There’s a new wine expert in town, and he’s helping a Belmont eatery stay on top of its already well-respected vino game. Wells Blanchard came to C’ville last year with plenty of experience on the vine—a coveted viticulture/oenology degree from the University of California, Davis, several years of winemaking experience and an extensive background as […]
Sam Bush wanted to take what was cool about The Garage, the improbably small music venue in downtown Charlottesville for which he books acts, and smear it all over the city. He wanted to take the great bands he was attracting, and make something in addition to the quirky little concerts they were playing to […]
Webster’s dictionary defines jazz guitarist as a virtuoso strings player who refuses to make a decent buck on his or her talents. O.K. not really. But consider the case of Stephane Wrembel. The Frenchman started playing the piano when he was 4 years old. He studied under a renowned classical pianist and began dabbling in […]
It sounds like something a strung-out hippie might have muttered after two straight days of Dead jams and strong acid. “The music is all around us. It’s in the clouds, man.” Music ownership has gone something like this over the past decade and a half: Physical media turned to digital media, digital media turned to […]
Dave Fafara says he bought coffee roaster Shenandoah Joe 15 years ago because he couldn’t get a decent cup of coffee in Charlottesville. My how times have changed. Shenandoah Joe recently opened its fourth retail location, adding a Harrisonburg outlet to its formerly three-store roster. After selling the beans wholesale and at City Market for […]
Windows were once the middle child of home construction. You had to take care of them at some point, but you didn’t really pay them any attention until you had to. It was almost like you could see right through them. Then came the environmental revolution, and people went nuts for energy efficient windows. But […]
Local celebrity chef Tucker Yoder’s new restaurant doesn’t have a catchy name. It doesn’t have a glossy logo. And the dining room? You never know what you’re going to get. But all that is sort of the point. Yoder, who’s been flying under the radar since he left his job as executive chef at Clifton […]
Lauren Hoffman had never heard of Paste Magazine. But in 2006, soon after the release of her most acclaimed record Choreography, the LP’s lead single was included on one of the national magazine’s music samplers alongside the likes of The Hold Steady, Bright Eyes and The Shins. It wasn’t the only reach enjoyed by “Broken,” […]
What’s longer, the list of IPAs made by American craft breweries, or the span of every beard from every American brewmaster laid end to end? It’s a trick question, because both are still growing. What’s with the beards is anyone’s guess, but Three Notch’d Brewing Company owner Dave Warwick says there’s good reason for the […]
When it comes to barbecue, could Virginia ever be on the level of Texas or Kansas? The Barbeque Exchange’s Craig Hartman thinks so. “Virginia was once the epicenter, and when people moved away they did barbecue,” Hartman says. “The first written advertisements in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, they all said come to Virginia for […]