Every Easter, chefs, purveyors, foodies, and friends gather for a massive celebration of food and wine centered around the distinctly Greek ritual of roasting a goat outdoors on a spit. Started in 2010, it is now the largest annual gathering of Charlottesville’s food family, and its host is the family’s patriarch, Angelo Vangelopoulos, chef-owner of […]
There is no elite culinary school in Charlottesville. Instead, there is the Clifton Inn. No kitchen has helped to create more local chefs than the Clifton’s, the fine dining restaurant that Craig Hartman built. Hartman first came to town in 1991, when he visited from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to watch a UVA […]
In Charlottesville as elsewhere, the local food movement is at a crossroads. For all its successes, of which there are many, some see it is a fad near its end. Others say that eating local is beyond fashion—a way of life since the beginning of time that is here to stay. Those who forecast the […]
Imagine your dream restaurant. What would it be like? The menu would be designed to your tastes, with food prepared by world class chefs, using only the best ingredients. There would never be any crowds, and you’d have the whole place to yourself. You could arrive when you chose, and stay as long as you […]
Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville’s original gourmand, was famous for the food served at his Monticello home, which statesman Daniel Webster said was “half Virginian, half French…in good taste and abundance.” Fast forward 200 years, and things seem very much the same in Jefferson’s hometown. Half Virginian, half French food, in good taste and abundance, is everywhere. […]
To some restaurants, social media is a mixed bag. Sure, it can help enhance a restaurant’s visibility, but it also allows detractors to reach a large audience at the click of a button. There is one type of restaurant, though, for which social media has been an unqualified boon: the hidden ethnic gem. Consider El […]
Historic moments in the Charlottesville food scene are rare. They’re not really our thing. But, if ever a date qualified as “historic” for Charlottesville restaurants, June 4 sure did. That was when Dave Simpson completed the sale of his legendary C&O Restaurant to chef Dean Maupin. The transition had been in the works for months, […]
Gourmet food is moving downscale. The work of talented chefs is increasingly available to diners who don’t wish to dress up or pay a small fortune for a good meal. While the proliferation of inexpensive, casual, high quality restaurants has generally been a good thing, one downside is the squeezing out of a dying breed—a […]
In a blind taste test by a panel of experts last fall, Virginia wines squared off against those from leading regions of the world. The results stunned many. Virginia won. In case it had not been clear already, there was now no doubt: Virginia wine is on the rise. With the popularity of Virginia wine […]
Is it possible to be irreverent and reverent at the same time? Tempo, the modern French-American restaurant that opened in 2011, proves that it is, mixing good, irreverent fun with food that reveres French culinary tradition, prepared by one of Charlottesville’s most talented chefs. On the one hand, Tempo’s scene ignores conventions and boundaries, whether […]