Cozy up to the fire at the Southern Way Café.
PHOTO FROM SOUTHERN WAYCAFE FACEBOOK PAGE

Dish has been meaning to give a shout out to the Southern Way Café in Crozet, which opened in October in the old Teresa’s Restaurant space on Route 240 just before you get to Starr Hill Brewery. Like Teresa’s, it’s putting the spotlight on ‘country cooking,” with an emphasis on locally sourced produce from Horse & Buggy, Polyface Farms, and others.

At the helm is Crozet restaurant vet Jason Fitzgerald, who has cooked at Revolutionary Soup, Fardowners, and the Three Notch’d Grill. So what can you expect? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner and country cooking with a definite twist. We’re talking things like Senegalese peanut tofu, fried eggplant sandwich with marinara sauce, and tortillas, along with classics like chicken and dumplings, eggs anyway you like em’, sausage gravy, biscuits, corned beef hash and country ham.

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For a time this year, Taste of China in the Albemarle Square Shopping center became the center of the culinary world.
PHOTO BY JEN FERIELLO

2010 was an eventful year in the local food world, as restaurants have struggled to survive in an economic climate that continues to be stormy. There’s no way Dish could mention all the news and events that tickled our taste buds this year, but here’s a menu of some of the year’s choicest dishes.  Bon appetit!

Chang chops
If you haven’t had them, you’ll be able to this coming February. Yes, Dish promised not to talk about him anymore.  But you know the story.  Just keep your eye on the space in the North Wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center where Wild Greens used to be.

City Market Basket
All-you-can-eat local produce buffet. For nearly 20 years, the City has been telling vendors at the popular City Market in the city’s parking lot on Water Street that it should be considered a temporary location, as it was a likely place for some high-end development. While vendors and market organizers like the location, they’ve grown tied of the development threat hanging over their heads. Market Central, a non-profit organization formed to preserve and enhance the City Market, wants to change this situation and find a permanent home for the Saturday morning extravaganza. It’s an idea that City Council appears to support. The problem, of course, is finding a location. Now that the Ix building is coming down, could that be a place? And what about Oliver Kuttner’s idea of closing off parts of Monticello Avenue for the Saturday market?

Evolutionary soup
With a mix of beef, gripes, and libertarian ideals, the trials and tribulations of Tom Slonaker, owner of the Forest Lakes Arby’s, who has fought for the right to freely fly flags at his restaurant in violation (more)

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