Musicians of all types will gather Tuesday, December 28 from 6-10pm at Shenandoah Pizza, on East Beverley Street in Staunton to raise money for the Valley Mission. A portion of the restaurant’s sales that night, as well as all contributions in the “tip jar” will go towards supporting the local organization that provides food, shelter and more for the needy in the Staunton area. Everything from jazz, blues, rock, singer/songwriter, bluegrass, country and experimental music is expected to be in the musical lineup. The event is free and open to the public, with donations to the Mission encouraged.

“The Valley Mission has been helping the homeless in our community since the early 70’s. The numbers they are serving are steadily rising. They are good people who need our support, especially this winter,” says Staunton Music Guild member and Valley Mission board member Lou Boden.

Staunton Music Guild President Karen Lawrence adds “One of the Music Guild’s primary goals is to provide outreach to the community through music. We have a talented and caring membership that is always willing to share their gifts to help others.”

For more information, visit the Staunton Music Guild visit www.stauntonmusicguild.org or call Karen Lawrence at 540-466-0059.

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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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Woody and Ruth Outlaw with their daughters (and future baristas) Pearl and Esther, during the renovation of Atlas Coffee on Fontaine Avenue.
PHOTO COURTESY THE OUTLAWS

In Italy they belly up to coffee bars the way we belly up to bars, lined up close together and leaning, working class men and women sipping espresso from those dainty cups as the baristas furiously work the gleaming, steaming, and elegant-looking espresso machines, pounding out spent grounds, packing in fresh rounds, and locking down levers as fast as an artillery squad during a barrage.

That won’t exactly be the scene at Atlas Coffee, a new coffee ‘bar’ opening on Fontaine Avenue— right beside Guadalajara in the old Jackson Hewitt Tax Service space— but the owners say they’d like to be closer to an authentic Italian espresso experience than the typical American one, something the tiny space should lend itself to nicely.

“We see the small space as an asset because it will allow us to interact more with the customers,” says Ruth Ellen Outlaw, one-fourth of the two couples— and mother to more than one of the five children between them— who have partnered on the venture. “Instead of the stand-up counters that you see in Italy, however, we’ll have stools, and we’ll have outdoor seating in nice weather.”

For Outlaw and her husband, Woody, the move harkens back to their restaurant days–they met in Washington State at a restaurant that served Starbucks Coffee when it was a little roasting operation in Seattle, and in the late 1980s they cooked together at The Inn at Little Washington. Ruth would go on to become an architect, getting her masters at UVA, and working for a time with VMDO Architects. In 1999, she started her own firm, Outlaw Design. Meanwhile, her husband Woody is a partner in Hydro Solutions, Inc., a water treatment firm. It seemed their restaurant days were long over.

“The idea was born on a riverside camping trip with friends,” says Outlaw,” sitting around the fire.”

Outlaw says she was complaining that her design business had slowed down during the recession and her friend Lorie Craddock, who, with her husband, Michael Manto, make up Atlas Coffee’s brain trust, suggested opening a restaurant together. The Craddock/Mantos, both flight attendants, wanted their life to be a little more grounded.

“I told her she was nuts,” says Outlaw. “There was no way would I would get back in the restaurant business.”

However, Outlaw did start to warm to the idea of a coffee bar.

“I could feed my personal latte addiction, and have fun doing it,” she says. “Lorie and Michael travel the world as flight attendants and are able to frequent the coffee bars in Amsterdam and other European airline hubs, and the Fry’s Spring area is a coffee desert, compelling us and others to drive over hill and dale for good espresso.”

Atlas Coffee’s espresso will be made from Shenandoah Joe coffee, says Outlaw, and they’ll be selling whole bean coffee and accessories as well. Carpe Donut donuts and pastries from other local bakers will also be offered. Look for them to be open sometime around mid-January.

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Catfish a jumpin’ at Blackwood “Aqua” Farm. Could they soon be jumping on to your plate?
PHOTO COURTESY CCSF

Local foodies are by now familiar with the idea of a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), where people buy shares of produce from local farms or their reps before the growing season begins to receive weekly deliveries of fresh produce. Appalachia Star Farm in Nelson, Open Gate Farm in Earlysville, Layz S Ranch in Palmyra, and distributors like Horse & Buggy Produce and the Local Food Hub are a few that come to mind.

So, would you be willing to support local fishermen in the same way?

Two local grad students in UVA’s School of Architecture want to take the CSA idea and apply it to fishermen,  or what’s officially known as a CSF ( Community-Supported Fishery), and create the Charlottesville Community-Supported Fishery.

Recently, Jack Cochran and Douglas Dickerson have been testing the waters, so to speak, by setting up booths at the local farmer’s market to spark interest. So did they get any bites?

“It seemed to go over well with a good amount of people, and many were very interested in participating,” says Dickerson. “Community members could purchase different types of fish like catfish, shrimp, trout, rockfish on a weekly, biweekly, monthly basis, and have it delivered to the farmer’s market.”

The duo have connected with a network of local fish farmers in South-Central Virginia, the Virginia Natural Fish Company (VNFC), an organization sponsored and assembled by the Virginia Aqua-Farmers Network (VAN), which provides sustainably harvested, natural seafood, catfish, and trout. One of those aqua-farmers is Lynn Blackwood, who founded Blackwood Farm in Meherrin, Virginia in 1998. Blackwood raises fish in four ponds fed by underground springs (primarily catfish and rainbow trout), and maintains a system of aeration that constantly purifies the water.

For now, Dickerson says he and Cochran are simply trying to get the word. Well, here’s the word: want fish? Check out their website at csfcharlottesville.wordpress.com and let them know.

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