Nestled in a romantic Ruckersville shopping center, beyond the Bamboo House, between an antique store and a veterinary clinic, you will find Jody. Jody is not at the Blue Ridge Cafe every waking moment, but it's worth the gamble to drive out there because Jody is the greatest waiter on earth. Attentive but not clingy, fast and friendly, he even followed us out to the parking lot with our forgotten leftovers.
The Blue Ridge Cafe gives off Cracker Barrel vibes from the outside. There is a down-home porch swing, cutesy embroidered plaques and a faux folk antique shop next door. But in fact it is a family-owned establishment where the atmosphere is welcoming, the food is good and the service is great.
Blue Ridge Cafe's popularity has forced it to expand several times during its seven years in business on the southbound side of Route 29. Blue Ridge's owner, Sean Hayes, whose father owns the adjacent Ruckersville Veterinary Clinic, opened the restaurant with only one dining room. It now has several, including space for banquets, a bar area and an overflow room that is only open on weekends.
While the menu here is diverse, the appetizers are pretty standard. The spinach and artichoke dip ($5.99) is a creamy blend of spinach, artichokes and cheese. It is served hot with excellent homemade tortilla chips that also are featured in the nachos starter.
The Nachos Grande ($5.49) is a very traditional appetizer served in a unique manner. A large plate comes laden with beans and layers of cheese, salsa, onions, jalapenos, black olives, sour cream and guacamole. The decision to separate the toppings from the accompanying basket of hot tortilla chips prevents the familiar headache of overloading the top layer of chips and leaving the bottom half dry.
The Blue Ridge Seafood Sampler ($15.49) was predictably unspectacular. You won't notice much beachfront property in land-locked Ruckersville, and although Jody says he wishes he could call the seafood fresh, it would be pretty easy to call his bluff. The fish for the beer-battered cod and the tuna steak arrives twice a week, and all other seafood is delivered once a week.
The sampler includes heaps of fried shrimp, clams, oysters, scallops and crab nuggets. (The definition of a "crab nugget" remains unclear.) An unheralded crab cake also popped up on the platter and pushed the dish over the edge - too much fried seafood to eat, especially once you factor in the baked potato and side salad.
Most of the entrees come with a choice of baked potato, french fries or rice pilaf, along with either a garden or Caesar salad or the vegetable du jour.
According to Jody, you cannot go wrong at Blue Ridge as long as you order something with the word "imperial" in the title. The crab imperial is seasoned crabmeat, baked golden brown, which the kitchen places atop several different entrees. The most popular of these selections is the Steak Imperial ($17.99), grilled filet mignon topped with crab imperial, sauteed onions and mushrooms. Tender and delicious, the Steak Imperial unpacks quite a bit of spice and provides plenty of nourishment when combined with the accompanying baked potato and salad.
All of the desserts cost $3.95 and there are approximately 10 types of cakes to choose from. None are homemade, but they are fairly good and run the gamut of Reese's peanut butter pie, turtle cake, carrot cake, chocolate seduction cake or New York cheesecake that can be served with sliced strawberries or raspberry sauce.
Blue Ridge Cafe offers several Valentine's Day specials this week. Many involve preposterous amounts of food. May we suggest the Red Hot Lovers Platter, which, for the bargain price of $49.95, gets you enough food for the spread at your next family reunion: two filet mignons, two Chicken Blue Ridge (chicken breast topped with country ham, provolone cheese and a sherry cream sauce), six jumbo fried shrimp, two broiled lobster tails, two salads and two baked potatoes.
Blue Ridge Cafe is a nice place with great service. Even though it's a bit of a hike, it's still falls under the umbrella of Charlottesville restaurants. They have room to dine or to watch games on TV, and they offer Sunday brunches and an array of sandwiches, burgers and good-sized entree salads. And if the huge platters don't fill you up, there's always the made to order sandwiches at Sheetz on your way back down 29.
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