As regular readers know, I have a long affiliation with Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia and now my mother and two of my siblings. In terms of sophistication, Charlottesville has come a long way from what it was like when I first arrived at college more than 35 years ago (there was only one "night club" at the time and restaurants were limited). Now, the city and surrounding Albemarle County have as much going on in terms of arts and culture as far larger cities. True, the area has a lot of New York City, Hollywood and European money - my brother and his wife regularly fox hunt with a German baroness - since it has become fashionable to have a country home in Virginia, but in large measure I believe the liberal and tolerant atmosphere set by the University and non-Virginia natives has fueled much of the transformation. Unfortunately, much of the rest of Virginia has yet to wake up to the fact that diversity and tolerance are key ingrediants for economic and social flowering. As these highlights from today's Washington Post describe, even the restaurant scene is increasingly sophisticated and high quality: *
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Revolutionary Soup looks like your average student joint. A bit grungy but cheerful, with a menu of comforting and, more important, cheap soups and sandwiches. Besides the prices, there's nothing cheap about the food at Rev Soup, as the locals affectionately call it. The tofu in the signature spicy Senegalese peanut soup is organic and local, made just 30 miles away in Louisa. The wheat for the homemade biscuits is grown in Virginia and ground at Byrd Mill in Ashland. And diners can pick from an impressive selection of wine bottles for sale at retail prices -- and then open and drink the wine at one of the cafeteria-style tables at no extra cost. "It hurts my margins," admits chef-owner Will Richey, who worked for five years as a sommelier around town. "But I love the idea of people drinking a nice Burgundy with a paper cup of really good soup."
*
That way of thinking is typical in Charlottesville. And that's why the food here is far better than it should be in a place with about 40,000 year-round residents and 20,000 broke college kids. True, college towns tend to have a disproportionate number of educated, affluent residents, but even by that standard Charlottesville's food scene stands out. In a city best known for Thomas Jefferson's architecture, there's sushi worthy of Nobu in New York (the chef, Bryan Emperor, trained there), rustic but transcendent tapas, plus all the other things a great food town requires: standout bread, real espresso, artisan chocolate and locally brewed beer. The vibrant city farmers market supplies ambitious local chefs and the community, which, thanks to restaurateurs like Richey, is used to food that's a cut above.
*Not everything in Charlottesville is upscale, and that's part of the charm. There are authentically retro diners, the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar (a hippie-esque tea salon) and, my favorite, Timberlake's Drug Store, whose lunch counter seems to have been frozen in time circa 1940. Besides Revolutionary Soup, the best casual food I tried was a few minutes' drive from downtown, in the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Aromas is a bright Moroccan-inspired cafe that opened here in February after eight years in an old cafeteria close to the university. The space, with its warm red walls and bright watercolors of Marrakech, is much improved, by all accounts, but the food remains as always: fast, fresh and undeniably good.
*
Those eateries are just the beginning. Across the board, Charlottesville's food scene is inventive, diverse and brimming with talent. It's enough to give Monticello a run for its money.
No comments:
Post a Comment