Sadly, the largest and most famous Oktoberfest celebration, held annually in Munich, Germany, has been canceled this year due to COVID-19. Oktoberfest traditionally begins in mid- September and continues into October. Of course, autumn isn’t canceled, and as it arrives in Virginia, local breweries and beer drinkers can look forward to the release of beers […]
Second chance City Council approves Flint Hill development After nearly an hour of discussion, and midway through a meeting that lasted until 2:30am, City Council voted July 20 to move forward with the Flint Hill housing development, a set of new homes to be constructed in Fry’s Spring. Last year, council rejected an initial proposal […]
Much of the local uproar about the import tariffs levied by the Trump Administration last year appears to have died down, though concerns remain. The U.S. government placed a duty of 30 percent on imported solar panels in January 2018, and several months later added a 25 percent tax on steel and a 10 percent […]
Is love in the air? It appears so–at least between the cities of Richmond and Charlottesville, as witnessed by the number of businesses that have decided to open locations in both cities. Charlottesville, with its beautiful setting and college town vibe, has long made lists of best places to [...]
Lee Graves is not a foodie—he says so himself on the fourth page of his recently released book Virginia Beer: A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft’s Golden Age. But he is uniquely qualified to tell the rich story of Virginia craft beer. Graves was a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in [...]
Pastry chef Earl Vallery is new to Charlottesville, and there are a few things you should know about him. 1) He loves bread. “I think it’s the most amazing food. I could eat it every day of my life,” says Vallery, who went to culinary school for bread-baking before turning to pastry (he helped [...]
Bottoms up, y’all. It’s Virginia Spirits Month here in the commonwealth, sponsored by the Virginia Distillers Association and meant to spotlight Virginia-made spirits. Many local bartenders do so all year ’round, but there are a few special cocktails this month that are worth sidling up to the [...]
If you’ve made the trip down I-64 recently to check out an REI garage sale or pop in at the General Assembly, you may have noticed a familiar sign or two in the area. Restaurants and breweries that are native to Charlottesville continue to appear all around our eastward neighboring city—and [...]
We’re halfway through June, which means fruit harvest season has begun, and that means now is the time to do our best impression of the very hungry caterpillar. You know the story: A tiny caterpillar eats through fruit after fruit (and a piece of cake, an ice cream cone, a pickle, etc.) on his [...]
Lu-Mei Chang can’t stay away from the kitchen, and we’re all better off for it. Chang, who grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, started cooking when she came to Charlottesville 28 years ago. She worked at Eastern Standard, one of Charlottesville’s first Asian restaurants (located where The Whiskey Jar is [...]
Watering holes all over town are getting into the Christmas spirits—er, spirit—this week, decking the halls and pouring festive drinks galore. The Whiskey Jar’s Christmas pop-up bar will feature an all-Christmas cocktail list created by bar director Leah Peeks and assistant bar manager Reid [...]
For more than 20 years, every time Barbie Brannock cooked California-style Mexican food for her friends, they’d ask, “When are you going to open a restaurant?” They weren’t so much asking as they were insisting, says Brannock, who learned to cook in her mother’s Southern California kitchen, and [...]