We’d imagine the life of a wine importer to be nothing but romance—all long nights, barrel laughs, and plates of beautiful food in good company. Turns out, we were wrong: It’s better than that. We asked Williams Corner Wine co-founder Nicolas Mestre to recount a recent wine-tasting trip to Spain. The CEO spends about 12 […]
The family meal is a restaurant tradition, where chefs take turns cooking a meal for the entire staff to dine together before service. At an Italian restaurant like Taovla, you might expect that meal to be a fat bowl of pasta and maybe some garlic bread. But, in fact, one of the more memorable family […]
After a long night of waiting and bussing tables, cooking meals, serving drinks, and washing dishes, most restaurant staffs are usually ready to unwind. But in a town in which the sidewalks tend to roll up after 10 or 11pm, where’s a hard-working, thirsty server supposed to go? A regular haunt for those needing a […]
Around here, the folks cooking your favorite foods are as close to celebrities as some of us get (unless you’re lucky enough to corner Dave Matthews on the mall). So, for this year’s annual Food & Drink Issue, we decided to take a look behind the scenes—beyond your pork belly tacos and pain [...]
By Jenny Gardiner and Sam Padgett eatdrink@c-ville.com You’ve gotta give John Dinh, owner of Charlottesville’s newest Vietnamese restaurant, major props for his clever restaurant moniker: Pho 3 Pho. In case you didn’t know, “pho” is pronounced “pha,” as in do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do. Dinh credits [...]
FAMILY Family Night Out Friday, January 26 Enjoy some family time with swimming, a movie, pizza and snacks. $6 per person; $25 families of five or more, 6-8pm. Crozet YMCA, 1075 Claudius Crozet Park, Crozet. 205-4380. NONPROFIT Drop spindle class Saturday, January 27 Crafter Russell Hubert [...]
By Natalie Jacobsen Between sporadic power outages, icy roads and burst pipes, Charlottesville is dealing with plenty of winter woes. But we aren’t the only ones grappling with the freezing temperatures: Central Virginia vineyards are facing this weather head-on, with growers keeping a close [...]
When Vera Preddy and her late husband, Wayne, purchased their property on Gibson Mountain in 1985, they never imagined they’d end up in the wine business. Their 150-acre farm was once part of Windholme Farm, and when they moved onto their parcel, they christened it Honah Lee, after the idyllic [...]
There’s always something new to learn about food, and for the past 11 years, the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello has been one of the best ways to learn a lot about the history of what we eat in a little bit of time. On Saturday, chefs, farmers, culinary historians, purveyors and foodies [...]
Sitting at the edge of IX Art Park is the new Three Notch’d Brewery restaurant and production facility, which will top out at 11,000 square feet between the indoor and outdoor spaces. The setup is similar to a traditional beer garden, but bigger, and Three Notch’d says it will be the largest [...]
Joey Mirabile has been around hot dogs his entire life. His father, Tony, served them at Bacali’s Hot Dogs in Norfolk during World War II and even fed celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. when they were in town to perform. Tony and his wife, Geri, opened Tony’s Hot Dogs in Norfolk [...]
Calling all cookie monsters: Found. Market Co. at 221 Carlton Rd. (the former Kathy’s Produce spot) is here for all of your cookie needs. In addition to functioning as a gathering space and remade furniture workshop, Found. is a bakehouse specializing in cookies—pick up some salted rosemary [...]
Fed and pampered Whoa, baby—there’s a new meal service in town. Inspired by requests from local moms who read Heng Ou’s The First Forty Days, a book about Ou’s experience being cared for post-birth by an herbalist aunt, the Charlottesville Cooking School is now offering Mama Meals, a program of [...]
It’s quarter after noon on a Wednesday and Debbie Kirby stands behind the lunch counter at Timberlake’s Drug Store and Soda Fountain. She adjusts the side ties on her red cotton smock before filling a tall red plastic cup with cola and hustling it over to one of the three men sitting at a [...]
Kathryn Matthews has been obsessed with American breakfast since she was a child, growing up in Grimsby, a small fishing town on the northeast coast of England. Her grandparents would sometimes take her on vacation to Florida, where they’d eat waffles and fluffy American pancakes, which are [...]
It’s a warm, sunny afternoon in early spring, and Barrett Hightower and Rani Morris have taken a moment to sit in the shade at one of the small tables outside of Salt Artisan Market, their sandwich shop in the historic Colle Station at 1330 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy., just around the bend from [...]
Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. But we’d wager that whoever said that had never had brunch. If they had, they’d know there are few things finer than waking up on Saturday morning only to meet friends at table in the cool spring air and hunker down for an hour […]
Craving something fresh and green on your lunch break? These six spots boast a robust mix of ingredients—including local leafy greens. Now you just have to kick your bad habit of eating lunch at your desk. The Earlysville The Salad Maker The newest addition to Charlottesville’s local salad [...]
What says spring cuisine more than a salad? Answer: nothing. “I looooove salads,” says chef Tyler Teass. And it shows. From simple greens to grilled endives, his Brasserie Saison menu is overflowing with them (“and I plan on keeping it that way,” he says). But it’s this one, with peas both snap [...]
Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it before: For a city its size, Charlottesville has a lot of restaurants. Like, a lot. In 2013, the Huffington Post ranked our city among the top 15 U.S. metro areas with the most eateries per capita, with 460 restaurants for 201,400 residents. With so many chow options [...]
This is a good time to catch up with winemakers about the 2016 vintage, a year marked by frost events early in the season, and rain near the red grape harvest. By now, ferments have finished and some wines are in barrel or bottle. Wineries have a good idea about how their 2016s are tasting. [...]
The heavenly scent of handcrafted donuts, fritters and cinnamon rolls will soon waft up and down West Main Street: Charlottesville is getting a Sugar Shack Donuts, directly across the street from the Uncommon Building, this summer. Sugar Shack owner and self-proclaimed “donut nostalgia [...]
The James Beard Foundation just released its list of 2017 Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalists, and Staunton chef Ian Boden landed one of the coveted spots. He’s in the running for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic; winners will be announced May 1. Boden, who cooks new American cuisine inspired by [...]