The Murray family was looking to take its already eclectic Panorama Farms in a new direction. Best known for hosting the UVA cross country team and national collegiate running events, the Murrays wanted to turn a large swath of their Earlysville land into a green burial cemetery, where bodies can be laid to rest in […]
Restaurateur and locally renowned musician Jay Pun is 100 percent Thai. But he still thinks a lot about authenticity. In 2016, Pun traveled to his ancestral home and visited an open-air market in northern Thailand. He was on the hunt for a native lute known as a phin. He’d owned one years before, but it […]
When you’re ready to upgrade your downriver rambling, proceed directly to the James River Batteau Co. “This is the Cadillac tour of the James River,” Company co-founder Will Smith says. “If you want to float with a big bunch of friends, this is the most comfortable way to go.” Batteaux (batteau’s Francofied plural) are flat-bottomed […]
Who is the Pie Guy? In a sense, it’s Keith Groomes who’s always been destined for the role. Groomes started working with the original Pie Guy, Justin Bagley, in 2015. Bagley then sold the business—at the time a well-known food cart on the farmers’ market, festival and Downtown Mall lunch circuits—to cattleman Rob Harrison. Harrison […]
L ifelong thespian Ti Ames was never comfortable with their casting. First, as an African American, Ames was long frustrated never to be cast in Black roles. There just weren’t all that many to cast, Ames says, and “unless you are told otherwise, you are playing a white character.” Second, as a young person still […]
Artists have been creating and decorating miniature models for hundreds—if not thousands—of years. But miniatures have exploded in the past half decade with the growing availability of 3-D printers and virtual gathering spaces for enthusiasts. For example, Warhammer, one of the world’s largest tabletop gaming franchises, has drawn an Instagram community of miniature enthusiasts and […]
Leather goods designer Daniel Foytik has had his share of adversity. Raised in a remote town in Siberia, Russia, he was diagnosed in 2004 with ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease causing spinal fusion. About a year and a half ago, COVID-19 caused him to close his Charlottesville leather goods storefront on Second Street. Now, he’s […]
Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, Martha, wrote to her own daughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, on the occasion of Ellen’s marriage. Postmarking her letter to Boston from Virginia, Martha said she would not be sending Ellen the family’s beer recipes. A fine young woman like Ellen wouldn’t need them, as Martha didn’t “presume” Ellen would ever […]
What’s with the “company” in Kendall Street Company? If you know anything about the local band, an 8- to 9-year-old jam-rock outfit with a dedicated regional following, you know these guys are anything but stuffed shirts. Business casual for frontman Louis Smith and his colleagues doesn’t even come with socks and shoes. No, Smith says […]
There might be a few local residents who haven’t yet heard of Victory Hall Opera. But rest assured that opera aficionados nationwide—from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest—have begun to take notice of the Charlottesville-based company. Victory Hall is turning heads thanks to its embrace of cutting-edge productions, like its latest, a world premiere […]