The restaurant was less than two years old.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Tara Wheeler of the Charlottesville Newsplex first reported that the restaurant/bar/comedy club known as the 12th Street Taphouse has shut its doors. Known for its 20-ounce “pints” of beer, it opened in early 2009 on West Main Street by former chef and part owner of nearby Michael’s Bistro, Chuck Adcock.

The building, now largely surrounded by the growing UVA Medical Center, long housed a string of familiar restaurants, including— in reverse chronological order— Spry’s BBQ, Northern Exposure, Zipper’s, and Expresso International (yes, ex-presso), which later became the Italian Villa on Emmet Street.

According to Adock, the four months of utility work in 2009 for the massive Barry and Bill Battle Building at UVA Children’s Hospital, which will rise on the temporary parking lot beside the 12th Street Taphouse, put the restaurant in too much debt.

“We just couldn’t recover,” he says.

If that was the case, the odds of building owner/music magnate Coran Capshaw— who financed the Taphouse’s renovation work— finding a new tenant doesn’t look promising, considering the fact that the next phase of hospital construction involves raising a $141 million, 7-story, 200,000 square-foot building right next door over the next four years.

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Bohème in its heyday. Now casual fine-dining is returning to the space.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

Once again the restaurant space in the old Michie Company building at 609 East Market Street, across from the police station, has changed hands. This time former Hamilton’s pastry chef Bernard Dukes plans to open a fine dining restaurant with French and ethnic influences named Carlton’s, which will also feature a late night jazz club.

Since late 2008 the space had been home to Asia Specialty, known for serving up authentic Chinese food, including hot pot meals, a kind of the Chinese version of fondue. They’d also recently been staying open until 5am on the weekends (more)

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Bel Rio owner Jim Baldi.
FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Bel Rio, the Downtown Belmont restaurant and music venue that has sparked a passionate debate over noise-levels at night spots—which led to an amended City noise ordinance—appears to have disappeared, along with its owner, without a sound.

A sign on Bel Rio’s door last week announced that the venue would be closed for two weeks for vacation and kitchen renovations, but that was news to building owner Jeff Easter.

“I still haven’t heard from him,” says Easter of Bel Rio owner Jim Baldi. “I think he’s gone.”

Easter, a critic of the proposed 55db noise ordinance, which he believes is too low, nonetheless asked Baldi to tone it down following a July 3 incident after a private party at the restaurant during which there were altercations in the street, the police were called, and several people resisted arrest. Indeed, Tomas Rahal at MAS says that customers of his were afraid to leave the restaurant to go to their cars that night.

“When you have people screaming and yelling at 2:30 in the morning,” says Easter, “that’s a nuisance.”

Indeed, while musicians, Belmont residents, and City officials earnestly debated the noise ordinance, and whether or not Bel Rio’s late night music scene was a boon or bust for the neighborhood, Baldi seemed to be staking his success, at least in part, on late night parties.

“Jim said he couldn’t make it without the private parties,” says Easter. “I told him that’s not my problem.”

Baldi partnered with C&O’s Dave Simpson and Gareth Weldon to open Bel Rio in November 2008, but Simpson sold his interest in the restaurant to Baldi in October of last year after having second thoughts about the partnership.

Weldon, too, parted ways with Baldi, but he did not immediately respond to Dish’s call for comment by press time.

Meanwhile, no one seems to know where Baldi is— or when he’ll be back. Indeed, Dish spent most of last week trying to locate him with no success.

Local realtor Roger Voisinet, whom Baldi hired to sell his house at 900 Elliott Avenue, says Baldi contacted him last Tuesday via text message, saying he was going to Chicago and giving him his ex-wife’s phone number if anything came up concerning the house.

“I texted him back,” says Voisinet, “but I haven’t heard from him.”

When Dish called Baldi’s ex-wife, a family member answered (more)

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The Upstairs, the steakhouse above Escafé will close in June.
PHOTO FROM UPSTAIRS WEBSITE

If you’ve been meaning to eat at The Upstairs on the Downtown Mall, Dish suggests you make reservations soon, as the high-end steakhouse, which opened its doors in April two years ago, is planning to close its doors in June.

“It’s not because we’re going out of business or anything,” says chef/owner Jaison Burke. “It was just time to do something different.”

In the meantime, Burke says The Upstairs will continue to bring the passion. In fact, about a month ago Burke started serving a farm-to-table lunch that Burke is particularly proud of, featuring foods from all your favorite local farms.

“We’ve leaving on our own terms,” says the chef. “We’re proud of the amazing work we’ve done with this place, and we’re passing the torch to someone passionate.”

In fact, Burke was just about to meet with that passionate someone, one Harrison Keevil, a ’05 UVA grad who had planned on being an investment banker but went to cooking school instead, and who plans to open a place in The Upstairs space this summer.

Meanwhile, we suggest you make your reservations at The Upstairs before the crew heads downstairs and out the door and Brookeville comes to Cville.

As for Brookeville Restaurant, named for the town in Long Island, New York where Keevil’s parents and grandparents grew up, foodies can expect what the chef/owner characterizes as “new American cuisine” to arrive on the Mall August 1.

“It’s using local, seasonal foods,” he says, “that are approachable to a wide array of people. Eventually, we hope to source everything from the State of Virginia.”

After graduating from UVA, Keevil says he worked as a research assistant for a member of British Parliament in London, which was where he decided to become a chef.

“I fell in love with food there,” he says, “and decided I didn’t want to work a desk job.”

When he returned to the States, he enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and worked in San Francisco before returning east. Since last September, he’s been cooking at the Clifton Inn under Chef Dean Maupin.

Keevil plans on making a few changes to The Upstairs space, like putting in a large communal dining table— in addition to traditional two- and four-tops, and installing a bookshelf filled with all his cookbooks.

“It’s an opportunity to express my passion about cooking with my customers,” he says. “And make it a comfy atmosphere where people can enjoy a great meal together.”

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Arirang Restaurant, the Korean place that replaced Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse on Fontaine Avenue in September 2008 has closed, and the owners are auctioning off all their restaurant stuff on January 23 at 10am. A viewing will be held on January 22 from 1pm to 3pm. Click here for a list of what’s available. Oh, it also looks like the building is for sale. $825,000 and it’s yours!

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