Order Up! fills mobile lunch spot on the Downtown Mall

By Sam Padgett and Erin O’Hare Food cart Order Up!—not to be confused with Grubhub’s predecessor, OrderUp—recently set up shop in the former Catch the Chef spot on the Downtown Mall at the Third Street SE intersection, next to Virginia National Bank. Owners Max and Troy Robinson, who have operated the food cart for a […]

Local entrepreneur capitalizes on brewing’s ignored ingredient

Beer has been made with malt for hundreds —if not thousands—of years, but a Charlottesville entrepreneur only recently thought to exploit the steeped, germinated and dried grains to find a unique way into the craft beverage world. Jeff Bloem opened Murphy & Rude Malting Co. in Woolen Mills in February. He intended to focus on […]

The Pie Chest and Lone Light Coffee open second location

On March 14, 2015, eager pie eaters lined up along Fourth Street NE on The Pie Chest’s opening day. They were ready to satisfy the cravings triggered by Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi (you know, 3.14159265359), which the new bake shop opted to embrace. When the door swung open at […]

Living Picks: Week of June 13-19

Food & Drink Brewer’s Ball Thursday, June 14 Enjoy the best that Charlottesville has to offer in local brews (food too!), at a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. $75, 7-11pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. NW. brewersball cville.finestcff.org Nonprofit Juneteenth celebration Saturday, June 16 This annual event commemorates the end of slavery with […]

Day trip: The Frontier Culture Museum brings history home

Just like America, the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton is big, complicated and beautiful. It’s one of my favorite places to take my two girls—a museum where almost anything can be touched and very little is written down. Creative writing professors often exhort students to “show, don’t tell,” and this museum nails that concept, presenting […]

Oregon wine’s enduring relationship with Virginia

In most wine shops and restaurants in Virginia, you’ll find an excellent Oregon wine selection—one that locals may take for granted. But Virginia’s high-quality Oregon wine niche is no accident, it’s driven by a core group of passionate people. Though Oregon’s pre-Prohibition wine history dates back to the 1840s, today’s winemakers put down roots in […]

Pho 3 Pho opens off 29 North

By Jenny Gardiner and Sam Padgett eatdrink@c-ville.com You’ve gotta give John Dinh, owner of Charlottesville’s newest Vietnamese restaurant, major props for his clever restaurant moniker: Pho 3 Pho. In case you didn’t know, “pho” is pronounced “pha,” as in do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do. Dinh credits the name, which echoes our local 434 area code, to his brother James. […]

Scooby deux: The problem with canine cloning

It was a trivial bit of celebrity news, but it evoked conversations I’ve had with clients in the past, and probably meant I’d be having them more often in the future. Barbra Streisand cloned her dog. I have never had someone approach me with the serious intention of cloning a pet, but the idea is […]

Renewal’s chef Joe Wolfson keeps it simple

By Sam Padgett and Erin O’Hare Chef Joe Wolfson found renewal in Charlottesville—literally. Renewal, which opened two weeks ago on West Main Street on the ground floor of the Draftsman Hotel, serves as both a culmination of Wolfson’s culinary career and an opportunity to focus his food on simplicity. Besides an impressive collection of accolades, […]