I have seen the future of the Hampton Roads dining experience,

Got to love grits. Got to.

and here’s what I can tell you:

1. It is going to be young.

2. It is going to be green (environmentally speaking, though there will also be cilantro).

3. It is going to give you legal cause to physically restrain someone from ever entering a Chili’s or Applebees again.

4. It will be covered in grits (or at least served with a side of black tar-grade bread pudding).

I spent two and a half glorious hours last night at WHRO’s “A Strolling Supper Party” at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. I was served by 25 of the most innovative, forward-thinking, exciting chefs in Hampton Roads. I ate large amounts at an embarrassing speed. I tasted some of the best dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of introducing to my mouth.

The first few places I tried were so.damn.good that I even broke my vegetarianism (which I never do) to try some of the seafood dishes. (The meat I resisted.)

And let me tell you, my friends: When I woke up this morning a few pounds heavier, my skin glowing with essential fish oils, I experienced no pangs of regret.

***

Second St.'s Meredith Cheney.

The first mind-blowing dish was from Second St. out in Williamsburg, with their “Low Country Latte.” It was made of Cajun seared shrimp with creamy smoked ground stone grits. I’m not a proper food writer by any stretch of the imagination–I’m more of an Everyman Eater, you might say–so please excuse my lack of technical knowledge about the dishes. I know when something is good, and when it is good I want to eat it over and over and over. The Low Country Latte is good, and worth eating copious amounts of.

I ran into Jan Johnson, WHRO’s manager of donor relations, and the person who imagined and executed the event.

“I’m doing Weight Watchers, so this is not good,” she said with a smile. She told me how she’s already lost 40 pounds (she looked great, so I don’t imagine she has many more pounds to go). She vowed to put on none last night.

“I’m doing hot yoga, I’m hitting the elliptical,” she said. I had more questions to ask her, but there was some serious high-end grazing just sitting there, waiting for us, so we cut it short and dug back in.

After my second feeding of the day–in which I rediscovered Still’s sublime bread pudding–I talked to Leon Buenviaje from Smithfield Gourmet Bakery and Cafe.

“It still has room to grow,” he said of the local food scene. “There’s not a lot of soul. It’s the economy. Everyone is trying to buckle down, not make any mistakes, taking short cuts.”

He talked about the stars of the Hampton Roads scene, like Sonoma Wine Bar, Sushi Aka, and Zoe’s. Buenviae is like a lot of people in this area. He came here as a Navy brat, but a stopover ended up becoming much more. “Found a wife, had a couple kids,” he said. “This is home now.”

My kind of stepping stone drug.

Home. It’s one of my favorite words. Home isn’t just a building, or a city, or a region. Home is a feeling you get when you’re somewhere or you’re doing something that just feels right. And that’s what kills me about the chain restaurants of the world. They make all of their thousands of restaurants as similar as possible. They use the same menus, the same ingredients. They even use the same God-awful “flairs” on their vests. With this same-as-it-ever-was presentation, they tap into the part of our hearts that desires consistency and reliability. We go back because we know what we’re gonna get, right? But the thing is, that part of our heart that wants safety is not the brave part. It is not the beautiful part. It is not the part of our hearts from which we sing, from which we create art, from which we make love. In fact, the part of our hearts that loves security is the most insecure part, the one least to be trusted.

Applebees doesn’t feel like home, even if your ass feels comfortable on the padded pleather as you wolf down starchy, banal food. It is a trick of the senses, a trick of the mind.

***

Richard Boone, chef at Sonoma Wine Bar in Town Center, was one of a number of local chefs I spoke to who had real vision for Hampton Roads’ dining future.

“I want to take Hampton Roads to a different level,” he said, “while at the same time not making people feel uncomfortable.”

He said that a lot of people in the area might be uneducated when it comes to food, but that’s not their fault.

“Our job is to educate them,” he said. “At farmers’ markets, educate them with different types of products, but give them a price where they don’t feel like they’re getting ripped off.”

Tom Sola's she crab soup was so good I wanted to hug him.

Another person who seemed to get it was Tom Sola, owner of Lucky Oyster Seafood Grill on General Booth.

“They all go for consistent mediocrity,” he said of the chain restaurants. He should know; he came up in the business through Chili’s. “But it’s consistent. They have four to five percent of their multi-billion dollar budgets go to advertising. They can create the perception that it’s an above average product.”

Which brings us back to the familiarity issue. So many of our neighbors here in Hampton Roads are either military, grew up military, or are at least heavily influenced by a transient military culture that teaches you that home is where the rucksack is. When you travel or move around a lot, you lose the energy to discover new, local places. You start to forget that allowing roots to grow in the local community is a virtuous thing, and well worth the efforts. You start saying, Screw it, I’m just gonna stick with what’s easiest.

And the chains–with all their damn jingles and consistency and advertising and signs so omnipresent that if you’re into design you know exactly what font they use–will always be easiest.

***

The buzz words floating around the chefs and owners I spoke to were local, sustainable, fresh. It was interesting that, in this economy, there was little talk about making their food more affordable. Frankly, I found this inspiring. Rather than devise ways to water their food down in order to cut costs, I got the sense that chefs are thinking almost the opposite way: they’re imagining ways to make their food even more innovative. In a culture that rather nakedly rejects originality as a comfortable status quo, they are struggling even harder to find their individual voices.

Food = Art.

I saw a lot of grits and rockfish; two elements that, I think, should be staples of our semi-Southern aesthetic.

“Everybody’s trying to get their menu fresh, local, and environmentally friendly,” said Frank Lang, chef at Shula’s 347 Grill.

Lang sounded disappointed when he insinuated that he couldn’t get his beef from closer than 200 miles away. It’s easier with seafood. Over at Waterman’s Surfside Grille in VB, they’re already 80% sustainable. At Croc’s Eco Bistro they encourage diners to be conscious about their food. They sponsor a regular Green Drinks event, and help educate other restaurants about sustainable restaurant practices.

Local food critic Patrick Evans-Hylton said that for Hampton Roads to take its dining culture to the next level, it takes good values, rather than new gimmicks.

“Some of this… must come from true support of local restaurants which offer food prepared honestly and passionately, served with true hospitality and which holds true to our area resources,” he said.

The event left me in a food coma that made it probably unsafe for me to drive my bike home. It also left me inspired. I love it when I love things here. I love it when food feels like home. And last night I was able to enjoy that feeling over and over and (sloppily) over.

Check out Hampton Roads Magazine‘s annual food issue for more detailed information about the restaurants, award winners, and dishes. Full disclosure: Jesse is a locavore to a degree that some might label him as part of a fringe element of society.