Brookville - Charlottesville

I don't know why I neglected to blog about Brookville last time we went, because it was great then and great again this past weekend. Brookville's mantra is about serving locally sourced food. In fact 90% of the menu comes from within 100 miles, which is pretty awesome. The chef tends to prefer anything pig related, so be ready to choose from bacon, pork belly, pork tenderloin or maybe even pig ears, all of which will be delicious. Of course they offer a great wine and beer selection from Virginia as well.

So, last time we went to Brookville they had only been open a few weeks and it was pretty quiet in there. We were a bit worried since it was Friday night, but luckily Cville has pulled through and shown more support for Brookville over the last few months. Commensurately, they've expanded the choices on the menu, though it does remain small. (If you're a picky eater, I would definitely recommend looking at the menu before you go because you only get about 4 entree choices.)  Anyways, on to the food...

For starters we decided to go with some Virginia ham fritters and french fries. The fritters were balls of dough filled with ham and apple, served with dijonaisse dipping sauce and fried. As expected these elements all work great together. Conversely the french fries are nothing you would expect to put together...topped with sausage gravy, foie gras and shaved Parmesan cheese. We decided that there was pretty much no way we could avoid this one. It just sounded too ridiculous a combo, so we decided to jump in. Well we were not disappointed. It was rich (and I'm very glad we shared it 4 ways) but it was delicious. Definitely an omen of the entrees to come.

My husband loves pork belly, so of course he went right for that. It's served with roasted potatoes and apple puree, which was a wonderful balance to the rich pork. For myself, I was intrigued by the burger: 1/2 pound of meat (a blend of hangar, sirloin and bacon - yes, bacon) on a house-made bun with carmelized onions and the option of a fried egg and/or bacon on top (which, of course, I had to do). Here is where I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture...this burger was huge and awesome. Of course I only ate about half of it (my husband was more than happy to finish the other half) but it was the best burger I've ever had, no question. If you're willing to spend the money (this is not a Five Guys burger) it's everything you could ever hope a burger would be.

My one complaint with Brookville remains the lack of vegetables served with the meals. I am a huge vegetable lover and they are so easy to source locally, so it saddens me that they aren't used more prevalently in the dishes. I also hate that they don't have a vegetarian option. I enjoy meat but have plenty of friends who are vegetarians, and I was one myself for nearly a decade, so I always feel it important to have at least one option on the menu and widen your base of customers. Again, just me, your local food-a-holic, putting in her two cents.

Otherwise, go check out Brookville. You'll love the food and you'll truly be supporting the local economy. PS, the album I linked to below is my other love in life in right now (beyond my husband and puppy of course), so check out the Avett Brothers if you haven't before. They are amazing!

Maya - Charlottesville

Maya is one of the restaurants in Charlottesville that I feel like everyone has heard about and should make it to. Instead of being one of the many restaurants focused just on "eat local," it is a "eat local and southern" restaurant.

Just like every good Southern meal, the sides here are really key. So amazing in fact that you can easily do a "sides only" plate and leave full and happy (a great option for vegetarians!). Though I wasn't too impressed with the whipped potatoes (they seemed too prepared, and therefore gluten-y), the collards, butternut squash and biscuits were all amazing. The entree choices are great of course. On the night we went I decided to try the Ragged Mountain trout which came with skin on and was very lightly prepared. My husband had the pork tenderloin with bbq slaw that was so tender and delicious.

I have to say my complaint about our experience at Maya definitely wasn't the food, but it was the service. I am happy that Maya is one of the few places in town that will take reservations. We were sat promptly at 7:30 which was great. However, for some reason our waitress decided we weren't special because we weren't one of the many UVA parent-child-child's friends tables and therefore wouldn't give the money. Too bad for her. Anyways, when I asked if we could have a side of 4 rather than 3 biscuits I was told "Tonight is not the night to bother the kitchen." I was not too happy. In fact I think that she couldn't be bothered. She also mistakenly gave me the wrong side (whipped potatoes vice macaroni and cheese) and was slow to bring our water, wine and take our order. Sadly for Maya I think they need to replace this waitress, because everything that involved other staff was excellent.

In short, I will definitely make a return trip, but I think I will make sure I don't have the same server. For that reason, I'll give it a 3+ star (out of 5), hoping they can take it to a 4 after next time.

Old Mill Room at the Boar's Head Inn - Charlottesville

The Old Mill Room is a AAA four-diamond restaurant, so really this review shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. In short the meal was perfect. From the service to the food, you really can't ask more from a meal. Out of towners from the nation's capital will probably find the meal a steal, but for us in this part of the state dinner at the Old Mill Room is saved for a special occasion, which is how my husband and I happened to enjoy it. Either way, it is definitely a place making sure you visit at least once in your life whether you're a local or a visitor.

The menu at the Old Mill Room provides plenty of options in every area. To start, October is Virginia Wine month so they had additional choices of Virginia wines by the glass and bottle. I enjoyed a glass of Barboursville Cabernet Sauvignon with my meal thanks to this special homage. However, I think it was because of this that I have my one complaint from the meal: there was a table in the middle of the dining room littered with open and unopened bottles of wine. I guess that was because of the special promotion, but it didn't exactly look nice. Maybe this sounds like a silly complaint, but at a 4 star restaurant I feel I can nit-pick these kinds of things.

The menu has options for 5 courses, but I would explode if I ate that much. Instead I opted for a bowl of she-crab soup and my husband a roasted quail with apples and spoonbread. Both were excellent and a great start to our meal. These courses averaged $8-10.

For entrees there are several fish, meat and also vegetarian options ranging from around $20-$35. The crab-topped red snapper almost had me, but I decided to go for the candied peach pork tenderloin instead. I'm sure the snapper would have been excellent, but I thoroughly enjoyed my pork tenderloin with peaches and cheddar grits. My husband opted for the pan-seared lamb loin that was paired with mint couscous and green beans. This was also an excellent option.

We decided to opt out of desert instead saving room for frozen yogurt at Arch's (look for my upcoming review!), but I have no doubt that dessert is just as delicious. All around the Old Mill Room offered a superb meal and certainly one I will request again for a special occasion, or maybe for brunch (which I hear is amazing) in the near future.

Duner's Restaurant - Charlottesville

This post can be summed up in one word: YUM. But diner's be warned: you may have to wait for your food, and no reservations are taken. Despite this, you will certainly leave happy and full, for a reasonable price. Duner's is located just west of Charlottesville on 250 near Ivy, you'll probably only find locals at this spot. The menu changes every day. Literally.

If you're an appetizer lover or come in starving, you can't go wrong with the calamari or the brie. Or anything else I'm sure. I've never had a bad item here, so I would be inclined to encourage trying anything that sounds good! You really don't have to order an appetizer to leave full though, so don't feel like you have to! Appetizers tend to run around $8-10 and can easily be shared between 2-3 people.

There are always about 20 entree choices which still boggles my mind. Even though its 3 hours by car to the coast, the seafood is always excellent. You'll also find some local meats and river trout, in addition to a few vegetarian options. I guarantee any of these will be excellent. I'm a sucker for seafood, so I tend to order some kind of fish. (See two of these in my pictures including salmon crepes on the right and rockfish below.) All entrees come with a nice salad and fresh (delicious!) bread, so for an average of $25/entree, you're not breaking the bank. Pair it with a pint of Starr Hill, a carafe of house wine, or a bottle of a local wine and you've got one great meal!

The deserts are also awesome at Duner's and I always find myself wanting to finish my meal with one. They'll pack it up for you to go if you like. The chocolate dome cake had me the first time I saw it, and it was every bit as good as it looks. Other seasonal options are always available to, so those are always a good option.

Duner's is definitely a classic and a stable in this part of Virginia, so if you haven't gotten over there, go tomorrow night!

Charlottesville - The Local

So my latest (and hopefully final!) move has inspired me to post again. It has been quite a while since the last. So, to jump start the blogging, I decided to write about an awesome dining experience I had recently.

The Local is a fairly well-established restaurant in Belmont, a neighborhood in Charlottesville just south of the downtown mall. Like the downtown mall it tends to stay clear of most of the student population which is just fine by me. The Local prides itself on using local ingredients including cheeses, meats and vegetables. Though I didn't try any of the appetizers, they feature unique soups, salads and a cheese plate ranging from $4-10. Instead I tried the french fries which were as delicious as my friend had told me.

Entree options are varied featuring freshly made gnocchi to chorizo stuffed trout to meatloaf wrapped in bacon. I decided to try a vegetarian entree: Vegetable and Local “CaroMont” Goat Cheese Strudel with Israeli Cous-Cous and Tomato Coulis ($14). It was delicious and unique and quite reasonably priced for the portion size. My friend had the tuna steak and it looked delicious.

The drink list features, of course, several wines from Virginia, though not as many as I would have liked with the proximity to so many vineyards. There are a few whiskey's from Virginia offered, which surprised me because I didn't even know they existed. For beer they also feature a few Virginia brews, both well known and not.

So the long-winded point of this feature is that The Local is a great place to try new things from farms just down the road, all in a quiet setting (though maybe a little dark), with a great patio to sit on if the weather is nice in a neighborhood that shows something beyond "the grounds."

Louisville: 732 Social

A few weeks ago my husband and I walked by 732 Social, saw the crowd, glanced at the menu, and said "we must come back." Fortunately we had the opportunity to visit last night with his parents, and enjoyed every second. Though the farm-to-table food and organic wine concept isn't new, it is one of the few in Louisville. 732 Social takes this concept and transforms these flavors into comfort food at its best, all inside the Green Building in East Market that is heated through solar panels and has fresh herbs and vegetables growing on the roof.

The menu at 732 Social is small, but offers plenty when fully understood how to mix all the options. Various types of cheeses (from each cow, sheep, goat, and ewe) and house-made charcuterie are offered as way to kick start this awesome meal. We tried all of the cheeses and loved every second. The toasted black walnuts served The rest of the menu is split into small and large plates that the server encouraged we share. By incorporating these small plates the size of the menu grows. I decided to stick with all small plates while the others got one small plate and one large to share.

The small plate options we tried included the roasted beet salad, the special heirloom tomato and watermelon salad, the heffeweizen braised artichoke and the potatos au gratin. The salads were nice and light with great flavor combintations. The braised artichoke was delicious, with great flavors in the stuffing. The best small plate was definitely the potatoes au gratin though that I would eat until fat if given the option. It was that good. Small plates all cost less than $11, and I could easily have been full off of only 2 of these.

The large plate options tried included the cast iron roasted mussels, the Berkshire pork rib, the steak au poivre, and the whole striped bass (a special). All were amazing but I think I liked the pork rib best. It was fall off the bone, melt in your mouth good. The bass was served with a delicious black walnut vinaigrette for dipping it in that was awesome and a perfect complement to this light fish. Large plates range in price from $11 to $26 but the specials may be in the $30s.

The wine, cocktail, and beer list at Social was also very extensive, much of which were organic or bio-dynamic. They had several available by the glass ($6-8.50) which is always nice. The server was very knowledgeable about the wine list because all servers also work shifts as bartender which I think is really smart.

A trip to Social will not disappoint. Though it may not be the cheapest meal around, I could easily be satisfied off a $25 (pre tax/tip) meal or a $50 meal. Either way it is well worth it and I look forward to returning and trying more - especially that ratatouille and beef short ribs - soon!

Green Onion - Brunch

Just a heads up, the Green Onion is my favorite restaurant in Hampton Roads, and probably the whole world. Every time I go it is absolutely amazing, and it is the standard by which I compare all other eating establishments at this point in my life. So, I'm just giving you fair warning when you read this post. Let me also say that some friends who used to live in Norfolk came down and visited, and they special requested Green Onion...clearly I am not alone in in thinking the Green Onion is amazing!

I will do a separate post another day for dinner, but this weekend I went for brunch, so I start with it...

The Green Onion is located on Colley Avenue, right in the middle of Ghent. It is in the space where a place called The Wild Monkey used to be if you know that. The chef at Green Onion is amazing, and one of my favorite things is the fact that it is run by almost all women! Also, all the ingredients are either local and/or organic which is also amazing. The dishes are always so fresh and delicious.

For brunch they have quite an extensive menu, with classic brunch options like pancakes & bacon and steak & eggs, but also regional options like fritatas and shrimp & grits, in addition to lots of great sandwiches and soups for lunch. They also have an amazing cheese selection, though we did not order a cheese plate this visit.

So, after getting a mimosa for me and bloody Mary's for the rest we ordered. I'm not a bloody Mary fan, I have been told these are the best blood Mary's around. I had the chorizo and red pepper fritata, my husband the soft shell crab sandwich, one friend ordered the applewood smoked bacon, apple, and cheddar sandwich on country bread, and the other friend the "lobstah" roll. My fritata was awesome...the chorizo gives a great bit of flavor and the red pepper complemented wonderfully. However, I think the winner of the day was my friend's bacon, apple and cheddar sandwich that was grilled like a classic grilled cheese. It was phenomenal. The three flavors combine so well together into an delightfully rich combination. I think I'll try to recreate this one at home as a panini... the soft shell crab sandwich and lobstah roll were supposedly excellent as well. I'm not one for soft shell crab, so I didn't try it. And, I didn't have any room left for the lobstah roll, but it looked awesome. The friend who had that is originally from Boston, and he thought it was amazing, so I feel like carries some weight since he should know his lobstah rolls! I believe all our plates were $13 each, but the range of the brunch menu is from $8 - $13.

Like I said at the begining, the Green Onion is the best restaurant in Hampton Roads...if you haven't been there, you need to go now, either for brunch, lunch or dinner! Four stars without question!

Brunch rating:
Food - 5 forks!
Cost - $$ ($15/person)
Atmosphere - 2 thumbs up for this funky place with local artists featured each month/season