The Charlottesville 29

08/30/2019

Five Finds on Friday: Rachel Snogles

Rachel

Today’s Five Finds on Friday come from Rachel Snogles, GM of Kama, the new Japanese restaurant at Violet Crown, whose Grand Opening is this weekend. A preview of Kama is here. Snogles’ picks:

1) Linguine Alla Carbonara at Tavola. “The quality of the pasta and attention to flavors in each dish are impeccable. Every pasta I’ve had has been fantastic, but a particular favorite is the linguine alla carbonara. Takes me back to Italy with every bite.”

2) Seven Hills Beef Tartare in The Coat Room at Brasserie Saison. “Whenever my family and I want a special night where we don’t have to think about making decisions, we always go to The Coat Room. They take it out of our hands and send food and drinks that suit our mood, though we always get the steak tartare with grilled oyster aioli when it is on the menu.”

3) Croque Madame at brunch at Commonwealth Restaurant. “I love brunch and rarely get to go, so when I do I want somewhere that does more than just bacon and eggs. At Commonwealth they nail it from classics like Eggs Benedict with Surryano ham to something more unique like the Dutch pancake with citrus chive marscapone with macerated berries. A personal favorite is the croque madame with the runny egg and delicious bechamel. It’s perfect for when I cannot decide between lunch and dinner.”

4) Margherita Pizza at Lampo. “When it comes to wanting more than just a slice of pizza, Lampo is an obvious choice. A perfect crust makes the margherita pizza a treat every time. Save space for their cheese selection too.”

5) Pastry from MarieBette. “Whether I am craving a canele, a chocolate almond croissant or simply want some good bread, MarieBette never disappoints. It takes all my self control to not be there daily.”

lampopizza

08/29/2019

Introducing Kama

“I’ve never been more excited about opening a restaurant.”

That’s a big claim from someone with a resume like Will Richey, who has launched some of Charlottesville’s most beloved eateries. But to be fair, he says this every time.

This is not to accuse Richey of insincerity. Richey genuinely loves creating new restaurants, and is never more excited than about the next one. Plus, Richey’s projects are worthy of excitement. From conception to execution, no one has delivered as many stellar, novel food concepts to Charlottesville.

His latest is his most unusual yet: an “improvised Japanese” restaurant in a movie theater. Kama celebrates its grand opening this weekend at Violet Crown. Unusual as it may be, Kama has the bones of a place that could rival Richey’s past hits like Brasserie Saison and The Alley Light, a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in the country.

The Origin

Props belong to Bill Banowsky, the Austin-based owner of theater mini-chain Violet Crown, with locations in Austin, Santa Fe, and Charlottesville. Eschewing the cookie-cutter food offerings of many theaters, Banowsky wanted to do something different at Violet Crown. And, he had the good sense to contact Richey, whom he offered full creative license to overhaul the theater’s restaurant.

As luck would have it, Richey had recently been in discussions about working with chef Peter Robertson of Côte-Rôtie – three-time winner of Charlottesville’s Best Food Truck. “I liked Peter immediately,” Richey said. “Within minutes of meeting him, you know that he is a no nonsense, straight shooting guy who knows his craft.” But, after trial runs at two of Richey’s restaurants, Robertson told Richey that his heart was really set on a dream of opening a Japanese restaurant, rather than any of Richey’s existing places.

This conversation sprung to mind months later as Richey toured the Violet Crown space with Banowsky. “As we stood in the dining room, I couldn’t help but notice the clean and simple lines, and a large fabric print with a duck pattern on it on the back wall,” Richey said. “This made me think of an Asian influenced restaurant, which made me think of my conversation with Peter.” Richey contacted Roberston, who leaped at the opportunity – and they were off and running.

The Space

Richey’s role was to design, build, and staff the restaurant, and Richey beams about the team who helped execute his vision. “The chefs and restaurant people often get all the glory,” Richey said, “but the very talented artisans in our area who build these restaurants deserve every bit as much credit.”

For design, Richey called on architect Stephanie Williams, who helped design Prime 109. “Our goal was to design a cohesive aesthetic that was respectful to the existing theater architecture,” said Williams. “We employed mainly darker neutral colors with shou sugi ban (Japanese burnt wood) accents and added pops of bold color.” KB contractors did the build-out, and Lost Mountain Woodcraft handled wood finishes, bar and table tops.

The result? “The restaurant came out far better then I had imagined it could,” Richey said. “It is beautiful – an elegant place to repose in.”

Photo by Kristen Finn

Photo by Kristen Finn

Photo by Kristen Finn

Photo by Kristen Finn

The Chef

Côte-Rôtie fans will be thrilled that Richey has given a brick-and-mortar home to Robertson. Even from a tiny food truck kitchen, the Culinary Institute of America graduate and former owner of an acclaimed Hamptons restaurant was already one of the most creative chefs in Charlottesville. Now that he has a full kitchen, all kinds of new equipment, and a expanded budget for exotic ingredients, look out.

“Bigger kitchen, new toys, and top tier ingredients, like Japanese uni, are what make this job fun,” says Robertson.

Aside from brief stints helping to launch two Charlottesville restaurants, Robertson has worked for no one but himself and his wife since 2006. So, while reporting to a boss may be an adjustment, Robertson actually cites the chance to work with Richey as one of the reasons he took the job. “His ability to problem solve creatively is something I really admire and enjoy being a part of,” said Robertson. “Building restaurants is extremely stressful but also incredibly gratifying, so the opportunity to learn from Wilson [Richey] was a big part of me taking this job.”

The Food

Improvised Japanese is how Robertson describes the menu of primarily small plates, with a few larger options as well. Why “improvised”? Well, as much as Robertson has eaten, cooked, and studied Japanese cuisine, he has never actually been to Japan or trained under a Japanese chef. “We are basically trying to cook the food we love with as much respect and honor to the cuisine that has inspired us,” says Robertson, who regularly included riffs on Japanese food in his truck’s ever-changing menu.

And yet, despite the bigger kitchen and new toys to play with, Robertson says that the beauty of Japanese cuisine is keeping it simple: “taking great ingredients and manipulating them as little as possible.” King Salmon Teriyaki, for example, is simply grilled over wood and served with steamed rice and bok choy.

That said, there are manipulations, too. Ever heard of tsukudani? Here’s how it works. Start with kombu, a type of seaweed most commonly used to make dashi, the stock for many Japanese soups and noodle dishes. For tsukudani, Robertson takes leftover kombu from making dashi, slices it thinly, and slowly simmers it again in shoyu, mirin, and red rice wine vinegar. The result he uses as an umami-rich garnish for a trio of sashimi.

When pressed for personal menu favorites, Robertson balked. “The menu changes almost every day so typically the new dishes are what I’m excited about,” said Robertson. “We get fish and different produce almost every day, and it’s those products that excite me.” During the soft opening period, Robertson says, guests really seemed to enjoy Kama’s handmade udon, noodles made from a dough with organic flour, which is kneaded for a long time to give it its chewy texture. The noodles are served in broths of locally sourced beef and pork, and topped with a local egg.

Sous chef David Morgan, who was Executive Chef of Tavern & Grocery before cooking at Prime 109, sounds like a kid in a candy store in his new environment.”I’m just excited to be learning a new cuisine and techniques,” said Morgan. “And I love that we are working with the best ingredients available,” like Bluefin otoro from Spain, kanpachi from Hawaii, uni from Japan, and wild king salmon from Washington.

Photo by Alicia Walsh-Noel.

Photo by Alicia Walsh-Noel.

Photo by Alicia Walsh-Noel.

Photo by Alicia Walsh-Noel.

The Bar

Manning the bar is Mike Stewart, a Nick Crutchfield protege who got is break at age 25 when, as an electrician looking for a career change, responded to a Craiglist ad for a new Charlottesville restaurant called Commonwealth. Looking back, he can hardly believe his luck in stumbling upon a mentor like Crutchfield. “25 is a late start to make a career shift from tradesman to barman and really could have only been facilitated by a talented-beyond-belief mentor and friend like Nick,” said Stewart. “I soaked up every bit of knowledge I could from him, and got hooked on the quest for knowledge, history, tradition and all of the wonderful things that make being behind the bar a great privilege.”

Photo by Alicia Walsh-Noel.

At Kama, Stewart says, his focus is hospitality. “Passion without pretentiousness is contagious,” said Stewart, whose main aim is that everyone feel welcome, not intimidated. A novice in Japanese food and culture, Stewart has enjoyed being a student again, learning a new cuisine, and how to build a bar program around it. “I’ve taken everything I have learned and adapted it,” said Stewart. “Like notes in music, the tradition of crafting a cocktail is the same. With those notes you can play blues, jazz, country or whatever. That’s how I’ve approached this new palate of flavors.”

Take the “Tokyo” – a blend of a Boulevardier and Manhattan, with Japanese inspiration – combining the “familiar with the unfamiliar.” Stewart blends Suntory Toki Whisky, Aperol, Cocchi Rosa, grapefruit bitters, and St. Elizabeth allspice dram. His favorite way to serve it is two versions side-by-side – one made fresh and the other aged for 28 days in a charred oak barrel, where, he says, flavors become a well-rounded sum of their parts.

On the left, a barrel-aged Tokyo. On the right, an un-aged Tokyo:

Kama’s Grand Opening is this Saturday, August 31. The restaurant is located at 200 West Main St, in Violet Crown. Hours are 5 – 10 pm, Wednesday through Sunday. Reservations here.

08/26/2019

Never for Money, Always for Love: The Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions Create One Million Meals for the Hungry

Revisedcheck

The results are in. Proceeds from The 2019 Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank total $255,421, enough to create more than one million meals for our area’s hungry.

Credit for this total belongs to the restaurants of The Charlottesville 29, which offered once-in-a-lifetime experiences in a series of online auctions that began in June and ended last week. Because restaurants donated the offerings in their entirety, auction winners simply made donations to the food bank in the amounts of their winning bids.

A common question during the auctions was: “How did you get the restaurants to do this?” It’s an understandable question. The dining experiences were incredible. A celebration dinner for 30. A holiday party for 50. Epic wine feasts. A pizza oven built at your house. And more. So, how? Here’s how.

I asked them.

That’s it.

If you want to begin to comprehend the heart of the Charlottesville restaurant community, consider that I did not twist anyone’s arm. No bribes. No threats to publish compromising photographs. I just asked.

“Will you donate once-in-a-lifetime experiences to help feed the area’s hungry?”

Yes we will.

As I reflected on how that happened, and how the offerings became so extraordinary, I kept coming back to the fundamental rule of restaurants that I have taken away from my years writing about food. That rule is this:

There are only two kinds of restaurants in the world: those with love, and all the rest.

Usually, it is easy to tell the difference. If the people who run a restaurant have a genuine love of hospitality – of taking care of people – you will know it from the food, from the service, from the entire experience. If their primary motivation is something else — say money — none of these things is likely to feel the same, at least not over time.

Never for Money, Always for Love

Without exception, all of the restaurants in The 2019 Charlottesville Restaurant Auctions are the kind with love. A love to feed. A love to take care of people. Never for money, always for love.

That love was the lifeblood of the auctions. And as the love spread, a theme emerged: kindness is contagious.

What made the spread of restaurants’ kindness all the more amazing is that restaurants’ margins are so small. Most restaurants struggle just to survive. Back in 2016, the only other year of The Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions, when I first asked restaurants to submit their experiences, one restaurant offered dinner for two people, with no alcohol or gratuity. I thanked them for their generosity. Despite tiny margins, restaurants receive endless solicitations for fundraisers, and I appreciated the restaurant’s kindness in offering dinner for two.

A few weeks later, I received an email from the restaurant’s owner. He explained that he had seen some of the other restaurants’ auction experiences, and would like to upgrade his own. I again thanked him for his generosity. Another week passed, and I received another email from the owner, again upgrading the auction experience, this time to a massive all-inclusive group dinner. And indeed, in this year’s auctions, the restaurant’s experience was so over-the-top that it received one of the largest bids of all.

This is just one example of how the contagious nature of restaurants’ kindness grew the auctions into something greater than ever imagined. Time and again, the kindness of one inspired the kindness of another, and then another, and then another. Watermark Design donated design services and more. After UVa’s Dr. Larry Sabato came up just short in winning MarieBette’s experience for his staff, MarieBette offered another one. Blenheim Vineyards, already a donor of wine to one restaurant’s experience, won the auction of another, to throw a party for vineyard staff. A group of husbands won the Zocalo auction as a gift to their wives for ladies’ night out. Duner’s amazing Holiday Party for 50 went to the widow of Duner himself, for $6,000. Public Fish & Oyster expanded an already extravagant Lobster Bake of Your Dreams, generating even higher bids. And finally, Charlottesville’s top food and drink artisans created a food court at Prime 109 for a reception to honor the generosity of the restaurants, with ticket sales generating nearly $10,000 for the food bank. For the event, Brian Helleberg, who had already donated stunning auction experiences for his restaurants Fleurie and Petit Pois, bought ten $100 tickets to share with friends, family, staff.

Even after the auctions, the generosity continued. Sussex Farm offered a second auction experience for its runner-up, while Bodo’s and UVa Men’s Basketball coach Tony Bennett did the same.

Daily Rewards

One of my great rewards in running the auctions is that every day for two months I witnessed manifestations of the restaurants’ love. One regular instance was bids, which arrived to my email daily. “I’d like to place a bid for $5,000 on the Brasserie Saison Auction.” Boom, another 20,000 meals for the area’s hungry. Among the flurry of life’s responsibilities, what a boost of spirits these daily interruptions brought.

Another was the raffle for an entire year of Bodo’s. The web platform for ticket sales offered the option to receive an email notification for every ticket purchase, but advised against these notifications, so as to avoid excess emails. Excess emails?! Who would not want to know about donations to the food bank? I received a total of 316 of these emails – each one another gift for our area’s hungry.

One Million Meals

The Charlottesville 29 answers: if there were just 29 restaurants in Charlottesville, what would be the ideal 29? After completing the initial list in 2016, I asked each restaurant in the 29 if they would create a special experience for a series of online auctions for the food bank. Thrilled that they all said yes, I set a goal of $29,000, which at the time seemed ambitious and a major “ask” of restaurants.

Fast forward three years, and, the second iteration of The Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions has yielded more than $255,000, creating more than one million meals for the area’s hungry.

Nearly as impressive as this figure is the total amount of costs the food bank incurred in raising that sum: zero. The food bank’s income statement for the auctions would show $255,421 in revenue and $0 in expenses. Restaurants’ generosity was so inspiring that anytime we needed anything — promotional materials, event space, food, wine, etc. — vendors happily offered it at their own expense. And, this is why the signatory of the check representing the total benefit to the food bank is not just the restaurants of The Charlottesville 29, but “The Charlottesville Food Community” itself.

One millions meals from The Charlottesville Food Community to our area’s hungry.

A roll call of the generous contributors is below. To show your own appreciation for their effort, please donate to the food bank here and indicate that your donation is in honor of The Charlottesville 29 auctions. Thank you, Charlottesville.

Afton Mountain Vineyards (wine and facility for Brasserie Saison auction)
Albemarle Baking Co. (food for Prime 109 reception)
Autumn Olive Farms (facility and equipment for Petit Pois auction)
Blanc Creatives (assistance with Lampo auction)
Blenheim Vineyards (wine for Sultan Kebab auction and Prime 109 reception)
Brewing Tree Beer Company (beer for Duner’s auction; beer and facility for BBQ Exchange auction)
Caromont Farm (food for Prime 109 reception)
Champion Brewing Company (make your own beer for Beer Run auction, and beer for Prime 109 reception)
Early Mountain Vineyards (wine for MarieBette auction)
Elysium Honey Co. (honey for Tavola auction)
Festive Fare (glassware for Prime 109 reception)
Gabrielle Rausse (assistance with Ivy Inn auction)
Gearharts’ Chocolate (chocolate and tour for Hamiltons’ auction, and food for Prime 109 reception)
Ian’s Creations (videography for Prime 109 reception)
In Vino Veritas (wine for Peter Chang auction)
Jefferson Vineyards’ (wine for Zocalo auction)
Jeremiah Langhorne (assistance with Ivy Inn auction)
JM Stock Provisions (auction experience and food for Prime 109 reception)
Justin Ide (photography for Prime 109 reception)
Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen (auction experience and food for Prime 109 reception)
Lovingston Winery (wine and facility for Fleurie auction)
Luca Paschina (assistance with Ivy Inn auction)
Market Street Wine (wine for Milan action)
Michael Shaps Wineworks (wine for Prime 109 reception)
Monticello Media (public service announcement advertisements)
Monticello Wine Tour & Coach Co. (transportation for Brasserie Saison auction)
North American Sake Brewery (sake for Pad Thai auction)
Paradox Pastry (auction experience and food for Prime 109 reception)
Pollak Vineyards (wine for Duner’s auction)
Potter’s Craft Cider (cider for Sultan Kebab auction and Prime 109 reception)
Prime 109 (facility, staff, and food for reception)
Reason Beer (beer for Prime 109 reception)
Splendora’s Gelato (food for Prime 109 reception)
Sussex Farm (auction experience and food for Prime 109 reception)
SYSCO (napkins for Prime 109 reception)
T&N Printing (posters, auction signs, symbolic check)
Tom McGovern Photography (photo’s for Ivy Inn auction)
Tony Bennett (time for Bodo’s auction)
Virginia Distillery Company (whisky and glasses for Hamiltons’ auction)
Watermark Design (logo, coasters, posters, auction signs)
The Wine Guild (wine for Pad Thai auction)