Living

In 1996, John Kiers bought an abandoned 100-acre farm near Staunton. He planted 20 acres of it with grape vines in 1999.

Now open
The Farm Cville, the charming pint-sized market next door to The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative in Belmont, is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every weekday morning by 7:30am in order to be your coffee-and-pastry pit-stop.

All souped up Few things take the chill off your bones like hot soup. And when you want to feed your hunger as well as your soul, there’s its heartier sibling, stew. These restaurants are ladling up some of the tastiest bowlfuls of warmth and comfort around. Petit Pois The French onion soup at Petit […]

 It’s hard not to giggle when someone pours you a glass of wine from a bottle four times its regular size. It’s like the person should be wearing clown shoes and an oversized bow tie. But when Geoff Macilwaine, manager of Wine Warehouse, hosted a party to honor an aisle-bound employee last weekend, he expertly […]

Exactly a year ago last Saturday, the most important songwriter of the 20th century, Bob Dylan himself, played the John Paul Jones Arena.

With the Crozet Musical Festival September 30-October 2, we’re focusing our hungry appetites on our Albemarle neighbor. Here’s how to eat your way through Crozet—breakfast, lunch, dinner and beyond.—Christy Baker Breakfast: Southern Way Café (5382 Three Notch’d Rd., 823-9450) The Good Ole Boy Breakfast is just what you’d expect: two eggs cooked to order with […]

Mead, the honey wine drunk by famous olde tymers like King Midas, Chaucer and the Vikings, hasn’t had a big following since, well, King Midas, Chaucer and the Vikings. Mostly poured by velvet-clad, corseted “wenches” at renaissance fairs, mead’s been trapped in the Middle Ages. But with a current estimate of 60 dedicated meaderies nationwide […]

If you were to meet either Frank Fairfield or Erik the Red on the street, you’d think that each was an absolutely one-of-a-kind, true American original. They’re both difficult to get in touch with, wear high-waisted stovepipe pants, speak with the wide-eyed, hopeful innocence of pre-Watergate Americans, and, indeed, both sing as if the second half of the 20th-century never happened.

The Commonwealth’s Commonwealth Come Friday, Charlottesville will have its own skybar! It’s not the original one planned for the now-defunct Landmark Hotel, but Commonwealth Restaurant’s Skybar is a bar under the sky—and open as of September 23. With 16 beers on tap, a menu of upscale bar favorites blessed with Chef Alex George’s Caribbean/Latin American […]

When we made our reservation at Peter Chang’s China Grill, manager Gen Lee asked us to bring wine because he doesn’t love their list. The request came as no surprise. Wine certainly isn’t the first pairing that comes to mind when you think of fiery hot and intensely spiced Sichuan cuisine. Beer, yes, or maybe even small sips of water between tears.