Charlottesville represents a never ending brunch epic. From the crowned winner, Blue Moon Diner, to our battle between Blue Moon and Blue Grass, to our (now) slightly outdated weekend brunch guide, you will never be short options (or a line) to eat brunch on Sunday mornings.
Enter Zo Ca Lo, the place we once compared to an Opium den. As a hip little newster to town, Zo Ca Lo must have felt left out. Ok, so maybe I’m showing my age as Zo Ca Lo has been around for 5 (?) years now. Zo Ca Lo has a reputation around town; a reputation for doing some excellent Tuna tartar, gracing us with amazing cheese balls and some very solid entrées. The restaurant has not garnered a reputation for change, but we are happy to see it finally changing its M.O. after five years.
Just a few weeks ago now, Zo Ca Lo decided to open on Sundays and flex its brunch muscles to an eager Charlottesville. We published the menu if you need to refer to it during this review. Now, what did we think?
Ambiance
I’ve frequented Zo Ca Lo for many years now and, without a doubt, this place offers diners one of the nicest dining settings. They’ve managed to keep the place clean, the bar and cocktail area still looks classy, the French doors let in lots of natural air and its dark, smartly lit, wood and red paint trimmed cavernous space screams sex appeal. Sure, it’s large and loud, but I never felt crowded. Let’s not forget the giant outdoor patio which will be fantastic until late July when it gets unbearable hot, even at 10AM in the morning.
Service
Dinner service is typically very good; I’ve had both an excellent and a mediocre service experience at Brunch. Sunday mornings are tough times for the service crowd, but that’s no excuse for forgotten water, negative attitudes and malaise. But, ce la Charlottesville’s waitstaff and you can’t do much about it. On the flipside, the food comes out much more quickly than every brunch place I’ve eaten, except for Tip Top.
Food
Peruse the menu. What strikes you? The PRICES! In short: Chicken Caesar: $14, Crab Cakes: $16, Steak & Eggs: $16, Bloody Mary: $8. While Zo Ca Lo’s dinners aren’t cheap, I think this price point puts things out of range for most brunch diners. Also, when I see prices this high (i.e. the most expensive brunch in Charlottesville save Farmington and Boar’s Head), the food must equate to that level.
Zo Ca Lo, you set yourself on a high pedestal. I’ve sampled half your menu. The French Toast which had so many people talking was extremely rich. I like my sweets, but this thing was smothered in syrup and sandwiched with a serious amount of mascarpone. I really liked the bread they used, but there was just too much sweet and it melted the cream, making it a little soggy. I recommend being conservative on the mascarpone and putting the syrup on the side. The steak and eggs were solid; I believe they used a flank cut. I love the rachero sauce; it’s deep, smoky and much better than salsa that other places use. The Huevos ZoCaLo were also solid, but I wish there was something a little more lively to brighten things up. Nothing jumped at me and said yes this is amazing, but I never had any disappointments, either. You need to make the call about value vs. price. I still don’t have a verdict.
Drinks
I LOVE THEIR BLOODY MARY’S. They are the best in town. Sorry, Mono Loco, you’ve lost your #1 Bloody Mary to ZoCaLo. Whoever mixed this drink, rocks. They are the freshest, most non mix-like I’ve had around town. Yes they are $8, but they are huge and will make you very, very happy. Make sure you ask them to tone down the spice if you can’t handle the heat. I haven’t had a chance to try their bellinis, but I’d welcome your comments if you have.
Overall
ZoCaLo’s brunch is a welcome addition to a town that didn’t have outdoor brunch dining. While the prices are very high, the size of the restaurant and its outdoor patio guarantees that you won’t have to wait for a table or your food. The dishes are very good, but the prices may scare you off. It’s your choice because sometimes we just want to eat food on a beautiful Sunday and ZoCaLo can do it, with instant gratification.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Tagged as: brunch, Charlottesville, dining, Food, Restaurant, review
You forgot to talk about portions… HUGE! The three times I’ve been there for brunch, I haven’t been able to clean my plate…. completely agree with your assessment of the Steak and Eggs and Huevos Zocalo
I haven’t ever found brunch portions to be non-Huge in this town, so I guess it wasn’t a differentiator, but you are correct; they are very large. NO WAY I could have finished my french toast.
French toast is big AND really sweet. Impossible to finish by oneself, but great to share.
Sounds like it’s supposed to be indulgent and therefore pricey. I can’t wait to go. And Thor, You have no idea what an opium den looks like inside. Stop frontin’.
Drunken steak & eggs are perfect way to start the Sunday afternoon recovery from Saturday night/early Sunday debauch.
@3 that sounds like a challenge to me.
showing your age again. zocalo tried doing a brunch in its first year of operation, and scrapped it after one season. (probably because everyone knew it couldn’t compete with me and my peeps at Southern Culture, RIP)
don’t call it a comeback.
Southern Culture had Brunch?
@6: Orchid, I’ll buy your French Toast if you finish it ALL in one sitting.
No sharing though
@7 Momma said knock you out!
wasn’t southern culture’s the gospel brunch? mmm corn muffins . . .
@9 don’t worry, i don’t share!
@9: You may have just bitten off more than you can chew.
/sorry, I had to
ZoCaLo brunch=expensive and not so much tasty.
@7, thanks for the insights!
Dammit, t(h)om. Southern Culture was my favorite brunch. And I am now once again reminded of its conspicuous absence.
This isn’t about Zo Ca Lo, but I think it’s an appropriate thread to warn people about Omni Hotel brunches — DONT GO. EVER. I went for Mother’s Day and it was $40 a person to eat a buffet filled with Applebee’s quality food. Rape!
@ 17 - really? it was pretty good last year, plus they had haaawwwt european boys doing the service. hmmm.
@7 t(h)om-i stopped reading. NO Way did the Z’lo EVAR try brunch before. as for the sweet french toast, if you eat meat at all, i reccomend getting a side of bacon and putting a bit of meat-salty goodness with it.yummy!
as for southern culture- i werked thar. icky kiktchen, icky attitude(from the kitchen and staff) and i would’t eat a damn thing they made there after i worked there. that said- maya has made both the place and kitchen somewhere i would love to be.
the kitchen at southern culture gave no care for it’s patrons as far as i could tell.
it was dirty and mean to the staff.
i actually loved the place until i worked there.
a plus to the bar.
t(h)om, you are picking a fight you will never win.
you speak with no knowledge, you boast of a place that was poorly run and did not care of quality of food that it fed people with.
and did not give a
523it
0 to the people who worked there.or ate there. it was an unclean mess. i wasn’t ever gonna bring it up, but you did. im here to say it was a sham, the kitchen was drity and the cooks were surly and ugly, and i am glad,SO glad it’s Gone. miss the bar, wouldn’t serve you the food, let alone eat it…
The cook you talk of at SoCu are now at Boheme. Just lating you know and the ones responsible for the last 6 moinths. Stick that in your tat tare!
scoriole, re: SoCo debate:
not knowing who you are or when you worked there, you might be full of it or telling the truth.
When i worked there (’02-’04) we ran a pretty tight ship. if we did in fact work there together, i’d like to know who you are.
And i’d be lying if I said there were off-nights and employees that didn’t give a shit. Every restaurant suffers that. Maybe you were one of them!
And i won’t argue that things went downhill leading up to the sale of the place. the owner and other staff that had been there for years were close, personal friends of mine, so let’s leave insulting language out of it. Even though i might agree with you that some people we worked with were “surly and ugly”.
there’s no need to get all “picking a fight” about it. sheesh. unnecessary.
and i don’t know how to verify it, but i distinctly remember Z’lo advertising brunch around Easter of 2003. The year it opened. before that the place was a kind of piano bar called something-Moon-something. Back in z’lo’s first year, the owners were there every night till close bustin’ their asses to keep the place running smoothly. respec’.
~t
oh and stanley - sorry to poke that sore spot. where’s your brunch spot nowadays?
correction: “i’d be lying if i said there WEREN’T…”
Bring back Blue Moon!!!
t(h)om: for the record, i was there before you.
i did care, so i didn’t stay.
cheers and i’m sorry for getting all opinionated. sometimes it happens,
.
where’s your brunch spot nowadays?
Blue Moon’s the go-to, but I try to spread it out. So many good choices in this town.
I love BM not only for the food but for the characters. Last time I went and sat at the bar, this dude next to me was eating 3 breakfasts at once and kept calling everyone in his address book and leaving them drunk messages like, “Where are you? Call me. Bang-bang!” then proceeded to fall off his stool.
at my favorite cuban restaurant on miami beach, once i sat at the counter & the guy next to me sawed at his arm with the serrated butter knife the whole time i was there. never sat at the counter again.
/almosst too caffeinated to type–>probably too caffeinated to wokr,
@28 now orchid we had a nice fight for you already…go finish your paper!
We could have a real fight…with Jello?
Lu Sid have a 10×20 enclosed tent we could use… seriously we had a food fight here at Halloween and I am still cleaning up. You have NO idea the mess that spaghetti, meat sauce, red velvet cakes and a Sam’s club set of 24 spooky green cupcakes can make. No fucking idea.
/ but I am OFFICIALLY the coolest Mom EVAR (according to a poll of 30 kids ages 8-16)
I like it. I had a whip cream fight at my 15th birthday party. It was fun and I can only imagine the kind of money we could have made had we video taped it.
Ebay: 8 girls, 12 cans of whip cream, white t-shirts (well, some), and a garden hose. $.99 starting bid.
I so could have paid for college with the sale of a couple reproductions.
Oh yes, back to PG. That does sound pretty awesome. I think I am getting some ideas. I see the mall, some villains, and more pudding than forty people could eat.
If the mall idea fails we retreat to Floozy’s with the spaghetti sauce.
i want to play Dice with Floozy
/have no idea how to play that game
//iseems like a “gentlemen only” game
///all the better(not bettor)
@32: Get $240 worth of pudding. Worth of pudding. Oh yeah.
/The State joke. Google it
Or even better…. click this.
I totally loved that show when it came on.
/The State joke. Google it
*Swoon*
I used to love that show. When it was canceled I cried. Keep seeing some of the boys (and Keri) in movies and on TV sometimes though.
@shenanigans - i bet you love your grandmother’s potato chowda, too.
I wanna dip my balls in it.
Sweaty balls?
omfg, zocalo’s cheese balls are gud! i want them NOW.
Personally I prefer Colonel Angus
They should serve the cheese balls at Brunch. That would be brilliant!
mmm french toast with cheese balls and bacon…..
It’s awfully quiet today. Where’d everyone go?
echo, it’s WAY too nice outside to be on the interwebz. well, indoors, at least.
/live from someone else’s porch…
@shenanigans #39 - “LOUIE!!!1!”
everyone should get internets on their telephones.
/pressed against the window
47: Chicken sandwich CARL.
speaking of, who also loves M.I. Black in “Stella”
weird, but, wonderful.
50: Come again?
Not a big fan of Stella but lurrrrvvvvvve HOT WET AMERICAN SUMMER
Stella
I’ve read reviews about so many restaurants in C’ville serving brunch… has no one tried the brunch at HotCakes? it is really remarkable. find the menu at http://www.hotcakes.biz.
@54: I will have to make it a point to try it. I will be sure to post a review after trying the new stop
[…] all around dining its definitely a tie between Zo.Ca.Lo, Hamiltons and Petit Pois. If I am in the mood for Sushi its definitely Miyako…all sushi all […]
Thought I’d say we went to Zocalo’s brunch on Sunday and it was utterly scrum-diddly-umptious. The scramble ($9) was a nice plate full of tasty well seasoned eggs with spinach and sauteed tats with caramelized onions. We ate probably two thirds. The other dish was smoked salmon on Matsos with Jalapeno cream cheese. Very unusual combo of fish with spicy, but it was totally thumbs up, oh and I think it was $12. Fresh OJ to wash it all down, and my hangover just seemed to fade away like a bad memory….mm-mmm-mmmmmmm.
/BTW we were served by a ginger, but he was very nice and a great waiter so I’ll excuse this one faux pas