. Sometimes hard to approach but full of love and seeking what I was seeking. Acceptance. They accepted me as I was. That was the first time it had ever happened. I’ve never even considered going anywhere else. This is my home and the industry is my family.