Owner Joe Carter stands outside Izzy's Kitchen with the restaurant's namesake, his 5-year-old daughter. (Photo courtesy Sharon Carter)
“I’ve pretty much been in the kitchen every day for the past 30 years,” says 42-year-old Joe Carter as we sit inside his forthcoming restaurant in the Museum District.
Carter has sported quite a few hats in the hospitality industry, from bartender to general manager. The Richmond native’s resume is marked with stints at The Tobacco Company, Europa, Cha Cha’s Cantina, Border Chophouse, Metro Diner ("the old one”), and most recently F.W Sullivan’s and Uptown Market & Deli. But for the first time in his long culinary career, Carter finds himself on the brink of a concept that is all his own.
Izzy’s Kitchen, named after his 5-year-old daughter, will open in the former Little Saint space at 2901 Park Ave. on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m.
Carter, a former partner in F.W. Sullivan’s restaurant and Uptown Market & Deli, was looking for a change, to slow the pace of his life and focus more on family. Coincidentally, Uptown, a Main Street sandwich outpost that opened in 2011, and Little Saint both shut their doors on July 21 of this year. Ten days later Carter purchased the future Izzy’s Kitchen space.
Luckily for Uptown sandwich fans, many of its offerings will live on. The Turkey Pesto, Wild Hokie, Cubano, Southern, Super Italian, Porchetta and The Uptown — a colossal stack of ham, turkey, smoked bacon and provolone joined by house-made slaw and a drizzle of dressing between slices of cracked wheat — will be on the menu at Izzy’s.
“Honestly, I think [cooking] is in my blood. My mom always jokes I was always in the kitchen, just born with it, and it always pulled at me,” Carter says of stepping into the kitchen more. He plans to butcher Berkshire hogs and cure all meats in-house, a practice he had begun to implement at Uptown Deli prior to closing.
For Carter Izzy's Kitchen marks a new chapter that will bring his culinary journey full circle. He grew up on a cattle farm in Chesterfield, a place he once longed to flee that has now become the source of a renewed sense of purpose, a desire to feel more connected to food from the land and to create something lasting for his family.
“The concept really revolved around the amazing meats and the family farm,” he says of the “natural” progression of opening Izzy’s.
“Funny, when I was a kid we moved from the suburbs to the farm, and I hated it and I couldn’t wait to get off; now I appreciate it so much,” Carter says. "I hate calling it farm to table, but when I was growing up on the farm, it was farm to table."
Izzy’s Kitchen's menu will focus heavily on the butchery program, with the results of in-house pickling, jam making and charcuterie — aka a "Virginia Board" — at the forefront. Diners can expect bruschetta, pimento dip, varying seasonal soups and salads, and entrees including chicken confit, house porchetta with porchetta gravy, eggplant lasagna, a steak of the day using 7 Hills beef, and roasted chicken with butter sauce and saffron rice.
Carter wants to offer familiar, approachable menu items with ingredients people don’t have to Google along with refined classics. "I don’t want it to be too foo-foo; I want it to be a neighborhood, homey feeling,” Carter says. “If you want a sandwich, you can get a sandwich, and if you want steak and fries you can do that, too. I want people to come and sit and enjoy themselves and be comfortable.”
He also wants Izzy's to be a spot that diners can turn to for late-night food options, and the restaurant will remain open until midnight or later almost every night, offering a cocktail list along with a handful of taps dedicated to local brews.
Izzy’s Kitchen will be open Tuesday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to midnight, 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, and closed on Monday. Brunch will begin in the weeks to come.
