Esther Bobbin only had to be near the chocolate industry to fall in love. Now, through her nonprofit United By Chocolate, she’s trying to change the business for the better by breaking down language barriers. “There are about 4.5 million cacao producers worldwide, and the majority of them don’t speak English,” Bobbin says. “And yet, […]
Kylie Britt knows the wizardry behind winemaking. And she wants you to know it, too. “I think it’s important to know where wine comes from and the people who make it, but I want to share that in accessible ways,” says the aspiring consultant and current “wine specialist” at The Wool Factory. Britt’s journey into […]
Kindness Cafe + Play opened quietly during the first COVID-19 wave’s peak. Now, after battling pandemic-related challenges for almost two years, owner Katie Kishore is looking to expand on her mission: To give adults with cognitive disabilities structured, gainful employment and a place to feel like they’re part of something big. “It has been wonderful—even […]
Becky Calvert loves to cook. She’s held cooking and canning classes around town—places like the Charlottesville Cooking School, Market Central, The Happy Cook, The Spice Diva, and PVCC—for more than a decade, and always with a secret weapon: her cookbook collection. Numbering in the hundreds, it spans centuries and genres. “Cookbooks fascinate me because they […]
Is cooking an art or a craft? Whichever side you come down on, cooking is clearly creative. That’s why Brittany Fan—painter, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, food blogger, and self-professed “all-around maker”—loves it. A native of Blacksburg, Fan came to UVA for a degree in studio art, art history, and arts administration and stayed for a […]
When people look back on 2021-2022, what will they think of?Okay, other than that. With a little luck, it will be the new coffee shops, bakeries, and lunch counters that braved the elements to open their doors to the city’s hungry and thirsty. With a little luck, it will be that elegant cake they brought […]
When the kids leave home, what are the choices: Rent out the basement? Move? Retire to a warmer climate? Sean and Gineane Stalfort rejected all those options. “We thought about downsizing,” says Gineane. “But we do a lot of entertaining, we host family holidays, and we wanted to have our sons come back here.” The […]
If you’ve been following Taylor Ahn on Instagram (@new_iterations), like I have for a while, you’re at once impressed, inspired, and…a little grossed out. Her current project, an antique card catalog, started as a grimy habitat for a colony of stink bugs. She spent hours ridding the piece of its occupants and rebuilding the frame. […]
If you had your eye on the more than $1 million new construction home at 802 Hinton Ave., bad news. Someone beat you to it. But also good news. The builder, Steve Nicholson Construction, is still out there doing HGTV-worthy work on spec and for specific homeowners with style—not to mention substance. For context, consider […]
Dave Ackerman and his architecture and design firm, Wolf Ackerman, have been making modern additions to traditional homes for at least a decade, and he thinks the trend is definitely catching on. “We’ve done a lot of older houses, specifically in and around Belmont, that just don’t suit the way people live today,” Ackerman says. […]