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 Rachel FitzGerald, Magpie Diner’s executive chef, to discuss how she balances food and music. Alongside her sister, FitzGerald plays guitar and sings in their band, Spectator Bird. FitzGerald also shares her love of literature and writing, two pursuits she enjoys when she’s not in her chef’s coat or holding a guitar.
Gorman: Can you tell me where you grew up and about the food you grew up eating?
FitzGerald: I grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia. I didn’t grow up in a very strong food culture, other than having dinner with my family every night. My early food memories are around the table with people I loved. We always had these plastic placemats with a map of the United States and games on them. We’d have spaghetti on Wednesday nights, sometimes roast duck on Sundays. For a stretch of time, we tried to do a roast on Sunday afternoons. We’d go out to eat one a year and it would be so exciting. We’d choose an appetizer and our own meal and desserts. Our go-to was something vague and 90’s like “City Grill” or something—it doesn’t exist anymore. But I loved it because I could order creme brulee and French onion soup. I was so curious and tried making those dishes at home using cookbooks from the library. I was in 4th grade or something and did not master the broiler. I botched the creme brulee, but the French onion soup was ok. I’ve always loved flavor and delicious food.
Gorman: When did you begin cooking and who taught you?
FitzGerald: There are lots of snapshots of memories. My great-aunt Tammy had a cookbook wall in her tiny little North Carolina cottage. I had to start cooking for people when I was a nanny right out of high school. I decided to take a year off and the family that I was nannying for up in New York really enjoyed good food. But the parents would eat separately from the children, so they expected me to cook different meals.
I worked on a farm up in Maine in grad school. And for a long time I thought I wanted to focus on farming. But wow, it was backbreaking work. And I didn’t want to sell the vegetables, I wanted to keep them and chop them for myself.
Gorman: What brought you to Harrisonburg and what’s kept you here?
FitzGerald: My family moved here when I was around 16 because my older sister started going to JMU and they reconnected with old friends back here in the comings and goings of visiting my sister at school. So, I lived here from 16 to 18, moved away for about a decade. I lived in Richmond and Nashville and every time I came back home, I realized that there was really something special here. I just wanted to get away when I was a teenager, but then every time I came back there were better restaurants popping up, there were people I wanted to spend more time with moving here, I was discovering more hikes and the aspect of living in a verdant valley. After my last grandparent moved away everyone was in a different time zone—my younger sister was in Morocco, my parents were here, my older sister was in Denver—it was so hard to get together. We’re a family who loves each other and loves to be near each other and we’re making it really difficult. I decided to make the jump and moved back here to Spring Creek, which was a great reintroduction. Once Magpie opened I decided to get a spot in town.
Gorman: Can you share about some of the places you worked before Magpie and the lessons you learned?
FitzGerald: My first food job was scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins near Colonial Williamsburg when I was 15. And I learned I’m not the tidiest person. I would come out of my shift just covered in ice cream. I worked at Clementine as a hostess when it first opened and realized that I love the ballet of a restaurant, but I was not a front of house personality. I get shy around strangers. I was a server at Southside Diner when I’d come from school breaks. It’s not there anymore, but it was a truck stop off 11. It’s Joe’s Grill and Griddle now. That was my first diner experience and once again, I realized that I just wanted to hide back in the kitchen.
In college I worked more back of house jobs. Can Can Brasserie in Richmond was my first taste of more hands on breakfast, brunch, and coffee. I worked at a high volume cafe in Nashville when I moved to Tennessee and couldn’t get a teaching job right away. It was the first time I realized, as an adult, how much fun it was to work alongside people. It’s what I loved about teaching as well, the controlled chaos of the classroom. While in Nashville, I bartended at the Ryman—I just wanted to see lots of music and that was the easiest way to do it.
When I moved back to Virginia, I couldn’t get a cooking job I wanted, so I got back into education a little bit and started my own music supper series out in Spring Creek at the town hall. That was the first time I did anything myself and looking back I’m surprised I had the audacity to do it.
Gorman: What were those supper series like?
FitzGerald: You walk into the room and it feels like you’re inside a violin. It’s wood paneled, and was built in the 1800’s. I would serve 30-50, 75 maybe, tickets sold and I’d serve dinner family style at about eight tables. I’d serve cozy food that I loved depending on the season. I tried to pair musicians and food, my two favorite things together. It put me in contact with a lot of different people and opportunities. That’s how I met Kirsten Moore, the owner of Magpie. In 2019 she walked me through Big L Tire, the building that is now Magpie, and told me her vision and that she wanted me to lead the kitchen. And from there, it’s been a blur.
Gorman: You’re a musician yourself. You and your sister founded the band Spectator Bird. What’s it like to balance work and music?
FitzGerald: It just makes life rich. I don’t have to stress about being as creative as possible in my work. I can just kind of let that flow because I can be creative with music. And I don’t have to stress too much about making money from music because I have a full time job. It’s a nice balance, but it’s still a lot.
Gorman: How did your band get started?
FitzGerald: It was born out of the Spring Creek supper series. My sister Lindsey and I grew up loving music and we started playing and writing together, you know late teenage-hood—hanging out on the kitchen floor with a guitar or a very small group of friends around a bonfire. We hosted lots of musicians for the supper series and one night, circled up after the show to play. Some friends coerced us to play an original song and the visiting musicians were like, “Ok, when are you coming to play in our town?” A few months later, we went to visit them in Thomas, West Virginia. We were on the way and our friend texted us saying, “By the way, we stayed up all night building you a stage at one of our galleries. I already wrote up your whole music bio. What’s your band name to put on the marquee?” We had an hour and half drive to figure it out. And we landed on Spectator Bird because we loved the book by Wallace Stegner.
Gorman: Can you share about your creative process when you’re developing menus and recipes?
FitzGerald: My creativity is definitely driven by the constraints of a place. Constraints are a blessing, they’re so necessary for creativity. Because if you just ask someone to come up with the most delicious thing they can imagine, it’s overwhelming. I think about the balance of a dish and then I think about the balance of a menu. I try to not have too many overlapping flavors. My mom always talked about the idea of if you put a dog in a backyard and there’s no fence, they’ll just kind of stay in the same place and not wander too far from their owner. But if you have a fence, they’ll explore and sniff all around the boundaries. That’s kind of how I see planning a dish.
The Magpie menu changes every weekend. We always have the same foundational elements, like the southern and green poutines, a biscuit sandwich that changes weekly, a vegetarian frittata that changes weekly, a sweet waffle that changes weekly. We try to have the same couple of items that make it as delicious and easy as possible to serve a high volume of people. We can have 450 covers on a weekend day. That’s a lot of food.
Gorman: What’s a typical brunch like in the kitchen at Magpie?
FitzGerald: Our bakers arrive the earliest, they turn the lights on. Then one person rolls in and starts making the gravy. They go through the horseshoe of turning on all the equipment, brewing the coffee, turning the music on. The rest of the opening crew arrives at eight o’clock. It’s like an orchestra tuning up. At first, people are quiet and bleary eyed and trying to wake up. We find moments to scarf down some toast and eggs and drink a cup of coffee. And then customers start to line up, in the rain and the snow, people are so dedicated. Not taking reservations adds to the allure of the line. The line snakes down the sidewalk and the anticipation builds until the doors open and the host starts absolutely hustling people to their tables. So we go from a completely empty restaurant to completely full restaurant, which is a cruel and unusual punishment in the restaurant industry. But we have a phenomenal crew, they’re like athletes. It takes about five minutes before the first food ticket prints. We don’t use computers in the back because I feel like that limits communication and camaraderie. Once that starts, you’re off to the races and it’s suddenly 2pm and you’ve fed 400 people.
Gorman: What aspirations do you have for the future? What’s next for you in your food journey?
FitzGerald: Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and help my team change the menu. I’ll sit down with my laptop and start dreaming about our summer menu and all ways we can use local tomatoes. I love food and I love thinking about it. I have a background in literature and I’ve always loved writing. I’m moving forward into writing more. Lindsey and I have been engaging in a writing practice as a part of our Spectator Bird Patreon, posting essays for subscribers. I’ll keep writing and cooking and growing and learning, and feeding people I love.
Gorman: What are some of your go-to spots in town to eat or drink?
FitzGerald: I love getting a Toronto at the bar at Cuban Burger, wings at the Chop House. The Pony’s wings with Stay Gold sauce. I love the Reuben or Rachel from Lola’s. I really don’t eat out that much, I love to cook at home.
Gorman: Who would you love to cook for? Anyone in the world who you admire.
FitzGerald: The cookbook editor Judith Jones. She helped Edna Lewis and Julia Child write their cookbooks. One of the first books she ever got published was The Diary of Anne Frank. She wrote a cookbook about cooking for one after her husband passed away and then wrote a memoir as well. I feel like she’d be a great gal to cook for.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Keep up with Rachel’s seasonal menu changes at Magpie Diner here or visit the restaurant from 8am – 2pm Tuesday – Friday or 9am – 2pm Saturday and Sunday. Follow Rachel’s band Spectator Bird here to listen to them on Spotify.
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