New whiskies in town

Signs that fall is just around the corner: cool evenings, colorful leaves, and last but certainly not least, whiskey! But this is not Kentucky, so we’re not talking bourbon. Two new releases of locally distilled single-malt whiskey are available now. Spirit Lab Distilling, a little warehouse shop on Sixth Street SE, presents the fifth annual […]

Small Bites: A Deal at The Clifton

Such a deal! Sometimes it’s fun to be a tourist in your own backyard. The Clifton—a top-notch boutique hotel that deftly pulls off the traditional-meets-modern thing—is offering a package that might be tempting enough to keep you close to home. Book a room on a Monday or Tuesday night through August 31, and receive a […]

Soul kitchen

How does a new restaurant get away with having just six items on the menu? By making all of them very, very well. What you’ll get at the Soul Food Joint is crispy-battered fried chicken, fall-off-the-bone ribs, tender-as-a-lullaby pulled pork, simmered-to-perfection collards, boy-oh-boy baked mac & cheese, and deviled eggs better than the ones your […]

City vision

Former Charlottesville mayor Maurice Cox, now Detroit’s director of planning and development, talks about managing growth, recovering from a crisis, and the power of telling the right story. There was a time when Maurice Cox couldn’t escape being recognized in Charlottesville. In August 2012, almost a decade after he served as mayor, he sat with […]

Thank T.J. it’s Fridays: Happy Hour at Monticello!

Join Thomas Jefferson—aka Bill Barker, the new T.J. impersonator—for local wine, beer, and picnic fare from Farm Table, on June 14 on the west lawn of the presidential plantation. Monticello is always a beautiful place to visit, but at twilight, with an adult beverage in hand, you may gain a new perspective. (Hell, Barker may […]

Style points: Vitae Spirits scores design award

Vitae Spirits just added another accolade to its pile of awards, but this one is for its design, not for its excellent craft liquors. A converted schoolhouse, Vitae’s tasting room and production facility on Henry Street is half laboratory and half chic cocktail lounge. This combination earned Vitae’s design/build contractor, Charlottesville’s Alloy Workshop, the award […]

Proposed court docket would offer treatment programs for incarcerated

Increasingly, jails have become asylums. City and county officials are hoping to change that with a new court docket aimed at diverting people with mental illness from jail by the end of the year. The therapeutic docket follows 18 months of data gathering by the local Evidence-Based Decision-Making Policy Team, which found that 23.1 percent […]