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1. What is your favorite style of cooking? I like Cajun/Creole, Thai, Mexican, Fusion. I love the blending of flavor and love spicy foods.
2. What are the top 3 cooking tips you would give a novice cook? A) Prep your ingredients ahead of time, make sure everything is similar in size to assure even cooking; B) Know you ingredients and how they go together have a plan/recipe some spices and ingredients will over power a dish. Always use quality items.; C) Have the proper utensils: a good chef’s knife, a decent sauté pan, not to thin on the bottom so heat is distributed evenly. These items are as important as the ingredients. It is hard to work with inferior equipment
3. Who was the biggest inspiration for your career? Who are the people that have influenced me during my life? That’s hard to say, I love Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, Rick Bayless, Diana Kennedy, Julee Rosso, Shelia Lukins, Paula Dean, Sylvia Woods are some of the chefs I like a lot. The people at the first restaurant I managed Drew and Mary Lacklen for instilling me the importance of quality of food and service.
4. What do you enjoy most about being a chef? One of the things that makes my day is when I come up with a dish that everyone goes wow over. When I impress the staff, I know it will sell and people will like it.
5. How long have you been working in Staunton? We will be 18 years in March, opened on Mother’s Day in May of 1992.
6. What culinary advantage does Staunton have compared to other areas in the Shenandoah Valley? We have a history of good restaurants with a decent amount of variety; we are centrally located between Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Lexington and Waynesboro a mere 30-minute drive from most of these locations. Located where I-64 and I-81 meet also brings a lot of traffic to our area. The Shakespeare theater and other artsy things to do in Staunton are a big draw. If you are a history buff there are also lots of tourist attractions to draw in tourist who want a good place to eat.
7. What is your favorite food to eat? My favorite food is probably Sushi, but I love all cuisines especially Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Cajun-Creole, Southern and fusion of all these that I mentioned. I just love spicy foods.
8. How would you describe what customers can expect at your restaurant? In March of 1992 Ron Bishop and Terry Holmes opened the Mill Street Grill. At the Mill Street Grill we try to balance good quality food with fast fun efficient service, all in the rustic confines of a turn of the century flourmill. Since opening in 1992, our goal has been to be the most consistent restaurant in the area. Our large number of regular customers will attest to that fact. At the Mill, no one is a stranger. We treat you better than family, we feed you well and we don’t ask you to do the dishes.
We are well known for our Barbeque Baby Back Ribs, which are tender, fall off the bone and glazed with a barbeque sauce that we make ourselves. Kansas City style ribs have been a mainstay of our menu. One customer quip: "If Adam had your ribs there would have been no Eve." Pigs fear us, but Mill Street Grill is not just a rib joint. We have great steaks, which we cut in house and grill to perfection.
Fresh seafood arrives daily, which we prepare in numerous ways. We are always blending different cuisines & styles of cooking. We feature sushi grade Ahi Tuna, fresh Salmon, and Maryland Style Crab Cakes to name a few. Our assortment of pasta dishes is not only interesting, but also flavorful. The Cajun Chicken Fettuccini with a Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce has been a staple on our menu since we opened and shows we are not afraid to combine different styles and flavors.
We feature Lamb, Duck and Veal dishes on a regular basis. Our daily specials run the gambit from Ostrich to Alligator, fresh Crawfish to Elk or Buffalo, not to mention good old hometown favorites. We are not afraid to cook anything and have been known to, but it always tastes good. If you had to label our style of cooking it would be something like “Redneck Nouveau” we blend down home southern cuisine, with fusion of other styles of cooking to come up with our own “feel good kind of dishes”. Try us for brunch: our Fried Green Tomato & Cajun Grilled Shrimp Benedict rocks! We try to hit all the bases & succeed.
Our menu has a wide range of salads, vegetarian pastas and sandwiches; we have a grilled Black Bean Burger that’s nearly famous, if not kind of messy. No one will be asking, "Where’s the beef?" or "where’s the flavor?" Vegetarians are welcome and we cater to Vegans if they are patient and we can adapt a lot of our dishes. Most things are made to order, so it is not that hard to change; just ask! If you have a special request or dietary restrictions, let us know!
9. Is there anything else you would like to share with us about yourself and your restaurant? Mill Street Grill is known for having innovative sauces that are all home made. As the Roanoke Times food critic Larry Bly declared "The range of entrees in the evening is stunning: everything from home-cooking to delicious, huge, to very sophisticated fare with a range of sauces and spices. They’re brave, and they’re good."
The Charlottesville Weekly says Mill Street Grill – “Worth the Trip.” “I’ll admit it, as much as I try to appreciate the subtleties of Carolina barbecue slow-cooked, smoked for weeks, brought to the table dressed in its juices with the requisite squeeze bottle of runny sauce it doesn’t entice me the way the red sauce barbecue does and Mill Street Does It Right!”
• AAA has given Mill Street Grill a three-star rating consistently. That is the highest rating a casual themed restaurant can receive, and we are listed in their tour books for the Shenandoah Valley. Local newspapers such as Eighty-One rated us the “The Best Restaurant” in the valley along with the Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg. They stated “The decision was clear and it was a tie: The Joshua Wilton in Harrisonburg and Mill Street Grill in Staunton.” Both the Staunton and Waynesboro newspapers have heaped praise on the Mill Street Grill having rated our barbeque ribs the “Best in Valley”. We have been the People’s Choice winner for several years running from the News Virginian and won both the Viewer’s Choice for “Best Restaurant” and “Best Barbecue Ribs” in 2009 |
