Exploring some favorite spots for breakfast, lunch and dinner near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Fred Saucemman
Batter for the Villa’s Belgian waffles is house-made.
“You can’t go wrong with a stack of pancakes,” says Ken Beachley as we sit down to breakfast at The Villa Diner in Charlottesville, Virginia.
On the day we visited, the tables were almost all occupied less than half an hour after the restaurant opened, and there was a constant stream of carry-out orders, most of them headed for the University of Virginia campus just down the street. The Villa has become one of Charlottesville’s most beloved breakfast spots.
Fred Saucemman
The Gus Burger was named for a Charlottesville physician.
“If you eat here often, we’re going to remember if you like half decaf and half regular, and we’ll try to have the coffee poured as you’re sitting down,” Ken adds. “It’s that level of service daily that helps make us stand out.”
Ken and his wife Jennifer are present every day, overseeing the mixing of crepe batter, making sure the coffee beans are freshly ground, and, most importantly, brightening the lives of their customers.
Jennifer is a Charlottesville native, and Ken grew up in Richmond, where the couple met while waiting tables at an Applebee’s restaurant. After Ken graduated from culinary school in South Carolina, they married, and he completed a degree in hospitality management at Penn State University.
When they bought their Charlottesville business in 2005, they were confronted by an unmanageable menu and operating hours that extended until two o’clock in the morning. The Beachleys inherited a menu they call an “odd conglomeration,” with pizza and chicken parmesan alongside biscuits and gravy.
They focused the menu and shortened the operating hours. Now they make everything from scratch, including mixing their own batters for pancakes, crepes and waffles, and roasting their own meats for lunchtime sandwiches. Their bacon, sausage and country ham all come from Virginia producers.
The Villa has quickly become a favorite spot for UVA students, faculty, and staff. “The football team, we see them here constantly,” says Ken. “And we see a lot of the basketball players. It’s always popular with athletes in particular.”
The university even uses The Villa as a recruiting tool for prospective students.
“The University Guides come in twice a year with their new recruits,” Ken says proudly. “They even put on skits, which become like a floor show for our regular customers.”
The Villa’s philosophy is “fresh ingredients and simple food prepared well.”
Older and even closer to the UVA campus is The White Spot, home of the Gus Burger. It’s an alcohol-free restaurant that stays open until 2:30 in the morning.
Fred Saucemman
Citrus-flavored pound cake at Maya.
Dating to the early 1950s and in the location of a former barber shop, The White Spot, as its team of owners will readily tell you, is a true hole-in-the-wall, at some 400 square feet in size. It was named for the spot in the floor that was left when the swivel barber chair was removed.
The business is owned by a group of 15 UVA alumni, including Marvin Bush, of presidential family fame; Ashley Manning, wife of NFL and University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning; and Ralph Sampson, perhaps the greatest basketball player in UVA history, whose seven-foot-four-inch likeness dominates one of the restaurant’s walls.
Rivaling them all in the memories of UVA alumni was a man named Gus. Dr. Gus Egor, a physician, earned immortality not on the basketball court, in the political arena, or even in the operating room. His memory lives on in the form of an egg-topped burger.
“He was fond of The White Spot and routinely crossed the street from the hospital in the 1960s to have lunch here, with his stethoscope still around his neck,” says Rob Jiranek, who works for the restaurant’s team of owners. “He needed extra protein, something to continue to power him through the afternoon, so one day he requested a fried egg on top of his cheeseburger, and he ordered it again the next day.”
Sam Cruz has been cooking Gus Burgers for 20 years, always making sure the egg is done. “I treat the grill well, the way I treat my customers,” he says. “I season it every morning to get ready for the first Gus Burger.”
For a mid-afternoon snack, we chose Bodo’s Bagels, so close to the UVA campus that you expect a graduate seminar to break out at any time. There are three Bodo’s locations in Charlottesville, all making bagels, boiled and then baked, in-house every day. We chose a cinnamon-raisin bagel with cinnamon sugar and butter and a sesame bagel with an avant-garde jalapeño and lime cream cheese schmear.
Our dinner choices were both within walking distance of the campus, just a few blocks away. Public Fish and Oyster is such a popular Charlottesville gathering place that reservations are pretty much mandatory. The large chalkboard is filled with oyster choices. Right at the top, on our visit, were Victory Points from Gloucester, Virginia, farm-raised in the Chesapeake Bay-York River Estuary. Each oyster listing is accompanied by tasting notes. These were described as having a mild brine with a mineral finish.
Continuing the oyster theme, we chose an appetizer version, dipped in buttermilk and fried in a rice flour coating. The specials board also featured a beautiful seared halibut, with a sauce made of butter and saffron.
Fred Saucemman
Victory Point oysters topped the specials board at Public Fish and Oyster.
In an adjoining block is Maya, specializing in the flavors of the South, where we love to fry things, including, even, pimento cheese. Maya’s incomparable pimento cheese fritters are served atop chive sour cream and covered with a house-made pepper jelly.
We were also captivated by Maya’s greens, which we both proclaimed the best we’ve ever had in a restaurant. The side dish featured a combination of beet greens and turnip greens and cubes of turnip, seasoned perfectly with bacon and onion.
A serving of citrus pound cake and a slice of peanut butter pie at Maya made the perfect ending to our quick food tour of the University of Virginia neighborhood.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways of Appalachia and beyond from their home base in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2022 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!