By Sarah Golibart Gorman, contributor
Foodie Q&A is a series showcasing the Harrisonburg food community. Food enthusiast and storyteller Sarah Golibart Gorman interviews food and drink makers behind the Friendly City food scene. You’ll read about their origins, creative processes, aspirations, and go-to spots in town. Fresh articles drop the second Tuesday of each month from June 2024 to June 2025.
This month Gorman sat down with Levi Ryman, artist, skater, and the only employee at Bowl of Good with a bowl named in his honor.
Gorman: Can you tell me where you grew up and about the food you grew up eating?
Ryman: I was adopted from Texas as a baby, but I grew up in Broadway and Luray. When my grandparents picked me up from the airport, they met my adoptive parents at the Olive Garden. So I always tell everyone that I was born at Olive Garden. We ate very normal foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, baked macaroni and cheese, and green rice with parsley and melted cheese on top. It’s a very comforting thing. Even when I go visit my mom now she makes it every time. So very normal food.
Gorman: When did you begin working with food? Who taught you?
Ryman: I didn’t start working in food until 2016, when I started at Bowl of Good. This was my first job that wasn’t working with my dad. He did hardwood floors, we’d sand, refinish, and install floors. It was the only thing I knew how to do. In 2014, my dad passed and I moved in with some friends a few blocks from Bowl of Good. I ran my dad’s business until 2016 until I couldn’t anymore. I didn’t have a license, so I had to find another job that was within walking distance. I started at Bowl of Good and loved it and I haven’t really looked back. I love the community aspect and hospitality. The people I work with every day are some of my favorite people in the world. I wouldn’t trade this for the world. The people I work with are so cool.
In September we did a fundraiser for Sudan and everyone showed up 20 minutes before they needed to be here. Everybody was here and excited. I looked at my GM the next day and said, “You know that that’s not normal. People don’t show up to work this excited.” We had three bowls, one was a Sudanese bowl with beef, eggplant, and cucumber salad over rice drizzled with peanut sauce. And two of our regular bowls. All the money went towards the crisis in Sudan. We raised around $9,000.
Gorman: What’s kept you in Harrisonburg?
Ryman: I love all the people here. I love the music, art, food, everything. You can drive 45 minutes in any direction and go to the top of the mountains, you can go to a small town, like all of it’s so cool. I moved to New York City for a year and I just couldn’t stop thinking about Harrisonburg. I felt like I needed to go somewhere new, and I’m glad I feed that need, but I was so happy to come back.
Living in New York helped me learn more about food. I worked at a pizza shop and a bagel shop – I wanted to go as New York as I possibly could. The speed is nothing compared to most restaurants in Harrisonburg. It’s just so busy all the time. It was cool to see how fast you can make food, serving thousands of people.
Gorman: Can you share about the places you worked before Bowl of Good and the lessons you learned that help you in your current position?
Ryman: Definitely handling stress. At the bagel shop, a coworker said even if it gets super busy, you need to stay calm because anything you do is going to make it take longer. Everything will get done when it gets done.
I also work at Wonder selling skateboards, records, and musical instruments. I don’t really know anything about instruments, but I’ve given kids their first skateboard. They come in for their birthday that they’re so excited to put their board together.
Gorman: When did you start skating?
Ryman: I’ve skated all my life. I skate whenever I have free time, and I don’t have a ton of free time because I go straight from Bowl of Good to Wonder every day and then seven o’clock arrives and I’m exhausted. I like to go on trips on long weekends, or if there’s a video premier, we’ll go to that as a unit.
Gorman: What’s your favorite Bowl of Good menu item?
Ryman: My favorite is the Bangkok Bowl with tofu. I love the peanut sauce. The breakfast bowls are my specialty because that’s when I’m here every day. We have a really good breakfast burrito. I have a bowl that’s called Levi’s Good Morning Bowl with rice, sesame oil, green onions, cilantro, and cheesy eggs and salsa. You can add avocado, sausage, tofu, or ham. I think the only other person who has a bowl named after them is the old owner’s husband.
My favorite dessert is the white chocolate cranberry cookie, especially when they’re fresh out of the oven. They taste like Christmas.
Gorman: You’re also an artist. Can you share about your medium and your creative process?
Ryman: My medium is acrylic, spray paint, and paint markers on wood or canvas. I put my headphones on and create in my apartment that I’ve pretty much fully turned into a studio. I don’t really like working with other people. I definitely want to be alone while I’m working.
How it all started was I went to buy Airheads at the dollar store in New York. It was Christmas Eve and I had $15. I realized that I could buy paint supplies, so I did. Once I moved back to Harrisonburg, my pieces began getting bigger and bigger. My apartment is full of far too many of my paintings.
My style is whatever I’m thinking about at the time. It’s always easier to process what’s going on in my head through art. Most of the work you can see on my website right now is very politically driven because it was done during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
I like to paint in weird motions and mix colors and scrape or add plaster. It’s a very therapeutic thing. I’m currently working on a new batch of work, but it will be a while until I have another gallery show.
Gorman: What aspirations do you have for the future? What’s next for you in your journey with food, skating, and art?
Ryman: With food, I want to continue my work with Bowl of Good. I help with a lot of the specials here and catering. I’d like to do more with our chef, Mari. Maybe planning dinners. I want to be more hands on with food. When I’m home, I watch food videos all the time, but I don’t make food at home. I make food at work. I buy food otherwise.
With skating, I’ll just keep skating. I’ll always do that. And art, I’d like to have some mixed media shows next year.
Gorman: What are some of your go-to spots in town to eat? To drink?
Ryman: Vietopia, hands down favorite place. Their vegetarian pho is my favorite thing. The mushroom broth is so delicious. For drinks, definitely The Golden Pony, you can find me there most of the time. I love Staff of Life’s bread. Every Friday I’ve been going to the co-op to get a baguette and then I’ll make a giant sandwich and share it with a friend, usually Jesse from Wonder. That’s a fun Friday tradition.
Gorman: Who would you love to serve at Bowl of Good?
Ryman: Matty Healy, the singer of The 1975. It’s my favorite band in the whole world. They’ve been my favorite band on Spotify for like, the past five years, and they probably will be this year too.
Stay up to date about specials at A Bowl of Good here. Check out Levi’s art, skate, and food adventures on Instagram or his website. Visit A Bowl of Good at 831 Mt Clinton Pike in Harrisonburg.
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