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Michael Sturges presents a fish taco at Tazza Kitchen's Altamont Avenue work kitchen site as staff prepare for the restaurant opening on Roseneath Road. (Photo by Dina Weinstein)
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The in-progress exterior of the new restaurant (Photo courtesy Tazza Kitchen)
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Staff at work in the expansive kitchen space (Photo courtesy Tazza Kitchen)
The smoky aroma wafting outside the understated exterior at 1600 Altamont Ave. in Scott’s Addition is an enticing indicator of the work underway within the building that used to house an old diesel repair shop.
Inside, in a big, gleaming, high-ceilinged industrial kitchen, Tazza Kitchen (the name combines the "ta" of tacos and "zza" from pizza) founding partner Jeff Grant’s phone flashes updates on potential new hires to staff the restaurant’s sixth location (the third in the Richmond area) at 1500 Roseneath Road, four blocks away.
The 6,000-square-foot Altamont site opened with administrative offices and meeting space in May. The facility has been in operation since September, and Tazza partners are calling this space The Big Kitchen because of its size and its many uses, including as a custom kitchen for recipe development and testing. Within is a smoke house with two custom-built wood-fired smokers, two Italian brick ovens and a custom wood-fired grill. There's talk of a possible future market and using it as a community engagement venue.
Half hipster lab, half clubhouse, inside a colorful Mickael Broth mural runs the entire length of the 58-foot wall up to the top of the 22-foot ceiling, representing the Tazza team’s food-focused trips to Italy and Mexico and illustrating a striking landscape and bright, mouth-watering eats. All around Grant, Tazza Kitchen staff make sausages, soup bases, cookies, desserts and drinks.
“It’s a hub for smoking and grilling,” says Grant’s partner John Haggai of The Big Kitchen, which includes a bar as well. “It has a creative life of its own.”
Smokers parked outside the property give a sense of the food preparation possibilities. A fire roars in the wood-burning hearth where Michael Sturges produces a crispy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside slice of polenta with some fennel tomato sauce to sample. Next comes a crusty pizza. A fish taco completes the offering.
Tazza is known for its wood-fired specialties, and the restaurant's 3,850-square-foot Roseneath location, set to open in December, will also have an open kitchen where diners can view the dome-shaped Neopolitan-style oven churn out charred delicacies and also enjoy an expanded menu courtesy of a custom-built wood-fired grill.
On a recent afternoon, Haggai, who is in charge of construction, spoke of the sense of bustle diners will find in Tazza's first city location.
“The entry is the energy zone,” says Haggai, moving through the in-progress space and pointing out details like smoke-treated wood walls, textured wall finishes and bright blue tile in the kitchen.
To get ready for the upcoming opening, baker Lori Moss makes lemon tarts with black sesame and brittle for a potential brunch dish. The fragrance of sage fills the air as a cook chops the herb for sausages. Another staff member bakes a massive tray of shortbread cookies. Chicken stock, pork-cheek Bolognese and Tazza’s signature tomato sauce with fennel bubble in enormous pots on the stove to go out to the restaurant's two other area locations.
With an opening date of early December for the Scott's Addition restaurant, Grant and Haggai field calls for potential new staff, setting up interviews. And for those 60 new hires, they plan days and, in some cases, weeks of training. Floors are being laid, furniture installed, new recipes developed, supplies ordered, menus finalized and equipment tested.
The Scott’s Addition restaurant opening comes, Grant says, after years of catering in the city and pleas from customers to bring their wood fired-fare to the urban core.
But as the neighborhood develops, Grant would like to see the city address the increasing traffic as businesses grow and pull in crowds, who, he reassures, can use their parking lot.
“More safety regulation in the area like parking setbacks from the curb would be good,” Grant says, gesturing to the nearby intersection of Altamont and West Moore Street. “We’ve seen a ton of car accidents on this corner.”
The newest Tazza Kitchen is set to open at 1500 Roseneath Road in early December, offering lunch, brunch and dinner.
