Esquire Magazine honors Virginia
Culinary academy students may find themselves giving a great deal of thought to where they’ll head once they’ve completed their studies. After all, there’s a lot to consider in terms of how your selected geography will influence your career path. If you’re currently looking to the future and considering your career plans, you may want to keep the Old Dominion State in mind. Esquire Magazine recently named Virginia the Food Region of 2014, drawing attention to a part of the country often overlooked in cuisine conversation. Take a look at a few of the factors that caught the magazine’s attention in its recent article:
Rappahannock
Among the many criteria listed in Esquire’s article was Rappahannock, a seafood restaurant located in the Grace Street Corridor, a historic district in downtown Richmond. New to the Virginia restaurant scene, Rappahannock was also recently named one of the “Top 12 Best New Restaurants of 2014” by Esquire. The restaurant features upscale entrees in a somewhat casual atmosphere with a menu that focuses predominantly on seafood dishes. In addition to an incredible selection of craft beer and wine, as well as seasonal cocktails, the establishment has made a strong move to firmly position themselves in the farm-to-table market. The eatery has its own oyster farming operation, known as Rappahannock Oyster Company, which allows the establishment to provide a lavish raw bar featuring the best in fresh seafood.
Other considerations
Esquire, of course, did not make its decision simply based on the success of Rappahannock. In fact, the article, which was penned by Esquire food editor Josh Ozersky, also dished out praise for several other Virginian establishments. Sub Rosa Bakery, which is also located in the state’s capitol, drew accolades from Ozersky for its traditional approach to bread and pastry making, rooted in classic practices as opposed to innovation. This return to classicism, Ozersky wrote in his article, is responsible for the culinary merit of the bakery.
“The future of bread resides in the past: in-house milling of regional heritage grains,” said Ozersky, “and few do it better, or with more conviction than this Richmond bakery.”
The article mentioned a host of other restaurants from Richmond and around the state. Among them were The Shack, Champion Brewing Company, Barboursville Vineyards and Foggy Ridge Cider. If you’re interested in learning more about the Virginia culinary scene, check out the piece from Esquire in it’s entirety here.
