Down the street from the medieval cathedral at the stony heart of Valladolid, Spain, sits the Millennium Dome, a geodesic igloo made out of neon-edged hexagons that slot together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Inside the dome, thousands more jigsaw puzzle pieces wait in sealed boxes. Contestants from 40 different countries sit at white tables, poised […]
Two years ago, Brian Lindgren got hit by a car. He broke several bones, but the most important was his left pinky. Lindgren is a violist. He needs his left pinky. This was the summer of 2020, the height of the pandemic shutdown. Musicians were already struggling. Lindgren was heading into the final year of […]
For such a small city, Charlottesville sure has an insane amount of celebrity connections. Ask any townie and you’ll hear so many conflicting tales it can be hard to sort fact from fiction. Take the late playwright Sam Shepard, who lived in Scottsville with Jessica Lange in the mid-’80s. Rumor has it he did his […]
John Freeman has found his home in the booth. The career play-by-play announcer and UVA grad returned to Charlottesville to become the “voice of the Cavaliers” for the men’s football and basketball teams last November. He’d been the primary commentator for several university sports—lacrosse and even some men’s basketball—years ago, but he’d never spoken for […]
Late last summer, four Crozet-based friends found themselves discussing the upcoming fall season—prepping for a new school year, planning autumnal activities, and cozying up their home décor. For Alexis Macias, Kristen Craig, Kathleen Ross, and Marilyn Speight, the latter always starts with the porch. “We had seen on Instagram a mom out of Texas who […]
Is it just us, or are cookies the ultimate treat? They can be sweet, they can be savory, or they can be simple enough to dunk (or daintily dip, pinky up!) in a cup of English breakfast. You can serve them at parties, you can pack them in a kid’s lunch, you can pile them […]
Anna Gardner and Kelsey Naylor had been working in Charlottesville kitchens for years—Naylor at L’étoile, TEN, The Alley Light, Gardner at The Ivy Inn, Junction, Oakhurst Inn, and together at Public Fish & Oyster—when they started feeling a burn-out coming on. They decided to take a year off to explore Japan and, when they came […]
To botanists, Tuber melanosporum is a fungus that grows on tree roots underground. Gourmets give it a classier name: the black Périgord truffle. Once only produced in certain areas of France, Italy, and Spain, black truffles are now cultivated all over the world—including locally. Seeing truffle farms in New Zealand gave Pat Martin and her […]
The team behind Junction, the Southwest-style Belmont restaurant that closed in 2020, has launched another eatery in the same space, but new patrons can expect anything but the same old. The new resto goes by the name Mockingbird and serves up Southern comfort. Head chef Melissa Close-Hart worked with long-time collaborators Michelle Moshier, Matthew Hart, […]
“Is this the most environmentally friendly option?” At DuCard Vineyards, this is the question asked prior to making each and every decision. Nestled at the edge of the Shenandoah National Park among the mountains of Madison County, DuCard’s vintners are not only committed to producing award-winning, small-batch wine but also devoted to being good stewards […]