Assuming his new post as executive chef of Glass Haus Kitchen this past fall, Ian Boden had big shoes to fill—but they were all his own. The Northern Virginia native who put his New England Culinary Institute degree to use for 10 years in the kitchens of top New York restaurants, opened Staunton Grocery in [...]
The Tonsler Park Recreation Center is busy at 4:30pm on a Wednesday. The long, L-shaped main room bustles with games of pool and chess, people coming and going past the old school Ms. Pac-Man game and the foosball table. Adults watch the T.V. on the wall, or sit and talk in small groups. You get [...]
Chef Jason Alley, owner of Comfort and Pasture restaurants, has created quite a buzz up (and especially down) the East Coast with his modern spin on Southern cuisine. Beginning with the 2002 opening of Comfort in Richmond with business partner Chris Chandler, he was ahead of the Southern food craze that is still sweeping the [...]
05/24/2013 9:30 pm Eli Cook Band Durty Nelly’s, Charlottesville VA
Do you respect wood? Michael Keith does. A master of old-world craftsmanship, Keith is a furniture maker and restorer of the highest mark. Passionate about the details and intent on preserving the original integrity of antiques, his is an art based upon labored hours in his workshop/studio. Your first exposure to old-world craftsmanship occurred when [...]
I’ve always been proud to be an equal opportunity lover of wine. Sure, I’m not wild about anything too buttery or beastly, but as long as it’s a well-made, balanced wine, there’s a happy home for it in my glass. So imagine my surprise, amidst all this open-mindedness, when years of field research revealed a [...]
Leather and fur—faux or real—can be as diverse in personality as the people who wear them. Who do you want to be today? I stopped VCU student SAMANTHA to get a look at her leather as she was walking on the Downtown Mall with a friend. She pulled off this outfit with a bravado that [...]
Last year’s revision of the Virginia Agency Law brought some clear changes to the practice of single agent dual agency (one agent “representing” both parties in a transaction). What it also brought is some confusion about the actual home buying process and when buyer broker agreements need to be signed – and by whom. [...]
The cheap date is a tricky proposition. But there are ways to cut corners without necessarily revealing yourself for the broke-ass bounder that you really are. Despite the holdover notion that some here in central Virginia cleave to—the idea that we live in some bastion of Southern rectitude—you needn’t occupy your mind with chivalric conceits. [...]
What’s love got to do with it? For these 10 couples, everything. Most of them say they knew right away that they’d found “the one,” but it’s what comes after—the day to day experience of being with someone who bites his nails, leaves dirty clothes outside the hamper, and never turns off any lights in [...]
Nick Crutchfield may not hail from Charlottesville originally (Tidewater is his home), but he’s no stranger to these parts. Best bartender in C-VILLE’s 2012 Best of readers’ poll, you’ll find him shakin’ things up at Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar. Lately, he’s been working on an inventive new cocktail menu (64 drinks total!) that rivals any [...]
On Fridays, we feature five food finds selected by local chefs and personalities. This week’s picks come from Brice Cunningham, the Paris-born chef who once co-owned Fleurie and Petit Pois, and now owns Tempo, serving “modern French cuisine with an international twist.” On Tuesdays, Tempo offers a great deal called Champagne and Burgers. Buy one [...]
Heather Halsey and Derek Sieg are equally aesthetically minded people. She’s the Charlottesville editor of The Scout Guide, and he’s a filmmaker. It’s been a whirlwind of a relationship. After a year of dating, they got engaged, although Heather claims “I knew about two weeks in that this was it!” They are getting married this [...]
Sometimes, inspiration doesn’t look the way you expect it to. In 2008, Rhonda Matthias was gathering ideas for a new house she and her husband, Cary, planned to build. They had the land—a four-acre parcel in rural Goochland County—and they thought they wanted a “traditional farmhouse,” something with two stories. “But we couldn’t settle on [...]
Although it still feels like winter outside, pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training next week, which indicates the time for baseball fans to start getting excited. With baseball, of course, comes beer, and for many, an increasingly exciting selection. The rich tradition of beer and baseball began not surprisingly as an effort by [...]
With days this cold and dark, a little trickle of sweetness goes a long way to cure a mean case of cabin fever. But reserving syrup for breakfast is selling the elixir short. These places around town are seeing the forest through the trees (and they’re not just maple) by treating us to syrup in [...]
What do you do when you’re faced with Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day in a single week? And how will your liver and stomach react after dueling back-to-back Restaurant Weeks? Here are your choices: a) Stay home and cook. b) Order take-out and keep it simple. c) Dress up in costume to go out and [...]
On Fridays, we feature five food finds selected by local chefs and personalities. Today’s picks come from Ian Redshaw, Chef de Cuisine of L’Etoile, which now offers a $30 Chef’s three-course menu every Tuesday through Thursday evening. Redshaw’s picks: 1) Lunch at Pippin Hill Vineyard. “Chef Amalia Scatena has some great food, wine and views. [...]
After covering kebabs and burgers in my last two columns, I should, in the interest of my own constitution, undertake my signature psyllium screwdriver cleanse, which involves copious amounts of vodka, orange juice, a hot water bottle, and, well, you get the idea. Instead, I’m soldiering on, and have been eating eggs and meat for [...]
Rick Wasmund and Dan FitzHenry sit at a small table in a Stay Charlottesville rental house arrayed with plastic cups holding fluids of hues that range from clover honey through amber to the color of cherry juice, a natural reddish brown. You’ve heard about the surge in the craft distillery movement? Now you’re in it. [...]
Moving on Andy Reagan of Jefferson Vineyards is moving on in his winemaking career after helming the vineyard and cellar, and acting as its general manager since 2005. According to a press release, Reagan wants to start his own winery and create his own “vision of Virginia wine.” A difference of opinion with the owners [...]
When it comes to drinking, there are two kinds of people in this town: the high-end spirit drinkers and the spirit and soda folk. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with drinking whatever it is that you like. I (and most other bartenders, too) couldn’t care less about whether you are ordering a vodka and [...]
As we roll toward the end of January, I gather a lot of us have New Year’s resolutions that are already unraveling and set to expire by Groundhog Day. C’est la vie—in 11 short months, you can give it another shot. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to provide some surrogate willpower to those who [...]