Eating Local: Day 3

Today was a very exciting day since I discovered many new places that sold local food. Thanks to the local food brochure that Elizabeth showed me, I found a few nearby restaurants that tried to incorporate local food into their meals. So for lunch today, I went to a restaurant called Revolutionary Soup that was located on the Corner. Though I had passed this restaurant many times on my explorations of UVA, I had never been inside. To my surprise, it had the normal feel of a typical restaurant. The place had a warm atmosphere and the crowd that went in seemed to consist more older individuals and fellow students. I found most of the items on the list seemed to feature local and organic food, so this is someplace that maybe Michael should look at too. Since it is November, they did not have many meals that were made completely with local food. However, I found that the chili was made with local tomatoes and local beef. The bread that came with it was also made locally by the Albemarle Baking Company. I figured that I would probably not find a meal made with this much local food, even if there were one or two ingredients that were not completely local. The only thing that I had to complain about was the $ 4.50 price tag that came along for a small bowl of chili. But I figure that the nutritious value of the meal was probably worth it. Additionally, I can brag that I helped some farmer in Charlottesville, not just some place in Virginia.
Since the chili didn’t leave me completely full, I decided to check out the Fine Arts Café that I had heard so much about. This place had a completely opposite feel about it as compared to Revolutionary Soups. The place was mostly white with elegant chairs and tables to sit on. Over here, I also found a variety of different local foods, but at an even more expensive price. Just the burger came to be nearly $7! The service was also not nearly as warm nor fast as in Revolutionary Soup. It took some 15 minutes just to get my burger ready. I quickly decided that it was probably not worth coming back for dinner, even if the place was a local food haven. Having used up a lot of money for the day, I ate dinner back at my apartment, where I made the most of the leftover meat, apples, and salad that I had from the previous day. Unfortunately, another day has passed and I still haven’t uploaded any pictures. I’m sorry to say that my camera is still being flaky, though I will try to send the pictures on my cell phone and have my dad upload them. In any case, I should have them up by Friday.
-Avik