Cooking Up a Cult Following

Blue Ridge Grill Does Right by Outer ‘Burbs

By Warren Rojas

When it comes to local chainlets, Blue Ridge Grill may be both the smallest and perhaps even the most appreciated—twin superlatives directly derived from the fledgling restaurant group’s well-beyond-the-Beltway thinking—of the bunch.

Not that there’s anything wrong with catering to those restaurant goers who work/play in the District on a regular basis.

BRG co-founders John Carroccio and Michael Norton certainly did plenty of that before formally striking out on their own in November 2002.

Carroccio spent over a decade as a managing partner within the illustrious Great American Restaurants family, while Norton dedicated approximately 13 years of his storied hospitality career—though he, too, spent some time under the GAR umbrella—to building the Houston’s brand for the Hillstone Restaurant Group. According to Carroccio, the former college buddies kept in touch throughout the years. So when he got bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Carroccio shot down to Buenos Aires to see if Norton, who had been lured below the border to help launch Kansas Grill & Bar, was interested in joining forces on an entirely new concept. Norton, it turned out, was totally game.

After an incubation period spent distilling their collective management experiences and picking the brains of friends/family/fellow hospitality industry associates, the starry-eyed duo snatched up a former Applebee’s location and set to work on creating their ideal dining establishment.

That was nearly a decade ago.

That original location in Leesburg came online in the winter of 2002. The custom-designed follow-up became one of the hospitality anchors in Brambleton’s town center circa 2008.

“It’s kind of a ‘Cheers’ atmosphere at the bar,” Carroccio suggests, invoking perhaps the restaurant world’s most overused cliché.

But, you know what? He’s right.

Granted, the bar scene in Brambleton—a handful of stools parked in front of a polished marble slab, with a few high def-TV screens hung overhead so media junkies can get their daily fill of vacuous infotainment—is totally different than the gregarious hangout—huge octagonal bar surrounded by satellite high-tops and a ring of slightly more formal booths—at the heart of the Leesburg store. But damn if you don’t feel right at ease at either.

The huddled masses who congregate in Leesburg give off a particularly neighborly vibe—which is bizarre, considering that the restaurant is totally hemmed in by commercial properties (the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets and other big box-anchored strip malls are the closest “neighbors”) and is virtually inaccessible from the main roadway (wedged back between a gas station and an office park).

Still, the faithful seem to find their way. And they’re devotion is returned in kind.

One night my waitress didn’t serve the adjoining table so much as join them, shooting the breeze about everything from the rigors of engagement ring shopping to handicapping the latest crop of American Idol wannabes with the starved-for-attention regulars. A weekend trip to Brambleton turned out to be surprisingly (if not somewhat eerily) child-free—as if the entire clientele had preemptively decided to adhere to an adults-only environment for what appeared to be a well-attended date night.

According to Carroccio, the restaurants can claim regulars who motor in from as far out as West Virginia and Maryland. He also suggests that Blue Ridge Grill gets its fair share of repeat event traffic, i.e., out-of-towners who discover them while attending the ceaseless rotation of local softball tournaments, equestrian competitions and other hobby-related fetes tend to turn up at BRG around the same time the following year.

“The menu is straightforward American fare. Comfort food, so to speak,” Carroccio says of their middle-of-the-road dining program.

But don’t buy his humble pie. BRG mixes things up when it wants to.

The core menu is predicated upon half-pound burgers, aged beef and fresh seafood (prime rib and crab cakes remain top sellers). Daily specials run the gamut from tequila-lime sirloin deposited over penne to Frangelico-spiked banana pudding bolstered by Nilla wafers and dueling sauces (chocolate, caramel).

My default setting when ordering Cajun cuisine is to always request additional hot sauce. But a bowl of Blue Ridge’s captivating red beans and rice taught me to trust the chef’s instincts, instead. Slow-simmered kidney beans, easily mashed with the side of the fork, swum in a roux propagated by the Cajun trinity of bell pepper, celery and onion, with a liberal sprinkling of black pepper added for extra staying power. The roux, though not blistering hot, made a definite impression.

Burger aficionados can’t really go wrong with either of the trio of signature creations BRG fields on its menu. It just really depends on what type of beef party you feel like hosting in your mouth at any given time.

The Tarantino-esque “royale with cheese” delivers a hulking patty of cooked-to-order beef that is literally dripping with flavor. Melted cheddar (adds fullness, sharpness to each bite), smoky bacon, tangy pickle chips and artfully applied dollops of yellow mustard and plain mayo round out the royale experience. The eponymous BRG burger trades interlocking ovals of juicy Canadian ham for traditional bacon strips, then seals the deal with piquant onions and tangy barbecue sauce. The Leesburger goes whole hog, electing grilled Virginia ham as its protein partner and melted Monterey Jack as its dairy delivery system.

Looking to curtail your red meat intake? You’re in luck.

The Tilapia BLT is every bit a sandwich lover’s dream, loading overlapping filets of spice-dusted fish into a soft baguette, then painting the seafood payload with a zesty cream sauce and finishing everything off with a fat, juicy slice of red tomato.

Chicken breasts are dipped in egg batter, fried to a lacy crisp, nestled into a bed of angel hair pasta and drizzled with lemon-basil cream sauce in a surprisingly authentic piccata. The fried egg grants each bite of chicken a crepe-like introduction, while the embedded capers add an unexpected pop to random forkfuls.

I was truly shocked to find a Latin-inspired dessert (Norton’s influence?) on the menu. And even more shocked by how much I enjoyed the simple, but well executed, tweak on the now eponymous lava cake.

Rather than clobber you over the head with a double dose of chocolate, BRG’s dark chocolate cake revealed a reservoir of caramelized condensed milk. The slow-moving confection gurgled rather than gushed out, making it easy to scoop up some cake, swirl it through the complementary whipped cream and then return for the trickling caramel without missing a beat of the South of the Border-style sweet.

Though he declined to rule out future expansion plans, Carroccio suggests that he’s perfectly happy with their current configuration.

“We’re not actively looking for a third,” he asserts.

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Blue Ridge Grill
Multiple NoVA locations; www.brgrill.com

Hours: Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner daily, brunch Sunday.
Prices: Average $13 to $20 ($$).

 

(July 2011)