Bizou

Tonight I did one of my favorite things in the fall: sat outside on a perfectly crisp evening, with willow oak leaves spinning down toward tables on Charlottesville’s brick walking mall, and ordered a flight of appetizers. 

They came out immediately. None were novel ideas, but all were beautifully made, where the ingredients tasted like themselves and joined together in little duets and quartets on the tongue. 

The butternut squash soup might have thought about cayenne on its way to my mouth, but it was just a passing thought. It was mildly sweet, just like squash is, not like, say, marshmallows or maple syrup or brown sugar. Geez. The roasted seeds were crunchy even after floating in the soup and they didn’t do that awkward woody thing that makes you furtively reach for your napkin. 

The tuna tartare came out round with a crown of avocado and three light crisps. Simple and clean, with a delightful pop of capers and a couple dots of aioli. Surprisingly filling!

The autumn burrata was on a bed of greens, prosciutto, and thin grilled squash with a drizzle of balsamic, served with toasted brioche. It ate like a softboiled egg: again delicious. 

I drank a Sancerre Rosé that was listed as a staff favorite: crisp and refreshing, like the cooling twilight air. 

I was so satisfied I turned down the blackberry crème brûlée. Total bill: $65. Ninety peaceful minutes on Cville’s downtown mall: a memory to warm me this winter. 

Accordia Staunton

For a downtown Staunton business that from day one impressed Shenandoah Valley residents and visitors alike with the depth of its wine inventory and the knowledge of its proprietors, Angela and Robert Higgs, Accordia Staunton is really hitting its stride. 

USA Today (owner of the local News Leader) recognized them as one of its 2026 Bars of the Year, but that’s not the half of it. Accordia opened a full bar in the now-attached former law office east of their wine shop. Their available drinks range from over 600 bottles focused on organic and low-intervention wines to classic cocktails, beer, madeira, sake and kombucha. And their food has expanded in variety and satisfaction to include tapas, sandwiches, desserts, and cheese and charcuterie boards. 

Angela has strong opinions about imported olives. Robert goes on at length about regionally unusual grape varietals on the slopes of distant vineyards. My cheese board was brimming with fresh baguette, supple dried apricots and cranberries, candied pecans, fig jam and four beautifully distinct light-colored cultures from cow, sheep and goat milk, including an exceptional Shropshire Blue. They offer long tastings with tasting notes, and special events including wine pairings, bar takeovers, music and poetry. 

In their extensive profile of Angela, Moxie Towns traced the couple’s wine journey from studying wine tourism and production in France to running Barren Ridge Vineyards, opened by Robert’s folks in Fishersville in 2008. Monique Calello wrote for the Staunton News Leader, “While Virginia wines have a place, the collection stretches far beyond, introducing guests to regions like Lebanon, Japan and Ukraine—places rarely represented in local wine programs.” 

facebook.com/AccordiaWineBar

Meat and Potatoes

The DJ began spinning a Space Odyssey remix. The doors opened promptly at 10:30, and a small riot of unreserved patrons made a barely restrained rush for the bar. 

Meat and Potatoes is not quite as down-home as it sounds. Pâté and bruschetta are on the Sunday brunch menu. Michelle's Bellini was made with real strawberries, and my Bloody Mary bar was a DIY festival with six kinds of meat, probably two dozen pickled things in jars and just as many varieties of hot sauce. 

And yet, if there are two kinds of good menus—inventive deliciousness and calculated deliciousness—this definitely was the latter. Maybe it was the decor: I just can't take antlers seriously in a new downtown cultural center. Maybe it was needing to decide between chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, huevos rancheros AND stuffed French toast. 

I ended up with E: None of the Above, but it was hard to know if I was eating brisket hash or a marketing gimmick.  

meatandpotatoespgh.com

Key Pizza

My wife thinks the name “Key Pizza” is stupid. Stupider is the sign, which, even in this fuzzy photo I did not take, plainly shows a real key attached to a pizza keychain. Either the sign should show a key made of pizza, or the shop should be called Keychain Pizza. Right? Right.

I first visited Key Pizza on Halloween. Fitting, as it turned out. 

Inside the door I saw an ice cream menu. I saw pizza boxes, insulated delivery bags, ovens. What I did not see was pizza.

Dialogue:
— Do you serve slices or just whole pies?
— We sell slices.
— I’ll have a slice.
— That will be $2.25.

Note: in New York “a slice” implies a plain slice, and I took the fact they didn’t ask what kind of slice I wanted as a good sign.

It wasn’t. I waited a minute for them to produce a slice. Then two. Then five. They were busy. I thought maybe I was missing something. I looked around for a self-serve pizza bar. There wasn’t. I looked for an unobtrusive place to stand. Negative.

Note: in New York pizza shops pride themselves on getting slices out the door as fast as possible. Business depends on it. If there’s a wait, people will down the street.

Not so in Philly. Closest competitor: 3 blocks. And I had already paid. 

A man came in dressed as Dumbo’s friend Timothy Q. Mouse. (I asked.) He said his nose was hurting so he had taken the nose off. He ordered two slices. $4.50. 

A minute went by, then two, then four. He wondered out loud if he was missing something. I asked at the counter. We weren’t: the pizza was “coming up right now.”

The pizza, when it was delivered, was hot. It had cheese—lots of stringy chewy cheese. And chewy crust that flopped around and was impossible to hold. There was also red sauce. It was all thoroughly unremarkable.

What was remarkable was the neighborhood. I walked home past homeowner after homeowner on their front stoop, each with a bowl or bag of candy. Some were in costume. Some were reading. One seemed to be grading school papers.

Swarms of children caroused the streets, with and without adults in tow. “Check out 2218!” one boy yelled back over his shoulder as he sprinted toward the next promising door.

Key Pizza on Grub Hub

Draai Laag Brewing Company

Peter Kope and Michele de la Reza are smart, fiercely devoted to their art (modern dance) and determined to do good by whomever they meet. The creative inspirations behind Pittsburgh's Attack Theatre met us at Draai Laag Brewing Company for three rounds of sour beers, a Slobby Bifko (that's a brisket sandwich with cheddar, pickled onions and horseradish mayo) and other-worldly ice cream sandwiches from Leona's Ice Cream.

Clockwise from left: Black Briar, Razmata,
more Black Briar, Plastic Cup, Nanabam.

In my first flight I tried Black Briar—Draai Laag's signature American wild ale made with blackberries. It is solid. Deep. But my first swigs smelled like ammonia. "Yeast," said Michelle. Dave behind the bar assured us that the huge head—he had four foamy glasses settling below the taps—didn't indicate anything was wrong with the keg. Once, he said, they had a beer where they had to draw a whole pitcher of foam and wait for it to settle to pour one glass.

The other winner in that flight was Razmata. "There are two distinct notes," Michelle said. "The Weiss beer and the raspberry." She was right, according to the menu. It's a raspberry Berliner Weiss.

I wish I could give you a report from my second flight, with R2Koelschip, Tafelboer and Relic, but honestly all the sours started tasting the same at that point. Michelle ordered a glass of the Relic, however. She said it smelled like a campfire. (I thought it smelled like a camp latrine.)

I like sour beers, honest. I even like Draai Laag's sours. All misplaced snottiness aside, I don't think they do anything poorly, and I don't think that I have the discriminating palate to tell if they did. But nothing I drank gave me the life-changing aha of the Fetish Brewing Company Wild American Dark in Lancaster, Pa., or the Belgian drinkability of Ommegang's Rosetta, or the confident satisfaction nearly anything I've tried from Free Will Brewing Company in Perkasie, Pa.

But I like to drink, and I like to try new food, and I like sitting outside in beautiful weather with some of the best people I know. Pretty sweet.

www.draailaag.com

Wigle Whiskey

I first wisited Wigle Whiskey soon after they opened in 2012. Everything I'm about to write about them I learned from their friendly and knowledgeable sales staff.

Wigle is the first distillery to open in Pittsburgh since Prohibition. Named after a notorious Pittsburgher who was imprisoned for instigating the whiskey rebellion (and later pardoned by George Washington), Wigle prides itself on distilling locally sourced ryes and innovating new varieties of common spirits like their Dutch-style “Ginever” gin. On a Saturday afternoon (and nearly every day they're not distilling) their tasting room is bustling and tours fill the barrel-lined area beyond glass garage doors.

We tried their Foundations flight—a spectrum of alcoholic concoctions ranging from the sickeningly sweet Spiced Honey Spirit to the smooth-sipping Ginever gin and their signature Pennsylvania Monongahela Small Cask Rye Whiskey. There was also an extensive cocktail menu, and a variety of experimental spirits. We walked away with 750ml bottles of their Ginever and Deep Cut Monongahela Rye.

www.wiglewhiskey.com

Bar Marco

Around the corner from Leaf and Bean, Bar Marco delivers the best possible afterlife to one of Pittsburgh's old fire halls. This is how people built fire stations a century ago: tin ceilings, metal stairs, tile brick six feet up the wall.

Whoever renovated was kind to the kitchen staff—fully half the ground floor is devoted to food preparation, and the food can tell. I ordered lemon buttermilk pancakes with sweet cream, bacon and rhubarb compote. The pancakes were light and hot with crispy edges. I didn't even use the maple syrup until the last bite.

Michelle had her choice of five delicious savories and settled on an unusual, delicious burger with sweet bacon, sautéed red onion and an egg. Passed over: fried chicken with rhubarb-chili sauce, croque BLT on sourdough, baked eggs with pepperonata sauce, fried zucchini benedict.

In a 2012 Pittsburgh Magazine review, “Valentina” raved about their bar program, with bitters, tinctures, juices and syrups made from scratch. We didn't scratch the surface of their drink menu, but there was nothing wrong with the gently spicy Tito’s Bloody Mary or the glowing mimosa.

Total bill under $60. (Elise told us they "do not accept any kind of gratuities.”) Writing a food review on one’s phone over a rainy Saturday morning brunch: priceless. 

(I paid with Discover.)

www.barmarcopgh.com