It is nearly impossible to avoid chain restaurants these days. They are everywhere: in urban centers, suburban strip malls and high-end retail developments. Adding to the challenge, savvy chain eateries now camouflage themselves to appear, if not local, at least unique. To a foodie, admitting to dining at chain restaurants is enough to get you laughed out of the kitchen, or at least shamed into picking up the tab. But let’s face it: everyone has to eat, and sometimes speed, convenience and price are essential elements that go into the calculus of choosing a restaurant. The trick, then, is separating the good from the bad and the just plain ugly.
Though you can’t immediately tell from its name that Rudino’s Pizza & Grinders in western Henrico County is a limited or regional chain — there are 11 total locations, only one of which is in Virginia — the use of the word Grinders in the name clearly sets it apart from being wholly local. After all, in this part of the world a torpedo-shaped loaf of bread stuffed with meats, cheeses and vegetables is usually called a sub.
As the helpful wall art explains, the name “Grinder” has its origins in the shipyards of the Northeast, where the wives of Italian immigrant workers, who spent their days grinding down rivets, would bring their husbands lunches of fresh-baked bread stuffed with meat, cheese and vegetables. To get the attention of their crew, foremen would call out, “Grinders!” The name stuck. Fortunately, for those who find themselves at Rudino’s, so did the concept of fresh-baked bread.
Bread is life, they say, and at Rudino’s the bread is so good you could almost skip the stuffings. But then you’d be missing out on things like chicken smothered in Buffalo sauce with blue cheese and celery; steak with parmesan pepper sauce lettuce, and tomato; or Italian sausage, marinara sauce, onions and banana peppers. This is not light stuff, and all sandwiches gain an additional layer of flavor from being oven-baked. Fortunately, for the diet conscious, there are Rudino’s Lites, six grinders that feature 99 percent fat free meats and low-fat bread. And the prices are reasonable and pleasantly simple: 9-inch grinder, $5.55; 18-inch grinder, $9.95. Chips included.
Rudino’s also offers pizza with all the usual toppings, including the unusual choice of salami, plus pasta and calzones. The all-you-can-eat lunch pizza buffet is especially popular with the local high school students, and on Monday nights the pizza buffet brings out families for an easy and reasonably priced dinner out ($6.50 for adults, $4.50 for kids under 12, and free for the under-five crowd).
Far from being a bland and sterile sub shop mired in late 1970s yellows and greens, Rudino’s benefits from clean, contemporary styling with honeyed wood furniture and big but restrained color choices for the walls. Oversized, turn-of-the-century, decorative commercial posters break up the big spaces on the walls and help nudge this pizza and sub shop beyond the category of fast food. You can eat there without losing your self-respect, or eating the bill on top of your sandwich. Which means you just might have enough room left for one of Rudino’s homemade cookies.
