November ABODE: Kitchen

SECRET INGREDIENT Give thanks for the apple There is no fruit (or vegetable either!) that serves as such a stalwart servant month after month, year after year, as that all American fruit, the apple. European settlers stitched seeds into their clothing, then sowed them here in the colonies to propagate the taste of home. But […]

November ABODE: Kids

GROWING ROOM Separate peace Challenge: Provide independence for growing sisters Sisters Alex (7) and Ivy (9) Lynch walk together from their home off of Rio Road to school, every day. However, as a bright and articulate fourth grader, Ivy has started to feel the need to assert her independence and has questioned the traditional, not-quite-three-minute, […]

November ABODE: The best of both

Standard story: Couple buys a 1922 house in one of Charlottesville’s protected historic districts, then plans a renovation. But what happens when the couple in question has distinctly modern taste? The front facade of the hous, as the Mills and Dreyfus learned, hadn’t always featured brick columns or railings (above). The new wooden porch is […]

November ABODE: Real Estate

You finally find the house you want to buy. Your Realtor draws up a purchase agreement and you’re told you have to get title insurance. This sounds kind of scary, so you ask yourself, “Do I need to hire a real estate attorney?” For "boilerplate transactions," you can probably just stick with a title company, […]

November ABODE: Rental Rescue

I remember the days when all I needed to hang “art” on the walls were some plastic push pins and a roll of masking tape. Times have changed—but unfortunately, custom framing can come with a hefty price tag, leaving you hanging before you’ve even put a nail hole in the wall. With do-it-yourself framing and […]

Stephan Said brings it all back home

When the first wave of protestors took to Zuccotti Park in mid-September, few could have predicted that the Occupy Wall Street movement would soon spread throughout the globe, but Iraqi-American singer-songwriter Stephan Said can claim some prescience on that front. Said’s sixth album, Difrent, released on September 20 on his own Universal Hobo Records, has […]

 Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert at The Paramount

The good chef You probably know Chef Eric Ripert as a judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef” or from “No Reservations,” where he’s traveled and eaten with best buddy and fellow silver fox, Anthony Bourdain. But, this soft-spoken chef from Andorra, France, is a star in his own right, with four cookbooks, a show called “Avec […]

What wine pros would drink (and eat) on their deathbeds

 I don’t often contemplate death, yet the thought of asking food and wine people what they would eat and drink as a final meal is irresistible. It’s a passionate question for a passionate bunch, and while coffee-table books have been dedicated to last meals, the wine is often overlooked. I say that’s the meat of […]