The next chapter L’étoile has served up a delectable lunch since its inception in 1993, but that will come to an end in the beginning of the New Year, ushering in a streamlined focus on dinner service, special event group luncheons, and catering. Chef Mark Gresge’s French-Virginian cuisine will be available for dinner only Tuesday-Saturdays [...]
Steakhouses, one of the few truly American culinary genres, maintain their appeal by being, in large part, the same the nation over. They typically sport dark wood and leather, a suited host, a wine list heavy on Napa Cabs, iconic starters and sides, melt-in-your-mouth steaks, and frightful prices. Testosterone-dripping man caves, the Scotch flows neat [...]
Hands down, this is my favorite time of year: “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” spiced cookies, figgy pudding—and, of course, the drinks. Holiday drinks are, by design, meant to be communal. At least, in my family they always were. I can remember my early childhood, running around my grandparents’ [...]
05/25/2013 7:00 pm The Steel Wheels The Southern Cafe and Music Hall, Charlottesville Virginia
On Fridays, we feature five finds selected by local chefs and personalities. This week’s picks come from Mike Yager, sous chef of the new Glass Haus Kitchen. On New Year’s Eve, Glass Haus Kitchen will offer two seatings. The first, between 5:30 pm and 7:00 pm, will feature a 4-course [...]
Whether you’re a vegetarian or the kind of person who will pull over at he faintest waft of smoking hickory charcoals, sometimes it’s not a bad idea to just lay off the meat for a spell. Revolutionary Soup and Eppie’s may earn top marks for vegetarian fare in Best of C-VILLE every year, but the [...]
This is it. On Friday, December 21, we’re all going to die. Our Christmas gifts, 401(k)s, and unexpressed love will go unclaimed. It’d be highly irresponsible for me to advise liquidating your bank accounts, but I can suggest liquidating a pearl or two from your wine cellar (or sock drawer) to [...]
On Fridays, we and The Charlottesville 29 feature five finds selected by local chefs and personalities. This week’s picks come from Angelo Vangelopoulos, chef and owner of Ivy Inn. Vangelopoulos’ picks: 1) Nachos at Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. “It’s the first thing [...]
Like many of us normal folk, Thomas Jefferson enjoyed beer with his dinner. Like others of us, Jefferson enjoyed beer enough to learn how to make it himself at home. He was also wise enough to initially learn the art he performed during his brewdays from his literal alewife, Martha Jefferson. [...]
I find few things more exciting than being invited to someone’s home for a dinner party. Not a potluck or cocktail party, but a sit-down soirée with mixed company and food cooked and served by someone other than me. It’s a generous act of yore that seems now to be endangered if not entirely [...]
Wine dinner is served Join Jeff Meyers, vice president and general manager of Terra d’Oro winery in Amador County, California, for a wine dinner at the Ivy Inn on Tuesday, December 11. Chef Angelo Vangelopoulos will serve up five courses paired with (mostly) Italian varietal wines. Selections [...]
When I told a wine-loving francophile that I’ve been drinking wine from a box, he looked at me with such horror that I quickly followed up with, “I pour it into a glass first, of course!” His disgust had nothing to do with the image of me holding my mouth below the spigot in my [...]
This is more about reliability than quality. If you’re looking for something to eat at 1am, how exquisite can you expect the cuisine to be? First thing you need to know is that the place is open. And that alone really narrows the field. And we’re talking mid-week here. We can’t concern [...]
According to karma, I should have a picky child. (I once threw a fit when my parents stopped at Wendy’s because the hamburgers there are square instead of round.) But not only has Maisie never even eaten a fast food hamburger in her nearly five years of life, but she’s a better, more [...]
From Feast! to Food Lion, Charlottesville is home to dozens of grocery stores, and recent months have brought more to the already crowded field of options for shoppers. The city is packed with small urban markets, specialty shops, and big box stores. Trendy chain Trader Joe’s arrived with great [...]
One stop shopping (and drinking) Kill two birds with one stone at Early Mountain Vineyards on Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9 for the third annual Holiday Open House from 11am-5pm. Shop from local artisans selling crafts and specialty food items while enjoying a glass of Virginia [...]
On Fridays, we and The Charlottesville 29 feature five finds selected by local chefs and personalities. In honor of the recent Virginia Cider Week, today’s picks come from Tim Edmond, co-owner of Potter’s Craft Cider, which, in its short existence, is already winning praise far and wide. [...]
As tightly knit as Charlottesville is, newcomers are likely to feel intimidated—especially so in our food world, which is as inextricably linked an industry as any. Evermore daunting would be taking the helm of a restaurant that’s collected a massive following in the five years it’s been open. [...]
New brews It takes a champion to run the sales and marketing for family-owned winery Afton Mountain Vineyards, build-out an empty building in Belmont, brew hand-crafted beer, and raise a family. Somehow, Hunter Smith has managed to accomplish all of these feats, and the doors of Champion [...]
If every restaurant in the world served only pho, that would be fine by me. Pho is the Vietnamese beef noodle soup sensation that has been sweeping the nation the last 10 years or so. Charlottesville has been a latecomer to the pho scene, but there is one place doing it exactly right. Saturdays [...]
Nothing makes a wine columnist feel the freakishly swift passage of days more than the realization that it’s Thanksgiving wine recommendation time yet again. Every year, I consider taking a different approach—or even skipping it entirely, hoping that no one will notice the omission of what’s [...]
Beer and Thanksgiving. The words conjure fond memories: an uncle asleep in the La-Z-Boy with a pile of cans on the end table; the Lions game on TV; a semi-interested crowd of family gathered around the set, making small talk. Tradition is great, but the days of discarded cans of Coors and [...]
Nowadays, restaurant menus are more likely to tell you where the chicken was raised than how it’s prepared. Four years running, the National Restaurant Association has voted locally sourced foods the top trend. But here in Virginia, where our soil takes a long winter’s nap, what’s a locavore [...]