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Feature article
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Willa Jacks serves up a touch of class
By Fred Sauceman
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- - Willa Jacks - -
LOCATION: 283 East Main Street, Abingdon, Virginia
HOURS: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 5-9 p.m., Wednesday through Friday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays; noon-4 p.m., Sundays
PHONE: 276-628-2712
WEB: willajacks.com |
People who move to the Tri-Cities from larger urban areas often ask me, “Where can I go for a really elegant meal?” Fifteen or even 10 years ago, that question, more times than not, carried an undertone of skepticism, maybe even desperation. Today, however, I don’t sense the doubt, and the question seems undergirded with confidence that there are, indeed, stylish dining choices now available here.
Certainly my own mental Rolodex of sleek restaurants has expanded, and I’ve just recently written in another entry.
Typically I give new restaurants a year or so to work out kinks and “season” before I write a column, but when a wire helix lined with a black napkin came to our table at Willa Jacks in Abingdon, Virginia, last Saturday night, I scuttled another column idea, even though Willa Jacks has only been open since November of 2008.
Hidden inside that napkin were hushpuppies, but not the conventional onion-green pepper variety. These were hushpuppies made with the ingredients that would normally constitute a Reuben sandwich.
Our server told us that the restaurant was named for the grandparents of chef Lisa Silcox, Willa and Jack. You could once hose off your SUV on this East Main Street location, but the car wash was razed, and in its place sprang up a brand-new restaurant building, butter yellow on the outside and colored inside in shades of gold and green, with metallic silver and copper accents.
My colleague Regenia Shilling sent word that we should try this place. She’s been there at least twice. With a trip to the Barter Theatre already set, we decided on a culinary prelude at Willa Jacks.
After those off-the-wall hushpuppies and salads dressed with citrus-thyme vinaigrette and orange-sesame, we picked the lump crab spaghettini and the filet mignon stroganoff. Served over thin spaghetti noodles, the sweet crabmeat had been turned in browned butter and sprinkled with tart capers. The stroganoff was a single piece of beef, surrounded by mushrooms, flavored with cognac, and topped with very thin strips of fried shallot. Both dishes were more than adequate in terms of proportion but not so overwhelming as to result in a squirmy theatre experience afterward.
Three or four desserts are standard, but the server reeled off an even longer list of dessert specials. The chef, that night, had taken the flavors of New Orleans’ Bananas Foster and incorporated them into a crème brûlée, and, in anticipation of the coming of summer, had created a sorbet of blackberries and merlot. Every night on the dessert menu is a campfire treat with a sophisticated twist. These “S’More” tarts feature a graham cracker crumbling and a layer of chocolate ganache, all covered with melted marshmallow.
After a full meal at this amazing new Abingdon restaurant, diners headed for the theatre afterward and in need of metabolic stimulation can take comfort in the fact that the walk to the Barter is uphill.
The financial investment required to start Willa Jacks must have been considerable. It is big-city chic. Like Regenia, we’ll be back, too, with respect for folks who had the fortitude to start up such a business during times like these and the imagination to make a hushpuppy taste like a Reuben sandwich.
--------GoTriCities--------
Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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