Peck this

We’ve all seen the pictures on Pinterest—wooden palettes with thoughtful arrangements of salami, a trail of bright dried apricots snaking its way through meat and cheese. For many of us, the art of cheeseboarding seems a little beyond our ability. How do I know which cheese to choose? Which flowers are edible? Where do I […]

Artful implements

Former restaurateur Vu Nguyen has a new culinary endeavor: creating handmade tools for home cooks, inspired by the pros. Tell me briefly about your background and how it led you to start The Dustworks. I’ve either worked in the food industry or a design-focused company. My foray into food started at Bizou in my last […]

Page-turners

With the Virginia Festival of the Book already on our calendar (March 23-26), we reached out to Kalela Williams—the Center for the Book’s new director—to tell us what she’s most looking forward to reading from this year’s lineup. See her picks below, and visit vabook.org for the full festival schedule.—CH Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel I […]

That’s a wrap

It’s the most wonderful time of year. Of course, for a lot of us, it’s also the most stressful, most exhausting time of year. It’s gift-giving season, and to take some of the pressure off, we’ve tapped local gifting gurus in varying arenas—like food, motherhood, drama, science—and asked them to pick a gift for the […]

Pumpkin spiced

Late last summer, four Crozet-based friends found themselves discussing the upcoming fall season—prepping for a new school year, planning autumnal activities, and cozying up their home décor. For Alexis Macias, Kristen Craig, Kathleen Ross, and Marilyn Speight, the latter always starts with the porch.  “We had seen on Instagram a mom out of Texas who […]

Redefining authentic

Anna Gardner and Kelsey Naylor had been working in Charlottesville kitchens for years—Naylor at L’étoile, TEN, The Alley Light, Gardner at The Ivy Inn, Junction, Oakhurst Inn, and together at Public Fish & Oyster—when they started feeling a burn-out coming on. They decided to take a year off to explore Japan and, when they came […]

Oh, go on

Every year, the list of things on wheels grows larger, but it’s hard not to get excited about folks who’ve decked out a vintage horse trailer and repurposed it into something special. It’s the stuff HGTV shows are made of (not to mention what comes next: the goods). Here are three we’re devouring. Kaas & […]

Money where your mouth is

Eat good, do good: DYK that a portion of annual profits from The Ridley—The Draftsman Hotel’s Black-owned Southern cuisine spot—is given to The Ridley Foundation? Named for Dr. Walter Ridley, the first Black graduate of UVA and the first to earn a doctoral degree from a traditional white college, the foundation pursues high-achieving Black students […]

Merrily we roll

Courtney Commander and Tobiah Mundt are working on bringing a proper skating rink to Charlottesville, but until then, their occasional pop-up skate events (look for the group at Tonsler Park, and on Instagram for more info) have us rocking while we’re rolling, with a live DJ on site, plus food trucks and merch. Don’t skate? […]

Trash to treasure

After giving birth to her daughter, artist and art teacher Sarah Sweet decided to get more serious about doing good for the future of the planet. She launched The Scrappy Elephant, a creative reuse art supply store in the winter of 2020, following an inspiring trip to Nashville’s Turnip Green (an organization with a similar […]