For keeps

This one’s not for the album—it’s for the wall. In addition to her own still-life work, artist Sarah Miller accepts commissions for paintings of couples’ favorite wedding scenes, from candid engagement photos to their first look. It’s a great alternative for folks who want a more artful display of their big day. She paints each […]

What a gift!

Meal-planning, traveling, party outfits—the holidays are stressful enough before you even start thinking about making a listand checking it twice. So if you’re stumped about what to buy your doesn’t-like-golf-or-beer (#holidaycliches) father-in-law or your already-has-everything best friend, we asked some local folks to give us their tried-and-true gift ideas, from home décor to sweet treats, […]

On schedules

Even Laurel Smith admits that having a brand that creates both jewelry and dayplanners is a little disjointed. “I like things to be neat and tidy and make sense,” she says, a sensibility that carries through her line of minimalist bracelets, earrings, and other accessories. But that’s what a planner is for—keeping things tidy. And […]

Poppin’ bottles

Springhouse Sundries springhousesundries.com Relative newcomer Springhouse Sundries focuses on the accessible—wines at a reasonable price we can all wrap our minds and taste buds around. Springhouse is a side project of the Wine Guild of Charlottesville, so it comes with some serious cred. Industry insiders Priscilla Curley and Matt Hauck pick the poison and offer […]

Varietal show

There is much to look forward to as the Virginia wine industry matures, and as more and more high-quality wines are produced. Varieties such as cabernet franc and petit manseng are becoming recognized as grapes that flourish in the region. But a growing industry also gives space for smaller producers, new grape varieties, and creative […]

Crush a lot

Vincent Derquenne has been at the center of Charlottesville’s fine-dining universe for nearly 30 years. And certainly wine service has been somewhere in his orbit over the decades. Now, he’s bringing it closer than ever with the launch of Crush Pad Wines, a bar and bottle shop across the Downtown Mall from Bizou, the restaurant […]

Sticking it out

Yoshihiro Tauchi is tough. When he developed back problems decades ago while butchering tuna at a New York fish company, his way of “taking it easy” was to switch to restaurant work. After he healed up he started his own fish company in Washington, D.C. That was only the beginning of his adventures in the […]

Any way you slice it

If you want to make Neapolitan-style pizza in Charlottesville and you’re not from Naples, being from Lampo is probably the next best thing. But let’s back up. Aaron Hill’s pizza-making days started well before he served as the Belmont restaurant’s sous chef from 2016 to 2019. His first serious dough-flinging foray was at another member […]

The Downtown Mall gets Lucky

Patrick McClure had spent four happy years running Citizen Bowl Shop on the Downtown Mall—“Well,” he says, “not 2020”—when he decided it was time for a change.  You wouldn’t know it from the outside, where the old CB sign still hangs. But the old Bowl Shop’s been reinvented on the inside as Lucky Blue’s, a […]

Bake it till you make it

How many badass bakers can one modest hamlet support? Seems Charlottesville is determined to find out. Christina Martin comes to Charlottesville trailing a wake of Michelin-starred experiences by way of the West Coast and Chicago. She most recently wrapped a short stint at The Inn at Little Washington. Now, Martin’s putting out pastries under her […]