Road tunes

Some of the best business ideas begin as a “What if?” For tellAplay Entertainment owner Aaron Hale, that was, “What if we had a karaoke party bus?”  At the time, tellAplay was expanding. Originally a theater company with a DJ arm, the music side was taking off and Hale and a manager began to brainstorm. […]

This old thing?

It was helping her mom sell a collection of vintage owls that prompted Marangelie Caballero to open her first Etsy shop. But she quickly discovered the practice felt almost therapeutic.  “I started to fill the shop with my own finds and it slowly developed into what it is today,” Caballero says. That is, Otherwise Shoppe, […]

Better butter

When Ghana native Charity Malia Dinko won a Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery and moved to the U.S., she knew that, as soon as she was able to start earning money, she’d try to send some home. In the beginning, that meant offering micro-loans to Ghanaian mothers who wanted to start businesses. Then, after two years […]

Now serving

Alicia Walsh-Noel is no stranger to a career pivot. Seven years ago, she left her cubicle job to start as a busser at Zocalo. And in 2018, while working at Brasserie Saison, she approached Will Richey with an offer to run the marketing for his restaurant group.  “My background is a potpourri of photography, communications, […]

Frozen gem

Until her winter break, Sophie Tran’s culinary expertise—as least as it pertained to ice cream—went about as far as binge-watching dessert rounds of “Chopped” competitions. But when she was gifted a Cuisinart ice cream maker for Christmas, her casual interest turned into an unexpected side hustle: YourChurn, a custom ice cream business. “I told myself […]

Love in the time of corona: With their planned weddings on hold, three local couples are making lemonade from lemons

It’s to be expected that one’s wedding day will include a few stressors—the guest shuttle didn’t arrive on time, there’s a stain on the bride’s veil, the band left a crucial instrument behind. What’s less predictable: A global pandemic shuts down the wedding altogether. Here are three local couples embracing the change. May the 4th […]

Tastes just like homemade (because it is): From sauces to sweet snacks, Charlottesville makers get cookin’

Maybe our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, but these five cooks, bakers, and concocters make an extra helping hard to resist. It’s all gravy No one knows the phrase “food is an international language” more than Yvonne Cunningham. The sauce-maker developed the recipe for her “Italian gravy” (so-called because it’s so thick) while living in […]