There’s nothing better, from a hard-core investigative reporter’s point of view, than when a story justâ¦appears. Out for a leisurely Friday night in Scottsville recently, Restaurantarama stumbled across not one but two breaking developments in that town’s dining scene, which seems to churn along as frothily as the nearby James River.
There’s nothing better, from a hard-core investigative reporter’s point of view, than when a story justâ¦appears. Out for a leisurely Friday night in Scottsville recently, Restaurantarama stumbled across not one but two breaking developments in that town’s dining scene, which seems to churn along as frothily as the nearby James River.
Brothers Dan and Charles Epstein are the friendly faces behind the counter at Eppie’s, which opened on the Downtown Mall at the end of April. Dan says the Mall location is “perfect for what we want to do.” Namely, “to provide counter service at reasonable prices really quickly.”
The thing about Charlottesville is that it thinks it’s pretty important.
Last week we brought you news of Southern Culture’s new stewards, Christian Kelly and Peter Castiglione (formerly of the Clifton Inn and Zocalo, respectively). They’re set to reopen Southern, with a different name, later this year. This week, we shuffle over to Southern’s next-door neighbor, Blue Bird Café, which-hough it certainly hasn’t closedâis nonetheless shaking things up a bit. In a bid to re-energize, owners Brent Pye and Chuck Hancher have hired a new chef, Roderick Lee, and are planning some menu changes.
The first time this Northerner ordered iced tea in a restaurant south of the Mason-Dixon, we didn\’t understand the funny looks from other diners when we stirred in a spoonful of sugar. One sip made it clear: This was sweet tea, and the sugaring had already been done. Now, for some there\’s just a little too much sweet in sweet tea.
Any “Brady Bunch” groupie will fondly remember Sam the Butcher, Alice’s longtime boyfriend, who took her on bowling dates and kept the Bradys well supplied with his best cuts of meat.
It\’s been around a month and a half since Restaurantarama first detected a certain lovely smell wafting across the Downtown Mall.
As I was looking back and reminiscing on the websites I\’ve pushed on people in the year since I began professionally pushing websites, I was shocked and appalled to realize that while I\’ve waxed poetic about some of the most random websites that the wacky World Wide Web has to offer, I\’ve neglected to praise some of the most obvious.
Attention, pig lovers! Long an isolated mainstay way out on East Market Street, Jinx’s Pit’s Top is set to make an entrance on the Downtown scene. You may have noticed that the Downtown Mall kiosk has been bursting with flowers in recent weeks, thanks to the entrepreneurship of Betty Jo Dominick. Any day now, Jinx Kern will be supplying her with boxed barbecue lunches schlepped over from his tiny original location.
The pork will be tucked amongst the blooms during the noon hour, and also at dinnertime on Fridays After 5. For $6, says Jinx, you’ll get a barbecue sandwich, along with coleslaw and some cucumber saladâ”both of which we’re rather famous for,” he notes.
Jinx says this is the first toehold in a long-term plan for Downtown Jinxifica-tion. “I hope ultimately not just to be up there by proxy, but to have my own place on the Mall,” he says. We’ll lobby for seating when that day finally comes.
We love reader recipe requests around here, and we hate to disappoint loyal fans. So, when a reader asked us to “track down the absolutely delicious red pepper sauce from Sticks and publish it for the benefit of everyone’s taste buds,” we immediately placed a call to busy restaurateur Bill Hamilton. Not only is Hamilton co-owner of the Preston and Pantops Sticks locations, but he also oversees, with his wife, Kate, their eponymous establishment on the Downtown Mall. While Hamilton was incredibly gracious and willing to share a recipe with us, the red pepper sauce was, unfortunately, a bit too top-secret for that. He did choose a fine substitute, however, that also has red pepper as an ingredient: Sticks’ Grilled Vegetable Gazpacho. “This soup is very popular, and seasonally appropriate,” Hamilton tells us. It’s also easy and delicious, as well.’Pam Jiranek