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What does the man who created Wild Wing Café do for an encore? He creates another restaurant on West Main Street– only this time it's not a television-laden sports bar but instead an intimate Italian eatery. And it will honor his wife, a 37-year-old native of Rome who is lending her own nickname to what will be called Bella's.

"The menu is very simple," says owner Douglas Muir. "We're going to have nine entrées and one special each day."

Key to the concept are family-sized portions and prices that are a "happy medium" between the $14.95 Wild Wing meals and Charlottesville's high-end restaurants where an alcohol-accompanied dinner for two can easily top $100. The target price-point at Bella's, he says, is $25 per person including wine.

"You'll see two prices for each item," says Muir, noting that oversized plates are intended for three or four people while even the small plates may be too much for most appetites.

"You're always gonna walk out with food from Bella's," says Muir.

"Americans eat fast and they're done," says Muir, noting that it's not unusual for an Italian meal to start at 6pm and end at midnight.

"If you're having real good food," his wife Valeria Bisenti interjects, "it'll last to one or two."

Indeed, the couple plan to keep the doors open until 2am on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays– with a 10pm closing time the other four days of the week. Muir expects the typical table at Bella's to turn over in about 90 minutes– a more leisurely pace, he says, than at other American restaurants.

"I wanted to bring my wife's culture to America," says Muir. "When we say real authentic Italian, we aren't kidding."

He's enthusing about the impending arrival of "Mamma," his mother-in-law, Lucia Sallese, who lives in Rome,  whose farm in the Abruzzo region of Italy will supply the restaurant's olive oil, and who will soon land in Charlottesville for two months of training the chefs.

Amid all this Old World tradition, the restaurant plans to equip its wait-staff with iPod Touches to show off specials, to wirelessly transmit guest orders, and then– at meal's end– to read the credit cards.

Perched amid the dust and construction clatter, Muir notes that this venue, 707 West Main Street, is one half of the space formerly filled by some notable eateries (the other half is a florist shop). However, Bella's will bear little resemblance to Blue Ridge Brewing Company, Starr Hill, and the tapas restaurant known as Si because his team has built new bathrooms, stripped plaster off a brick wall, and begun crafting what he calls "the Soprano booth," a generous nook across from a planned 12-person mahogany bar.

Above seating for 50, a fanciful tin ceiling will be painted copper, and a chandelier will hang down to light the way for patrons and black-shirted waiters wearing mid-body aprons.

With a renovation and launch budget of $208,000, Muir says he's spending less than a third of the decade-ago cost to transform the decrepit former train station across the street into Wild Wing.

Muir is a 50-year-old who built and sold a collection agency for insurance companies and recently returned to Charlottesville after a five-year stint in Florida launching a credit repair business– one that he proudly notes has quickly become, with 1,000 employees, the nation's third largest.

This serial entrepreneur says he hopes to follow Bella's with the launch of same-named restaurants in Richmond, Norfolk, and Fairfax County, with a goal of selling each to its general manager, a strategy he followed at Wild Wing when selling to current owner Chad Ragland.

With a target opening date of March 16, the general manager has been documenting the process of creating Bella's on video– even taping a reporter interviewing the beaming couple.

"I worked at a lot of restaurants in Charlottesville," explains 25-year-old GM Justin Heilbrun-Toft, "and one thing I noticed was that restaurants don't create hype until they open. So we thought: let's start the hype now."

The result is a Facebook page complete with videos of such milestones as signatures inking the management contract and workers drilling into a wall. If social media and iTouches seem a little high-tech, Muir says the slow pace of Italian dining will be maintained by his bride, who will serve as the hostess.

"If Valeria sees you rushing," he says, "she's gonna come around and say basta, basta– which means cool it."

In what may be the first evening vigil for a Charlottesville restaurant, a small group gathered outside St. Maarten Café on the Corner to pay their respects this evening. As the Dish reported a day earlier, the restaurant has closed after 26 years, leaving many long-time patrons nostalgic.  Marianne Votaw, who helped organize the vigil, even painted a picture for the event. Others left flowers, cards, and letters near the doorway. Hey, the Newsplex even showed up. Film at eleven!

When the Lazy Parrot Grill folks took over the former Brix Café space at the Pantops Shopping Center earlier this year, owner Kevin Kirby worried that some people might think the Lazy Parrot Grill, also in Pantops, had moved.

• Brix...ah, Terrace Cafe on Pantops has closed

"We were just spreading our wings," he explains.

The Lazy Parrot Backyard BBQ now in the former Brix space may share the Lazy Parrot name– which Kirby has trademarked– but the two places are not, well, parroting each other.

"I've always wanted to do a second venture," says Kirby, who was born and raised in Charlottesville, "and when one came up so close, I couldn't resist."

While the Grill is known for wings– our friends at food blog Mas to Miller's deemed the Grill's wings one of the two best in Charlottesville– the Backyard BBQ is making a stab at offering the best, well, you know.

"It's a passion," says Kirby. "I will never cut down another BBQ joint because I now have the utmost respect for smokers. I have had many 3am wake up calls just to get the food on the smoker."

As Lazy-goers know, the Grill has 22 TVs to go with its wings, a thriving music scene, and with a special air-handling system, has the distinction of being one of the few places that still allows indoor tobacco smoking. The Backyard BBQ, on the other hand– with eight HD TVs, a pool table, and two pinball machines– is cigarette-free. Both places, Kirby says, "allow folks to just be lazy, as we like to say."

So far, reviews on the BBQ have been "overwhelming," Kirby says. "The BBQ is just flying out of here."

Next step is expanding the patio area.

"Some people ask if I'm concerned that I competing with myself," Kirby smiles. "Well, I would rather compete with myself than someone else."

News about the sudden closing of St. Maarten Café on the Corner, the place with the Buffett vibe (Jimmy, not Warren) long before Cheeseburger in Paradise, spread like wildfire on social media websites.

"I was totally overloaded," says Lisa Roland, wife of owner Jim Roland, after a reporter called January 30 to verify the news. "My computer is going crazy, my phone is ringing. But, yes, St. Maarten Café is closed."

A Friends of St. Maarten Café Facebook group immediately grabbed 200 members– over 350 by 6pm on the day this news was reported at readthehook.com– and some of those commenting describe bursting into tears at hearing the news. Long-time patron Marianne Votaw, who says she first started visiting the restaurant in 1985, the year it opened, says she plans to organize a vigil outside the building on Tuesday night.

"Are you kidding me?" Roland laughs. "We knew this was going to be big news, but it's been bigger than we thought it would be."

Roland says her husband prefers not to talk about the reasons for the sudden closure. After 26 years, she says, "it's just too tough right now." However, he did post a comment on the restaurant's Facebook page: "A big thank you for your friendship and patronage the past 26 years. It has been the most amazing ride of a lifetime as they says...I shall miss all your faces. God Bless, Jim."

Back in 2008, WINA radio personality Coy Barefoot interviewed Jim Roland for the restaurant's 24th year of, as their sign says, "seafood, burgers, friends & fun."

A sign on the door of the window-less restaurant that touched so many people indicates the business is for sale.

"We are completely bereft," says Votaw, whose nephew worked at the restaurant. "There was no warning, and the employees were given no notice. It's like someone has died."

Votaw says it was a great place to be a regular, and that in addition to relaxing there as a young UVA student, she later brought her young children, and then celebrated her 50th birthday at the restaurant. Indeed, patrons could store their own personal beer mugs at the restaurant. If you have one there, you can get it back by emailing stmaartens@hotmail.com or russhamilton665@hotmail.com.

"It has always been such a grand place," says Votaw.

"It's been a long time dream of mine," says Will Richey, while lying on his back with a wet paintbrush in hand, "to do a Southern restaurant."

That dream may come true next month when the 35-year-old opens The Whiskey Jar, a concept he and two partners are putting into the space long occupied by Escafé, which is moving to Water Street.

At 227 West Main, workers have already stripped the place to the walls (with exposed brick in some places), installed a new floor, and there are plans to rebuild the bar without any clutter overhead.

Richey is well known as the owner of Revolutionary Soup and as founder of the Charlottesville Wine Guild; but it's Red Row Farm, a little organic plot he and his wife, Lisa, operate near Esmont that will put much of the food on these tables.

Raising pigs, chickens, sheep– along with plenty of okra, kale, and collard greens– the couple is engaging in what economists call "vertical integration," but Richey says his new restaurant's aim is "taking local to its next logical conclusion"

"It'll be southern food specific to the Piedmont region of Virginia in our great-grandmothers' era," he says, "at prices they'd recognize also."

Appropriately, at this storefront in the shadow of the Omni hotel, the Whiskey Jar finds itself just downstairs from another southern concept, Brookville, under chef-owner Harrison Keevil.

"Harrison and I are very good friends," says Richey. "There will be no overlapping of plates."

As he applies a coat of "falcon brown" paint to a kitchen-area wall (the main space will be "Spanish red"), Richey says The Whiskey Jar will also feature work on the walls by artisans, not artists, and he hopes to offer vernacular music, including old-time and bluegrass.

And there will be whiskey– lots of Virginia and other varieties, along with scotch and other liquors.

"We want to be the clean and well-lighted place for the late-night crowd," he says.

Everyone knows the story of Charlottesville's most famous bartender, you know, that musician guy who worked at Miller's before becoming a world renowned rock star... what's his name?

Well, many other local bartenders have attracted their own, albeit smaller, fan base. Indeed, while lots of factors go into creating a bar's atmosphere– lighting, decor, and menu choices, among them– in many cases, the single most significant element of a bar's appeal– and what keeps the regulars coming back– is the man or woman doing the pouring.

"They're friends out in the public square," says attorney Benjamin Dick, whose name adorns a stool downstairs at C&O restaurant where for years, bartender Barry Umberger would have drinks ready for regulars before they could order and knew the details of his frequent patrons' lives.

"He was also a friend and attending consultant on every kind of thing from A-Z," says Dick, who says Umberger's decision to sail to the Bahamas with his wife– and stay– left a hole.

"He was a bartending psychologist," Dick notes. "His generosity was abundant, and that's why so many people kept coming in."

Umberger may have been a master of his trade, but he's not the only one in town, and anyone who's ever sat on a barstool– or even watched an episode or two of Cheers– can attest that there's more to the role than just mixing drinks. A good bartender deftly negotiates multiple roles ranging from confidante to law enforcer.

"You're constantly multitasking," says longtime West Main bartender Janet Knight. "Besides pouring the drink, you're gauging the effect it's having on your guest," she notes, adding that while late-night bartenders deal more with unruly guests, her afternoon-through-happy hour shift often puts her in a therapist role as she chats with a group of regulars she calls friends.

"It's a wonderful time to get to know people," she says. "I love it."

Just in time for restaurant week, the Hook undertook the oh-so-difficult task of sitting at bars and chatting up the folks across from them. Their stories, bright smiles, and expert suggestions just might drive you to drink. But only in the best possible way...

Laura Clepper, Tempo

It's hard to miss Laura Clepper behind the bar at Tempo, the relatively new Asian-fusion restaurant on 5th Street, and a new addition to Restaurant Week this year. The tall blond looks like the kind of bartender you'd see at a fancy place on the California coast, and, in fact, that's where the Long Beach native got her start, tending bar while she went to the Art Institute of California to study advertising. All told, Clepper says, she's been bartending off and on for at least 10 years, and even graduated from a bartending school in California, where she says the competition for gigs is fierce.

"I've worked everywhere from five-star resorts to holes-in-a-wall," Clepper laughs.

So what makes a good bartender?

"Being attentive and intuitive," she says. "You have to read people really well, try to figure out what it is they might want, make suggestions. Don't just stand there silently and ask people what they want."

It's also good to work at a place "you really like," Clepper says.

"Tempo offers some of the best food in town," she boasts. "And the menu for Restaurant Week will really give people a chance to discover that. "

Meanwhile, Clepper says she's on the lookout for gigs that might allow her to put her design talents to work, and says she's been thinking a lot about getting into event planning. Of course, there's also the allure of California.

"I'm really a west coast girl," she says. "But I've been across the country seven times."

Micah LeMon, Blue Light Grill

The Blue Light Grill's Micah LeMon likes to claim he became a bartender by accident.

"I was working at a country club in college and discovered this utterly foreign culture where people sat around and imbibed a liquid that, at the time, I found disgusting," he says. "Slowly, I developed a taste for this foul liquor, and my whole life as a bartender has revolved around how to transform the raw taste of alcohol into something delicious and exceptionally drinkable. "

That was about 13 years ago, LeMon estimates. "Far too long," he says.

Still, there are things he loves about the job.

"I think the most rewarding thing is encountering a patron tired at the end of an honest day's work," he says, "and they are refreshed by my service, my beverages, and, sometimes, my company."

So what makes a good bartender?

"I guess that depends a lot on where one bartends," he says. "Some really need to be sassy and have a lot of attitude. Others need to to be a bit more permissive and laid back."

LeMon, however, has an "admittedly quixotic" idea that bartenders are actively overseeing one of the most important parts of our society: a place outside of home where people can relax, meet, chat, network, do business, make friends, even fall in love.

"As such they need to take what they do seriously and approach service in a manner that is mindful of the mantle they carry," he says.

Sometimes that's not so easy. A few years ago, one of the oddest requests for his services came at 3am in the morning.

"I was cleaning the bar, reeking of second-hand smoke, spilled beer, sweat, and bleach, and got a phone call from my boss," he says. "He demanded that I come babysit his kids– right then. So I went straight to his house after locking up the restaurant, witnessed a minor domestic dispute, then slept in the guest room."

"That was the oddest, other than being picked up by a lesbian," he says. "I think I kind of look like her ex-girlfriend," says LeMon.

As for other ambitions, LeMon says he's had many.

"I've already abandoned careers in biomedical science and Christian missions," he says. "And there's kind of a theme of wanting to make the world a better place. I think, for the time being, serving and keeping a watchful eye on the humanity of Cville seems like an worthwhile thing to do."

Sarah Gazillo, Mas Tapas

Unlike most restaurants, Mas in Downtown Belmont doesn't separate bartenders from wait staff, requiring servers to place bar orders. The designated bartenders are servers as well, taking food and drink orders in front of and behind the bar. No one has this skill mastered quite like Sarah Gazillo, a UVA grad who began working at Mas in 2003.

Indeed, the Massachusetts native manages to work as host, bartender, and server seamlessly while covering every square inch of the space. Granted, it's a skill embodied by the entire staff at Mas, but Gazillo is particularly agile– like a cat moving so gracefully that you don't realize how fast it is. Of course, a wine glass or two may occasionally be sacrificed in the process, but who's counting?

So what makes a good bartender/server?

"You need to be attentive," says Gazillo,"and you have to read and access the needs of people while maintaining a professional distance. You have to develop a sense for understanding people's expectations, and those expectations are constantly shifting."

Gazillo says working as Mas is unique because staff is always training, learning, doing tastings, and immersing themselves in Spanish cuisine. Close relationships with colleagues is another plus.

"We're a kind of a weird, modern interpretation of family here," she laughs.

"I love that every day is different," she says. "Every encounter has a different element of the unexpected. And I love talking about wine, especially Spanish wines, as Mas has the best of what Spain has to offer."

Gazillo finished her Masters degree in social work in May, focusing on affordable childcare policy, but following that career track may have to wait.

"My pipe dream these days is to become a certified sommelier," she says.

Roberta Keil, Fellini's #9

Fellini's #9 on the Downtown Mall has proven to be one of the funnest bars in town. They have a great music scene, and a great space for it, tucked away in a spot where the noise can't really bother any neighbors. Their live-music karaoke nights are a feel-good affair, Sundays with the Hogwaller Ramblers is a must-see, and pretty much every evening you'll find folks in a good mood in what can only be described as a classic neighborhood pub.

Of course, this can be attributed in large part to the staff, and, as quite a few patrons would likely agree, to the bar command of Roberta Keil.

Keil says bartending is in her genes.

"My grandmother and her sisters lived in a two-family house in the middle of a coal mining town in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania," she says, "they turned one half of it into a bar and ran it when they were just teenagers."

Her dad and brother are/were both bartenders; and according to family history, she says, she has great-great uncles who ran taverns in Russia.

Asked what makes a good bartender, Keil keeps it simple.

"Across the board, it's the age-old answer," she says."You gotta be a good listener, if that's what they need. Otherwise, make a good drink, fast."

For Keil, bartending has been the ideal job.

"I only ever hoped to be a good mom," she says. "This job gave me the freedom to have my days with my son. Never had to worry about daycare."

Keil recalls bartending at Uncle Charlie's in Crozet when Evan Almighty was being filmed.

"Every shift was interesting because we never knew who was going to walk through the door," she says. "It was fun meeting the crew, the actors and everyone in between. My son got to be a big part of it, too– his name is Noah, and they just ate that up."

Brandon Dillard, Zinc

When Zinc's Brandon Dillard left Staunton a few years ago to work in Charlottesville, it prompted local blogger Jack Morgan to bemoan the loss.

"Brandon is the best bartender in Staunton," wrote Morgan on trainwreckunion.com. "No offense to all the other bartenders out there, but he is."

Indeed, when you ask bartenders about bartenders, Dillard's name often comes up. As Morgan said, "He cares about the trade, and knows about the product."

According to Dillard, he never planned on becoming a bartender, but after working in restaurants "forever" and doing just about every job, he says it was a natural progression. Originally from the Atlanta area, Dillard was visiting family in Staunton a number of years ago and just never left.

For Dillard, the most important thing about bartending is the drink itself.

"I'm obsessive about it," he says. "There is a technique to making a drink, and they should be made in a certain way, just like a chef thinks about preparing food."

Of course, there's also the social aspect, and Dillard thinks empathy is key.

"You need to be able to tell what kind of mood people are in," he says, "and then act accordingly."

During the day, Dillard is a guide up at Monticello, something that feeds his passion for history, and might lead to a career in education. But right now, he says, he's happy doing both.

"It allows me to embrace different sides of who I am," he says.

Amanda Smith, Blue Light Grill

Though the Blue Light Grill's Amanda Smith considers her job a "blast," she admits that becoming a bartender can be tough.

Typically, if a bar doesn't have a current position open, you start by working as a barback, which means you have to do most of the grunt work– clearing and cleaning dishes, restocking whatever needs to be stocked, and, on occasion, cleaning up after someone who's had a little too much to drink.

"That's where I started at Blue Light," says Smith, who was eventually offered her own shift when another bartender left.

That was three years ago.

Since then, Smith has learned to create cocktails that emphasize seasonal, local ingredients, a theme at Blue Light.

"You approach it similarly to how a chef approaches cuisine," she says. "Over the summer, we did a cocktail with strawberries that we went and picked ourselves at Chiles orchard. The strawberries where on the vine that morning and in the cocktail that night."

Just like any other sales and customer service job, Smith says, you need to know your product. Another essential: being able to read your customers.

"On a slow night someone may enjoy learning about a wine on the list or a new bourbon that was just stocked," says Smith, "but you don't go blabbing to someone who really just wants to enjoy their gin and tonic and watch whatever is on the TV behind you.

"Also, you need to be able to say when someone has had enough, regardless of how uncomfortable it is."

Smith says that people who "over-inebriate" can turn mean, especially when you cut them off. She was once called a "retarded smurf" by a woman who began yelling obscenities and even tried to charge behind the bar.

"I am neither tiny nor blue," Smith deadpans. "Besides, things like gravity, balance, and chairs prevented her from getting very far."

While Smith says she enjoys bartending, she admits that working at a busy bar is not something she wants to do forever– and she's already launched her own baking business called Panda Cakes, which specializes in custom-designed baked goods, particularly cupcakes.

"I'm hoping to get into the farmers market in the spring," she says, "and eventually have a store front."

Savee Inthisen, Downtown Thai

Savee Inthisen has been bartending at Downtown Thai ever since her mother opened the Water Street restaurant in 2004. While she says it's mainly a family-style restaurant, she's had her adventures at the bar and has learned to enjoy creating drinks for people.

Her specialty, she says, are her peach martinis. "People will come in for my martinis."

Inthisen says that being a good bartender is about getting to know what a client likes. Since Downtown Thai has a lot of regulars, she says it's a matter of remembering what people order and how they like their drinks mixed. And that can change. "You can tell when someone wants a strong drink," she says, "or one not so strong."

Although Downtown Thai never gets too wild, Inthisen does remember when a group of guys came in for lunch and ordered special saki shots. Serving half glasses of beer, she then placed two chop sticks across the glass and balanced shots of saki on them.

"The idea is to pound the bar to make the saki shot fall in," she says, "but all those guys pounding the bar created quite a scene."

In between bartending, hosting, and serving at her mother's restaurant, Inthisen also went to esthetician school and hopes one day to work for a dermatology practice. Until then, her peach martinis will have to make her client's faces glow.

"I like getting that first reaction to a drink," she says, "when they take that first sip."

How did two Thai art students wind up taking over Monsoon, Charlottesville's oldest Asian fusion restaurant? Well, to hear 31-year-old "Kitty" Ashi tell the story, it began in Bangkok.

Kitty hails from a restaurant-running family, but it was in art school in Bangkok that she became friends with the now 29-year-old restaurant co-owner, "Pooh" Dutdao.

Starting as a dishwasher, Kitty arrived first in America and began working her way up the ranks at a corporate restaurant, Tara Thai. Last summer, while looking for an opportunity, she spotted an online ad saying that Monsoon, started over 20 years ago, was for sale. By this point, Pooh had moved to Central Virginia and Tara Thai as well.

"It's kind of like destiny," says Kitty.

Building owner Lu-Mei Chang had found a duo willing to carry on some traditions– even while revamping the menu toward Thai specialities.

Today, lunch specials are $7.99, and dinner starts at just a penny more. The restaurant at 113 Market Street, which they bought from Chang last June, is now called Monsoon Siam.

"We kept the Monsoon name," says 31-year-old Kitty, "because we wanted to give her respect."

True to their art school roots, the two have adorned the walls with some of their original artworks, including collages of stained wood, and they've installed a record player– yes, playing vinyl– in the front hall.

As far as they know, this is the only place in town serving Kao Soi, a northern Thai egg-noodle dish. And, unlike their experience at Tara Thai, when it sometimes seemed that eighty percent of diners would order Pad Thai, they're seeing wider choices from their downtown patrons.

"They love to experiment," says Kitty.

Escafé's coming back, baby. As first reported in the Hook, the venerable Downtown Mall restaurant with the hip nightlife recently packed its bags from its longtime home in the shadow of the Omni hotel with plans to open up in the former home of Oxo, which ended a nine-year run in 2008.

"It's merging what Oxo was with what Escafé wants to be," enthuses the 44-year-old owner-operator, Todd Howard.

And that could be one dynamic combo. It's the first breath of life in nearly four years for the Water Street site which, as Oxo, was a chef-centric place whose white-on-white interior kept the emphasis on the food while promoting a pretty wild late-night scene at the same time.

Under Howard, however, the walls are starting to see some color again. And anyone who remembers the upper seating area as a place of quietude may be in for a surprise as a pair of ceiling-mounted speakers have just been installed up there at what Howard calls "the terrace" to help the popular Wednesday night Karaoke and Saturday night music video dance parties rock. (He says that sound shouldn't intrude on the rest of the restaurant.)

One thing that won't change is the famous two-top perched over the kitchen– a special place to watch the chef. Inaugurated under Oxo, the kitchen-in-the-dining room concept is more than just a way to give eager eaters a cooking lesson; it's a way to improve every guest's experience.

"You have eyes on every plate, every table," says Howard. "You get that real time feedback."

Although he received the keys to the place in late December and although it looked like a cluttered construction zone during a January 11 reporter's visit, Howard vows to open the doors for a grand opening during the last weekend in January with a soft opening "next week, hopefully."

Right across from the "Skybar" on 5th Street NE, you may or may not have noticed that a placed called Song Song's Zhou & Bing opened on the Downtown Mall with little fanfare around the first of the year. The owner, Song Song (a name her grandmother bestowed), says she has done no advertising. Her husband is a professor at UVA, and they have been here for about two years. When Dish visited, she was all alone behind the counter.

After getting her graduate degree in biochemical engineering, Song Song left China to do cancer research at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Later, she earned her MBA at Case and landed a high-powered  job in Connecticut working for a medical research corporation.

But all those years of study and research led to a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome, crippling her hands and fingers.

If there were a silver lining, she says, it was her interest in healthy Chinese cooking, which she learned to help her own healing and now offers at the small restaurant to help yours.

Song says her carpal tunnel was so severe she couldn't even hold chop sticks, and that it was from working too hard.

"I had to do exercises every day," she says while stirring a pot. "It was not easy to get here."

The menu is simple, featuring zhou, a kind of porridge that the Chinese have been eating for thousands of years; and bing, a wheat flour-based flattened bread that's filled with things like pork and leeks.

A pork and leek bing is just $2.50, and a porridge of hearty zhou is just $2, which, Song says, improves the health of the stomach, bowels, and kidneys. Everything, she says, is made from scratch, with no MSG or color additives.

"I am setting the price low," says Song, " so I can make it easier for people to eat healthy food."

If you've recently taken the tour at Monticello, you've learned that it was hard cider– not beer, wine, or water– that was most likely accompanying Mr. Jefferson's meals. Back in 2009, it was the Albemarle CiderWorks grabbing headlines with a governor's visit. Then, this past October, a former cattle auction barn at the sprawling Castle Hill estate in Keswick horse country that threw open its doors to the public with a two-level, fireplace-equipped tasting room. Now comes word from the Crozet Gazette that a Danville native hopes to open the area's third cidery by the end of the year, a place that will be called Bold Rock Cidery and located in Nellysford. Why, when Albemarle CiderWorks opened in 2008, it became just the second cidery in the state, but now it looks like there are four (the first is in the southwestern part of the state), with more on the way!

Workers ready the former site of C&R Auto, whose painted signs used to grace 513 West Main Street with promises of "specializing in automatic transmissions," for an expansion of the purple-hued gourmet complex across the street known as Main Street Market. Property manager Charlie Kabbash says it's a little too soon to reveal what's in store.

The past year was a rough one economically, but that didn't stop some brave souls from opening up restaurants and eateries. We counted 28 new places that opened this past year, while 15 places closed. However, one restaurant, Carlton's, opened and closed this year, giving us some indication of the high-wire act restaurateurs must perform in these tough times and in this increasingly demanding foodie town.

And speaking of foodie towns. Back in May, Forbes had a story with lots of props for RelayFoods.com, the new Charlottesville-based grocery-gathering business which seems to be holding its own in a field littered with start-up corpses, but the real shocker was a casually inserted shout out to Charlottesville as the "locavore capital of the world."

Indeed, in the last five years, area chefs and grocers have taken the use of local produce to a new level. It used to be that chefs had a hard time finding enough volume of locally produced food, but thanks to ventures like the Local Food Hub and a growing number of producers we're in the midst of a local food explosion.

So, as we head into 2012, here are few memories from the past year.

Peter Chang chooses Charlottesville

The elusive Chinese chef once featured in the New Yorker, and the subject of a Hook cover story, brings his famous brand of Szechwanese cuisine to town with much fanfare as he opens his own restaurant March 1 at Barracks Road.

Someone finally buys Fuel Co.

After sitting vacant for four years, Pat Kluge's gourmet gas station Fuel Co., like everything the former heiress owned, went on the auction block. A little known convenience store owner beat out developers Keith Woodard and David Sutton with a winning bid of $580,000. So far, nothing has been done with the place, but hopefully in 2012 it won't be a haunted gas station anymore.

Batesville Store

In June, agents with department of health showed up at the Batesville Store and cited the operators for running a restaurant without a permit, basically shutting down the little country store that had become a popular restaurant, gathering place, and music venue known for early evening concerts. Indeed, according to owner Cid Scallet, he was told by County officials that the Store was a "model" of how to save country stores. There was just one problem: as a "convenience store" under the watch of the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, they were only allowed to have 15 seats.

For years, they'd had well over 40 seats and officials just looked the other way.

The store's fans were outraged, launched a Save the Batesville Store Facebook group, and Scallet received 400 emails expressing sympathy and support. All the local media jumped on the story, with headlines like "State shuts down Batesville Store" and "Customers fight to keep Batesville Store Open." Loyal customers contacted County officials and wrote letters to Governor Bob McDonnell and Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb asking them to intervene.

At one point, Scallet and his wife Liza said they were on the verge of re-opening, having worked things out with County zoning and health department officials, but in the end the couple decided to move on and find a new place.

Chew the Fat, Raw

In 2011, fancy head chef turned pit master Craig Hartman cooked up an "unscripted and raw" podcast interview series called Chew the Fat. He's been talking with talented chefs, winemakers, farmers, and other food artisans for a weekly podcast that is posted every Sunday night.

Then & Zen

On the morning of March 23, just hours after we went to press with the story of Now & Zen owner Toshi Sato's wait for word of the fate of his mother and other relatives, who'd been living in the family's home town of Kesennuma on the Northern coast of Japan, which was devastated by a tsunami, his sister telephoned with welcome news. She'd found their 75-year old mother alone in her house– shaken, but unharmed.

Sato has been lucky, too. His little sushi place on Second Street has recently expanded, and the future looks bright.  

L'étoile goes hyper-local

This year, l'étoile chef/owner Mark Gresge had an interesting idea: take the local food movement to a new level and create menus using food from local garden plots.

The Tavern closes

After 30 years, the Emmet Street breakfast place where "students, tourists, and townpeople meet" announced its Christmas Eve closure following a struggle between the restaurant and the property owner over the lease.

Escafé closes, but will re-open

DOUBLE BREAKING NEWS–>The iconic Downtown restaurant and night spot, once also known as Eastern Standard– the place where Dave Matthews Band played its first regular weekly gig (and where Dave made his own first open-mic appearance), makes way for a new place called the Whiskey Jar, which will open next year.

But wait! Escafé owner Todd Howard tells the Hook that they will be re-opening in the long vacant former OXO space on Water Street!

As you read, the OXO space is undergoing preparations and dressed up to welcome Escafé in the New Year. According to Howard, artifacts familiar to many will be going with them, including the murals.

"The Escafé family is very much looking forward to our new home for our lively and intimate times at 215 West Water Street," says Howard.

Skybar

The Downtown Mall's first rooftop bar/restaurant opens in the former A&N building, and quickly becomes a popular nightspot. Thanks to heaters on the roof, it also becomes the Mall's only outdoor venue to be open year-round.

We sent photographer Tom Daly to the Tavern, the Emmet Street breakfast place where "students, tourists, and townpeople meet," to try to capture some flavor as the venerable diner prepares to close down. Business owner Shelly Gordon and property owner Clara Belle Wheeler haven't come to terms on extending the lease, so Gordon has set the restaurant's departure date as Saturday, December 24. Daly shot his photographs on Saturday, December 10.

Dish was sad to learn today that Staunton Grocery, the farm-to-table inspired eatery in the Queen City created by chef/owner Ian Boden, is closing its doors after five years. Dish never heard anything but great things about the restaurant (Southern Living liked the place too!) during that time, and we wish chef Boden and his staff well. Here's a note chef Boden sent out to friends and customers:

To our Loyal Guests, Farmers, Supporters & Friends,
 
Six years ago I moved from New York City to the town of Staunton Virginia with a goal. I wanted to create the first farm to fork restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley that was chef driven, locally sourced and with none of the trappings of a traditional fine dining restaurant.  I wanted to bring something new to the area and help bill this great town as a destination for dining and agriculture.
 
In a lot of ways my goal was simple.  Cook great food, sourced from the best farmers for appreciative guests and they'll come back.  And you all did! In fact at The Staunton Grocery I've had more loyal guests come, more consistently, than any other restaurant I've ever been a part of.
 
I wanted to make people feel that they were coming home to eat, just with some new ingredients that they may not use regularly at home.  Over our five year run there has been a lot of changes, new faces and lots of political and economic change, but we have always managed to keep executing that original goal.
 
With great sadness in my heart we will be shutting the doors of The Staunton Grocery. Our last service will be December 23rd 2011, which is just about 5 years to the day of our opening.  If you are interested in keeping in touch and finding out about the development of new projects please follow me on my new twitter account @chefiab. I am also in the process of developing a blog which will be announced on my twitter page.
 
For our last two weeks of service we will be offering a 50% discount on our wine list for wine with dinner or 'to go'.  Stop by and fill your cellar with some unique wines from the only award winning wine list in the Valley, most of which is unavailable in wine shops or restaurants in the area.  Or stock up on some house made pasta or charcuterie.  All pasta's are $10 per pound and pates and terrines are $15 per pound.
 
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all of your kind words, loyalty and continued support of me and my dream. I wish you all of the best in your endeavors and hope to see you again soon where ever I may end up.
 
Sincerely,
 
Ian Boden
Chef/Owner
The Staunton Grocery

At first sight, Market and Mead Streets would seem an unlikely location for a growing restaurant district, flanked as they are by a cemetery headstone shop, a auto junkyard, and an industrial park. But The Lunchbox Express and Market & Mead at the corner of, well, Market and Mead, this week joins a bevy of eateries in the vicinity that foodies have been flocking to.

Of course, Jinx's Pit's Top Barbecue laid the ground work, but Aqui es Mexico (which has expanded recently), Korea House, Belmont Pizza and Pub, the C'ville Market, and Beer Run have made the unlikely location a foodie destination.

In fact, back in 2008 Beer Run was selected as one of the 100 best places to drink beer in America by Imbibe Magazine, the Portland-based glossy dedicated to covering the world of drink. Aqui es Mexico, run by José Patino and his family, has gained a reputation for serving some of the most delicious, authentic, creative Mexican food in town. The place is very kid friendly, José and his family treat you like you've come to their house for dinner, and the prices are very reasonable. One of Dish's favorites.

The Lunchbox, formerly a mobile food cart maned by Charlottesville natives Daniel Heilberg and Joseph Young, is poised to capitalize on this trend by going bricks and mortar (though they still plan to be mobile). According to Heilberg, the basic menu will be pretty much the same as the mobile one– kabobs, Philly cheesesteak, veggie burgers, fries, wings, hot dogs, chicken tenders– but they've also got a few surprises.

For instance, they also have a full convenience store with a selection of local produce and a New York Style deli up front. There's indoor seating for about 25, and they've built a patio out back with another 20 to 30 seats. They've also set up a bunch of big, beautiful TVs from Crutchfield for watching sports and stuff. And get this: beginning next year, not only will they deliver late night, they will actually be open to 3am Thursday through Saturday!

What's more, Heilberg clued us in to another development. Across the street, Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar creator Matteus Frankovich is apparently opening up a vintage motorcycle-themed restaurant called Vintage Brews. Dish could not confirm this with Frankovich by press time, so it's officially a rumor. But don't worry, Dish will get to the bottom of it!

A team of UVA students questioned nearly 400 Charlottesville City Market goers over the course of the summer, and the results are in.

Earlier this year, a task force was formed to explore the idea of a new, more permanent home for the popular market, which has been in the city-owned Water Street parking lot for over 30 years. But after conducting their owner surveys and bringing in an "internationally known" farmer's market consultant, the task force determined that the market should remain downtown. Now they've recommended that the city create a permanent "market district" so that market organizers can start moving forward with development plans and fundraising.

According to City Market organizers, the student survey was an attempt to better understand the market's customers and the way the market is used. Now the survey is finished, they say it shows that the market is a valuable economic engine for the downtown area. With a permanent location and infrastructure, organizers say the market could be open every day instead of just on Saturdays.

Of course, that's not a new idea. Back in 2007, the city put up $150,000 to sponsor a design contest to generate ideas for would-be developers to develop both Water Street parking lots, and they all included permanent locations for the city market. There were just a few problems: the city doesn't own one of the lots, no developers showed any interest, and the economy tanked.

According to the completed survey, which UVA and other local media reported on, about 5,500 people attend the market every week. Seventy percent of those surveyed combine the visit with a trip to the Downtown Mall, 35 percent consider "local food" to be that produced or grown within a 100-mile radius, and the average spent is about $20 to $30 a visit.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they drive to the market (average drive time about 10 minutes), and 33 percent said they go once a week. Vegetables, fruits, and prepared foods are the top-three purchases (in order), and August is the most popular month.

However, other interesting findings were not mentioned in a UVA press release or by the local media. For instance, 70 percent of those surveyed were women, 70 percent reported they did not have children, and 45 percent had graduate degrees. What's more, the largest percentage of wage earners, 14 percent, said they make $100,000 or more. And most striking: 81 percent reported being white, while only 2 percent reported being African American, despite the fact that Friendship Court, a largely African American-occupied apartment complex, is just a block away from the market.

"When the market has a permanent site, it will be interesting to see if the vendor mix broadens so the customer base matches the demographics of people living in town," says architecture professor Beth Meyer, whose students are working on designs for the new market.

Water Street, Vinegar Hill, and Monticello Avenue near Frank Ix and Friendship Court are all locations being considered, says Meyer, as each has a different strength relative to its size, location and proximity to neighborhoods that don't have grocery stores nearby.

As Meyer mentions, another survey by the same UVA team is already being planned for next summer, and will attempt to determined who does not use the market and why.

About 17 years ago, Eileen Park left a successful TV graphics design career in New York City and followed her husband, a successful plastic surgeon at UVA, to Charlottesville to raise a family.

"Just like that I went from a career woman in NYC to a wife of so and so and mother of so and so," says Park. "Back then, Route 29 was a two-lane road, the Downtown Mall was a deserted area where a few brave souls would venture, and there was one TV station that kept its on-air look for over 30 years...death to my career."

Over time, Park says she got used to her new life, but she could not give up the idea of having a project that would satisfy her entrepreneurial spirit.

As a child, she says the typical lemonade stand became a craft stand, then a jewlery stand, then trips to festivals and fairs. In college she hand-painted T-shirts, drying them in her small apartment, and sold them to students and faculty. Eventually, after friends and family kept complimenting her on the soy sauce-based dressings she made, a light went on. 

"My family and friends always gathered for social events with food at the center," says Park. " Being the Americanized Koreans, just like our language–-switching from English to Korean in mid-sentence–-our food recipes were also fused with the two cultures."

After some experimentation, Park created "Soycha," her signature dressing, and began bottling it in 2007. Palcha (Korean for "Destiny") Products was born.  

"American ingredients work well with Soycha, the original flavor, as well as your typical Asian ingredient salads," says Park. " For instance, I have some salads that include cheese which the Asians don't put in with salads and then I'll have rice or grains in my salads which the Asians do mix with greens. Then there is Chilicha, a spicy salad dressing which seems to surprise a lot of my American customers, but not the Asians."

Locally, you can find Park's dressings at Foods of all Nations, Rebecca's, Blue Ridge Country Store, C'ville Market, Virginia Shop, The Happy Cook, and Anderson's Carriage Food House. However, Park says her products are now available at Whole Foods stores across Virginia and Maryland. There's also a website: palcha.com

Next year, Park says she plans to introduce the seasoned soy sauces as well as a wild game and meat sauce.

"I hope to create recipes for these categories, and also keep true to my cultural flavors," says Park.

The Main Street Market, more commonly known at the "purple building" on West Main Street (Hey, what about just calling it the Purple Market?), welcomed a new shop recently: The Spice Diva.

Your olfactory system is in for a treat, as they offer freshly ground spices, salts, peppers, herb teas, and extracts ground and prepared just weeks after being harvested. Owner Phyllis Hunter, who moved here in July with her husband after nearly three decades in Virginia Beach, says the idea for the shop came to her during a family trip to Northern California where she stumbled on a similar spice shop at a city market there. She already knew she wanted to do something with food when they made the move to Charlottesville, but that chance visit to the spice shop sealed the deal. In fact, Hunter sources most of here spices from the company in Northern California that ran the store.

"These are such high quality spices," says Hunter. "They're ground within a week of shipping and never treated with pesticides. Come in and try them and you'll see what I'm talking about."

To get you to come in, Hunter is offering a pretty cool deal: bring in your old spices, trade them for her new ones, and you'll get 30 percent off. Dish smelled a few of these remarkable spices, and compared to that old jar of curry or thyme you probally have at home...well, it doesn't even compare.

What's a pig and whiskey dinner? Well, at Rapture on the Downtown Mall it means chef Chris Humphrey will be putting his own special spin on ham hocks, smoked pork, and braised pork belly, while Smooth Ambler Spirit's Johnny Foster serves up Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky bourbon and whiskey and talks about the virtues of small-batch distilling. 

The guys from the Rock Barn, an Arrington-based catering and "dining experience" company (where Rapture gets its pork), will also be on hand to talk about  their commitment to using local heritage-breed pastured pigs, as well as to "whole hog" butchering– a practice that pays respect to the slaughtered animal by not letting anything go to waste.

Of course, if you're not a meat eater or whiskey fan, this dinner could be a little hard to stomach, but if you're hankering for some sweet and tender loins and the smooth, powerful taste of a good bourbon, make your reservation and mark your calendar for Wednesday, December 7, at 7pm.

Looks like Ten, the fancy Japanese restaurant on the Downtown Mall, is coming down in the world. Down in price, that is, for at least one night in December. On the first Sunday of the month it appears Charlottesville's first "pop-up restaurant" will make its debut for one night only courtesy Ten chef Pei Chang.

Popular over the last decade, mostly in Britian, pop-up restaurants, or supper clubs, have no fixed location and can "pop-up" in private homes, empty factory spaces, or anywhere else a bunch of enterprising chefs can prepare a one-time dinner. Of course, since chef Pei Chang has the Ten space, his pop-up restaurant, Handsome Boy Noodles, only requires popping up the stairs to the popular sushi place. However, on December 4 from 6pm to 11pm, instead of artfully prepared sushi you'll find noodle dishes like pho and ramen, dumplings, and Korean-style chicken wings for prices ranging from $5 to $10 a bowl. Whats more, profits from the experiment will be going to a charity yet to be determined, and there are no reservations required. Just walk right into to Ten for some delicious. cheap food and a cold beer.

Jeesh, Dish never imagined he'd be saying that about going to Ten!