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When Fardowners opened on the Square in Crozet, chef Mark Cosgrove never imagined he’d eventually be serving sliders and wings. Referring to the fish & chips and other pub food he’s recently added to the menu in place of more upscale entrees, Cosgrove says, “This isn’t exactly what I wanted to do.” Together with his business partner W.C. Winkler, Cosgrove opened Fardowners in January 2007 to fill a “casual-fine dining” niche with a family-friendly atmosphere and a well-rounded menu. It ran the gamut from salads and sandwiches to classic main courses with down-home Southern flare, such as the roasted-garlic-stuffed bistro fillet topped with blue cheese sauce and served with mash potatoes. The entrees had regular fans, but just not enough of them. This summer, Winkler and Cosgrove had to make the tough call to revamp the restaurant’s original concept into something that could better succeed in Crozet.
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He faced it with some uneasiness but making the change at Fardowner’s to casual fare has been great for business, says chef Mark Cosgrove. “There’s so much energy. I thought we might lose some of our regular families, but we’ve actually added families.”
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“I had to step back from a chef’s point of view, and view it as a business owner,” says Cosgrove. “After Uncle Charlie’s closed”—Uncle Charlie’s Smokehouse, that is, which closed earlier in the year and was replaced by a Mudhouse coffeehouse this summer—“there really was no place for people to get a drink and watch the game.”
And so Winkler and Cosgrove closed Fardowners briefly in August to turn it into The Pub at Fardowners. They added several flat-screen TVs, more beer taps, live music acts, later hours (until midnight nightly) and more casual-casual dishes. Those include, in addition to those sliders we mentioned, an extended salad and sandwich lineup for lunch or dinner and a new “Pub Fare” section of the menu that lists, for example, chicken tenders and honey mustard, corn-dusted, flash-fried calamari with red pepper aioli and something called “tachos”—tater tot nachos with Gryffon’s Aerie beef sauce, mixed cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes and salsa verde. A few favorite original entrees remain, including grilled meatloaf and stuffed pork chops.
Though the pub concept may not have been Cosgrove’s original plan, he’s doing it well and the reception has been warm.
“We have a wait every weekend now,” says Cosgrove. “There’s so much energy. I thought we might lose some of our regular families, but we’ve actually added families.”
That’s probably because what Fardowners hasn’t lost in transition is Cosgrove’s expertise in the kitchen and his dedication to high quality, seasonal local ingredients. He’s always served a long list of Virginia wines as well as local beers from Blue Mountain and Starr Hill breweries. To that he’s recently added brews from Devil’s Backbone brewer Jason Oliver. All the bread for his sandwiches comes from Goodwin Creek Farm in Afton, all his beef comes from the grass-fed, heritage breeds of Gryffon’s Aerie and much of his produce still comes from Brightwood Vineyard and Farm in Madison. We highlighted Cosgrove’s relationship with Susan Vidal of Brightwood in this column last year. At that time, he’d arranged for Vidal to parcel a section of her garden just for his needs and was serving goat chops from her heritage breed Spanish goats in upscale curry dishes. While the curry is no longer on the menu and the extent of his relationship with Brightwood has changed with the move to more casual cuisine, he’s always been at the forefront of our local, local food movement. And you won’t hear us complaining about the lower average price point and options for smaller portions. Sliders are only $3 each. Sandwiches range from $5.95 to $8.95, including a side, and entrees range from $9.95 to $17.95.
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