The Freshest Food for the Busiest Bees: Feast!
It’s the beginning of the semester. Let’s face it, our schedules are packed right now. Simplifying our daily routine is number one on a lot of people’s lists, so why not combine lunch, grocery shopping, and catching up on some work into one stop? Feast! is home to a variety of cuisines, all made with locally sourced ingredients in their cafe. While you wait on your order, you have an entire market to explore where local brands are featured, or you can catch up on some work in your choice of either indoor or outdoor seating.
Feast! is a cafe and grocery store fusion on West Main Street in Charlottesville, only five minutes away from PVCC. When visiting their website, I was guided through their cafe menu, in-store items, and even gift box options. The FAQ page informs readers of the store’s hours: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They also include information on their online pickup and delivery options, gift cards, and catering. It was easy to navigate and provided several contact methods in case any questions or concerns came up.
When you first enter the store, you are immediately hit with the smell of fresh ingredients cooking in the cafe. There was an array of wine on several racks throughout the store that included staff suggestions to the customers. Towards the back of the market there is a large selection of pre-made bowls, dips, and soups made inside the cafe available to shoppers. I find this especially helpful for those busier days when you don’t have much time to wait for food to be made. I picked up their pre-made mezze tabbouleh bowl ($9.95) during my last visit and paired it with an oat milk cold brew ($4.95) sold in their market.
The mezze tabbouleh bowl is on their seasonal menu for fall. It is entirely made from fresh and local ingredients including quinoa, hummus, roasted eggplant, cucumber, pickled carrots, red peppers, olives, lemon dressing, kale, and other seasonings and spices. Everything included in the bowl was cooked well, and the serving size was just enough for a light lunch; however, I do wish there was more dressing included as it felt a bit small for the serving size. Overall, I felt like I was getting everything that I paid for and would certainly buy it again and explore their menu further.
It was a great experience to both try and learn more from and about Feast! My mom is a part of their staff team, so I always hear so much about it, but experiencing the food and the environment on my own was lovely.
