River Hawkins knows tequila. More to the point, he knows mezcal. When you’ve gone deep down the wormhole of tequila’s smokier, more bracing brethren, Hawkins says, tequila is almost too sweet. “I think of it as a dessert drink,” the Bebedero and Mejicali owner says of the typically 80 proof liquor—without a trace of irony. […]
With eyes closed and mouth open, I hear deer everywhere. It’s just before sundown on the day after Christmas, and we’re clustered in a hunter’s blind beside an old privy in a field flanked by woods, waiting for a deer to tiptoe into view. The forest floor, littered with dry autumn leaves, is crackling. The […]
Think of this as Charlottesville’s field guide to the new year. We rounded up the city’s most dialed-in experts in politics, food, art, weather, and beyond, and asked them to predict what’s coming up for 2026. Their collective wisdom charts the trends, shifts, and stories that will shape the year.—C-VILLE writers VIRGINIA POLITICS Fast times […]
Half a century ago, Peter Jensen launched Project Censored, in part as a response to how the Watergate break-in was covered. Richard Nixon didn’t censor the initial reporting, but he didn’t have to. The press simply didn’t cover it with any serious scrutiny until well after Nixon was elected. The story didn’t reach the American […]
Scott Stadium has an official capacity of 61,500. That’s why it was noticeable to both University of Virginia football Coach Tony Elliott and his players that home crowds averaged fewer than 39,000 fans in 2024. “We need them,” Elliott said last October of the fans missing from those 22,000 empty seats. “We need folks to […]
Beyond the salad bar and hot foods at the 5th Street Station Wegmans, seven people play Scrabble on a rainy Friday night. Their boards are as bespoke as their tiles and tile bags, and people are confused. “This game,” says one would-be detective, passing by, “looks a lot like Scrabble.” “It is Scrabble,” one of […]
Confederate statues have roiled Charlottesville since at least 2016, when Charlottesville High School student Zyahna Bryant petitioned City Council to remove them, a request that culminated in 2017’s deadly Unite the Right rally. Charlottesville and its Lost Cause legacy have once again taken the national stage, this time as part of a major Los Angeles […]
“Don’t be a dick.” That’s the ask from Kari Anderson Miller, a former Greenbrier Elementary School teacher and Peace Corps alumna who started the nonprofit International Neighbors a decade back. Her initial intent—to tether newly resettled refugees in Charlottesville to community members who’d help them adjust—meant to ease newcomers into their first exciting, bewildering, sometimes […]
Situated across the street from King Family Vineyards in Crozet, nestled among a stand of trees at the edge of pasturelands, a 1929 farmhouse offers the opportunity to explore exciting visual art within a vibrant and welcoming domestic setting. Visitors to the non-traditional gallery at Folly Farm won’t find paintings of hunt scenes or hayfields […]
When University of Virginia neuroscientist Harald Sontheimer shared this year’s International Prize for Translational Neuroscience with Stanford’s Michelle Monje, publicity about the award created the impression of a partnership. The two were credited with the potentially life-saving and, thus, marketable discovery that gliomas—deadly brain tumors—wire themselves into neural networks, hijacking brain activity to fuel their […]