“His lemon curd is tremendous,” says Gresge.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

Mark Gresge, chef/owner of l’étoile on West Main, tells us that they now have a new sous chef who’s baking his own bread for the restaurant and revamping the dessert list.

“Now we have two ‘A Team’ members,” says Gresge, referring to head chef Brian Wilkinson and new hire Brendan Cowley, a CIA grad who comes to us by way of Michigan.

“At lunches our catfish Po Boy is on one of his betards”— a small roll— says Gresge, “and for dinner we are using his bread for our guests when they arrive. Desserts are another specialty of his; his lemon curd is tremendous.”

In other l’étoile news, Gresge says they are now getting their chickens from Timber Creek Organics, a small Joel Salatin-inspired farm near Foxfield.

“They are fed with organic feed, which makes all the difference,” says Gresge. “It’s in our tarragon chicken salad.”

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A new seafood restaurant is opening in Charlottesville, featuring some of the best seafood dishes from the waters of the Gulf Coast, including hush puppies, oysters, jumbo shrimp and baked flounder. Now, before you start salivating— sorry if you already are— Dish has to tell you there’s catch: The Gulf Café has no physical location and serves no real seafood.

The virtual restaurant, which will open on the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina at www.thegulfcafe.com, is an attempt to bring awareness and financial support to those affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill. The site will allow seafood lovers with a desire to help those who bring it to our tables to place “virtual orders” off an extensive “virtual menu” specific to the Gulf region. All proceeds will go to non-profit organizations in the Gulf region that are mitigating environmental damage and assisting those in need.

While the café won’t satisfy our appetites for shrimp gumbo and oyster po’ boys, founder Chuck Moran hopes it will be a fun way for foodies to satisfy their appetite for charity.

“I felt I had to do something to help,” says Gulf Cafe founder Chuck Moran.
FROM GULF CAFE WEBSITE

“The effects of the spill are so devastating,” says Moran, a local web designer and marketing expert who founded the website with a staff of volunteers. “I felt I had to do something to help the people, the animals and the environment. This spill truly impacts all of us.”

So how does this work? Well, browse the Gulf Café’s menu of pictured items, select how many you’d like to order, then press checkout to enter your credit card information. Currently, all proceeds will go to the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

“Commercial fishermen face unemployment short-term and possibly long-term, which is why the first grant from our Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund went to support a center where fishermen can go for business help,” says Marco Cocito-Monoc, a Greater New Orleans Foundation director.

The Gulf Café also features an “Oil Spill” page with up-to-date news and video on the cleanup and effects of the disaster. Visitors can also interact with The Gulf Cafe staff and community via Facebook (search The Gulf Cafe) and Twitter (twitter.com/TheGulfCafe).

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Does Starr Hill Brewery have a product placement deal with Bravo’s Top Chef? As some viewers have noticed, during each episode of the reality show (taped this year in Washington, D.C.), when the chefs are hanging out in some back-room-looking area, they’re frequently knocking back a Jomo Lager or an Amber Ale while surrounded by boxes of the Crozet-brewed beer.

Indeed, on Starr Hill’s Facebook page it says “catch up on your Top Chef before the new episode tonight on Bravo… and look out for Starr Hill in the background while the chef-testants are sweatin’ it in the stew room!”

You can check out the frequent sightings in this clip from the show.

However, according Red Light Managment’s Margaret Murray (Coran Capshaw is the brewery’s primary owner), Starr Hill’s appearance on the show is the result of good luck and a fortunate former professional relationship between Red Light and the producers of the show.

“They found out we had a connection with a brewery and asked us to send them some beer,” says Murray, “and they liked it.”

Murray says that while Starr Hill Brewery is included in the credits of the show, and the beer can been seen on camera “behind the scenes,” there’s no formal product placement deal. She characterizes it as more of a trade deal.

“We’ve had some attention about it on our social networking sites,” says Murray, “but I can’t say its actually affected sales.”

Of course, Starr Hill isn’t alone on the show. Other products spotted on the show include Whole Foods’ 365, Farmland Dairies, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Dial soap, and the Inn at Little Washington among many others.

Still, Dish can’t say he’s noticed too many other beer companies featured on the show.

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“Why can’t you buy raw milk, ice cream with eggs in it, or home-made sausage?” asks Joel Salatin.
FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

If you’ve never had a chance to experience renegade farmer Joel Salatin expounding on the values of locally grown food and the government regulations keeping it from you, well, now’s your chance. Salatin will be speaking on the “right to local food” on Saturday, September 4 at ShenanArts at nTelos Theatre, Gypsy Hill Place, located at 300 Churchville Avenue in Staunton.

Salatin, 53, is a full-time farmer in Swoope, just outside of Staunton. His family’s farm, Polyface Farm has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Gourmet, and in two popular documentaries, Food Inc. and Fresh. He was also profiled on the “Lives of the 21st Century” series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, and his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. Polyface achieved iconic status as the grass farm featured in the New York Times bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. And more recently, he was the Hook’s 2009 Person of the Year.

“Why can’t you buy raw milk, ice cream with eggs in it, or home-made sausage? America’s food system, enslaved by a global corporate bureaucratic fraternity, offers less choice amid the perception of abundance,” says Salatin, calling for a lifting of restrictions on local, organic food that give industrial, mass-produced food an unfair advantage.

Salatin, a self-described “Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic farmer,” is perhaps the local food movement’s most vocal advocate. Indeed, when he gets started on the topic, its hard not to get inspired by his rebel spirit.

“The only reason the framers of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights did not guarantee citizens freedom of food choice was because they could not have conceived of a day when private treaty neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce would be demonized and criminalized,” says Salatin, who plans to explain how citizens can reclaim the right to buy food from local, smaller-scale producers at the September event.

Advance tickets are $19.50 for adults, $15.50 for seniors/students, and $8.50 for children 12 and under and are available at several stores in downtown Staunton and online. Tickets at the door will be one single price of $25. Information and tickets are available at transitionstaunton.org.

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Workers lay down the new removable floor at the Ice Park.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

One month after the $3 million purchase of the Charlottesville Ice Park, renovations on the space are well underway, and the changes to the facility may soon have fans of sports beyond hockey cheering.

“We’re going to have eight big screen TVs,” says new owner Mark Brown, standing one recent morning in the light-filled foyer of the Ice Park where the concession stand and skate rental area were formerly located. Now, the space adjacent to the rink is being converted into the Downtown Mall’s first sports bar.

Among the changes: Brown is refinishing the bar with a stainless steel counter and reclaimed wood from Mountain Lumber. Twenty-two harsh fluorescent lights are being removed and will be replaced by three copper chandeliers locally made by Edward Pelton of Pelton Metalworks. The floor— once covered by rubber mats to accommodate skate-wearing patrons— has been stripped down to concrete and stained black (the rubber mats will remain in place in the glass enclosed rink area, where skate rentals will also be located). In addition to beer on tap and wine, Brown says the Ice Park will soon be serving up bar fare made on site, and he’s hoping to partner with two local restaurants who will cater more upscale lunches and dinners that can be eaten inside or al fresco on what will soon be an outdoor dining patio.

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