Hootie Goes Foodie And Discovers Great Harvest Bread Co.

I appreciate great food as much as the next guy, and while I don’t know if that classifies me as a “foodie,” I do have friends, including business partner Dave Scarangella, who are. They all swear by Great Harvest Bread Company.

When we decided to partner up with Great Harvest, Eric Keshin, who is President & Chief Marketing Officer for the national company, insisted that I go try out one of their two restaurants in Charlottesville. Eric, by the way is a Wahoo, and has twin daughters playing for the UVa softball team.

I was excited to check off a new restaurant off my list, although I was thinking to myself, how much better can Great Harvest Bread be from any other place’s bread?

Man, was I wrong.

So there are two Great Harvest restaurants in Charlottesville, one in McIntire Plaza across from Charlottesville Coffee, just off 250 bypass to McIntire Road. The other is located in the Virginia Law School building (completely in the back), and that’s where I had lunch Thursday.

I had the Baja Turkey, recommended to me by the manager Linda Black. It was delicious and the bread was out of this world. If you’ve been on the planet for a while as I have, it’s bread like your momma used to make.

Eric, who is one of three Wahoos (all out of the McIntire School, 1980) that own the national Great Harvest Bread Company, and he told me an interesting story about the operation.

“Every Great Harvest makes its bread from scratch every single day,” Keshin said. “The wheat comes from a special place called the Golden Triangle in Montana, where the best tasting wheat in the world is grown.”

The wheat comes direct from the silos to every Great Harvest (200 restaurants dot the country) as wheat berry, and is stone milled into flour locally, fresh every day. All of the bread is made by hand, kneaded by hand, and baked fresh from scratch daily from five simple ingredients: wheat, yeast, honey, water, and salt. Honey is the natural preservative.

And man, I’m telling ya, it is scrumpdelicious. It was so good, in fact, that I’m going to the other Great Harvest on Friday at noon with my good friend and former UVa football recruiter/coach Danny Wilmer, and my good friend Tom Payne for lunch at noon. If you’re there, come by and say hi!

I think Eric, beaming with pride, said it best.

“We make bread the way bread was made in the bible – or the way your grandma made,” he said.

All from scratch, every day in Charlottesville, starting no later that 2 a.m. (man, that’s dedication). All bread must be sold within 24-36 hours so it will be fresh, although it could keep for 12-14 days.

Every Great Harvest is different, free to make whatever breads each restaurant desires daily, including their own special recipes for sandwiches, soups, cookies.

“When you curate the right bread to the right inside, magic can occur and it changes everything,” Keshin said. “Something as simple as peanut butter and jelly on honey whole wheat becomes amazing. Bring home cinnamon chip loaf or cinnamon swirl and make French Toast, then talk to me.”

I just may do that Friday. This place is amazing.

Because most people don’t know that Great Harvest is located at the UVa Law School, Cavalier fans don’t know that they can pick up a great tailgate platter for Cavaliers’ football games, and now that I think of it, UVa basketball, baseball, soccer, and lacrosse games, all played near the Law School.

Best kept secret eating place on Grounds.

Get this Wahoos. Eric is such a good dude, and wants the Wahoos to win and for UVa fans to enjoy themselves, that he’s whipped up a special deal for y’all. When you place your order, just say, “Wahoowah,” and you’ll automatically get 10 percent off any tailgate platter that can be picked up this Saturday at the Law School or Downtown locations.

That’s a pretty good deal, and I know you won’t be disappointed.

If you’ll look, there’s a link to the Great Harvest stores in Charlottesville imbedded in this story. Just click on the link and place your order for Saturday pickup and remember to say “Wahoowah.”

Warning: Get your taste buds ready, because they’re in for a thrill.