ONE DAY IN RVA #2 THEY CALL HIM HUGEL

One day in RVA is a series on the fabulous folks who enrich our city on the daily.

Hugel pictured here with his girlfriend Molly.

Who are you Really?
Johnny Hugel – Producer at Mobelux, Director at Feast RVA, Man about town.

What’s in your fridge?
Usually the fridge has almond milk, Soda stream seltzer, half eaten pasta sauce, a lack of fresh vegetables, mexican coke, iced coffee, a mix of Trader Joe’s staples like veggie potstickers (for DIY Ramen surprise), veggie chikin’s, and homemade pesto in ice cube trays.

What was the last album/song you listened to?
The last album I bought was Big Boi’s latest.
I find myself listening to comedy podcasts and DJ mix tapes non-stop these days.

What did you do today in RVA?
My girlfriend Molly and I wake at 7:45 most mornings after ignoring two alarms. The sound of our roommate leaving finally rouses us out of bed. After we quickly shower, dress and run out the door, I drop her off in Carytown at Need Supply Co. a local retailer of modern fashion.
I worked my way into my dream job as a producer at a local start-up with great benefits like working from home Fridays, but I tend to thrive in controlled-chaos, and can’t get much of anything done at home.

I head to Lamplighter, a local coffee outpost in the Fan District. A few years ago when Lamplighter opened in a former gas-station turned derelict outpost many doubted the husband & wife, bike-gang denim-jacket sporting duo would have lasted long, but today they’ve opened their second location with a roastery, fulfillment center, pour-over bar and more. Whenever the weather is anywhere close to decent, I order an iced-coffee, a Country-Style donut (24-hour donut dive, out by the airport) and grab a spot at one of the communal picnic tables for the morning. I work for a few hours when my battery dying signals the need for change of scenery.

I’ll head into the Mobelux office for a bit to take care of anything that needs doing around there. Our office, The Corrugated Box Building is a modern renovation of, as far as I know, an actual corrugated box factory. The exposed beams bear the markings of work much more strenuous than mine, and the raw steel of the massive staircase and our matching furniture, hearken to the buildings industrial past. Much of our workspace I helped design and invokes the vintage/industrial/Edison bulb-lit past that is all the rage these days. As a producer in a digital creative agency sometimes I’m facilitating client discussions or I could be searching salvage yards for suitable raw wood boards for shelving. We just helped launch a service and iOS app called Elixr that allows you to socially share the (alcoholic) drinks that you partake in as you travel the town/world. The strong food/drink scene of Richmond was an immediate supporter and has contributed to it’s rise in popularity.

Around 1:30 I head across “the river” (also referred to as The James, but never “The James River” all at once) into Downtown Richmond, to Citizen a literal underground lunch counter, which has amassed a cult following for it’s locally-sourced, vegetarian & vegan friendly, constantly rotating and diverse menu. They welcome me by name as I enter. I order the Roasted butternut squash on a pressed bolillo roll topped with celery root-horseradish slaw and house-made curry cashew butter w/ Lentils & Feta as a side and an Iced Tea. I grab a seat amongst the politicians, state employees, bike couriers, and vegans-in-the-know and scarf down my lunch, typically saving half of my side for a mid-afternoon snack.

I finish out the workday in my house, pausing temporarily to make an iced coffee pick-me-up, before heading back over to Need Supply to pick up Molly. If the weather is nice enough we’ve been known to walk through Carytown for a bit, but it’s gotten cold and we’re hungry so we set our sites on one of our current go-to’s, Stella’s restaurant. Stella’s is the latest in a string of popular restaurants run by the Giavos family. A reprisal of an earlier well loved restaurant of theirs, with a modern design and an affordable sharing-friendly menu of classic and updated Greek dishes. We sit at the community table, and enjoy flakey spanikopita, a zesty kale salad w/ feta, Gigantes and Melitzanosalata, and just as we’ve stuffed ourselves to the brink, we’re sent a plate of Chocolate Baclava by Constantine, the owners son, a friend, and designer of the hip logo and menus.

While going out on the town is always on the agenda, stuffing ourselves, and the toil of the work week forces us to call it a night early and close out Friday on the couch. This night we finish House Of Cards, and go to bed dreaming about politics and getting more coffee in the morning.

DON’T BOTHER ME, I’M CRABBY

This past weekend we took a whirlwind 24 hour trip down to the Crystal Coast, as I learned it is called, of North Carolina. As we were there only for the day on Sunday, there was not too much going on food-wise. Winter time in a beach community was desolate to say the least. Most of the restaurants were either closed or did not open until dinner. We drove down to buy some records in Morehead City, where there more places open and it was there that I got to eat this:

oyster "burger" and hushpuppies!

An oyster sandwich from an actual Drive -In! We pulled into the parking lot, there were no actual spots marked with white paint, just all willy nilly every which way parking and a woman clad in winter boots and a hat and sweatshirt came out and took our order. Ten bucks and about 8 minutes later- BANG. I’m eating a fab fried feast and happy as a clam ( sadly, they did not offer any clam items).

Also this happened:

ODE TO MY SANDWICH

You look so simple little tuna fish sandwich.
Perhaps I should be more excited about an anchovy and egg
or a Muffaletta.
But, you little sandwich, with your Sunflower Whole Wheat bread from Montana Gold
and my addition of celery and ever-so-thinly-sliced blanched almonds,
you are really something else.

DON’T WANT NONE UNLESS YOU GOT BUNS HUN

Sometimes Marty gets an idea in his head for dinner and he won’t budge on it. This past Sun night he wanted sliders something fierce! So I got to work on making lil slider buns. The patties were his department (But in case you are interested he souped up some Gimmie Lean fake beef with spices and fresh garlic and seasonings).
I recalled a bun recipe from an issue of Gourmet (RIP!) but I did not have 5 hours for rising and resting and rising time so I tweaked it.
3 cups flour
1 pkg yeast
1 tblsp salt
2 tblsp sugar
half on a stick of butter or 6 tblsp vegetable shortening

 

Put all of your dry ingredients in a your mixer.
Simmer the milk, add fat stirring until melted. Take off heat. Let the milk mixture get down to about 110 degrees. If using a mixer turn it to med speed and pour the milk in. Now let that thing go at it for a good few minutes, adding pinches of flour if necessary until the dough pulls away from the sides and is smooth. Put dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a cloth until it doubles in size. I left mine for one hour.
take the dough and cut off pieces about 2-3 inches in shape and roll into spheres. I got 17 out of mine. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap and let them rest for at least one half hour, I left mine for 45 minutes.
Bake these babies at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes keeping an eye on em’.

They should keep wrapped up for a few days. Tonight we are having the leftovers with fake BBQ pulled pork!