Tasting Takeover

Charleston’s Zero Restaurant + Bar comes to Charlottesville’s Red Pump Kitchen.

Chef Vinson Petrillo

_{Photo by Eric Kelley}

Red Pump Kitchen in Charlottesville.

_{Photo by Eric Kelley}

For two nights, Oct. 17-18, executive chef Vinson Petrillo of Zero Bar + Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, is taking over the menu at Red Pump Kitchen in Charlottesville.

Chef Brandon Ripberger

_{Photo by Eric Kelley}

Sea bass at Zero Restaurant + Bar in Charleston.

_{Photo courtesy of Easton Porter Group}

Both restaurants are part of the Easton Porter Group, and Brandon Ripberger, chef de cuisine of Red Pump Kitchen, which offers light, Tuscan-style fare, previously worked under Petrillo at the hospitality company’s Cannon Green in Charleston. 

Ripberger, who also worked in executive dining at the Darden School of Business at UVA for five years and served as sous chef under executive chef Ian Rynecki at Red Pump’s sister property, Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards in North Garden, is excited to welcome Petrillo to his kitchen. “It’s always about the experience at Zero,” says Ripberger. “The food will be good no matter what he decides to put on the plate.” 

Petrillo, the creative culinary director for Easton Porter Group, will present a six-course tasting menu at Red Pump. His goal is to offer “something you’ve never had before,” he says—something you can’t make at home and that is “more than food on a plate.” Petrillo, a winner of Food Network’s Chopped and Chopped Champions and named to Zagat’s 2013 30 Under 30 list, uses modern methods such as liquid nitrogen and infuses his menu with cuisines such as Mexican, Thai, and Japanese. “My menu is not limited to anything,” he says. “Ingredients don’t have to be local, they just have to be the best.”

The takeover also offers the opportunity to celebrate Virginia Wine Month with wine pairings featuring selections from Pippin Hill as well as other premier wineries.

Reservations are available through Resy. Other upcoming events at Red Pump Kitchen include a three-course pre-fixe Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 13. RedPumpKitchen.com