On Fridays, we and The Charlottesville 29 feature five food finds selected by local chefs and personalities. Today’s picks come from four-time James Beard award semi-finalist Melissa Close Hart, chef of Palladio Restaurant at Barboursville Vineyard. On June 9, Palladio will be celebrating the release of Barboursville’s 2012 Vermentino Reserve with a multi-course dinner with [...]
If you own a house in a historic district, it turns out that implementing any kind of renovation project is tricky business. Mark and Caroline Shaffrey knew this when, in 1997, they decided to buy their 1902 Colonial in Downtown Charlottesville. And it meant waiting to make any changes to the space until they were [...]
In a blind taste test by a panel of experts last fall, Virginia wines squared off against those from leading regions of the world. The results stunned many. Virginia won. In case it had not been clear already, there was now no doubt: Virginia wine is on the rise. With the popularity of Virginia wine [...]
05/19/2013 2:30 pm The Taming of the Shrew Four County Players, Barboursville VA
Three days into my trip to Puerto Vallarta, I had an ephiphany. I’d traveled there with the Tequila Interchange Project, a nonprofit group working to preserve sustainable, traditional, and quality practices in the tequila industry, and we would spend seven days drinking the Mexican juice and learning about the process of making it. But my [...]
The freedom one feels when he gets dressed in the morning translates into his life every day. The medium is the message, be it architecture, nail art, or graffiti. How free can you be? SEAN was studying at Mudhouse when I approached him to talk about what he was wearing. Born in North Korea and [...]
With an overdue spring finally coming into its own, it’s time for many of us to start spending some time in the garden. Whether you’re planting vegetables for the table or decorative plants to brighten up the yard, you can be pretty sure that your pets are going to be keen on inspecting the greenery. [...]
“I’m trying to bring two things that people don’t see a lot of in Charlottesville or the East Coast,” said Patrick Kim, who has been making waves in the city’s food scene ever since he arrived in Charlottesville in February to open his Korean taco truck, Hanu. Kim, who grew up in Southern California and [...]
The fast food franchise gods have extended a gesture of mercy toward us and hath bestowed upon our town a considerable bounty of good tidings with the opening of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (1). It might behoove us all to send up thanks with abandon and with earnest zeal as then these gods may see fit [...]
If rain is Oregon’s best-known cliché, then Pinot Noir is the runner-up. With May celebrating Oregon Wine Month, and the Willamette Valley being one of my favorite wine regions in the world, what better time than now to delve into this sustainable wine mecca? Viticulturally, Oregon is a big state, with five AVAs (American Viticultural [...]
Chef Harrison Keevil of Brookville Restaurant will create a farm-fresh meal at Bellair Farm Sunday, May 26. Blenheim Vineyards will handle the wine. Tickets are $65 ($10 for children under 9). Call The Happy Cook at 977-2665 to secure yours. You’ll get a second chance to try that meal (though slightly altered) on Sunday, June [...]
After decades spent living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Don and Minna Doyle found themselves facing catastrophe when Hurricane Katrina flooded their house with 12′ of water in 2005. “It was structurally sound, but everything had to be replaced,” Minna remembered. While many of their neighbors threw everything away, the Doyles were more inclined to [...]
Today is the 50th edition of Five Finds on Friday, where chefs and local personalities pick five favorite food items in the area. To mark the occasion, The Charlottesville 29 has the picks of a Charlottesville resident who is among the top 29 in the world in his field. In fact, tennis player Treat Huey [...]
To the untrained eye, the quiche is a seemingly simple dish that requires very little skill and few ingredients. It consists, after all, of only two elements: crust and filling. But think again. This French-inspired staple of American cuisine is subtle and sophisticated, varied and complex. If you ask Lynette Meynig, she’ll tell you that [...]
Humulus lupus, the species best known to us as hops, produces effects in beer that we traditionally associate with bitterness. Hops also produce aromas and flavors that are usually associated with earthiness, grassiness, floral characteristics, and a bit of weedy dankness. In the past couple of years, a progressive sect of hop growers has been [...]
Charlottesville has no shortage of things to do outdoors in the summer, and we’re lucky to live somewhere that pets are often just as welcome as people. From dog-friendly parks and hiking trails to Downtown restaurants that happily serve bowls of water to their canine dinner guests, there are worse places to have four legs. [...]
How interesting! Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Mellow Mushroom’s “Most Interesting Man in the World” sweepstakes and win the Ultimate Mellow Mushroom Mexican vacation. Through May 5, stop in to the University Avenue location and take the “most interesting” photo with the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man standee and enter to win a trip for [...]
On Fridays, we feature five food finds selected by local chefs and personalities. This week’s picks come from Jonathan Wheeler, Sparkling Winemaker at Trump Winery. Next weekend, May 4 and 5, Trump Winery will be celebrating its 2012 Vintage Release with samples of the new 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Chardonnay, and Rosé. Wheeler’s picks: 1) [...]
I had never known an independent organic farmer before I went to meet Michael Clark, who owns and works Planet Earth Diversified (PED) farm outside of Stanardsville. Therefore, I had nothing on which to base any expectations. But what I did not expect was to meet an organic farmer who would go fishing more often if [...]
Two for one Mark your calendar for Friday, May 3, as two acclaimed Virginia chefs, both nominated for the James Beard Award of Excellence, come together to create a dinner to remember. Lee Gregory is the chef and owner of The Roosevelt restaurant in Richmond’s historic Church Hill neighborhood and has been featured in magazines [...]
On Fridays, we feature five food finds selected by local chefs and personalities. Today’s picks come from Mike Ketola, who cooks at not one but two restaurants that have been inducted into The Charlottesville 29. Ketola is the longtime sous chef of Mas, and also cooks at Barbecue Exchange. Ketola’s picks: 1) Glazed Blueberry Cake [...]
Is it possible to be irreverent and reverent at the same time? Tempo, the modern French-American restaurant that opened in 2011, proves that it is, mixing good, irreverent fun with food that reveres French culinary tradition, prepared by one of Charlottesville’s most talented chefs. On the one hand, Tempo’s scene ignores conventions and boundaries, whether [...]
The gardens around the home of Ryan Williamson and Laurel Woodworth are a bit different than your average backyard setup—food can be found almost any month of the year. Greens are grown in mini-greenhouses, called low-tunnels, in the wintertime; fruit trees, shrubs, and vines are abundant in the landscape; bees pollinate many of the crops. [...]