Word has spread so fast about chefs’ fondness for this former tienda beside a laundromat that it may now be the hottest place in town. Maria Gracia runs it with her mother, who is Mexican, and her father, who is Salvadoran. The food reflects both heritages, including handmade pupusas like those once served at her father’s family’s pupusería in El Salvador.
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Few Charlottesville restaurants receive national attention, but few are like Glass Haus Kitchen. Ian Boden’s progressive cuisine has gotten the attention of Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema — in his first-ever review of a Charlottesville restaurant — and earned Boden a semifinalist nod for the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic James Beard Award this year. Locals rave about the constantly changing, seasonally-inspired menu.
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Charlottesville's signature fine dining destination has a new owner: local star chef Dean Maupin. Although he's promised not to make changes to the beloved downtown mall restaurant, it’s impossible not to notice the new life he's breathed into it by perfecting old favorites like Steak Chinoise while also adding new dishes like the Cioppino with mussels, snapper, shrimp, and lump crab.
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The food truck boom has reached Charlottesville in a big way with everything from pork belly tacos at Hanu Truck to Southern barbecue at Smoked BBQ Co. Among the most popular trucks is Mouth Wide Open, which changes location daily and offers an assortment of creative sliders like the trout almondine slider with herbed butter, toasted almonds, and arugula.
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Longtime Zocalo sous chef Brian Ashworth broke out on his own last year to open this hole-in-the-wall where he’s cooking food that’s right in his wheelhouse: comforting Southern classics like sausage biscuits and fried chicken with waffles. He makes everything from scratch, right down to smoking red peppers for the pimento cheese on his fried green tomato sandwich.
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The wait is finally over for the most anticipated Charlottesville opening in years. After garnering critical acclaim for his Richmond restaurants Comfort and Pasture, chef Jason Alley has brought Pasture to Charlottesville at the new Stonefield shopping center. Expect small plates of Southern food showcasing central Virginia’s local produce, like fried okra with comeback sauce and meatballs of pork and house-chorizo with chili grits and pozole broth.
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Founders and co-owners Ken Wooten and Charles Roumeliotes have a knack for finding talented chefs for their Mediterranean kitchen and wine bar. Their latest, Tommy Lasley, may be their best yet. Several of Lasley’s new menu items veer towards Portugal, like a grilled octopus with sea beans, sofrito, potato, and Espelette.
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For years, demand exceeded the capacity of Michael McCarthy’s 38-seat pizzeria south of town that serves much more than what many consider the best pizza in the area. A recent expansion has provided space for more customers and a larger kitchen, where McCarthy plans to let loose. Regulars praise the Bellissima pizza, with Turner country ham, arugula, and shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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