"A Strange but Beautiful Place"

Last week Randy & Kim invited me & Topher to join them and our friends Mike & Jane one night for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall eatery in Portsmouth: Stove, the restaurant. The whole evening was a bizarre, delicious experience.

Randy had mentioned Stove before, but we'd never eaten there or heard anyone else mention it. So I did a little online research and discovered that 1) Stove is located near the Midtown Tunnel, not in cute, quaint Old Towne Portsmouth, and 2) parts of their website are weird, which led me to believe that the owner/chef Syd Meers is also a little strange. But the menu looked pretty good, and the restaurant had received favorable reviews on Yelp and Urbanspoon, so I was hopeful.

On this particular evening, the Lord decided to bless Hampton Roads with all the rain that He'd been withholding all summer long. Just as we left Randy & Kim's house it began to pour, and the deluge continued all the way to Portsmouth.

Crazy thunder & lightning, driving sheets of rain, downed trees, flooded streets - it was a mess! The drive took almost twice as long as usual because everyone was traveling at half speed with their caution lights flashing. When we finally arrived at the restaurant, we had to take off our shoes and wade through the street to even get to the front door!

Once inside the real fun began: the mint green walls were covered with mounted animal heads and Syd's original artwork - "wacky" is the word that comes to mind. We were seated in orange mesh chairs and served drinks in curved glasses. The spelling on the menu is, um, creative (Itlay, really?), and is accompanied by a "foodtionary" explaining unfamiliar terms on the menu such as "lardo," "holy trinity," and "smoochie bear ham."

I was immediately excited by the extensive cheese list, as well as the chef's apparent obsession with pork and bacon (judging by the number of dishes listing one or both as ingredients). I was torn between several dishes, and this is exactly how they were described on the menu -- I mean, how could I make up this stuff?

• "real big gulf coast brown shrimp b-4 bp (hehe) - pan sauté of jumbo shrimp with tomato, shiitake and scallions with a pimento cheese pancake and grilled pork belly bacon"
• "u-10 diver scallop: seared big scallop on creamed corn and smoochie bear ham with a stone ground grits timbale and peppered lemon crème fraiche" - Randy ordered this as an appetizer, so I got to taste a bite: the scallops were just a tad undercooked, i.e. perfect, not rubbery at all, slightly seared on the outside and translucent in the middle

I ended up choosing one of the specials: "the visiting fish - i look for the just out of water fish my guy bruce gets me and I then will put together a nice dish for you, we’ll inform u of the evenings dish." Sounded good to me!

Not only was the food fantastic, but the service was great as well. Randy & Kim are regulars, so they knew our waitress. She had a great sense of humor, perfect timing, and confident recommendations. She brought clean silverware for every course and periodically cleaned the table with a crumb brush.

We didn't feel rushed, so the six of us just took our time and enjoyed the conversation and fellowship. (Never mind that it was a weeknight, and we all had to get up for work the next day.) Three hours later as we were getting into Randy's car to head home, Topher mused, "That's a strange but beautiful place." I couldn't have said it better myself.

What We Ate:

• artisan cheese plate: Buttermilk Bleu, Green Hill Camembert, Bellavitano Black Pepper, and Syd's Neo-Pimento, served with house relish & chips - don't roll your eyes: this was the best pimento cheese Topher or I have ever tasted!


• salad: crisp hearts of romaine lettuce and baby lettuce, watermelon radish & our visiting cheese tossed with a mustard vinaigrette


• my entree: sauté sockeye salmon on a pan roast of mixed summer squash, topped with Vidalia onions and shrimp in a cherry tomato pinot reduction - being a Georgia girl, I was excited about the sweet onions from Vidalia, GA; the salmon was cooked perfectly, too - just a little underdone


• Topher's entree: "the ‘pork o rama’ bbq - local darden farm’s pork sausage, my smoochie bear ham & black pig pork belly on warm visiting potato salad with lardo and stove-b-que sauce" - Topher gave me a taste of the pork belly, and it was delicious! He also said the barbecue sauce was really well done.


• dessert: out of the oven - fresh peach "petite cobbler" sprinkled with smoked sea salt and topped with fresh whipped cream - not too big, just enough to have a taste of something salty-sweet at the end of the meal

The Scoop:
Stove, the restaurant is located at 2622 Detroit Avenue, Portsmouth, VA 23707. They're open for dinner T-R 5-9pm (with an early bird special 5-6:30pm) and F-Sat 5-10pm, and for brunch on the 1st Sun of every month 11am-3pm. Reservations can be made only by phone: (757)397-0900. Find them on Facebook. And check out their Farm to Feast Week, August 8-14!

Note: The pictures above are from Stove's website.