Zocalo has undergone a number of major changes recently, with owner Ivan Rekosh buying out his longtime partner and then bringing in a new executive chef, Zynodoa’s Josh Hutter, who’s been shaking up the menu with a variety of surprising new offerings. “I’ve been cooking the same food for 15 years, and it’s great to […]
Angelic’s Kitchen On Wheels food truck has taken to the streets, a mere four years since owner Angelic Jenkins began cooking professionally, after her husband urged her to find a hobby other than shopping. “I love cooking for people and always wanted to sell fried fish at a festival,” Jenkins says, “So I started off […]
Sometimes the good stuff is hiding right under your nose. For decades, Mel’s Café has sat near the center of town on West Main Street, with a bright blue sign that is impossible to miss. Yet, even some of my most food-loving friends have never set foot in the place. As a longtime fan, this […]
When Ivar Aass moved to Charlottesville six years ago, he had one purpose in mind: distill high quality spirits. And at Spirit Lab Distilling, the distillery he runs with his wife, he does just that. From a bare bones warehouse facility on 6th St. SE, Aass distills tiny batches of spirits that [...]
West Main passersby were alarmed last week to see yellow caution tape stretched in front of Parallel 38 and Gus’ Custom Tailoring, and a sign declaring Continental Divide “unfit for human habitation or occupation.” Despite that dire warning, the problem (a collapsed ceiling) should be repaired [...]
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 [...]
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 Tavola, 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 [...]
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 [...]
It was while working at Jefferson Vineyards that Jake Busching had his aha wine moment. His epiphany, the Jefferson Vineyards 1998 cabernet franc made by Michael Shaps, remains a true bellwether for Virginia wine—“That’s the one that hooked me,” Busching says. Once he made the connection in his [...]
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 [...]
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 […]
Melissa Close-Hart rarely eats breakfast—who has the time? The Junction chef is often in her Belmont restaurant kitchen by 8am and sometimes doesn’t leave until 12:30 in the morning. Such is the price of running the kitchen at one of Charlottesville’s most anticipated restaurants. In the works [...]
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 [...]