By the time you read this, the furor of graduation weekend, with its unholy crush of diners fresh off a major rite of passage and ravenous for a suitably memorable meal, will be over. Regular people will consider that a good thing, as will restaurateurs on their way to the bank. As for those of […]
People like naming restaurants after animals almost as much as they like eating animals inside those restaurants. Also, lately, they like the word “gastropub.” The first time we heard it applied to a Charlottesville eatery
College life is about learning, of course, and post-college life is about the furious consumption of luxury goods. It’s only proper, then, that gazillions of newly minted UVA grads and their mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, cousins and nannies will celebrate the great rite of passage that is commencement, scheduled for May 19 and 20, by […]
Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar owner Matteus Frankovich has made more room for you and yours to belly up to the bar. If you tried to stop by the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar the week of April 9, you might have been stymied. An Easter weekend renovation took a few days longer than planned—what renovation doesn’t?—but […]
It’s been a dozen years that Shenandoah Joe has been roasting coffee here in town. Talk mud with owner Dave Fafara, and you get an earful about the endless geekery one can undertake when it comes to those beloved brown beans. Just like its more-oft-discussed counterpart, wine, coffee is an agricultural product whose ultimate taste […]
If Ed Nafei cooks like he talks, expect generous portions. Restaurantarama has been eyeing the former Hong Kong spot on Emmet Street for weeks, ever since Nafei took it over and posted a sign promising
Charlottesville’s a city that loves to eat, located in a state that loves to smoke. Though you can certainly order up a mean shrimp veloute in this town, depending where you order it, its flavors will be tempered with the subtle essence de Marlboro wafting over from the bar area—for at least another year, that […]
Despite its seemingly auspicious location next door to the high-traffic Main Street Market, the former gas station at 420 W. Main St. has proven a tough row to hoe for several
After nearly four years of running their down-to-earth Italian joint on Water Street, Franky and Meridith Benincasa are moving on. La Cucina will be closed by the time you read this. Why? Two reasons. One, the Benincasas have a good incentive to leave: the chance to sell their restaurant to Bill Atwood, whose nine-story Waterhouse […]
Restaurantarama might spend a lot of time tagging along with restaurateurs, but that doesn’t mean we actually know what it takes to open an eatery. Of the health inspections, liquor license applications, flatware choices and menu-related agonizing, we have only secondhand knowledge. Joanna Yoakam, though, has been there, and she wants to spare someone else […]