What we’ve heard
A strong season for Summer Supper Somm
The king and queen of Virginia tomatoes, Barbara and David Hunsaker of Village Garden, are back with a hefty tomato timetable for their dinner series, Summer Supper Somm.
Hunsaker says, “We are pumped! Tomato season is off to its best start in years, and so is SSS! This season Summer Supper Somm expands our winery partners with support from the Virginia Wine Board.”
The series, which in the past has predominantly featured Barboursville Vineyards as its wine partner, is expanding to showcase the whole of Virginia wines and our amazing grapes. Now in its fourth year, the series has also expanded its footprint to include dinners at FARM in Bluffton, S.C. and Flora and Fauna in Savannah, Ga.
“We have dinners at some of Virginia’s best, most beautiful wineries, and restaurant dinners with perennial favorites as well as some exciting new venues, several with James Beard nominated-chefs,” Hunsaker says. “Our vines [400+ varieties this year] have never looked better, and Molly Reeder has created an inspired artwork of tomato beauty to help promote the series and raise funds for our adopted charity, Greater Richmond SCAN. It’s looking like a great year to love on an heirloom.”
The full schedule is here (and reads like a “Best Virginia Restaurants” list).
Ellwood Thompson’s has a new dinner series
In late 2023, Ellwood Thompson’s was purchased by Healthier Choices Management Corp (HCMC), a healthy lifestyle company based out of Florida. And with that move came some changes, like Executive Chef Xavier Beverly (previously of The Camel) moving to National Food Service Manager for all of HCMC’s natural grocers. To get “back to his roots,” Beverly decided to start “The Regional Table” monthly(ish) dinner series at the market. Using the most local ingredients, he is creating a five-course menu paired with Virginia beverages. The most recent dinner featured local deviled eggs, locally made Keya’s Black Salt Chips and a local tomato and smoked grape caprese. Most everything is sourced fewer than 100 miles from Richmond. Head online for more information and announcement of the next dinner.
A trio of Juneteenth celebrations
In honor of Juneteenth, there are myriad events taking place around Richmond (find a comprehensive roundup here) including several culinary celebrations.
Chef Antonio Owen of Sweet P’s is hosting “Soul Symphony: A Juneteenth Tasting Experience” featuring five courses with historical emphasis honoring “the Black culinary legacy while offering a fresh, refined perspective on the food that raised us.” From the first course titled “Sunday Smoke,” featuring smoked turkey, mustard and cornbread air to the last course of “Freedom, Sweetly,” with peach tarte tatin, our mouths are already watering. The dinner runs from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, June 19; tickets are $123 and can be purchased online.
Run by husband-and-wife team, Paul and Nikki Polk, Charlotte’s Southern Deli will be featuring a (now sold-out) Jubilee on Friday, June 20. “It’s a time for celebration for us,” says Nikki. “It’s going to be a true celebration, so we will have fried chicken and caviar,” adds Paul. “We will also be doing a teacake. In the South, it got translated differently than England. Here, it’s like a soft sugar cookie,” says Nikki. “It’s a dessert that’s highlighted on Juneteenth.”
The five-course Venture Series Jubilation dinner includes intentional beverage pairings like a Virginia Mountain Mint Hailstorm Julep. The cocktail is an homage to former slave and 19th-century Richmond hospitality hero, John Dabney, and features two Black-owned spirits, Uncle Nearest Whiskey and Equiano Rum.
Over at The Roosevelt, Executive Chef Leah Branch has partnered with The Valentine to create shoebox lunches that will include red velvet trifle, black-eyed pea salad, a hibiscus juice box and more, plus a Juneteenth bookmark and a shoebox lunch history page. These lunches were offered for pre-order only, and at $5 each they are long sold-out.
Didn’t snag a ticket or pre-order to one of these events? That’s okay! Visit Charlotte’s and The Roosevelt for lunch and dinner, respectively, for a taste of Southern cuisine embedded in history.
Dreaming of Duke’s
Hot Tomato Summer is back for its fifth year of tomato and mayo. From July 17-27 you can snag tomato-ey mayonnaise-y treats from the West End to the Southside. Last year, more than 100 restaurants participated in the Richmond area alone. This year they’ve added Virginia Beach to their roster of participating cities. That means more beach sandwiches, right? Restaurant registration closes Tuesday, June 17.
You’ve got to try it (and can we get more of it)?
We recently popped into the new Chez Nous and then promptly passed right out due to the deliciousness of their jambon beurre. It’s everything a ham, cheese, butter and bread sandwich should be — crusty in all the right places with bread sourced from local Flour Garden bakery, hammy with pops of pickle and slathered with salty butter from Normandy. Sharing is caring, normally … but this sandwich is not to share.
We know we have written about Slack Tide Fish Co., the highly anticipated restaurant from Yellow Umbrella Provisions, about eleventy billion times—but it is finally open! Of course, we were there on opening night. Alongside the most detailed raw bar flavor descriptions you’ve ever read — for example, “medium salinity with a sweet miso finish and hints of hazelnut and melon” for White Stone oysters — we were drooling over the bright, citrusy aji amarillo pepper and lychee sauce on the tuna crudo and the pungent pesto risotto topped with a crunchy soft-shell crab, andouille sausage, and a big pile of fennel and carrots with pesto vinaigrette. We look forward to working our way through the entire menu, and so should you.
What we’re drinking at home
It’s the time of year for quaffing some frosty cold libations, and there are many local producers ready to help. Here are some of our favorites and new releases:
Sure, we all want a relaxing summer sipper, but that doesn’t always mean alcohol. That’s why Bingo Beer Co. launched High Score Beverage Co. featuring hemp-derived, canned bevvies made in partnership with Virginia Grower and Producer Pure Shenandoah. Their first flavors, Ginger Mule and Paloma, are giving cocktail but instead of ABV you have THC, CBD and CBG (also, other cannabinoids) for a balanced, buzzy vibe. We tasted them both — the Ginger Mule provides a nice punch of pure ginger, while the Paloma is more light and tropical. Both canned options seem like an easy choice for chilling poolside.
We feel like this is an oldie, but an oft-overlooked goodie. Clean and tasty Cirrus vodka is infused with caramelized golden pineapple and jalapeno peppers for a fruity, non-artificial flavor with a real jalapeno kick at the end. Mix it with ginger beer and lime for an easy, interesting cocktail. It’s also solid in Jell-O shots, soda water and sprite. And yes, we even tried mixing it with Fresca. Pool times, y’all. You can also snag a Jala-Pina Rita at Cirrus’ new tasting room across the courtyard from Slack Tide Seafood Co.
We love a rotating cocktail menu and Virago Spirits keeps it so fresh and seasonal. Their summer cocktail menu won’t go live until July (so three more weeks) but we got a preview of one of their upcoming drinks, License to Dill. The ingredients are pure summer: Virago Modern Gin, Drambuie, house-made peach and dill shrub and a demerara Syrup. Sounds crafty and just our type.*
*Robey’s first real car was named Ad-Rock.
** Megan is praying Virago brings back her favorite summer drink of all time, the Watermelon Rita. Please, pretty please, with rum on top?
Got a new favorite summer sipper? We want to hear about it. Shoot us a message over on the Style Weekly socials and in the next column, we can talk about them.
—XOXO Megan and Robey
Postscript: Big congrats to fellow columnist Megan Marconyak for her work on the “The Richmond 100” list at The Richmond Times-Dispatch, which chronicles (you guessed it) 100 of Richmond’s best restaurants. That’s some hard work and dedication right there. Similar ups to the other contributing writers, Colleen Curran, Meredith Lindstrom and Justin Lo.
