Click here to read about Farm Bell Kitchen in the C-ville Weekly!
The weathered farm bell stationed outside the restaurant is a bellwether for what you’ll find inside: farm-to-table Southern cuisine. Ryan Hubbard, co-owner of Red Hub Food Co. and the Dinsmore Boutique Inn, has combined his love of preserving the past with his passion for new Southern cuisine into Farm Bell Kitchen.
The restaurant is located in the brick building (constructed by Thomas Jefferson’s master carpenter, James Dinsmore) across from UVA Children’s Hospital on West Main Street. According to Hubbard, the very same bricks that were used in the Rotunda form the walls of Farm Bell Kitchen (Dinsmore also helped build several buildings at UVA and James Madison’s Montpelier).
Beyond maintaining its historical legacy, Farm Bell Kitchen is dedicated to serving Southern cuisine with ingredients from local producers. The name came to Hubbard from the farm bell now outside the restaurant that he found in a Southwest Virginia salvage yard.
“It’s emblematic of our new Southern cuisine and our farm-to-table approach,” he says.
Farm Bell Kitchen will be open for lunch and breakfast daily, and periodically serve supper (note: not dinner), and brunch on the weekends. If you find yourself in the area, remember for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for those who are hungry.