THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511090018
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: A Taste of Virginia
Occasional series about Virginia restaurants
SOURCE: Deborah Rose and Tammy Poole, The Daily Progress
LENGTH: Long : 252 lines
C&O Restaurant
515 Water St., Charlottesville
(804) 971-7044
Cuisine: regional French, country and Pacific
Prices: Bistro, from $9 to $16; Upstairs dinning room, from $18 to $26
Hours: Lunch Monday through Friday; dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Reservations: Upstairs dining room only
Dress: Men typically wear jackets upstairs
The C&O restaurant sits unobtrusively in a curve; the remnants of an old, painted advertisement gradually wearing off its weathered exterior.
No big sign hangs outside to lure in diners. A first-time visitor may hesitate before carefully climbing the uneven brick steps to the wide, wooden door.
The C&O fills three stories built across from the railroad station in the late 1920s.
``It has always been a restaurant,'' owner Dave Simpson said. ``It used to be a kind of greasy spoon, with a diner downstairs for the railroad workers, where the bistro is now.''
But the railroad station is long gone and - for those in the know - the C&O Restaurant has been serving fine French cuisine in that site for 20 years. Simpson came to the C&O as its chef about 15 years ago and became its owner about three years later. He said he hasn't changed the place very much because, ``it works.''
``A lot of people who come here are fixtures. . . . The place has a certain worn quality, and they were part of it getting to be that way,'' he said. ``So was I.''
The C&O's clientele is not limited to loyal locals; the restaurant attracts visiting celebrities. Among the famous guests who have eaten at the C&O are Mel Brooks, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Downstairs, where the railroad workers once gathered, the C&O's bistro offers entrees starting at $7.50. Simpson described the bistro fare as ``a more country-like menu.''
``Certainly, it has its roots in French cuisine . . . but we have backed away from so much cream and butter.''
The menu changes frequently, Simpson said, to use seasonal ingredients. But customers can count on seafood, steaks and ``lots of mushrooms.''
Steak Chinoise and a Cuban Steak are ``sort of trademarks'' at the C&0, Simpson said.
The same menu is offered in a smoke-free mezzanine dining room. On the second floor, at the top of a narrow staircase, guests may reserve linen-draped tables for old-fashioned fine dining. Gentlemen will be most comfortable in coats and ties, suggested the hostess who makes reservations.
The upstairs dining room - with its unadorned white walls, painted white floor and uncovered windows with views of the mountains surrounding the city - is a place for special occasions, for focusing on excellent food and companions.
``That's just the idea,'' Simpson said. ``During the 1980s, people were freer with money. I guess it was kind of a boom time. People liked being part of the show, but I think it's still a good idea to get all dressed up and go out to dinner.''
With carefully prepared French cuisine and a fine wine list, presented with well-informed attention to detail, the upstairs guests can linger for hours over four or five courses. A five-course prix fixe dinner is $38; a couple could easily top $100 a la carte.
An espresso and dessert bar were added recently; service begins at 11 p.m. for an after-the-movies crowd.
Clifton: The Country Inn
1296 Clifton Inn Drive, Charlottesville
(804) 971-1800
Cuisine: universal; prix fixe menu nightly
Prices: six-course prix fixe, not including beverage, tax or gratuity is $38 Sunday through Thursday; $48 Friday and Saturday.
Hours: 6:30 p.m. reception; 7:30 p.m. seating
Reservations: Seating by reservation only
Dress: casual elegance
Smoking: nonsmoking only
Additional information: handicapped accessible. Musical entertainment Friday and Saturday. Several wine dinners yearly.
Visitors to Clifton: The Country Inn will dine on haute cuisine, served with a tasteful accompaniment of rural tranquility and early-American history.
Clifton is on 48 acres that were part of a 1735 land grant to the family of Thomas Mann Randolph, an early governor of Virginia and the husband of Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha. The house is believed to have been built as an office, but it later served as a home for Martha and her family.
Now owned by T. Mitchell and Emily Willey of Alexandria, Clifton's wide plank pine floors, paneled walls and original fireplaces have been preserved and enhanced with gracious decorating and meticulous landscaping.
Guests also may discover that the chef looks familiar. Craig Hartman, who has been innkeeper and chef at Clifton for three years, has attracted the attention of nationally circulated magazines and has appeared on public-television cooking shows.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Hartman's varied credits include being featured in Country Inns magazine, twice serving as guest chef at the James Beard House in New York City and being listed in the Beard Foundation's 1995 Insider's Guide to America's Most Celebrated Culinary Talent and Restaurants.
The recognition attracts visitors, Hartman said, but also inspires better performance by him and his staff. ``As a chef you like to be recognized . . . and it keeps everyone who works here excited; it keeps them proud,'' he said.
For Hartman, fine cooking expands beyond recipes to menus. With a system he calls ``universal cuisine,'' Hartman designs menus that provide harmonies of flavor, texture, aroma, nutrition and color.
Hartman may mix and match from culinary traditions around the world to achieve the harmonies he seeks. He might, for example, serve a Middle Eastern dish with one developed from an Asian recipe. And - whenever possible - he features fresh produce grown near the inn.
Dinner at Clifton is served prix fixe and will usually include six courses: appetizer, soup, salad, entremezzo, entree and dessert. Clifton also offers year-round accommodations in private rooms and suites, along with amenities that include tennis courts and a swimming pool. Live entertainment is offered with dinner Fridays and Saturdays.
Historic Michie Tavern
On Monticello Mountain, Charlottesville
(804) 977-1234
Cuisine: southern 18th century bill of fare
Prices: luncheon buffet $9.50 excluding beverages and gratuity
Hours: from 11:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily April through October; from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily November through March.
Reservations: for groups of 15 or more
Dress: Casual
Smoking: nonsmoking section
Additional information: handicapped accessible. Courtyard seating, bus parking, available for private dinners, special yuletide feast in December with Colonial period musicians, gift shops.
Historic Michie Tavern offers more than an old-fashioned hearty meal. It is also a museum, with meticulously restored buildings, carefully selected antiques and costumed guides who give a gracious taste of 18th and 19th century Virginia.
``We really stress hospitality,'' curator Cindy Conte said.
Michie Tavern is open year-round, serving a midday meal with a vegetable-rich menu meant to suggest the Colonial era. Fried chicken is piled high on the buffet counter, along with black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, coleslaw, potato salad, green bean salad, beets, cornbread and apple cobbler.
Guests help themselves and are then seated at rustic, wooden tables like those that might have been found on the 18th century frontier. Costumed waiters and waitresses bring second helpings to the table, along with beverage refills. After lunch, guests can tour the museum for $3. (Admission is $5 without the meal.)
The heart of the tavern is the building William Michie opened as an ``ordinary'' in 1784 to provide food and lodging for travelers along a well-traveled road, about 17 miles from the tavern's current location.
The young Scotsman, whose father had come to Virginia as an indentured servant, prospered as an innkeeper, and his descendants owned the tavern for more than 150 years. But during the 1920s, the building was sold to Josephine Henderson, a businesswoman who moved the tavern to its present location, on the road that leads to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Conte said.
In the rebuilt tavern, Henderson provided tours and food service, starting the traditions that continue today, Conte said. The tour begins in the main room of the original tavern, where food and drink were served to travelers who also shared news with locals.
The tour continues through a bedroom set aside for women, a second-floor ballroom and a kitchen where food would have been cooked in a massive fireplace.
Owned by the Michie Tavern Corp. since the late 1960s, the museum has been expanded with the relocation of other historic buildings to the grounds and the construction of outbuildings that reproduce features of 18th century home and tavern life.
A grist mill and general store are on the grounds, along with the original 18th century tavern and an early 19th century home. Museum staff members learn 18th century crafts, Conte said, and demonstrations are incorporated into the guided tours.
Blue Ridge Brewing Co.
709 West Main, Charlottesville
(804) 977-0017
Cuisine: handmade beers and homemade meals
Prices: lunch from $4 to $6; dinner from $10 to $15
Hours: lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday; bar open until 2 a.m.
Reservations: Half of the tables are reserved
Dress: casual
Smoking: nonsmoking section
Additional information: handicapped accessible
It's not the fine selection of beer made at the Blue Ridge Brewing Co. that keeps customers coming back to Virginia's first pub brewery, said co-owner Bok Summers.
It's the food.
With the abundance of restaurants in Charlottesville, success depends on the quality of the food, he said. ``Customers may come for the beer a couple of times, but if the food's no good, they'll go somewhere else.''
The most popular item on the menu is from Summers' mom: Caribbean Marinated Chicken. The grilled, boneless chicken breast is marinated in Jamaican rum, lime juice, brown sugar and island spices and served with fresh bread, salad, potato and vegetable.
Blue Ridge Brewing Co. focuses on American and regional dishes and uses local ingredients, Summers said. Tourists frequently comment on the unusual offerings - smoked trout wontons, country ham-mustard wontons and Romano artichoke dip, to name a few. There are daily specials.
Food is about 65 percent of the pub brewery's business, Summers said. But it wasn't the food that made the pub brewery famous.
Blue Ridge Brewing Co., founded by Summers, 35, and his brother, Paul Summers, 39, opened in 1987 in the historic Starr Hill section of downtown Charlottesville. Housed in a 125-year-old building, the brewery pub has an oak bar, brick walls, a tin ceiling and hardwood floors. The brewery equipment - giant stainless-steel vats in a spotless environment - is visible from the street.
The finished product is stored in the basement of the building, where it flows to taps at the bar. The brothers - grandsons of author William Faulkner, who taught at the University of Virginia - wanted to return to Charlottesville and open their own business, Bok Summers said. The presence of the university also influenced their decision.
``Back then, things were a lot different. People drank more. Now, most people are more health-conscious and will have a beer or two with dinner,'' Summers said.
Paul Summers, Blue Ridge Brewing's chef, was a merchant seaman for about 10 years. He dabbled briefly with a similar dining establishment in San Francisco, and predicted the trend would spread to the East Coast.
Bok Summers, who was experienced with home brewing, is the brewer. He begins mixing the brew at around 7 a.m., two or three times each week. Ingredients include hops, malted barley, yeast and water from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The entire operation is on the premises.
In addition to specialty brews, the pub brewery sells four of its own mixtures: Hawksbill Lager, described as a crisp, golden pilsner-style lager; Piney River Lager, an amber, malty lager with ``Vollmundigkeit'' (mouth-feel); Afton Ale, an amber, hoppy ale - sharp but not bitter; and Humpback Stout, a rich, dark stout with a mild sweetness balanced by a touch of hops. The beer is aged for up to 30 days before it is served, Paul Summers said.
Blue Ridge Brewing also sells commercial beers. Said Bok Summers: ``I don't want someone to not come here because they cannot get a Budweiser.'' MEMO: The recipes on this page were supplied by the restaurants and tested by
members of the junior element of the Tidewater Chef's Association,
American Culinary Federation and Johnson & Wales University College of
Culinary Arts, Norfolk.
For recipe from each establishment see microfilm
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photos
Michie Tavern is also a museum, and you'll see costumed attendants
like Claudine Cloutier.
Cuban Pork chops...
Bok Summers...Blue ridge Brewing Co.
Fried chicken at Michie Tavern...
ASSOCIATED PRESS photos
Dave Simpson is owner of the C&O Restaurant.
Craig Hartman is chef and innkeeper of Clifton.
by CNB