We finally visited Belmont BBQ the other weekend. It was a beautiful day, so we got the food to-go and had a little picnic. The food was great. I got a rib a sandwich. Betsy had a pulled pork sandwich and we shared some french fries. The BBQ is delicious. The style of BBQ is definitely Virginian. The pork sandwich was a little juicy with a thicker sweet sauce. They also have spicier sauce options. The rib sandwich was very "wet." Generally I prefer more of the North Carolina style BBQ (which is an option too), but I really thought the BBQ we had was great. One option I think we'll have to get next time is a this bucket which they put essentially all of their kinds of BBQ in with a side. The french fries were good, but maybe a little too flavorful. In short, this is definitely a place we will be going back too. The best BBQ I have had in a while.
it turned out to be such a beautiful weekend here in charlottesville and charlie and i wanted to make the most of it. after a restful friday evening (definitely needed), we decided to check out monticello. just an fyi, they have resident discounts and student discounts, so make sure to check out the deals. monticello really is such a cool place and jefferson is a fascinating individual. we walked around the grounds and i was thrilled to see some tiny purple crocuses popping up all over the lawns. what a beautiful site! while we were driving up to the visitor center, i realized how beautiful charlottesville is and how many amazing things there are around here.
we stopped to get our favorite market sandwiches on the way back and decided that we wanted some trader joes goodies for our pantry. too bad the closest trader joes is in richmond, but we made the trip and it was really fun (rumor is there are plans to open a trader joes around c'ville soon). charlie and i haven't really explored richmond since we moved here and will have to do so soon.
today we enjoyed the sunshine with bayley and some burgers with friends.
on the recommendation of one of charlie's professors, we decided to check out taste of china in the albemarle square shopping center. the place was packed and i was extra excited to see a large group of chinese students in the back corner of the restaurant, clearly loving what they were tasting. there was a steady stream of diners through the evening and i understand why. the food was delicious. the restaurant lures you in with the cheesy neon light outside and the wall of menu photos right inside the door. the decor is minimal and the restaurant is really just a large room with as many tables as can fit. we tried the crispy beef, some dumplings, and a duck pancake dish. they were all great but we'll have to go back so we can taste some more of the options.
the chef, peter chang has quite the disappearing act and has attracted a devout group of followers who have followed him from tennessee to georgia to virginia - anywhere they can taste chang's food. no one knows how long he will stay in a location, so once located, people flock to his restaurants.
our friends, dao and sarah, wanted to go out to dinner in belmont the other week. we focused on mas since charlie had never been. it turned out there was a super long wait at mas - which is a pretty standard occurance, but we were hungry. so we made the walk up the road to choose between tavola and the local. we ended up at tavola and it was fantastic! tavola makes their own pasta (delicious) and i have an awesome red beet risotto with huge sea scallops. it really was perfect. really great atmosphere, great wine, amazing food. definitely a nicer restaurant - but it comes highly recommended!
last night, one of our good friends asked charlie and i to join him at eloise to see kiki slaughter's work (part of the first fridays series in c'ville). first of all - how cool is the name kiki slaughter?! kiki's work is beautiful. very textural. i'm definitely a fan and hope one day to be a millionaire art collector with a beautiful house with so much art that some is leaning against walls rather than hanging.
anyway, after the art "gathering" and after admiring the ever lovely collections of clothing and accessories at eloise, dao, his lovely friend sarah (who i thoroughly enjoy), charlie, and i meandered across the downtown mall to escafe. charlie and i have never been and were very excited to try something new. apparently sarah and her lady friends from darden are frequent visitors and for good reason. i had a bison burger (based on sarah's recommendation) and it was delicious! the sparkling wine was enjoyable as well. what's fun about escafe is the laid-back atmosphere. they have awesome specials including 1/2 price wine bottle deals and a 20% off food discount for students!
One of my new C’ville friends invited Charlie and I (really just me, but Charlie tagged along) to a free show at the Southern to see Charlie Mars. The place is actually pretty cool. The bar area and stage area are separated by a small entryway. The bar staff was very friendly (not a ton of drink choices) and the bar menu looked really good (sweet potato biscuits with apple butter – yum!). The show was really good too. There weren’t too many people there, but it was a fun night with some new music. Good job C’ville on opening up a new music venue after so many have closed.
Charlottesville started hosting Restaurant Week last year.Charlie and I were fans of restaurant week while we lived in DC and unfortunately missed out on Charlottesville’s inaugural year last year.We’ve been meaning to check out C&O for a while now and figured this was a perfect chance to go.We met up with friends, Joe and Patten, on a super cold Thursday the other week.The restaurant apparently used to be a stopover for the train passengers and the wooden beams and bricks and crackling fire when you walk in are so comforting.
After sitting down, each of us chose our three courses off of the preselected menu.
First Course: Charlie was the brave one and tried the pate.Patten and I had the mushroom risotto (I can’t turn down risotto especially with mushrooms) and Joe had a beautiful salad.4 stars all the way around
Second Course:I was the loaner on this round.Charlie, Patten, and Joe all selected the well-known Steak Chinoise (we have heard great things about this C&O classic) and I braved the trout.Let me tell you that the potatoes that accompanied the steak were to die for! So rich and creamy and could warm even a hypothermia victim.Really awesome!I was not so impressed with my trout.In fact, I barely ate it.The first bite I took had me crunching on some serious bones that were big enough that I needed to think whether they could belong to a trout.The starch was a mixture of black eyed peas and some grains.It was definitely a home cooked taste, but not my style.Bummer.4.5 stars out of 5 for the steak – Charlie adds this to the top five list of things he has tasted in C’ville (along with an zucchini amuse bouche from Clifton, duck from Zocalo, halibut from Clifton, and ribs from Maya).No star rating for the trout.
Third Course:Joe and Charlie finished off the evening with a chocolate espresso pot de crème (“good…real good”).Patten had gingerbread with apples – smelled divine, and I had some vanilla ice cream with a chocolate dish and raspberry sauce.I think I struck out again.The chocolate dish was not flavorful and the ice cream just wasn’t very delicious.
I understand the appeal of C&O and how many people claim it is one of the best restaurants in C’ville.I am giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying that because they were swamped and it was restaurant week – maybe not the best showing. We’ll have to try it again.
I just spent almost 2 full hours at the grocery store along with the rest of Charlottesville. I didn't even think about the predicted snow storm and what that would mean for the lines at Kroger. Instead of getting frustrated, I figured that Charlie and I should share some of our snow fun from December's big storm.
Considering this place is right up the street from our house, it is amazing to me that we haven't checked it out until now. I invited the "dinner club" to join us at Zinc tonight for some good company and good food. It did not disappoint. Our waitress was great and very patient with the 14 of us. She recommended 2 plates per person and highly recommended sharing to get a taste of everything. It is not easy to share! The food was delicious! There were rave reviews of the cheese platter, the chickpea fritters, the brisket, sardines, and mac and cheese. I tasted the escargot - really yummy, the frites (my favorite food group), and the steak tartare. It was all awesome! Charlie mentioned on the way home that we should head over more often and share a plate of something and some drinks. Good thing it's so close!
Charlie has been hoping to eat at Bizou since we moved to Charlottesville. I'm not quite sure what sparked his initial interest. Was it a review he read? Was is the sign over the door? We've attempted to eat there a couple of times, but both attempts were made late night and service had stopped.
Our good friends Nate and Joey were in town the other week and Charlie's dream of eating at Bizou came true. The walls of the restaurant are lined with old and obscure movie posters and the restaurant feels a little like Miller's but cleaner. Joey had a delicious looking veggie stack. Nate had some sort of steak. I had a cod fillet with some sort of bacon cream sauce and Charlie had the meatloaf (apparently referenced as a "must have" in Food and Wine from 2004". The food was very good and definitely was filling. I didn't love the cod. It seemed heavier than I expected it to be. Charlie did devour his meatloaf though. Nate mentioned that the sauce on his steak - for some reason, I'm remembering barbeque sauce - was overpowering the flavor of the meat.
I'll have to get an official verdict from Charlie, but I think Bizou may not be our favorite find in Charlottesville, especially with all of the other fabulous restaurants here. I don't know though - we could be swayed...
