Poe's Public House

The morning after Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I ventured out of our hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia to find a place serving breakfast (well, really brunch by the time we woke up, but it was a Friday). As one might expect, most of the local restaurants were closed for the holidays. But we found a pub (yet another new establishment that has opened since the last time I visited) that was open and serving food, and that sounded good enough to us!



Yup, Poe’s Public House is named after that Poe – Edgar Allen himself. There was a lot of tacky signage referencing the poet, and particularly celebrating the fact that he dropped out of the University of Virginia (this pub is right across the street from the university). So you can pretty well imagine that when students aren’t away for the holidays, this pub is frequented by heavy-drinking frat boys more than studious poets.

There were not a lot of vegetarian choices on the menu – but I got excited when I saw that they had a veggie burger made with a No Bull veggie patty!



Served on a brioche roll (not the best brioche I’ve ever had, but it was okay for a pub) the burger was topped with fresh lettuce, tomato, and Sriracha mayo. The mayo gave a nice kick of spice to what was otherwise a pretty standard pairing of bun and toppings.



But patty itself was delicious, as expected!

Recognizing the strong flavor of sundried tomatoes in it, I realized it was the Sundried Tomato varity of No Bull Burgers – which is actually one of the vegan patties, even though some of their burgers contain eggs. But our waiter could not tell me whether the bun the patty was served on was vegan or not (and obviously the mayo was not), and there’s no guarantee that they always use the sundried tomato variety since the menu made no mention of it (they could switch it up with the Original flavor), so vegans should proceed with caution. But Charlottesville vegetarians, I kind of envy you for living in a place where No Bull burgers are on the menu at your local restaurants! (can we get some up here in NY?)

Once again, I was distracted by my burger and forgot to take a photo of the pub itself. Oops! I promise I will be more diligent about documenting each restaurant I visit on my upcoming trip to Los Angeles!

Cost: $10.00
(fries included) Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 5       Bun: 3      Toppings: 3

Poe’s Public House
1517 University Ave
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434.984.4653

YumVeggieBurger review #148

Tell me where to find the best veggie burgers in Los Angeles!

YumVeggieBurger is going to California!

I'm so excited to finally try some veggie burgers on the west coast! I'll be staying in LA, but there's always the possibility of driving down to San Diego or somewhere else... so please send me any and all of your veggie burger recommendations for the state of California!

Blue Mountain Brewery

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I spent the holiday weekend down in Virginia visiting my parents. On the day after Thanksgiving, we took a drive through the mountains and stopped at the Blue Mountain Brewery for dinner (and drinks, obviously). Either we were still full from Thanksgiving dinner, or the portions there were really large – but we ended up with more food than we could eat!

Including, much to my surprise… a veggie burger! (I ate about ¾ of this and I was too full to finish it!)


Note the flight of beers in the background!

I was very happy to see that the patty was a house-made black bean patty. Unfortunately, it was quite heavy on the beans, so even though I could see some bits of peppers and onions in it, it felt like I was just eating a bunch of beans mashed together and fried a bit on the outside. Note: the patty contains cheese, so it is not suitable for vegans!



The avocado, lettuce, and tomato were nice and fresh (I love avocado on a burger – especially when you don’t have to pay extra for it!) and the chipotle sauce was a slight kick of spice but it seemed like they were keeping it pretty mild to appeal to customers who might not like spicy things (same for the patty, which had some seasoning but I would have liked to taste more!). I requested my burger without cheese, but it does come with cheese if you order straight off the menu.

And the organic 7-grain bun was soft and fresh as well (from a local bakery), nice and tasty, and a good size to accommodate the patty and toppings. They do have gluten free buns available upon request, which was a nice touch to see.



The burger came with a choice of side – I got the potato salad, as if I hadn’t eaten enough potatoes at Thanksgiving the night before… ha!

I realize I can’t expect a 5-star burger from a place that is focusing its energy on beer, of course. And while I’d rank this one as “average” it was still far better than a generic frozen veggie patty, and it was the perfect food to fill my stomach while I drank a couple pints of cider (I’m not a beer drinker – so I left the flights to my parents and my boyfriend, but Blue Mountain Brewery serves Bold Rock cider which is an awesome local Virginia cider that I wish I could buy in NY!).

I didn’t know I would be reviewing a burger here until we sat down and looked at the menu, so I did not get a photo of the outside of the brewery – and by the time we left it was dark. But here’s a photo of the view at one of the scenic overlooks we stopped at on the way to the brewery:



And you’ll have to trust my word that the view from the brewery itself is just as gorgeous. Go at sunset, get a seat by a window (or outside, in warmer weather!).

Cost: $9.50
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 2       Bun: 4      Toppings: 4

Blue Mountain Brewery
9519 Critzers Shop Road
Afton, VA 22920
540.456.0820

YumVeggieBurger review #147