While driving back from a work-related excursion that took me waaaay out Hull Street, I had plenty of time to brainstorm which new place to investigate on my way home. Then I remember Googling what Richmond Magazine described as Richmond’s only “Afghani” restaurant, because they didn’t mention the location in their online post. The map placed The Box Afghan Kabob House just west of La Milpa on Hull, at the intersection with Hicks Rd.

If you’ve been out that way, you’ve probably seen it. There’s a big sign facing the road that says “NY Style Pizza.” And there’s a gas station and convenience store. In fact, that’s probably all anybody thinks about the place. But, if you look at it from the parking lot, a sign greets you with the news that The Box Afghan Kabob House is also part of the multi-purpose building. (folks. this location may not be ideal, but the food is expertly prepared. get in there before it’s too late)

And there's a carwash too. What more could you ask for?

(more…)

Since I twice talked about the Fan’s new Monument Market (with a bit of constructive criticism), I think it’s only fair to let them do the talking themselves. First, I found this video on their site.  The video mentions that the market is part of the First Baptist Church’s ministry.  Thoughts on that?  Also, they recently sent this email to their contact list after their second weekend effort of the season (shoot them a message at monumentmarket (at) Yahoo.com to get their updates):

Monument Market from Richmond's First Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Monument Market Musings

Saturday was a bit damp but our spirits were high as we dodged the raindrops and visited with friends and neighbors under the vendor tents.   After such a drought last year, it is great to know the farmers are getting a great start to their growing season.   Everyone benefits when the tasty, local produce arrives at the market.  Stop by next Saturday for a sampling from our own market vendors.

Our Children’s Market (second Saturday of each month) offered a variety of unique items made and sold by some enterprising young vendors.  Drinks, Organic cookies, dainty beaded chokers, brightly decorated pens, eggs, herbs and plants.  Do you know of a budding entrepreneur?  Find an application on FBCRichmond.org.

Musicians are always welcome at the market.  Let us know if you would enjoy providing an hour or two of folk music for our patrons to enjoy as they shop one Saturday…..monumentmarket.org.   Nothing is more fun than watching the young and young at heart dance to the music. (more…)

Militantly humorous? Or humorously militant?

I’m hoping to redesign this site (which means switching to a new Wordpress theme, cuz I’m not a designer, nor a programmer).  My main goal is to make more of my past 5 years’ worth of content available on the home page.  But, I’d also like to know from you how I could make the site more user-friendly. Suggestions?

Before you chime in asking for a listing of every restaurant in Richmond and links to my blogs about them, NO. I don’t want to hold myself up as a restaurant reviewer. If that identification is debatable, and you think I am effectively a reviewer, that’s just not the direction I want to hitch my wagon to with this blog or with my relationship to food or the world around me.  But I’m sure it’s good work, if you can find it.

All I’ve got at this point is a logo that my wife designed for me.  But, a picture is worth a thousand words (or knee-jerk reactions).  I just said “a raised fist holding a fork.”  She said, “that’s funny” and went with it.  I’m not sure I really needed a logo, and I’m even less sure what I’m gonna do with it, but others might say that I should have had one a long time ago. To me, it feels like a nice watch given to me for five years of blogging – kind of a benchmark.  Plus, it makes me smile.  By the way, I could also use a nice watch, or the monetary equivalent.

At any rate, I welcome your functionality-oriented input on a future version of this site.  I have no idea when it will come about. But, if you have the skills (and enthusiasm) to expedite the process and would like a button on the site taking credit for your work, let’s talk.

A walk through the Fan on Saturday morning led me to the Monument Market. I’d been hearing promotional announcements about the reopening of South of the James market in Forest Hill Park and St. Stephen’s Market at Grover and Three Chopt. But, my sojourn to Robinson and Park Avenues was totally on faith. I hadn’t heard a peep about First Baptist Church embarking on a second year of hosting the farmers market since I posted a call to action of sorts, hoping to see more viable weekly market in the Fan. And on the day of, everyone in my Twitter feed seemed to be converging on Forest Hill Park, seemingly without much awareness of the other, often more local, options.

Even though it doesn’t look like the Monument Market’s Facebook page has been updated in almost a year, I’m sure I missed their press releases and broadcast messages promoting the opportunity to support hard-working artisans, farmers, bakers, and craft people. Surely, they wouldn’t invite them to an event without inviting the surrounding neighborhood to make it worth the vendors’ time. Well, I only counted 10 or so tents selling their wares, and the turnout during the hour I was there was scarcely more people than that. Awkward.

Just the same, there was a pretty good range of veggie stands, gardening/landscaping supplies, Aggriberry was there, Pizza Tonight… Visitors were mostly leaving with their arms full of newly purchased stuff.

Behind every good foodie, a graphic designer.

The picture above shows a new vendor, Atomic Bakery. Cupcakes are their specialty, but it was the chocolate chip cookie dough truffles that earned themselves a place on my wife’s Mother’s Day menu. Atomic only sells at markets, so even though the Fan seems like the perfect client-base for this operation, they can compensate for today’s light turnout with appearances at other markets.

Vendors, shoppers, market coordinators: Bee here now.

This was the biggest buzz, I’d heard about the market.  A display of live bees captured Jasper’s attention. Once he got over his fear of being stung, I couldn’t drag him away from Cy Bearer’s bees. Bearer Farms featured a light and a dark honey, dictated by the type of flowers the bees pollinated. Personally, I think he should have been serving some kind of food that really shows off what good honey can do for dish. That would have lured me into buying some honey and asking for a recipe, especially since his bees babysat my child.

I would rather buy a pie than hear songs about pie in the sky.

Unfortunately, there still weren’t any coffee or hot food vendors, an element I consider to be an anchor for a farmers’ market. Folks I nudged to consider selling there lamented the lack of electrical power. But, here in this picture, it looks like the gospel bluegrass band is electrically amplified (it was certainly audibly evident). You could hear them from a block away and the sound kind of dwarfed the presence of the vendors.

During the warm months, I’m going to try to visit the Monument Market to support the vendors, but as of now Tuesday’s Byrd House Market just rose to the #1 spot in my list. Byrd House is now home to my Victory Farms CSA pick-up (they left Monument Market after a less than lucrative season there, I’m assuming), and it’s steadily growing without giving you that over-run Black Friday shopping experience that I dread at SOTJ. Hopefully, the people with decision-making power at First Baptist Church and the orchestrators of Richmond’s farmers’ markets will put their heads together, collaborate, and give the Fan the kind of farmers’ market it could so easily support.

UPDATE: The local community blog says “it was beat today. Where are all the vendors?”

It sucks when you make good food and people don’t buy it. And when they do, the orders come begrudgingly and usually for the least exciting items on the menu, and you have to bend over backwards, eventually becoming an Italian restaurant advertising fish’n'chips to passing traffic.

Before the fried fish, Armando’s Pizza was hiring someone to wear a pizza costume and stand out by the road. And then there’s the “Tortas” sign out front, a recent addition intended to lure latinos in for sandwiches. It’s a sore subject, but Armando is resigned to the harsh reality of business on Belt Boulevard. He just doesn’t hold out much hope that things will improve. “We had to change the name from Angelo’s because people got us confused, placing their order here and picking up there and vice versa.  And people kept calling me Angelo.” The man clearly deserves a break.

Out on Midlo, Angelo’s has a reputation for above average – no, make that, exceptional for Richmond standards – NY Style pizza and hearty Italian staples.  I had a slice at this year’s Italian Festival and I’ve been wanting more of that light and crisp crust ever since (the sauce too, mmm. ask for extra on the side).  For some reason, word hasn’t gotten around that the Belt Boulevard location has brought buzz-worthy pies into the City proper.  “We serve the same pizza as Angelo’s. But our big seller is steak and cheese or chicken subs.” Even though he’s baking the sub-rolls fresh throughout the day, and he’s proud of his product, you can tell Armando isn’t too impressed with the repetitive orders of the sub-shop equivalent of General Tso’s chicken.  I ask if he’s got any white pizza made. “Nope. The people around here don’t order it. Anything with ricotta doesn’t fly.  But we eat it.”

The funny thing is, Woodland Heights and Westover Hills are just a stone’s throw away, as Armando’s is less than a mile from Forest Hill Ave. Considering their lack of options on Forrest Hill (don’t even mention Crusty Cream), this should be their neighborhood pizza and sandwich shop.  And, I think they’d probably flip for Armando’s food.  It must be that invisible line between Westover Hills Boulevard and Belt Boulevard that puts these pizzas on the wrong side of the tracks. Heck, I live across the river, and I think this pizza is worth a drive and a toll paid both ways.

I don’t get the impression that marketing is Armando’s strong suit (although he is on Facebook), but that’s okay. Don’t you second guess food that’s been oversold? This video should give a clue who you’re dealing with and how the roles break down. Armando should do the cooking (as he’s done since age 11!), and the customers should do the talking. But first, we need to change our habits. Steak sub eaters, try some stuffed shells. Dominos orderers, support a local pizzaiolo. And tortas? Make your eggplant parm sub un poco picante with a few extra shakes of red pepper flakes.

Angelo’s Armando’s Pizza and Subs
146 East Belt Boulevard, Richmond, VA
(804) 233-2600

I’ve often joked that I’m worth more in unspent Groupons than whatever allowance is leftover in my bank account after paying bills. A small entertainment budget and my household’s preoccupation with anything on sale put us right in the sweet spot of Groupon’s target market (doubly so, considering that our kids keep us from following through on most of our dining out intentions). And now, after reading this Groupon critique, a restaurant blog gone viral, I feel like a heel for buying the things, let alone hoping to one day redeem those discounts.

image from nicholasscalice.com

Aside from my own predicament as a conflicted consumer, the real story here is the cost that businesses wind up paying for participating in these daily deals like Groupon and Living Social, etc. Do Groupons really attract you to new places, or do the restaurants just look desperate for customers? Read that blog entry, and let’s discuss. It’s a cautionary tale, but there are surely other perspectives. I’d like to hear if there are many positive testimonials from Richmond’s restaurants and retailers. The restaurateur in question doesn’t go into much detail about the increased exposure they earned through selling 1,000 coupons. And, I’m curious what percentage of the Groupons went unused, netting the restaurant the consolation of $3/per (like the fate mine are headed for right now).

Now, let me go find a disguise, so I can leave the house. A “foodie” with a “Groupon.” Ack!

PS: If you’re lazy, and you don’t read the blog entry, skim this excerpt and DON’T BE THIS KINDA COUPON CUTTER:

Over the six months that the Groupon is valid, we met many, many wonderful new customers, and were so happy to have them join the Posies family. At the same time we met many, many terrible Groupon customers… customers that didn’t follow the Groupon rules and used multiple Groupons for single transactions, and argued with you about it with disgusted looks on their faces, or who tipped based on what they owed (10% of $0 is zero dollars, so tossing in a dime was them being generous).

The still stuck remnants of salted peppered and oiled tofu on the grill-pan. And what could be salvaged on the cutting board. Solutions welcome. Ordering pizza now.

BONUS: the food-obsessed, Emerson Riley, requests a second helping of sweet potato puree. Getting no response, he speaks in his native tongue: flatulence. Lastly, dissatisfied resignation.