Tried-and-true Tastings of Charlottesville
With new restaurants in the spotlight, it’s easy to forget about our culinary forerunners. And nothing about Tastings of Charlottesville, the space under the Market Street parking garage, lets on to the gem that lies within. After 22 years, it’s still, as owner Bill Curtis calls it, “Charlottesville’s best-kept secret,” and though it’s tempting to [...]
Will forage for food: Local dinner series borrows and thrifts
For the food-obsessed, the traditional restaurant experience can sometimes be a snooze. If it’s not a here today, gone tomorrow pop-up, a dinner cooked by a guest chef flown in from Copenhagen, or a meal centered around an especially fatty type of swine, they’d rather stay home and cook the next recipe in their sauce-splattered [...]
Fellini’s 9 and under shows kids the value of a dollar
It’s never too soon to learn the value of a buck, especially if we want our kids to take care of us one day. Fellini’s #9 turns the tables by putting our kids to work while we sit back and relax. At the Fellini’s 9 and Under monthly luncheon (the next one is Saturday, October [...]
Almost famous: Local sous chefs keep their noses (and knives) to the grindstone
Behind every great chef is another great chef. Even if it’s the top toque who gets the glory, it’s the hard-working pair of hands next to the big cheese that feeds us like royalty. These No. 2s on the kitchen ladder are all under 30, overflowing with talent, and as humble as they come, so [...]
Expert advice: What vintages are the wine pros drinking right now?
There are enough people in this town whose lives revolve around wine that there’s no excuse for buying without an expert’s opinion. ’Tis a new season and and even wine-colored denim is in. Here’s a shopping list built by the professionals for when it’s time to refresh your cellar. The sommeliers Andrew Cole, tavola Frecciarossa [...]
Glorious grilled cheese: Toasty, easy, and just plain tasty
The combination of buttered bread with melted cheese goes far beyond its simple ingredients. Once grilled (and dipped into a steaming bowl of tomato soup), it delivers instant comfort. The illustrious sandwich has grown up since its Campbell’s days and these local examples highlight the icon in all its gooey glory. There’s a lot on [...]
My other kitchen: Dan Epstein and his family slow things down
Since Eppie’s is a study in efficiency, serving up the food we crave before we can even reach the end of the counter, it comes as no surprise that flow was at the top of owner Dan Epstein’s list when renovating his home kitchen. Dan, his wife Kate, and their 2-year-old daughter, Libby, moved into [...]
The obscure reds of Piemonte
Now that our nights are dipping down to cellar temperatures, we can turn our attention back to red wines. No need to jump the gun though. There’s a whole category of transitional reds equivalent to fashion’s blazers that’ll warm you up and keep you going in style—unlike the Gigondas and Snuggie reserved for wintertime. Freisa, [...]
Hot potato: All about the spuds
Potatoes don’t get much starring glory in the culinary world. Mashed, roasted, hashed, caked, or baked, the humble spud is usually the sideshow of the plate. Versatility’s a virtue, though, and these dishes raise the lowly tuber to holy heights. At Brookville Restaurant, the loaded baked potato goes gourmet: crinkly, roasted fingerlings get topped with [...]
Our craft distillery movement is resurging by leaps and barrels
We’re fifth in the nation for wine production and are one of the Travel Channel’s Top 7 beer destinations in North America, so it only makes sense that Virginia’s jumping on the craft distillery bandwagon. And it’s moving at a pretty good clip considering that America went from having 14,000 distilleries at the start of [...]
Big ass salads: Large and in charge
There are those salads that make you feel deprived the minute you order them. And then there are those salads that make no apologies, satisfying like a steak and potatoes. They’re of generous size and chock full of delicious (and not necessarily healthy) ingredients. We call them Big Ass Salads and we love them. These [...]
A back-to-school wine quiz to test your vinous knowledge
Summer’s on its way out and with it go the breezy drinks that require little more thought than “what time is it anyway?” Let’s brush up a bit on the beverage that makes adulthood and the return to routine much more bearable. 1. What are the by-products of wine’s fermentation process? a) Sugar and vinegar [...]
Beet it: Getting to the root of this fall favorite
For those of you out there who don’t like beets, you’re missing out. Since many a beet-hater’s distaste comes from having first tried them in a can (instead of raw or roasted), it’s time to try again, but this time, without holding your nose closed. Beets’ hues range from ruby red to gold to pink-and-white [...]
State of the harvest: Checking in with Virginia winemakers as they haul in 2012′s crop
Last year’s bitch of a vintage, sullied by that four-letter ‘r’ word, left hardworking Virginia winemakers bruised, battered, and bitter. They deserved a break. From all predictions, 2012 was shaping up to be a dependable and promising vintage. Even after an early bud break, most vines escaped the spring frosts unscathed and then were treated [...]
Camino chugs along serving a crew of regulars
There will always be restaurants that change hands so often that it’s hard to keep track. While the little cheese wedge of a restaurant next to the Vinegar Hill Theater has stood as its current incarnation—Camino—for nearly three years now, it was Il Cane Pazzo for three years before that, and L’Avventura for eight years [...]
Rhône’s white wines are as worthy as its reds
Behind every good man is a good woman—and behind every good red wine is a good white one. From the precipitous slopes of Côte-Rôtie to the stone-stacked soils of Châteauneuf-du-Pape (and many of the 150 miles in between), southeastern France’s Rhône Valley produces red wines deserving of adulation. Though standing in their long-cast shadows are [...]
Fig out! Savory and sweet is this feast-worthy fruit
Fresh figs, worshipped by cultures worldwide since 4000BC, are proof that there’s a higher being. Looks deceive, until rough skin the color of a bruise gives way to a shiny geode-like interior. Figs’ texture is anything but structural though—they quiver when you cut them and their delicate seeds crunch ever so slightly between your teeth. [...]
My other kitchen: Chef Chris Humphrey’s common ground
Restaurant people know that the best way to avoid passing your spouse like a ship in the night is to marry another restaurant person—double points if she works in the same restaurant. Rapture’s Executive Chef Chris Humphrey and longtime waitress, Sarah, tied the knot last fall and now see one another at work six days [...]
The excitable wines of Etna: White and red from Sicily’s volcanic slopes
Most of what Americans know about Sicily—mafia, garlic-laden red sauce, and the ba-da-bing wines that go with both—we learned from Godfathers I through III. Which is to say that we know nothing at all. This island, which stood as the Mediterranean port of call for wine as unfathomably early as 500 B.C., is experiencing a [...]
You had me at B… BLT, that is
The BLT, that divine triumvirate that defines the taste of summer, makes good use of the late season tomato whose flesh isn’t quite as taut as it used to be and whose juices need little coaxing before they’re dripping down your arms. These eight places have their own takes on this glorious sandwich that’s a [...]
The littlest luncher: Packing school lunch ideas to keep kids interested
Getting back to the school routine is fun for about a week and then it starts to feel like Groundhog Day. Varied meals get my foodie daughter, Maisie, and me going each morning. Breakfast is some variation of fruit, yogurt, and oats or whole grains, and dinner’s based on the season and how much time [...]
A changing of the guard in C&O’s cellar
No story on the C&O would be complete without mention of its wine cellar. We’ve crowned the calligraphied list Best of C-VILLE seven-plus years running and it’s won Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence every year since 1996. But regulars will notice a gaping hole in the list next time they visit—the person who (literally) wrote [...]
Always warm, always charming, always C&O
Inside the C&O’s big wooden door, it was cool and dark and reminiscent of lovely evenings spent there—some for occasions, others for a final drink on a night I wasn’t ready to end. Volumes could be filled with patrons’ stories, but it was those of proprietor Dave Simpson (who’s eminently quotable, but especially on the [...]
Virginia Craft Brewers Fest caps a month-long celebration of local beer
Crafty brewers Every month’s a good month to celebrate Virginia’s ever-growing craft beer movement, but this month it’s official. And what better way to commemorate Virginia Craft Beer month than with the First Annual Virginia Craft Brewers Fest on Saturday, August 25 (Sunday if it rains) from 2 to 8pm at Devils Backbone Brewing Company. [...]
Early Mountain Vineyards celebrates the best of Virginia
Walking into Early Mountain Vineyards never having been to Sweely Estate in the five years that it stood as such before narrowly escaping two foreclosure sales in 2010, I couldn’t help but think, “No wonder.” Jess and Sharon Sweely clearly spared no expense when they transformed the 305-acre Madison County farm into a state-of-the-art operation [...]
Cool beans: The buzz on local iced coffee
When a hot afternoon turns sleepy, iced coffee’s the perfect pick-me-up to get you through the rest of the day. Aficionados seem to be split over which method makes better iced coffee. Some say coffee needs to be cold-brewed to temper its bitterness. Others insist that hot coffee-turned-cold is the only way to maintain its [...]
Bodacious burgers: Get your hands around one of these
When a burger craving strikes, little can be accomplished until you’ve got your hands around a bun with meat juices dripping down your chin. Here’re 10 big-league, non-chain burgers that satisfy (and inspire) the meanest of cravings. Boylan Heights’ Room 121 tops an organic beef patty with American cheese, bibb lettuce, beefsteak tomato, bacon, diced [...]