Simon Davidson

Don asked me to post something about Charlottesville, and I’m happy to help. I have lived here in the Charlottesville area for years, and it is an outstanding food town, to which I love to bring attention. We have excellent breweries, wineries, cideries, farms, butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, patisseries, coffee-houses, chocolatiers, markets, gelato, and yes, restaurants. At the risk of self-promotion, IMHO, your best place to start for restaurants is The Charlottesville 29, my website about Charlottesville food and drink. Among other things, it answers the question: if there were just 29 restaurants in Charlottesville, what would be the ideal 29? For those restaurants, it includes ordering guides, with recommendations from the chef of the restaurant as well as from other chefs and food personalities around town. I also write for C-VILLE weekly, and there is some stuff there that’s not on the site, including perspectives on Charlottesville restaurants of guests who have joined me at meals for articles, like Roberto Donna, Tom Sietsema, and more. Most of what is on the site speaks for itself, but there is one restaurant I had intended to single out in this initial post for its excellence: The Alley Light. Unfortunately, the outstanding chef just left, so I won’t spend as much time writing about it here until I've visited under his successor. In short, before leaving, Jose De Brito had been cooking in the zone. Really spectacular cooking that rivaled any I’ve had in the country. It was a 2015 James Beard semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant in the country, and De Brito was a 2016 semi-finalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. I don’t travel nearly as much as I once did, but I and others agree that Jose’s food held up well against food of top restaurants in other cities. I recently did a food tour of D.C. (Fiola Mare, Rose’s Luxury, The Dabney, Bad Saint, Convivial, Casa Luca, Rasika, and more), and nowhere did I find cooking that exceeded the quality of Jose’s. Unfortunately, he has left, and his talented sous chef has taken over. With his departure, I should mention that The Ivy Inn, where two time James Beard semi-finalist Angelo Vangelopoulos cooks, is also excellent, if not as ambitious as The Alley Light. In this post, though, the place I’ll focus on is one that has received less attention outside Charlottesville. Perhaps the hottest place in town is Lampo. Lampo is a Neapolitan pizza restaurant opened in late 2014 by four guys from Tavola, a place beloved in Charlottesville for ingredient-driven Italian food. Two Amys was a big inspiration for the Lampo owners, and when they opened, trying to match the quality of somewhere like Two Amys struck me as awfully ambitious for a tiny little place in Charlottesville by four guys who had never seriously cooked pizza. But, they studied hard, practiced, and received lots of input from Ettore Rusciano, of Menomale, a talented and knowledgeable pizza maker, who also happens to be a really nice guy. Just over a year in, I’d say they’ve already matched the quality of Two Amys, if not exceeded it. It doesn’t hurt that they are passionate and talented, too. Yes, the pizzas are very good. One VPN representative called Lampo’s pizza the best he had ever had in the U.S – even better than Pizzeria Bianco. (I’ve never had Pizzeria Bianco, so I cannot opine.) But, much of the great stuff is elsewhere on the menu, or not on the menu at all. A special of General Tso’s Sweetbreads was stunning – the 2015 Dish of the Year. Their panouzzi (sandwiches) are outstanding. When you order one, they start making the bread – an oval of pizza dough that is puffed and charred in less than 90 seconds. Their signature filling is porchetta, which the aforementioned Jose de Brito and several other chefs called the best thing they ate all year. Also great is the muffaletta, with house-made giardinera, and the spicy vegetable sandwich with hot peppers. Stellar charcuterie and cheese, too. And, a wine and cocktail program to match the quality of everything else. If there are any knocks on the place, one is that perhaps not everyone in D.C. will find it destination-worthy. This style of restaurant has become a strength of D.C’s, so some may hesitate to travel 100 miles for it. That being said, I doubt you’ll be able to match the charming feel of the place anywhere in D.C. Charlottesville is good at that. Second, it is tiny. About 20 indoor seats (more outside when weather permits). And no reservations. This means there is a line just about every night. (“Stand in a line for a tiny restaurant? – I don’t need to leave D.C. for that!”). OK, that’s it for me. Holler if I can help with Charlottesville. Cheers, Simon