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Husband and wife and owners of The Feed Store, Sara Kerfoot and Adam Hall
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Pitmaster Adam Hall holding a tray of St. Louis ribs and smoked half chickens.
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The Feed Store will open its doors Saturday, Nov. 14. The name is a nod to Lacy's Feed Store, a business that occupied the space when Kerfoot was a child.
“This building has always stood out to me,” Sara Kerfoot says of the century-old space at 2030 Broad Street Road in Maidens, originally a general store. The former general manager of Jackson Ward's Saison grew up just 5 miles down the road.
Earlier this spring, she and husband Adam Hall, best known for his role as chef-owner at Saison, spotted a “For Rent” sign when taking their two children to visit their grandparents. They decided to call.
“For years we had looked at this spot and thought, ‘Man, this would be a great barbecue spot,” Kerfoot says of the rustic roadside location along Route 250.
And for a while, it was, Piedmont Smokehouse previously occupying the space before closing last year. But on Saturday, Nov. 14, the smoke will rise again when the pair debuts The Feed Store, a restaurant and market highlighting the traditions of Virginia and North Carolina barbecue.
Regarding the forthcoming eatery and bidding farewell to Saison, “It’s a change we're both looking forward to, a challenge, something new to start, and being scared again to try something new, it’s exciting,” Hall says.
Barbecue is typically a fast-casual, laid-back, counter-service experience, and ideally it’s eaten outside, all factors that were running through the minds of the partners.
“It lined up with COVID and takeout food, so we thought we’d give it a shot," Hall says.
When The Feed Store opens, it marks the beginning of the next chapter in their seasoned careers — a graduation of sorts from a bustling downtown restaurant to a smokehouse 30 minutes outside the city — as well as a settling in to their roles as parents.
“We have two little kids now, so we’re trying to modify our lives to more of a normal family dynamic,” says Hall, his wife adding in a joke about their 3-year-old’s late bedtime.
The duo are dining industry veterans, a yin and yang of front-of-house and back-of-house expertise. Since 2012 they have been steering the ship at Saison, gaining national and local attention for everything from cocktails to chicken biscuits, in addition to the restaurant's neighboring market.
Kerfoot says even though they are shifting toward a more fast-casual concept, her philosophy toward dining and creating a welcoming atmosphere — which garnered her an Elby award nomination for Most Valuable Staffer in 2019 — has not. “The type of service [we provided] at Saison … is the same feeling and the way I want to talk to people here.”
As for the vessel to make all the smoky magic happen?
“I had been looking on the internet for months and months and finally found my dream boat,” says Hall with a laugh of the restaurant's 250-gallon Meadow Creek smoker. Coincidentally, the seller was the father of his sister’s friend, and Hall learned that the smoker has made an appearance on the competition circuit. “He used it for a couple competitions and then wanted something bigger.”
For opening weekend, The Feed Store is sticking with the classics. The menu will feature pulled pork, St. Louis ribs, smoked half chickens, mac and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, collards, and chocolate chunk-toffee cookies.
“We want to start slow and see what people want,” says Hall, a Crozet native, noting that he will eventually introduce more uncommon menu offerings, from beef cheeks to duck and prime rib. “We’re still going to have fun," he says.
As the owners embrace the general store's past life, patrons can expect nostalgic, old-fashioned candy and house-made sodas in the future. Kerfoot is also carefully curating a list of minimal-intervention wine and local beer.
“We’re excited to open doors, it feels very surreal,” Kerfoot says. “I saw this 'For Rent' sign months ago, and we’ve been quietly working away. It’s kind of hard to believe.”
The Feed Store will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Initially, service will be takeout only.
