We couldn’t leave Lynchburg without checking out another one of the hottest hangouts in town. Rivermont Pizza is located mostly underground and has one seriously cool vibe to it from the minute you walk in the door. Located within walking distance of where we were staying, Rivermont Pizza was an easy decision when we got our late-night craving for delicious food.
Julep’s New Southern Cuisine is one of my favorite place in Richmond. It is a little pricey so we usually reserve Juleps for a celebration. The service is always top notch, and the food is out of this world. They keep the menu up to date and seasonal. With elegant dishes like bourbon glazed pork chops, ancho chile blackened grouper, and table side bananas foster. If you are looking to celebrate an aniversary or graduation Juleps is where you want to go!
Posted in Virginia
Tagged american food, Julep's New Southern Cuisine, the foodies
When we planned our trip to Lynchburg, Va for Thanksgiving we knew that beyond turkey there was food that must be eaten. The list was full of Lynchburg favorites including the Texas Inn, Rivermont Pizza and The Cavalier Store. “The Cav” has been a family favorite since my parents were children and it was just a convenience store with a lunch counter. Its now a full blown restaurant with a simple but delicious menu and all of the personality that makes it a Lynchburg institution. All of the tables have been carved with the names of generations of Cav lovers. The walls are decorated with licence plates and the same grumpy man has been there taking orders since i can remember.
Any trip to Lynchburg, Va must be accompanied by a trip the the Texas Inn, or as we call it… “the T-room”. The T-room is a local favorite and has a huge following. It’s a tiny low dive type of place that seats 1000… but only 10 at at time. Few of the employees have all of their teeth, and they love screaming back and forth from the register to the line, which is about 3 feet away.
Q Barbeque is a Richmond, VA favorite and on our latest visit to VA we had to hit it up once more. We first discovered Q Barbeque last summer when we were living in VA for a few months and some friends of ours told us all about the best bbq they ever had. We checked it out and sure enough… we fell in love.
On our latest visit we tried the pork sandwich meal with a side of the pineapple hot dish and potato salad and the brisket combo with a side of hushpuppies.
We’re not bbq experts by any means and we’ve never had anything we didnt like at Q’s… but after going to dozens of restaurants.. we don’t see why Q Barbeque is quite so popular. The pork sandwich was good.. the pineapple hot dish is amazing.. and the potato salad was pretty average.
But the brisket was forgettable and the hush puppies were average.
The best thing about Q’s has got to be the “Sa-weet” sauce.. which pretty much turns anything it touches into pure gold. Its not unusual for me to go through half a bottle in one visit. I put it on nearly everything.. and then I put some more on top of that.
Q Barbeque is definitely worth the trip if you havent been yet. We may not be crazy obsessed with the meats itself but the sauce is to die for :)
El Paso marks the beginning of our Carnita Quest. We lived in Richmond , VA for the Summer of 2010 and during our stay we came across what we believe are the best carnitas ever. Since returning to Charlotte we have been to dozens of Mexican restaurants in search of carnitas that could match what El Paso is serving but the closest thing we could find was at LUPITA TORTILLERIA Y CARNICERIA… which isn’t even a restaurant. So during our latest visit to VA we couldnt resist hitting up our favorite carnitas makers and indulging in the best plate ever.
The chips and salsa are pretty standard but they also serve a bowl of creamy white dip with the salsa that when mixed together creates a euphoric experience in your mouth. 
I have only ever ordered the carnitas so I cant speak for much else on the menu… but if the rest in anything like the carnitas, this might be my favorite Mexican restaurant east of California.
The plate comes out much like every other plate of Mexican food ever… a side of Mexican rice.. a side of refried beans with some melted cheese over-top… and some mixed toppings (lettuce, tomato, guacamole). Nothing on the plate really needs to be there because the real star is the meat, juicy.. tender.. flavorfull.. crispy.. gristly.. fatty greatness. The problem we’re finding in Charlotte is that it seems that all of the restaurants are trimming the pork down way to far and serving the carnitas dried out and resemble steak rather than carnitas. Properly cooked carnitas should be slow cooked and the pork should be so juicy and tender it should fall apart at the mear sight of a fork.. chewing should be optional. 
We asked El Paso how they make there carnitas so much better than everybody else and they told us they pre-cook the pork and let the meat soak in a seasoned oil until ordered then they meat is deep fried for a crispy skin. 
If you consider yourself a Mexican food lover… you have got to try El Paso. The carnitas are out of this world and if I only had one day left to live.. I would make the five hour road-trip from NC to VA and get some before it was too late :)
After a long search to find the limits of my spicy food threshold.. I finally hit my wall at Caliente. To say I love spicy food would be a gross injustice… a lack of emphasis… and honestly come nowhere close to describing my affinity for chasing the perfect pepper. My mom and I joke about how I had a head start when I was born because her biggest craving when she was pregnant with me was jalepenos. She would literally just eat them like popcorn and couldnt get enough. I always figured this was my secret inner strength that gave me my edge over other chili heads… Caliente proved me wrong.
Man V Food host Adam Rchman featured Caliente’s “Stupid Wing” challenge on Season 3, episode 5 and was able to conquer the challenge… albeit a near loss. After trying the wings for myself, I have a new found respect for the Adam and a new found sympathy for his stomach :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-JjnV-Quw&feature=related
When we arrived we told the waitress we were only there to try the wing challenge.. little did I know I was also there to nearly die. The waitress brought out the waiver for me to sign off on saying I wont sue them if the wings kill me and they let me back in the kitchen to watch them make the infamous “Stupid Wings”.
After a 20 minute wait… the wings were ready and I was about to meet my destiny.
There has never been a moment in my life (yet) where I ate something so ridiculously hot that I couldn’t continue eating. I’ve done the Buffalo Wild Wings Challenge so many times everyone in my family has a free shirt by now… I’ve put my face on the wall for completing the Quaker Steak and Lube Challenge.. I laughed at the Pepper Palace Challenge… I was even disappointed that the wings at the Carolina Wing Festival’s “XXX Spicy Wing Challenge” weren’t spicier. Caliente though… they actually have spicy wings.
I took my first bite cautiously like I always do.. just in case. The first wing lit my mouth on fire, but not unlike anything else that I have already conquered… so I started on the second wing.
The second wing went down and thats when all hell started to break loose. Nearing the end of the second wing my fingers started to pulse and go numb. Then my ears started to feel like I was at high altitude and they were going to burst. That was all a minor concern compared to the exponentially growing pain from my throat… an excruciating pain that felt like I had just drank boiling waiter. My throat felt like it was slowly swelling and breathing only helped to fan the flames.
I quickly ditched my ego and grabbed the closest glass of water and signaled for the waitress to bring me some ice cream. After a few more minutes my eyes started to tear up and the tears ran down my face… too bad the tears felt like they were also boiling and slowly burning my cheeks as they rolled down. My fingers by this point weren’t numb.. they, like the rest of my body, had gone into an uncontrollable seizure like shaking that made grabbing a straw nearly impossible. Everything on my body felt like it was being burned alive.. including my teeth.
After 20 minutes… 2 glasses of soda.. 3 glasses of water.. a bowl of ice cream… and some ranch dressing (yes, I really did drink ranch dressing) my throat finally started feeling better. I could talk again.. my fingers stopped shaking.. my head was still throbbing but all-in-all I was getting back on the right track to recovery. We paid the bill and thanked the chef for making something so incredibly spicy, then we headed down a few blocks to get some dinner at the Black Sheep.
The pain didn’t stop there though… for the next few hours as the food worked its way through by body, I felt excruciating pain in my stomach. Every 20 minutes it felt like someone jabbed a serrated knife into my stomach and slowly pulled it out… only to be repeated another 20 minutes later.
I have long said that I would be happy the day I find my spicy food threshold.. and I was. I was disappointed I lost the challenge because I really wanted the free shirt but I was happy to know I do have a soul and in fact have a spicy food limit. Whether or not my reaction is a typical reaction to the wings I may never know. We joked about the possibility that maybe I was oddly allergic to something in the concoction and thats what caused my severe adverse reaction after my second wing.. but who knows.
All I know is the wings brought me close to death and my tombstone would have said “Died of Capsaicin Overdose”. The wings at Caliente are not to be taken lightly and should really only be attempted by trained chili heads. If you think you can handle the heat give it a shot but be warned.. these wings are not for amateurs. Despite my agonizing experience.. I’m looking forward to trying it again next year :)
After the unexpected death defying show that Curtis put on for us at Caliente.. we decided it was time for a real dinner, so we headed a few blocks down the road and ended up at the The Black Sheep. Its a very tiny restaurant in the heart of down town Richmond that seats maybe 20 people on a good day. Like Caliente, The Black Sheep was featured on Man V Food Season 3.. Episode 5 and Adam Richman showed the world the difference between a sub… and a Battleship!
The place was packed when we got there and we had to wait about 45 minutes to get seated…outside.. in the FREEZING COLD! When we finally got a seat the first thing that I wanted was a nice big mug of steaming hot tea which was delicious.
After looking through the menu (which was different than the menu they had online so they must change it pretty often) my mom and I both decided on the lamb with polenta and spinach. The polenta was creamy and cheesy and tasted even better when mixted in with the sauce. The spinach was seasoned well and added some nutrients to a plate full of meat and starch. The lamb had a nice flavor, especially mixed with the polenta and spinach, but it was a little bit tough.
My dad ordered the Oyster Gumbo and the Crawfish Etoufe Gravy Bisquit. I tasted the gumbo, and even though I dont preticularly like oysters, the gumbo had alot of flavor with just a little bit of spice that made it a nice dish.
I also loved the unique spin on the Etoufe being served over a bisquit instead of rice. I didn’t get to taste it, but my Dad said it was delicious and coming from a man that used to live in New Orleans, that is pretty high praise.
Curtis got one of the Black Sheep’s most notorious specialties… the Battleship. A full battleship weighs in at over 2lbs so he got a half size… still bigger than a full sub at Subway. He got the USS Congress which came packed with chipotle roasted pork shoulder simmered in a tomatillo barbeque sauce, grilled pineapple & mexican style pickled cabbage salad, loaded into a toasted french baguette.
This was the first thing Curtis had eaten since leaving Caliente and his mouth was still on fire from the “Stupid Wing” challenge.. so this was a much welcomed change The baguette was perfectly made and reminded him of his trip to Paris a few years back, while the pickled cabbage salad mirrored the flavors we found in the pineapple papaya coleslaw at Vida Cantina. The only complaint he had was the severe lack of condiments.. the pork shoulder was juicy.. the cabbage was mouthwatering.. and the pineapple was full of flavor… but the one thing that would have put it over the top would have been the addition of the tomatillo bbq sauce directly on the battleship, instead of just simmered in with the pork shoulder.
For dessert we tried the pumpkin cannoli prepared with creamy ricotta and pumpkin filled crispy cannoli shells finished with chopped pistachio. The shell was so crunchy we had a rough time trying to eat it.. but once we got through the hard exterior we found creamy goodness inside. Not the best connoli by any means.. but a connoli none-the-less.
The Black Sheep made for a great dinner and is easy to see why its so popular. If you’re going to go try to go during an off time.. when its warm.. or when you’ve got some time to kill.
While living in Chesterfield for the summer I had heard on the radio about Buffalo Wild Wings having a wing eating contest :) There was a cash award for whoever could eat the most and the entry fee was only $10. I figured a dozen wings was usually about $10 so I should at least be able to get my moneys worth even if I didn’t win the challenge. I signed up for the wing eating contest and from there my destiny was sealed.
The contest had a ten minute time limit to eat as many of BW3′s “hot” wings as you could and you were allowed to drink water the whole time. I was super disappointed it was just the “hot” wings and not the “blazin” wings. Had it been the blazin wings Im sure I would have done much better :) Anyway, the staff brought out several large platters of wings and set them in from of me and the four other competitors. Once the timer began all the fun started :)
The five of us guys all started polishing of wings like they were nothing. One by one the tiny wings were turned into a pile of bones and our faces became plastered with BW3′s hot sauce. After about 7 minutes I began hitting a wall when I found myself able to tear the meat off the bone way faster than I could chew and swallow. The problem laid in the fact that I had neglected to drink any water during the challenge. I figured I would be Mr. Big Shot and show all of the guys that the wings weren’t hot to me and I didn’t need to drink anything. What I had forgotten was that by drinking in a speed eating food contest, the liquid helps to facilitate the swallowing and chewing process and allows you to eat much more and a lot quicker too. My mouth for the last 3 minutes of the challenge looked like a chipmunk bc I had so much food crammed in my mouth I was struggling to actually chew and swallow it.
At the end of challenge I had eaten 26 wings in 10 minutes… that works out to a wings every 23 seconds. Not bad for my first wings challenge. If I had remembered to drink something I honestly feel like I would have broke three dozen, not that it would have mattered bc the guy that won the competition went just shy of five dozen wings. Even though I hadn’t won the contest I was still glad I competed. I got over two dozen wings for $10 and had a blast doing it :)
While living in Richmond for the Summer, a group of friends and I enjoyed challenging each too ridiculous displays of food eating dominance. McLean’s Restaurant served as the setting for our final food challenge of the Summer… a breakfast eating challenge :) There was a group of nine of us gathered around a long table in the corner of the restaurant all set and ready to devour countless plates of delicious breakfast plates. To make the challenge fair we all agreed to the same plate of food and whoever ate the most plates would be crowned FOOD EATING CHAMPION OF THE SUMMERr!!! Our plate was the pancake breakfast platter.. consisting of two eggs, bacon and two thick pancakes.
Once the plates arrived the challenge began. I was off to a quick start bc I got my plate first but a couple of the other guys were only a couple bites behind so I pushed on further. Before the waitress came back with the rest of the plates for the other half of the table I had already finished my plate and ordered my second. The second plate went down pretty quick but I could tell the pancakes were starting to settle in and I was definitely slowing down. I ordered my third plate while a couple of the guys were finishing their first, which left them feeling there was no hope so they quit. When I started in on my third plate there were only two other guys that were even close to catching up so I slowed down a little and paced myself. One after another the guys started dropping out and before long it was just me and one other guy. I was finishing my third plate while he was summoning all the strength he could to finish his second plate. I finished my third plate and the world was getting a little dizzy so I decided to hold off on ordering the third one at least until the other guy catches up, That proved to be no problem bc three bites short of finishing his second plate he was disqualified for… ummmm…. loosing his breakfast.
We all quickly paid for our meals and made great haste to clear the scene. By the end of the competition I had eaten six thick pancakes, nine strips of bacon, six eggs and I even had room for half of an eggs benedict :) We all had a great time at McLeans and I will always remember our breakfast challenge. The staff was really helpful, the food was great and best of all…. its a great place to hang with your friends
