Bordeaux, France. Napa Valley, California. Central Virginia? Possibly. Though Thomas Jefferson first attempted to plant a vineyard back in the late 1700s, our local wine industry is still young, only really emerging in the last 15 years. But in that time, the central Virginia region has become home to the second-highest number of wineries in […]
North American Sake Brewery
10 hot* new restaurants: A diverse collection of upstarts drives a local dining boom
The restaurant business, like any industry, goes in cycles. Grow, contract, repeat. Here in Charlottesville, our last boom came in 2014, a year that brought Lampo, The Alley Light, Oakhart Social, Parallel 38, Public Fish & Oyster, MarieBette, Rock Salt, Red Pump Kitchen, and Al Carbon, among others. Now, after a slight lull, the area’s […]
Sake to me: Falling in love with rice wine
For North American Sake Brewery co-owner Jeremy Goldstein, it wasn’t a trip to Japan but a visit back home to California that inspired his new venture. “I’d never had ‘craft’ sake, but I went to this amazing restaurant with a sake sommelier and had a whole different experience than I’d had before with the heated […]
Renewal’s chef Joe Wolfson keeps it simple
By Sam Padgett and Erin O’Hare Chef Joe Wolfson found renewal in Charlottesville—literally. Renewal, which opened two weeks ago on West Main Street on the ground floor of the Draftsman Hotel, serves as both a culmination of Wolfson’s culinary career and an opportunity to focus his food on [...]