Charlottesville Food by Casey Ireland Read Free Book Online

If local food is a spectrum, with one end being a fast-food burger joint and the other being a snack of sun-ripened berries eaten in one’s own garden, Brookville Restaurant rests closer to the latter side of the scale. Harrison Keevil, chef and co-owner, understands and anticipates the desires of serious locavores interested in tracing the heritage and history of their meals.
    H ERITAGE E ATING AND L OCAVORE S ENSIBILITIES
    Born and bred in Virginia, Keevil proudly asserts himself as a “Virginia boy” shaped through travels in England and San Francisco. 98 “In London and San Francisco, the local food movement just got driven into my head,” Keevil says. “I knew that there was a local food movement in Virginia because I worked on one of the first certified organic working farms in Virginia called Brookview Farm out in Goochland,” Keevil notes. “I was familiar with the practices of sustainably raised meats and eggs and produce, and it was already kind of ingrained in me, even though I didn’t quite know it yet.” The realization of Keevil’s farm-to-table dreams is an inviting space on the upstairs floor of a downtown space, with stretching timber beams and a welcoming atmosphere. “We just want people to feel comfortable, as if they were in their own kitchen because that’s when you get the best conversations,” Keevil says of Brookville’s ambiance. “There’s no VIPs here. It’s like fine dining in your home.”
    And the dining is fine, indeed. Brookville’s menu changes daily, though local ingredients—and lots of pork products—are always a guarantee. Crisp bacon, tender rabbit, handmade pasta and surprising vegetable combinations are hallmarks of Keevil’s cooking. The food is both imaginative and familiar, with comfort foods such as burgers, fried chicken and BLTs redone for even more flavor and sensation. Warm chocolate chip cookies are studded with bacon bits for a pleasing savoriness; beef chili gets a dusting of cinnamon for additional depth. Seasonality is a given, as Keevil sources 95 percent of his products from Virginia. Seasonings like salt, pepper, sugar and spices, as well as oils and citruses, are imported by necessity; otherwise, Keevil likes to keep it strictly local. As a general rule, Keevil refuses to buy products not from the state. “I won’t bring in salmon because someone wants a piece of salmon,” Keevil attests. “If it doesn’t grow in our soil, graze on our grass or swim in the Chesapeake Bay or in our rivers, we don’t use it.”
    A look at the pork-heavy Brookville menu shows that Keevil is not shy about using meat in his dishes. Carnivorous dishes like bacon-wrapped foot-long hot dogs, Surry sausage sandwiches and egg and bacon sliders are available for feasting—and these are only appetizers. However, diners can expect more than rib-eyes or pork tenderloins from Keevil when dining at his restaurant. “We do focus a lot on nose to tail, the other bits,” he states. At Brookville, “other bits” can mean anything from pork belly to whole chickens. His attitude toward meat and toward food in general is almost New Age in its consideration of each ingredient’s and animal’s significance. “It’s our belief that these animals died for us to be nourished and fed, so it’s my job to respect that animal and use as much of the animal as I can,” Keevil attests. “They were treated amazingly well when they were alive, and it was their job to become food for us, so it’s my job to make them shine on the plate and show they did not live a meaningless life.” With items like three-quarter-pound burgers served with bacon marmalade at Brookville, it’s hard to imagine an animal feeling anything less than content with its lot as dinner.
    His insistence on local sourcing and commitment to finding new ways to present