Warehouses to pavilions

  A note from Arts Editor, Tami Keaveny: As we go to press with his second Feedback column, I’d like to officially welcome James Ford to our staff. James is well-known in the Charlottesville arts community, mainly because he has worked for or written about so many organizations within it. As an expert on film […]

Thomas Jefferson’s vegetable revolution

  Now more than ever, small-scale gardeners are favoring gentler, “pre-industrialized” ways of vegetable growing. Heightened interest in locavorism, heirloom seed-saving, community gardens, farmers markets, and local food sourcing are also contributing to our collective desire to get our own hands dirty and truly know where our food comes from. Ground-swelling developments like these are […]

Briny bivalves: All about oysters

Oyster purists insist on consuming their sea creatures unadorned and straight from the shell, but the uninitiated might want to work their way up to a slurpfest with these half dozen cooked versions—from poached to broiled—on restaurant menus around town. Rhett’s River Grill serves Oysters Rockefeller—they’re topped with spinach, garlic, cream, Pernod, and breadcrumbs and […]

Small Bites: This week's restaurant news

At tavola on Monday, April 23, a night when the busy Italian eatery usually takes a well-deserved night off, you’ll find the space transformed into an Asian restaurant for a one-night-only pop-up called, most appropriately, Marco Polo

Oysters meet their match on both sides of the pond

(File Photo) As oyster lovers are already painfully aware, April traditionally marks the end of their slurping season. Until September, when months get their “r”s back, it’s advised not to eat bivalves. Some rewrite this rule, proclaiming it a vestige of the past, but if you’re a seasonal eater, you’ll want to wait until the […]

Sweets by design: A look at the new Paradox Pastry space

Designing your dream house, wedding, or wardrobe is a cakewalk with Pinterest—the virtual pinboard that keeps magazine clippings from cluttering your life—but Paradox Pastry owner Jenny Peterson has always been able to visualize her designs. It’s a handy talent to have when the bread-and-butter of your job is producing an average of five multitiered, highly […]

Preview: Festival crashing, Dogwood-style

  (Photo by Jack Looney) Nothing says quaint quite like the Charlottesville Dogwood Festival, which marks its sixty-third annual resurrection this year. Comprised of nearly a month of disparate events and activities, the Dogwood Festival has a little something for everyone, as long as everyone likes BBQs, fireworks, beauty pageants, war memorials, carnivals, or fundraising […]

Judging a wine by its label

Looks are everything. Wait, what? No matter what your mom tells you, looks do matter—especially in a crowded marketplace. When it comes to wine, unless we’ve had a bottle before, we base our buying decision on its label. And thank goodness there are producers who make downright ridiculous labels. How else would we know which […]