The story below is from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
The Vault at Liberty Trust dishes out casual elegance and funky vibes in a local historic landmark.
John Park
When a chef tells you that a dish’s origin involves a secret recipe, a DJ and a competition, you sit up and take notes. Most of Andy Schlosser’s stories begin like that. No wonder then that one of Roanoke’s pioneering fine dining chefs is tapping the full range of his experiences to write his next chapter. With The Vault, which opened last October inside the lobby of The Liberty Trust Hotel downtown, Schlosser fuses his eclectic tastes, top-notch cooking, and passion for music to create a modern take on fine dining inside a historic landmark.
Schlosser made his mark with Metro, a multi-hyphenate joint that was a white tablecloth restaurant, night club and sushi bar. When it opened in 2002, Schlosser’s intention was to bring the big city to Roanoke by creating a modern menu inspired by his travels and underscored by well executed, technical cooking. Part of his ambition was also to showcase his talents as a career DJ, so he built out the sound system, installed DJ booths, and hosted collaborators. He had a great run, but after 15 years, Schlosser had no intention of returning to restaurants—he’d been there, done that. But the Liberty Trust Hotel offered the potential to try something different.
John Park
“I didn’t want this place to be about me. Metro definitely became about me and my art as a chef,” Schlosser says. “I really wanted this to be about the place itself and for me to almost have a back seat to it. I want to showcase this beautiful place and what it represents.”
The hotel is named after the Liberty Trust Company, which moved into the building in 1926, after first operating as the First National Bank. Fairfax-based Savara Hospitality purchased the building in 2018, working with local historical preservationists from Hill Studio to uphold its status on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Virginia Historic Landmark. The integrity of the lobby layout was maintained along with key features such as the marble floors and the marble bases that were once old bank teller stations but which now partition seating nooks in the loungey side of the lobby. Richmond-based design firm Glavé & Holmes selected a color palate of yellow, pink and green to echo the various shades of marble and play off the banking elements. Plush velvet high wingback chairs and love seats in cool pinks contrast with the gleaming bronze and warm copper tones of the stately vault door, while the bar’s emerald-tiled backsplash calls to mind gold bricks.
John Park
By virtue of the restaurant being in the lobby of a hotel, the initial soft branding for the food concept was “for the love of travel.” It’s one that Schlosser embodies personally and in his cooking. “My way of discovering the world has been by recreating cuisine as best and authentically as I can, to experience it without going to those places. It’s a talent and passion of mine and something I’m obsessed with.”
To feed that obsession, Schlosser researches and tests a dish exhaustively before it lands on the menu. There’s the dashi, a Japanese stock he perfected at Metro, which boasts a tea-like clarity and accompanies a spring-ready dish of chilled buckwheat soba noodles with accompaniments such as shaved daikon, julienned kizami nori (seaweed), umeboshi (pickled, salted plum), wasabi and Japanese pickles (which I could eat a whole plate of). It’s designed to be an interactive dish; as diners add seasonings to the broth to develop its flavors, and as the noodles soak in the broth, the flavors get more intense. Another example of Schlosser’s devotion is the khachapuri, which became a signature dish at Metro. He was inspired to recreate it after a DJ friend challenged him to recreate the version he’d tasted at a friend’s Eastern European restaurant in D.C. The Georgian dish features an oblong bread boat filled with warm sulguni cheese, a runny yolk, butter and spices that’s mixed to create a melty dip. Schlosser rose to the challenge and recreated it by making his own cheese, blending feta and ricotta curds to strike the right tartness, and developing a recipe for lepinja, the fluffy flatbread. Tableside, a server mixes the cheese, a local farm egg yolk, European cultured butter and a proprietary spice blend anchored by everything bagel seasoning. Diners are invited to “rip-and-dip,” as maître d’ Dexter Hall puts it. It eats like a gourmet fondue and makes for a fun, interactive meal opener, particularly if you’re dining with a group. It’s best enjoyed on the spot, but our server promised it’d reheat like pizza in an air fryer or oven.
John Park
“I kind of feel like a pied piper in a way. I really do enjoy pushing things on people and getting the success of seeing the smile and excitement of someone trying it,” Schlosser says. “I wanted to travel through food and that’s what I’ve done and that’s how I experience the world. That’s what I’d like to bring people.”
Schlosser also pushes the limits when it comes to ingredient sourcing. He plans to work with a local farmer to grow bamboo and pea shoots to make bamboo rice, a traditional springtime dish in Japan. To celebrate the seasonal bounty of our region, he’ll source local ramps and morels as well as soft-shell crabs from Chesapeake. In a time when ingredients are more costly than ever, Schlosser also looks for delicious products that not only offer an approachable price point, but also ones that test his creative bounds, which are further challenged by the absence of a vent hood in the kitchen. The results are deeply flavorful proteins, like lamb neck cooked low and slow in a black BBQ sauce or the perennially popular sous-vide brisket, served with bread, barbecue sauce, coleslaw kimchi and horseradish crème fraîche. (I’m not sure about repeating the experience of assembling a brisket sandwich in the lobby of a posh hotel, but the leftovers were killer.) Don’t sleep on the grouper curry, featuring succulent medallions of fish cheeks in a heady, aromatic tikka masala sauce.
“Post-COVID, restaurants have changed and chefs like myself want to do something different. This is the way to do it. It allows me to constantly explore, change as the seasons go.”
John Park
The notion of fluidity is something that extends to the space and vibe, too. Schlosser chalks this up to a post-COVID trend that he dubs “casual elegance.” He believes there will always be room for white tablecloth restaurants and steakhouses, but that the experience of fine dining can present in different ways. At The Vault, that is encouraged by various seating arrangements, including communal high-tops, intimate two tops, and the lobby groupings of plush couches and chairs, which Schlosser describes as like “dining in your rich friend’s living room.” Two-tops can quickly get crowded with plates, but the staff is swift to bring a side table to accommodate more dishes. You can also reserve the Vault room, the building’s original vault (complete with Instagrammable door) which doubles as a tasting room with 32 total wines by the glass poured from a unique dispensing system.
The bar is one of the main draws, and I’d argue that bar dining never had it so good in Roanoke. Pull up one of the sleek faux leather stools to the polished marble top bar and start with a drink. From the craft cocktail menu, overseen by bar manager Nexus Watts, try the Clover Club, a gin-based tipple with fresh raspberry and lemon and a frothy egg white cap, or the Golden Fizz, which mingles vodka, orange, vanilla and amaro and drinks like a boozy orange creamsicle. There are also local craft beers and a wine list, all of which are available as six-ounce pours or by the bottle. Pair your beverage with a small plate or two, perhaps a plate of thinly sliced jamon, which includes imported cured hams and a local one from Etzler Country Hams that has saltiness and funk in spades. You could easily create your own four-course, globe-trotting tasting menu, say with Hamachi crudo, a raw fish preparation punched up here with curry oil, yuzu and jalapeno; steamed bao, pillowy buns stuffed with chashu pork belly; albondigas, a beef meatball dish inspired by a northern Mexican soup; and takoyaki, Japanese octopus and cheese balls.
John Park
Regardless of where you sit and what you order, and no matter how fancy the place presents, Schlosser says “underlying that should always be sense of quality and service, all the way to the music.” There are no flat screen TVs at the bar for the music to compete with, but it might be a little louder than you’re used to. Schlosser believes that’s part of building a new experience, but not the kind where the lobby turns into a night club, either. The evening is scored progressively to match the mood and the hour. It typically kicks off with jazz, then slides into French and European hip hop and bossa nova, before moving to a deeper down tempo for dinner and finishing with chill house music. The lighting changes as the night progresses too, which can sometimes feel disorienting. Between the tunes and the purplish-blue lighting, the vibe can sometimes alternate between a European disco and an episode of The White Lotus.
Overall, between the eclectic global menu, the funky soundtrack and stunning space, Schlosser is making good on his intentions to usher in a new era of fine dining in downtown Roanoke.
The story above is from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!