Food News: Shoryuken solidifies, special dinner events, and rye rye rye

#RVARAMENNEWS looks a lot like a Rams hashtag, but why don’t we go ahead and celebrate both! Also, if you say “rye” enough times, it loses all meaning. This may or may not have happened herein.

March 19, 2015; 11:28 AM • by Stephanie Ganz

BREAKING RAMEN NEWS!!!

Shoryuken Ramen has just announced they will be opening a brick and mortar location in the former Dash (former Cous Cous) space at 900 W. Franklin Street. Shoryuken Ramen partner Sarah Choi says, “We are wrapping up Lunch pop-ups at the end of this month and will be getting Dash ready for six-day ramen service ASAP. Will and I are beyond excited to partner with Jessica and Josh Bufford and cannot believe our luck.” Sarah, I can tell you, the luck is all ours!

Insomnia Cookies has ruined the millennials

Remember when you were in college, and the barriers to finding a cookie exactly when you needed one were enormous–barriers like getting dressed, driving a car, and finding an open cookie store at three in the morning? Kids these days don’t know about struggles like that because places like Insomnia Cookies have fought the good fight to deliver countless oven-warmed cookies, brownies, and even ice cold milk to the college youth of today. Hell yes, they’re soft. The cookies. They’re soft and crumbly, and delivery is available from noon until 3:00 AM.

— ∮∮∮ —

Hutch opens, salads win

Restaurateurs Jessica and Josh Bufford and Chef Ian Kinkler opened Hutch Bar & Eatery this week at Gayton Crossing Shopping Center. The Buffords also own Toast and Estilo.

I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a Rockefeller “salad” on the menu, which seems to be mostly fried oysters and bacon,¹ so let’s have a big round of applause for salad, because that is awesome.

— ∮∮∮ —

Good beer makes good friends

This Sunday, Ipanema will fill its taps with Ardent Craft Ales for a Spring Beer dinner. Chef Will Wienckowski will pair a menu of five vegetarian courses with five of Ardent’s finest, starting with the Virginia Common and wrapping up with the Dark Rye Stout. Sounds like beer news to you, you say? It’s clearly food news because here’s the part where I talk about the main course: Malted Barley Grits, Mushrooms, and Bok Choy and the dessert, a Chocolate Malt and Rye Ice Cream Sandwich. That’s totally food.

Then, on April 10th, Ardent will invite some beer-loving friends over to their house for the first-ever Swine & Brine Festival, featuring chefs from The Roosevelt, Metzger Bar & Butchery, Saison, ZZQ, and Rappahannock River Oysters, who will be cooking an ungodly amount of pig meat on Ardent’s spacious Scott’s Addition patio. There will be at least two whole hogs, and each chef will prepare a pork dish and a side (which could also be pork because: pork). Plus King of Pops! Voila, les desserts!

Tickets are $18 and include two food/drink tickets and a t-shirt. Don’t tell them this, but I would pay more money for the same amount of things. If these tickets don’t sell out in advance, I will eat my hat. And by hat, I mean more pork because I’ll take any and all leftovers home in my purse.

— ∮∮∮ —

Cocktails for dinner

To celebrate the dawn of Spring, Pasture will host a Spring Supper on Monday, April 6th, “featuring everything that is good in the world,” namely Beth Dixon’s Copper Fox cocktails, Jason Alley’s southern specialties, and additional drinks from Potters Craft Cider.

Dixon will tap into Copper Fox’s rye whisky (which finds a home in her own take on a rock and rye), single malt, and their gin for her cocktail pairings and will also team up with Potters Craft’s Andy Hannas to create a special collaboration cider. Alley’s menu will focus on Spring’s verdant bounty. Miss it at your own risk.

— ∮∮∮ —

Easter, a time for brunches

Surely a complete list of Easter menus will emerge in the coming weeks, but for now, the one at Patina is looking mighty strong. Shout out to the trio of sausages on the “Patina Eye-Opener,” because it’s going to take more than one sausage to open these tired eyes.

— ∮∮∮ —

Elsewhere…

Remember last month when I mentioned Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson’s surprisingly persuasive crowdfunding campaign for their fast casual concept Loco’l? Well, it was persuasive alright, over $100,000 persuasive, with 7500 of those dollars coming from Chef actor John Favreau himself. Celebrity money! Exciting!

It’s Southern Food Month at TastingTable.com (and also everywhere, always); and there’s a lovely guide to the “Ten Southern Chefs Who Are Keeping the Flame and Changing the Game”, from “The Archivist,” Sean Brock, to “The Empire Builder,” Ashley Christensen. Collect all 10 while supplies last!

— ∮∮∮ —

SIP OF THE WEEK: ROCK & RYE

Be honest, when I told you Beth Dixon was using Copper Fox rye whisky to make a rock and rye, did you know what I was talking about? I DIDN’T! I mean, I didn’t when she first told me about it, but upon further research I’ve decided they’re obsession worthy, and I must have many of them in my life and STAT.

BITE OF THE WEEK: 5 FAT FRIED CHICKEN

Comfort’s 5 Fat Fried Chicken, the delicious brainchild of Travis Milton, has made it to the final four of the VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS CULINARY CHALLENGE 2015, a bracket-style competition in March that I can actually care about and follow! Right now, the fried chicken is facing off against an Apple, Brie, and Bacon Burger from Horseshoe Restaurant in South Hill, but soon, I predict, it will find itself head to head with Joy Crump of FoodE in Fredericksburg and her Chicken and Waffles. May the best fried bird win! (If it’s Travis’s, which it IS.)

‘GRAM OF THE WEEK: @ORIGINSFARM

You know what farmers love? They love watching their little plant babies emerge from the ground when the cold, bleak winter finally bows to spring. Catch the infectious joy that is Origins Farm’s instagram RIGHT NOW, and then go find them at the farmers market and buy the very vegetables you hearted just hours before.

Photo by: Klara Kim

March 19, 2015 11:28 AM 0