Seasons South of the James

	Seasons South of the James Address: 5000 Commonwealth Centre Parkway, Midlothian Phone: 739-5000 Hours: Monday-Saturday, 11 to 11, Sunday, 10 to 9 (brunch, 10-1:30) Prices: $$$

Owner Terri Gauman got the idea for this funky, family-friendly restaurant because of a long line and slow service at a favorite restaurant in the West End that caused her and her husband to miss a movie. Instead, they went to a nearby Barnes & Noble and bought three books on how to start a restaurant, one that wasn’t a 45-minute drive from their restaurant-deprived area of Chesterfield County.

That night at home, Terri and David settled in bed and started reading, trading books along the way. Before long, the idea for Seasons was born, with the name emphasizing its location and the dream that if all went well, someday there also might be a Seasons north of the James too. (The Seasons Restaurant that is opening at the Short Pump Town Center is a branch of a Williamsburg restaurant, and unrelated to the Gaumans’ place.)

At the start, all went well. Terri found a shell building in a new strip mall in the Commonwealth Centre, across Hull Street Road from the entrance to Brandermill, and David, who is a commercial contractor who had built several restaurants, completed the interior.

The funkiness began when Terri found a huge chandelier from India at the sprawling Green Front Furniture Store in Farmville. It is festooned with monkeys, giraffes, tigers and elephants climbing around in a palm tree, which is illuminated by a dozen palm-shaped lamp shades. With that, the décor was set. At a restaurant trade show in Chicago, Terri found monkey lamps for the tables, and soon there were palm trees, primates, and replicas of pelts everywhere, including some etched into the windows, upholstered in the chairs and framed in posters in the rest rooms.

Seasons opened in June of 2002 and it caught on. Business was good—Terri now thinks of that summer as the honeymoon period—but then at the start of this year, once a month, a new chain restaurant opened nearby. Suddenly the area was no longer starved for places to eat, and business fell off. What makes the situation even worse, the restaurant that is hurting Seasons the most is a Cracker Barrel, which Terri’s three children love.

Terri, who had no previous experience in business but loves to cook and entertain, now realizes her expectations were unrealistic. She thought she would be able to hire good help, continue to be a stay-at-home mom during the day and help out in the restaurant at night. 

All of this could turn out to be a Cinderella story, if the food were great. But it’s just OK, though it may get better with the recent hiring of Ryan Walsh, a young chef. 

The menu is, like the 250-seat restaurant itself, large and ambitious—seafood, steaks, chicken, pasta and sandwiches--perhaps too much so.

A twin crab cake sandwich ($12) was properly pan-seared and distinguished from the ordinary by a cucumber lime sauce, and a special appetizer of blackened scallops ($7) was nicely crusted and very spicy.

But a catch-of-the-day rockfish ($15) was dry and overcooked, and lacking in the advertised lemon-butter sauce and Old Bay seasoning. 

Plenty of Old Bay found its way onto spiced shrimp ($16 a pound, $8 a half), which was good; what was not good was the failure of our young waitress—most of the staff looks too young to serve a drink—to bring extra napkins for the good but messy offering.

A chef salad ($10) and a Caesar salad ($6) were both ample and full of variety.

Likewise, a bacon cheeseburger ($10) was plump and juicy, and accompanied by a pasta salad.

Seasons is perfectly suited to bring the whole family. The booths are spacious, each sitting half a dozen adults comfortably, and the jungle theme provides a nice distraction for little ones.

Wednesday is family night, with three-course children’s meals—entrees choices of popcorn chicken or shrimp, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese and hot dog--plus drink and dessert, normally $7, offered at half price. Tuesday night burgers are half price.

At the all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch ($15 for adults, $8 for children) Seasons will donate 10 percent of the check to the church of your choice.

So the next time you are in church, you may want to pray that Terri’s dream come true.

This review first appeared in Style Weekly.