Parallax Project and Oenoverse co-founder and UVA School of Data Science associate director of career connections and community engagement Reggie Leonard shares thoughts on how to spend a day in Charlottesville:
When I think about my perfect Charlottesville Day, I’ll give myself the constraint of a weekday/workday. I love unexpectedly warm days, when I’m working from home (which is generally on Fridays). On these days, I’ll wake up a bit later than usual, start my morning with a pour-over and some sort of oat-based breakfast (sometimes it’s overnight oats, sometimes it’s homemade muesli, and other times it’s a Kind bar). I’ll do the rest of my morning routine, which generally involves listening to podcasts while I’m making coffee, reading, catching up on text messages and personal email, and mentally preparing myself for the day.
From there, I’m setting my tone and intentions, listening to music, and essentially triaging emails before diving into meetings and projects.
Since I live downtown, I love to sneak little walks in throughout the day, particularly if I can shift a Zoom meeting to an actual phone call. I often find myself walking to the Downtown Mall around lunch time, and either grabbing something to go from Revolutionary Soup, or a sandwich from Market Street Market. On the best days, I’m also popping into Lone Light Coffee for a quick afternoon espresso (no sugar, no milk/dairy).
Sometimes, remote days allow me to take meetings in-person at places like Common House or MarieBette. On the MarieBette days, when I find myself in the Rose Hill neighborhood, I’m likely also popping around the corner to The Wine Guild to snag a few bags of Rancho Gordo beans to get started for dinner.
When I’m back at the house, I’m back to working until the end of my day.
Since we’re talking about a Friday, I’m likely plotting one of two options for an evening wine tasting: back to Wine Guild (for a tasting) and then Cou Cou Rachou for a glass or flight, or to Market Street Wine (you’re allowed to dump wine at a wine tasting, so challenge yourself to try it sometimes!). When I’m at my best, I’m also running over from Market Street Wine to the Welcome Gallery for a First Fridays exhibit.
After wine tasting, I’m either coming back to the pot of beans I cooked earlier to finish making a meal around them or, if I’m being honest with myself, putting them in the fridge and changing clothes to go out. I’ll either grab dinner at Birdhouse and hang out there for the evening, or to Crushpad for Luce pasta, and then a nightcap at either The Alley Light or Lampo, depending on how much walking I’m feeling up to. While I love making plans with friends, my favorite kind of evening is when I’m solo, bopping (or, more accurately, ambling) around from place to place, and serendipitously spending time with different groups of friends while making new friends at each spot. For me, late nights are the best nights.
When I get home, I’m plotting whether or not I want to spend time at the City Market in the morning, or if I’ll swing by J.M. Stock Provisions for ham (their Tasso is fire, but their Stock ham is a twin flame). At this point in my Friday night, I feel like I’ve packed in another week’s worth of days, and I’m looking forward to sleeping tomorrow morning.
Photo by Eze Amos.
