johnl

Yup! Thanks for the help. It was pretty damn good.

Dear P. I'm unfamiliar with the scene in R'mond. Many years ago (1990s?), I knew of a place called "The Frog and the Toad" that was opened in downtown in the old tobacco district. A guy whom I knew from C'ville, Adam (as a wine merchant) ran the front of the house; "the Frog" was a French chef who had moved to Richmond from one of the golf resort places at the Virginia-West Virginia border. I think we took my uncle and aunt for their 50th anniversary and Adam prepared a menu honoring them: No prices, their names woven into the document, etc. It was quite good. But, I've just not kept up with things in the Fan, downtown, or the west end. I'd welcome an education, though I don't get to Richmond often enough to dine well. My aunt (not blood) is going on 99 and her diet is shot, to say nothing of her sparkling dinner conversation. Sigh.

Tacos? Did someone mention tacos in C'ville? Brazos in the north end of the old Ix Building (925 2nd St SE) is putting out pretty good ones. So far I've had "yammy," "woody," and "flora." Pick your tortilla. They're smallish, so you can get lots of different ones. Breakfast, brunch, and lunch only at this time.

I don't speak it, but I do eat it!

Don has it right. It's $16. To see how the board represents the number seven, look at the cost of the marinated anchovies in the "snacks" section at the upper left of the photo. We got out of there after three hours with everything included (save what the kitchen sent us gratis) for ~$65/person. JohnL

Saturday night I got to go to La Michoacana, which is still my fave place for Mexican food in C'ville. It's tiny. It's not in the midst of any of the hot dining spots. You have to order at the counter. You assemble your own setup. You wait for and take your own food to your table. The food is fab. David Hawkins's Cville Weekly article from February of 2015 got it right. I skipped the things on the pretty extensive menu and had the shrimp special as a platter (there was a burrito option). The specials board is easy to miss; you have to look toward the kitchen, past the cash register, for a small white board. Don't search for fancy writing. We sat outside on the slope-y "patio" (former parking spaces) that made our plates slide downhill along the surface of the metal tables and, with traffic whizzing by, we tucked into our dinners, gobbling everything"”especially the house-made tortillas. Since Mr. Hawkins's article, La Michoacana has added an ABC license. I had a beer and a couple of folks had special-order margaritas, about which they had lot of good things to say. For conversation, we lamented the passing of El Tepeyac, a pretty good Mexican-Salvadoran place in northern Charlottesville. But we all agreed that this was really a good place. And, then there's the value: Five people with drinks and dollars in the tips jar = ~$90?

Table for six at The Alley Light on Friday 8 May 2015. Will Richey pulled together two round tops between the entrance and the right end of the bar. He suggested a nice Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc blend for those of us who were drinking wine. Jose De Brito sent a plate of Artichoke Carpaccio to the table very shortly after we were seated. We ate a lot from the specials board as well as a few things from the regular menu (e.g., the seafood board), passing around the dishes. There were lots of and repeated enthusiastic comments about the food. Here's a photo of the specials board (I hope readers can enlarge to see the detail). In addition to the excellent artichoke dish and the seafood board, at least these items made it to our table: Morels & poached egg on toast Baked mussels Simple salad Roasted Cod Duck breast (I skipped) Seafood risotto There were meat things happening at the other end of the tables I missed, I'm pretty sure.... Then there were desserts.

In Porto: Eat at Five Oceans. It's on the west side near the statues of the women calling for the men who have been lost at sea. Explore the places that are just one block back from the river and near the bridge. Tiny and way less expensive than those along the chai, but often delightful

Notes from dinner 22 March 2015 at the Ivy Inn where the chef is Angelo Vangelopoulos (James Beard Semifinalist). Pat and I dined at the Ivy Inn. We were treated graciously and had our picks from an extensive menu. The Inn was pretty busy for a Sunday night. We were seated in the downstairs dining room at a nice corner two-top. From the menu (see similar menu) Pat had two apps (wild mushroom minestrone and black mission fig toasts) while I settled for an app and a salad (grilled broccolini and the bibb lettuce salad). These were complex, inventive dishes that begged me to taste them in bits, deconstructing what had been assembled. They were delicious in the whole and in parts. For entrees, Pat had a pasta (sweet potato ravioli) and I had a sautéed flounder. The ravioli came with sautéed spinach, Portobello 'shrooms, and Mascarpone cream. The Flounder came with fennel, tomato, white wine sauce over local greens and tiny-kernal rice. These, too, were quite delicious. The Flounder, especially, was beautifully composed. For deserts, Pat had some chocolate something and I had a cheese board with Port. Nice selection of local and other cheeses. Portions were not large, but sufficient. The service was definitely not formal and surely less than intrusive. Rather than being offered things, we had to ask a couple of times. The two of us had a very nice four-course meal with wines for under $200 including tip. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Mr. Vangelopoulos is one of several C'ville folks who have been invited to cook at the James Beard House in NYC or acknowledged by JBF (others: Alex Montiel, who cooked at The Boar's Head and now has Cocina del Sol, Tim Burgess and Vincent Derquenne, who have Bizou and Bang!, and Jose who is now at Alley Light).

Our fave: La Michoacana, is a little place that seats maybe 24 and does a vibrant take-out business. It's a family biz. Sometimes the early adolescent daughter, whose English is among the best of the family, takes orders at the register. Wonderfully friendly folks who offer authentic dishes with great specials in addition to lots of on-menu dishes. Just recently (2014), there's even a liquor license, but most folks will want Mexican beer. No credit cards, but the prices are so reasonable, you will not need them.

I have been going through CLT several times a year for many years,especially since UsedAir stopped using Pittsburgh as an important hub. About the only place I buy food stuffs other than coffee there is Jamba Juice. It's between the walks between the D and E concourses and the C concourse. CLT

Pat, Corey, and I went to the AL in C'vllle tonight (8 March 2015). I followed Pat into the alley and, even though it was daylight and she's been there several times, she dang near walked into the kitchen entrance. Do not take the external stairs! Turn into the door to your left before you get to the external stairs. We were seated at a high-top for four near the right-most end of the bar (#17, I think; numbering starts with the 2-tops nearest the chalkboard). The menu featured lots of interesting looking choices (oh, to eat animals of the land). Jose has pushed ham and bacon into a lot of the fish dishes, so I was a bit limited. We had lots of good things, though I only sampled some of them. The carrot app was wonderful. My tablemates really liked their foie gras and the roasted marrow with escargot. I enjoyed the seafood board. One of us ordered the hazelnut macaron praline parfait for dessert (it was huge) and I shared a cheese board with our daughter. No complaints. We were there for three hours and no one hustled us along.

I don't think that I mentioned that Pat and I had dinner with four friends at the C&O here in Hookville in late February 2015. We were seated in the mezzanine, near the large stove at the entrance and, because it was a chilly night, that was nice. I don't know if there was a seating upstairs in the "formal" dining area, but there were things happening in the bistro space downstairs (a long-time favorite space). In the spring, summer, and fall, the outside space is nice, but it was not a good choice in the 25-degree weather when we dined there. When we moved to C'ville in the late '70s, the C&O was one of the two only reasonably good places to dine. Other than steak-and-chops places, you would go to diners and dives or the C&O or the Gas Light. The Gas Light is gone. The C&O has been through many variations since then, but it has maintained standards for pretty good quality. Sure, there's been variation. Recently, though, Dean Maupin took it over from Dave Simpson (Dave died a couple of years ago) and it's taking on a new menu and style. Dean Maupin has an extraordinary history in the local food scene, as documented by The Hook. And the food we had on our recent visit merits high regard. Mr. Maupin has maintained the old C&0 veg soup and it still seems to have the mystery ingredients (soy or tamari?). We had some Yukon Gold potato ravioli that had wonderful flavors and textures as another app (I had the French Onion Soup sauce held, because the helpful waitron said, "Oh...there's stock in that, John. Skip it. The kitchen can work with you."--but I bet the flavors would have been even more interesting with it included). The Brussels Sprouts app was wonderful, too, as was the warmed Artichoke Hearts. We did have entrées, too. I had a filet of salmon with shrimp that had a mixed spicy and tart sauce. (I see that the current menu is Roasted Arctic Char and Grilled Shrimp with a tamarind-ginger relish," avocado salad; sounds very similar). Very good, though I asked that the kitchen send it out as rare as the health department would allow, and it came out pretty much medium well. Stuff keeps cooking, you know. (Though I didn't say anything, I can predict the subtle notes: Kitchen blames the wait staff. Wait staff blames the kitchen. Most folks have heard it before.) It still was good. Our friend Elaine, who is no longer there, built a wonderful wine list. Don't be afraid to ask for the premium list, just for a look. It's fun. We stuck with a couple of bottles of good Sancere. Great deserts! Sheesh, we were there for more than 3.5-4 hours.

I had lunch for the third time at the Oakhurst Inn yesterday. It's right where Emmett dumps into JPA as JPA, coming north turns toward the hospital, so it's just a brief walk from my office. Jeanette Peabody (back to cheffery after a stint making cheese that followed her fabulous run at Billy and Kate Hamiltons' place) and her partner built a new building and converted several houses in the neighborhood into a for-real inn with nice rooms. They converted the first floor of one of the houses into a lovely little eating space. The menu is not extensive, as you can see on the part of the site devoted to dining, but the things I've had (Garden Wheat sandwich and Arugula Salad sans chicken) were flavorful and satisfying. Pleasant wait staff. I think it merits a breakfast test. For folks visiting U.Va. who are not particularly interested in the nightlife of The Corner area, it might be a great choice as a place to stay. There's not much to do for entertainment in the immediate neighborhood, so it would be a car trip for dining"”or use the free trolley that stops across the street and go to the downtown mall. For access to U.Va., one would be within a few 100 meters of the south lawn (much of arts and sciences), engineering, and education.

We had a nice dinner there a few weeks ago. After a few dozen oysters"”most went down friend John's and my gullets', though a few were had by our fabulous dates"”we had quite good plates and really good desserts.

Yep, we like The Local a lot. One can have a lot of fun right there in that little section of Belmont with Tavola, Tomas Rahol's Mas, and The Local all scrunched together within a few steps of each other.

LauraB, thanks. There are lots of good opportunities for dining here in Charlottesville. Many folx visit C'ville for special events (e.g., U.Va. graduation) and just for a quick get-a-way. I'd be happy to contribute what I know from having eaten at many of what I consider to be the best places many times. It'd be great to get DR.com folks' comments about these places in an organized part of the board. In addition, C'ville has garnered recognition from Wine Enthusiast: Top 5 New American Foodie Cities Movoto Real Estate: Most Exciting Place in Virginia Orbitz: Top 5 Destinations Every American Should Visit And a whole batch of others. Now I'm not a travel promoter or any such (just an eater who works at the local industry giant (U.Va.), but I am an advocate for this little 'ville. I'd guess we have as high a ratio of good restaurants per capita as just about anywhere. Sure, it's because we're a little place"”only a coupla-100 thousand.

There's a lot to like in Charlottesville. I'm just going to start a little list and tag it as "Charlottesville" as I go. Can I accomplish that by simply putting the word "Charlottesville" in the body? So, I made notes about Italian over here. I'll start Asian here. (1) Peter Chang landed here for a while, unannounced, as many readers know because folks on this board have documented his moves and popular media folks such Calvin Trillin's New Yorker articles noted them, too. Although we personally learned of his arrival at Taste of China not because of the chatter on DR (before my time), nor Trillin's article (though I've been reading the NYer since the '60s), nor because of Chang's name, but because our daughter said she'd gone to a local Chinese place and had extraordinary food ("Dad, you'll like it, 'cause there's hot things that have flavor, presentation, and all that"); so we went and waited to get a table and it was great...then we got the Trillin article about a week later and realized we'd seen the medals on the wall...went back repeatedly with longer and longer waits and wait staff coming from 90 minutes away. Now there's one of his storefronts here (Barracks Rd Shopping Center North: http://www.peterchang-charlottesville.com). Some of our friends fret about the quality assurance across Mr. Chang's multiple locations. Is it as good as when he oversees the kitchen himself? I dunno, but it's still the best Chinese in this little college town, as far as I'm concerned. (2) My and Hip Fam have a wonderful Viet-Thai place near the U.Va. "Corner" on 14th St. It's called Lemon Grass and one can find it by wandering around the interface between the U.Va. grounds and the neighboring shopping area until one finds a railroad underpass; walk one block east and it's under the parking garage. It's another typically tiny C'ville spot. It's very busy during lunch, because it's popular with the medical school folks. Not expensive, no great wine selection, but very tasty. Lunch and dinner. Closed during typical U.Va. vacations-long holidays. No reservations. The owners are almost always on site and very helpful. (3) Don't miss Now and Zen, just off the Down Town Mall, across from the McGuffy Art Center on 2nd St. NW. or venerable Tokyo Rose in the Ivy Square Shopping Center just west of the University of Virginia area on Ivy Rd.

We are not long on good Italian places in C'ville. I'd nominate two as worth considering. My favorite is Tavola http://tavolavino.com. Like Alley Light, it's another tiny spot, but it doesn't take reservations; go early or be prepared to hang at the bar, and enjoy the wine selection. The other good option is Bella's on W. Main, just across from the (Southern) train station. http://www.bellas-restaurant.com Bella's is in the family-style tradition: servings for two or four. Reservations are possible. I *think* they may both make their own pasta in house. Many local places buy pasta from Jim Winecoff at Mona Lisa Pasta on Preston Avenue. Jim's place is s grocery with a kitchen. He serves soup, pizza, sandwiches, carry-out, and such. He caters. And he sells fresh pasta and sauce. If you need to blow into C'ville and make an instant Italian dinner for someone, you could get pasta cut to order, sauce, good local, bread, and wine all right there. We use his pasta at home several times s month. We now return you to the DC channel....

There isn't a dress code, but an Al Capone look would be fitting!

Earlier today I dropped some observations on one of darkstar965's posts about the Alley Light. Being quite a newb here, I'm still learning my way around. Let me see if I can find it and point folks to it...please hold...still checking.... Ding! Ding! This is a link to my notes. (Sorry if I'm not following protocol in cross-referencing here): ==> http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/topic/46449-the-alley-light-new-england-culinary-grad-chef-jose-de-brito-at-108-2nd-st-sw-in-charlottesville-va/#entry287581 I'd encourage folks to visit, but make reservations. It's a small space. While you're in the 'hood, check out Bizou, Whiskey Jar, Bang, and (a little farther afield) Duners.

Sheesh, nice connection right away! I click on the moderator's ID and see that one of his posts refers to a neighborhood eatery I like. Yes, I have been to the Alleylight several times. It's one of three restaurants that Will (and Lisa) Richey have here in C'ville. The others are Revolutionary Soup (two locations, one just downstairs from the AL and one on 14th St near the U.Va. "Corner") and the Whiskey Jar (just about a block northeast of the AL, on the north end of the downtown mall). Will is also involved in the Charlottesville Wine Guild. The Alleylight's entrance is, indeed, hidden in a little alley off 2nd St. that give it a feel of a speakeasy. Climbing the stairs and entering a door to the small dining area contribute to the sense. Some low, soft chairs form two seating areas looking out the second-floor windows on the left side of the room. On the right end, the bar has space for about a half dozen stools. In between there are tables (I'm guessing here): 3 or 4 2-tops and ~4 4-tops. It's not big. The food is by Jose De Brito. Jose had his own place (Ciboulette) for a while, but he closed it years ago. Folks know he can prepare very distinctive dishes. I do not eat mammal or fowl, so I can't comment on those preparations, but I can say that his fishes and vegetables are outstanding. Wines are good. Cocktails are inventive. Prices are quite reasonable as one can see from the menu at the link provided by darkstar965. Will and Lisa have a small farm outside of C'ville and raise some of the food that is served in their places. It's the real farm-to-table deal. Plan ahead!

Happy to be begin making my way around the site. I'm an an amateur preparer and a big-time consumer. You chefs and owners will be happy to have me walk through the door.