The C&O has always been the home of the second chance,” says owner Dave Simpson, who has run the Water Street restaurant for 30 years.
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

For 30 years now, Dave Simpson has been holding down the fort at the C&O restaurant, which put Charlottesville on the fine dining map when original owners Sandy McAdams and Philip Stafford opened the place in 1976.

Back then you could count the number of fine-dining restaurants in town on two hands. Today, you need a calculator.

Remarkably, the cozy place in the funky building on Water Street is still setting the standard in Charlottesville cuisine. As for Simpson, he’s manged to maintain the restaurant’s good reputation for three decades now with a combination of hard work and some fine people skills. One of the few missteps he’s made was straying away from the C&O and partnering with wayward accountant Jim Baldi (who is still wanted on felony embezzlement charges) on the Bel Rio fiasco, a restaurant whose noise and financial problems made Simpson feel put in a “bad guy” role. He parted ways with Baldi and issued a public apology to the people in Belmont “who found this enterprise a nuisance while I was involved.”

Back where he belongs now, Simpson, who grew up in Charlottesville in the 1950s, the son of a City cop, recently took time out to reflect on the last 30 years.

“Growing up as a cop’s son then was a little like growing up on the Andy Griffith Show,” says Simpson. “My mom worked at Sperry, and my brother Mike and I graduated from Lane High school.”

In 1968, Simpson’s mom took him to lunch at the local Shoney’s for his 13th birthday, and at one point asked (more)

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Meal on Wheels has been serving it up for over 30 years locally—now Walmart has given them a little boost.
PHOTO FROM MEALS ON WHEELS WEBSITE

Earlier this month, Walmart announced it was donating $755,000 to 12 Virginia non-profits through the super-store’s  State Giving Program. Well, $45,000 of it landed in the lap of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle, which delivers 180 to 200 hot, prepared lunch-time meals to the homebound every day Monday through Friday, courtesy of a local volunteer force of nearly 200.

“We are so grateful to the Walmart Foundation for this generous grant,” says Meals on Wheels public relations director Dawn Grzegorczyk. “With this generous gift, Meals on Wheels can continue our work to fulfill our mission of providing hot meals and friendly hellos to all those in our community who need them, regardless of ability to pay.”

Grzegorczyk says the money has already been earmarked to purchase meals for Charlottesville residents in public housing who are both unable to prepare their own meals and unable to pay even a nominal fee for the meals they do receive.

“This grant will cover the cost of one full year of hot, home-delivered meals for 32 Charlottesville city residents who depend daily on Meals on Wheels for both food and social interaction,” says Grzegorczyk.

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Chef Peter Chang has signed a lease for the former Wild Greens space in the Barracks Road Shopping Center.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Despite recent reports to the contrary, renowned chef Peter Chang is still planning to open his namesake restaurant in Charlottesville, though it will not be in the former Asian Buffet space on Route 29 North, as Dish previously reported.

According to an associate of Chang’s, that deal mysteriously fell through following a September 14 story in the Hook. Indeed, despite having issued Chang a leasing contract (which Dish saw with his own eyes) that would have allowed the chef to take possession of the property (which has been vacant since 2006) in October, Chang’s associate says that representatives of property owner, the University of Virginia Foundation, expressed frustration with the early publicity and declined to follow through with the deal.

When asked why the property wasn’t leased to Chang, UVA Foundation CEO Tim Rose declined to comment, citing client confidentiality in such negotiations.

“If you have questions about this,” said Rose. ” I would suggest you contact whomever shared information with you.”

Anyway, it appears that the Foundation’s loss will be the Barracks Road Shopping Center’s gain.

Today, Chang secured the former Wild Greens space in the North Wing of the shopping center, and will be calling it Peter Chang China Grill.

“We’re very excited to announce that Mr. Chang’s restaurant will join Barracks Road in early 2011,” said Stuart Biel, leasing associate for Federal Realty, which owns the shopping center.

Of course, you never know with Mr. Chang, but as far as Dish can tell it’s a done deal. Reports that Chang was ditching Charlottesville and moving back to Atlanta with his concept aren’t true, says Chang’s associate. Although he will be consulting on the opening of a new Atlanta restaurant, the associate says Chang will be a majority partner in the Charlottesville restaurant.

After some renovation work to the old Wild Greens space, Chang’s associate says they plan to open in late January 2011, just in time for Chinese New Year on February 3. Until then, stay tuned for updates.

Updated 11/17/2010

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Crozet Pizza’s iconic counter.
PHOTO FROM CROzET PIZZA WEBSITE

Congratulations to Crozet Pizza for being named one of the 51 greatest pizza parlors in the country by USAToday. It’s an honor well-deserved, as the iconic pizza place in downtown Crozet has become the pizza dough of legend, but not surprising for a place that Muhammad Ali called “the greatest” and National Geographic dubbed the best in the world.

Indeed, it was Crozet Pizza, which opened in 1977, that seemed to put Crozet on the map, that lured us out that way and sent us back home telling stories about the fabulous hand-made pies prepared right before your eyes. It used to be you had to order days in advance because Bob and Karen Crum’s pizzas were so sought after.

Of course, Crozet Pizza’s current success has been about successfully maintaining and building on that reputation all these years, which is exactly what the Crum’s daughter, Colleen, and her husband, Mike Alexander, have done since they took over in 2004.

Here’s what USA Today had to say: “Homemade dough, a perfect combination of sauce and spices, and a near endless list of toppings make Crozet Pizza in Crozet a destination for pie lovers. The appetizing ambiance of the cozy shop is enhanced by a wood stove, a screen door that gently slaps closed with the arrival of each customer and the majestic backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

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“It’s time to downsize,” says Brix Terrace Café owner Karen Laetare.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

Restaurant owners tend to preen like cats when they first open, but when they close they tend to slink away like them. So kudos to Brix… ah, Terrace Café owner Karen Laetare for contacting Dish to let us know that she’s decided to close her Pantops restaurant. Not an easy thing to do. The reason? Well, it’s clear that the economy hasn’t been helping any— almost any restaurant owner you talk to these day will tell you the same thing— and that trying to maintain a big, high volume establishment had become a challenge.

“It’s time to downsize,” Laetare admits. The restaurant closed on Friday, November 12.

Meanwhile, she wants to remind her customers that her decade-long Brix brand, which the newly opened franchise Brixx: Wood Fired Pizza in the Barracks Road Shopping Center forced her to change before they arrived, is still going strong on a much smaller scale at the Martha Jefferson Hospital outpatient facility on Pantops, where she has been operating the Terrace Café @ Martha J since April. Also, Laetare wants to assure folks that her decision to close had nothing to do with the Brixx pizza place trying to force her to change her name.

“It’s a little sad,” says Laetare, who admits that opening the big space on Pantops had been years in the making. “But I have to do what I have to do.”

Laetare knows of no plans for the Pantops space, which is owned by the shopping center, but she says her loss could be someone else’s opportunity. “It’s a great building, has a great kitchen set up,” she says. “And there’s a lota love in it.”

As for her decision to announce the closing, Laetare says it was a no-brainer.

“My customers deserve it,” she says, “because they’ve been phenomenal.”

–story last updated 10:21am, Tuesday, November 16

–original headline: Brix Terrace Cafe on Pantops to close

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