Charlottesville breweries are full of fall beer options

What makes for a good fall beer? Extra body? Darker malt? Pumpkin spice? Every brewer and brewery in Charlottesville has their own ideas about this. So I grabbed a friend and visited five local breweries to see what their takes on fall beers are—and whether they shied away from the polarizing pumpkin beer. At Reason […]

What’s the best grocery store bar in town?

As competition has grown among Charlottesville’s high-end grocery stores, a trend has emerged of adding bars. I’ve walked past these odd grocery store bars countless times but it has never occurred to me to pull up a stool and order a glass of beer before picking up milk and vegetables. Which invites the questions: Who […]

New brewery wants to tap into under-served market

Charlottesville’s newest brewery will open without an IPA. That is not a typo. Mark Fulton, head brewer at Reason Brewery, has four beers planned for the July opening, and none of them will be a standard-issue bitter palate bomb or even have an ABV of more than 5 percent. Reason’s reason for avoiding IPAs is […]

New book details Charlottesville’s beer history

Fans of locally made craft beer have long felt that we had something special happening here. Now there is a book to reinforce that. Author and journalist Lee Graves has written Charlottesville Beer, documenting the history of area brewing and outlining the current state of the industry. While working as a journalist in Richmond, Graves […]

Musician Lauren Hoffman shares her eating disorder struggle

In 1997, local musician Lauren Hoffman almost had the world in her hands. A three-album deal with Virgin, rave reviews from music magazines, and a growing audience in Europe. Then something went wrong. And when she launched other albums, something went wrong again, despite packed shows on several continents. Now she’s ready to talk about […]

Brasserie Saison crafts new options for the local beer scene

The idea of a restaurant and brewery on the Downtown Mall that specializes in Belgian cuisine and beers would have been completely absurd as few as five years ago. Today, with the mainstream dominance of craft beer culture in Charlottesville, it is practically a no-brainer. Charlottesvillians discuss new beers the way farmers talk about the […]

Bellamy asks court to dismiss petition

In the latest twist of the saga of Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s controversial and racially charged statements on Twitter unearthed by Jason Kessler, a right-wing activist, Bellamy’s attorney has filed a response to the petition calling for his removal from office. In a press conference February 16, Kessler and his supporters presented their petition with 527 […]

Rare recall: Petition filed to remove vice mayor

  In a press conference today at City Space on the Downtown Mall, conservative activist Jason Kessler presented his case for the removal of Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office, along with a petition intended to begin the legal process, which is unprecedented in the city. Bellamy, 30, recently came under fire for old tweets […]