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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Alana Woerpel began using her imagination to create beauty and comfort as a little girl, helping her mother sew, paint, and hang wallpaper in the houses her parents bought to renovate. These days, the UVA alum has her own business, Alana’s, Ltd., a prize-winning interior design firm. Creating beautiful rooms has also become her avocation: […]
Tate Pray doesn’t consider furniture art. But that doesn’t mean his work isn’t artistic. The classically trained painter, sculptor, and tireless maker began working as a carpenter after earning his art degree. He moved to Charlottesville in 2005, transitioned to concrete formwork and stuck with that for more than a decade. In 2019, Pray returned […]