The Mill at Ten: Always Evolving

by Charles McGuigan 04.2021

Last March, when the pandemic began shutting down the economy, local restaurant owners had to restructure the way they do business. On March 18, Amy Foxworthy, one of the owners and founders of one of Northside’s most popular eateries, locked the door at The Mill on MacArthur.

 “We didn’t reopen until the end of May,” Amy told me last June.  They used that time to do a deep-clean along with repairs.  “We did this partly so we could stay active, and also so that a few folks who were struggling to get any kind of unemployment could make a little bit of money in the interim until we were able to reopen,” said Amy last spring.

It was during that period too, that Amy, along with her business partners and staff, reconfigured the way The Mill operates. “We went ahead and switched up our point-of-sales system to allow for an online ordering platform so that folks could do curbside pickup, and order and pay online instead of coming in,” Amy had said. “It’s lovely that people are excited about what we’re doing. It’s still all very hopeful.”

A little under a year later, I’m sitting at a respectful social distance with Amy at The Mill’s bar. It’s about 10:30 in the morning, and Amy is on the move from the front of the house to the back of the house. They’re putting together a large order, and she’s making sure everything’s packaged just right.  

With a final run to the kitchen, Amy returns with four large paper bags filled with 24 meals. The patron, who has waited patiently with her mask on, goes through a check list to account for all 24 lunches. Once that’s done, Amy returns to the bar, and begins at the beginning, after I mention The Mill’s anniversary.

“Ten years ago,” she says. “I can’t believe it. It was me, Josh Carlton, and Chip Zimmerman, and we’re all still partners.”

At that time, Josh and Chip were co-owners of Mojo’s Philadeli, and Josh, who lived in the Northside, thought a restaurant in Bellevue would do well.  Amy joined the duo, and they pooled their resources to open The Mill.

“We wanted to be family-friendly, that was key,” Amy tells me. “We both had young children at the time, and we wanted to create a place where you could go out and dine with your family. We also wanted to keep it neighborhood-friendly.  We thought that we could do something that complemented our restaurant business neighbors.” At the time, the only other restaurants on MacArthur Avenue were Dot’s Back Inn, Zorba’s and the now-defunct Tastebuds.  “Now we have even more restaurant neighbors who are killing it and doing a great job, like Demi’s and Mi Jalisco and Stir Crazy,“And everyone has their own vibe and their own niche, and that’s kind of what it was about from the beginning.”

From the start, The Mill distinguished itself as a restaurant with an abundance of locally sourced food, along with a menu that appealed to a variety of palates and dietary needs.  “We added a lot of vegetarian dishes to the menu,” Josh had told me a decade ago. And Amy had said, during that same interview, “As soon as we opened, the trend toward gluten-free started so we’ve tried to adapt.”

The Mill still uses a lot of locally sourced products, and it’s become less challenging to find the appropriate providers. “Over the years we’ve seen more and more people starting businesses that cater to restaurants which make it easier and easier to source local things without even having to even think about it,” says Amy.  “Even the big food providers like US Foods and Performance Food Group provide a lot of local stuff because it makes sense to them—less transportation costs. So it’s way easier across the board.”

When they initially opened, the dining room was secondary. “We really thought we were just going to be a pickup joint with delivery,” Amy remembers. “Then we found out very quickly, within the course of a couple of years, that people just wanted to come in and hang out and dine in.  It’s a cozy little space that people seem to appreciate, which unfortunately hinders us right now.”

Later this spring, if all goes well, diners will again be able to eat in that “cozy” setting. “We’re hopeful that by mid-May we will have some indoor seating,” says Amy. “That’s why we’re slowly starting to ratchet it up. Our biggest problem is that we could only really seat three to four tables based on the social distancing guidelines. Regardless, we’re hoping to do half capacity by mid-May.”

In the interim, they continue with curbside pickup and delivery only. “For delivery we partner with Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Chop Chop, which is local to RVA,” Amy says. “We do a lot of catering as well. We do a box lunch program which we will deliver ourselves as part of that service because it’s a pre-order so we can schedule that ahead of time.”

Despite the struggles of the past year, there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. “Business is starting to pick back up again, which is lovely,” says Amy. “And throughout the pandemic we have had loyal customers.”

Like other restaurant owners throughout the city, Amy is interested in applying for a “parklet” outside The Mill, which would allow for more outdoor dining. “I would absolutely love some more seating outside,” she says. “We’re very limited with our sidewalk space, and just being considerate neighbors we can’t take over the entire sidewalk, so the idea of the parklet is very exciting for the entire street.”

Since its birth, The Mill’s menu has changed somewhat. “There are definitely things that have come and gone,” says Amy. “But the Heartland Grilled Cheese is still here, the Bellevue BLT is still here as well as the Mill Burger. There are a number of things that have been here since the beginning including the Northside club, and we’ve definitely evolved with our gluten-free and vegan options.”

Having been a fan of The Mill since it first opened, our family has always loved their food from one visit to the next, and their service is always impeccable. “We try to keep it all consistent,” says Amy. 

She considers her staff, some of whom have been with The Mill for years. “We have Carrie Bell, who has been with us since the beginning, and a number of folks in the kitchen who have been with us for six-plus years,” she says. “Unfortunately, this year we did lose a few people to moving away or moving on to other jobs. I think that happened to a lot of restaurants during the pandemic.”

Amy is a realist, and she wants customers to understand that The Mill will reopen, but things will be slightly different.

“My fear is that people are going to want The Mill from 2019, and it just doesn’t exist in the same way anymore,” she says. “I know that people are expecting for us to go right back to what we used to be, and it’s just not going to be exactly the same.”

As pragmatic as she is, Amy is also optimistic. Change is ultimately a good thing, as hard as it might be to adapt to at first.  

“This year has definitely changed us and everyone else to a certain extent,” Amy says. “It made us reevaluate everything. It made us find better systems, find ways to simplify and to move forward.”

She considers her own words, reflects on the history of this exceptional restaurant on MacArthur Avenue that she and Chip and Josh dreamed up and gave substance to a decade ago. 

“It’s definitely an evolution and has been since the day we first opened,” says Amy Foxworthy. “You’ve got to look at it all as growth.”