Is chocolate on the horizon for the Willow Lawn corridor?

Suddenly Willow Lawn is rife with fast-casual chains, including Panera, Jason’s and Chipotle. And while those places have their followings, it’s a Charlottesville-based business that deserves attention from cuisine-conscious diners who are watching the clock.

Sticks Kebob Shop “wasn’t engineered by a committee,” says owner Bill Hamilton, whose fine-dining restaurant Hamilton’s is a C’ville landmark. “We’re food people and we designed this to be the kind of place we’d want to eat. It’s an honest homage to a great group of food cultures that aren’t well explored,” he says of the Southern Mediterranean menu.

It’s an order-at-the-counter setting for an adaptable, mix-and-match selection of hummus, roasted eggplant salad, grilled veggies, flatbreads and meat, shrimp or garden kebobs served on basmati rice with house-made sauces. There are two long-running shops in Charlottesville, and Richmond is a third link in a larger business plan.

If all goes according to Hamilton’s designs, a Gearhart’s Fine Chocolates retail shop could be coming here next. That’s another of his holdings with its own cult following.

According to Style Weekly, it is a definite possibility.