It is the 26th letter of the alphabet. It is Zorro’s mark. It is a letter at once confident — staking out its territory with straight lines and sharp corners — yet approachable — simply made, efficient and open on each side. And now it is a two-year-old restaurant in Henrico County specializing in fresh, locally grown and sourced ingredients.
Zed (the name is French for the letter) is a rare thing in the narrow-margin restaurant trade: a place run by a small team of people who care deeply and desperately about food — theirs and yours — and who seem less interested in the commercial side of running a restaurant than in making sure that what goes on the plate is something they would eat themselves.
“Everything is made fresh this morning,” says owner Lisa Granger, waving a hand over my lunch plates piled with squeaky fresh food bristling with energy. A lot of restaurateurs talk about fresh ingredients that too often wind up looking, if not tasting, a bit world-weary by the time they get to the table. Not so at Zed.
“We do lots of small shopping trips throughout the week,” says Granger. Grass-fed beef comes from the Belmont Butchery in Richmond; seafood from Yellow Umbrella, Richmond’s leading fishmonger; mushrooms from Dave and Dee Scherr in Sedley, Va.; produce from other local farms and farmers’ markets. But Granger’s commitment to farm-to-table cuisine does not end with the merely fresh. Most everything that lands on the table is also either organic or “clean,” meaning the ingredients are not treated or sprayed in any way; nothing contains corn syrup. “This is how I eat,” explains Granger. “My philosophy is even if you have to get less, get the best you can.”
But at Zed, you won’t get less. My curry chicken salad sandwich was bright and toothy and piled, baseball-sized, between two slices of hefty homemade whole grain bread. Smoky midtones from toasted almonds and coconut gave it additional body, while a nicely acidic plum chutney kept it lively. A side of hand-cut sweet potato fries completed the plate ($8). I walked out with half the sandwich in a to-go bag. (No Styrofoam here.)
On another plate: a plump hummus made by a chef who understands that without a healthy dose of lemon and salt, hummus is little more than a highly alkaline beige paste. Next to it, a perky, pudding-like eggplant emulsion — smoky and rich as marrow ($6).
But it was the simple, smart tomato bisque that won my heart at this lunch, and here’s why: I could taste the tomato. This may sound odd, but so often chefs get so crazy with ingredients and their Cuisinarts that they overlook the central fact that the tomato isn’t something you make food out of and isn’t a mere ingredient; it is itself the food, it’s the canvas, it’s the world on which all else in the dish hangs.
The dinner menu had shifted into winter mode with root vegetables and roasted meats. Vegetarians will find some savory treats on the main menu but would also do well ordering a range of appetizers tapas style and calling it dinner: beet salad with chevre and walnuts; mushroom ragout in phyllo cups; charred eggplant and roasted pepper salad. The menu shifts with the seasons and with what’s available and fresh.
Oddly, Zed, with its Mediterranean-flavored menu, emits an Eastern, holistic vibe creating the potential for an identity crisis. But that is easily overcome by new chef Nancy Cohen’s desire to defend food for its own sake. Her globally influenced dishes are simply prepared, good for you, and nourish body and soul. ’Nuff zaid.
— Noel Patrick
