“Hopefully this will be a good place for us,” she says. “There will be national chain stores and small local shops. They’ve tried to find what they consider to be the best of [what is] local.”

According to information posted online by the Shops at Stonefield, Pasture’s neighbors at the shopping center at U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road (beside the Sperry Marine property) will include Café Caturra (another restaurant with roots in the Richmond area), Travinia Italian Kitchen, Trader Joe’s, a multiplex movie theater, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Blue Ridge Mountain Sports.  

“We were thrilled to be included,” Jones says. “They thought Pasture would be a really good fit” with its small-plates format. “They like our lunch menu and the design.”

Pasture partner Jason Alley will be the executive chef for both locations, and Jones will serve as general manager. She says that they have hired a chef who will be based at the Charlottesville branch, which is set to open Dec. 15, but she could not release his name yet. The design will be similar, and about 75 percent of the menu will be the same in both places, allowing for some local variation in dishes, Jones says.

Meanwhile, Richmond’s Pasture is looking for a replacement for chef de cuisine Joe Sparatta, who is leaving to open Heritage, a restaurant planned to replace Six Burner in October. Jones says that Thomas Arrington, Pasture's morning sous chef, has been helping out at night and will move into more of a management position.

“I just hired someone today who will be helping us with the front-of-house management,” adds Jones, who will divide her time between Richmond and Charlottesville. That front-of-house helper is Courtney Bujakowski, who recently moved back to town after working with chef/restaurateur John Besh in New Orleans, Jones says. “I think that will be really good for us out front. ... We’re really excited.”