Bagels go back to basics
Bodo’s returned to in-store counter service on Monday, abandoning a drive-thru system that the famous local bagel chain had been operating at its Preston Avenue and Emmet Street locations since last May, when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic made going inside the bustling restaurants a no-go.
“We’ve had to wait to do this until it was alright for people to be standing as close together as they do in our line, but we’re now at the point where this should be safe if everyone is masked,” reads a post on the store’s Facebook page announcing the change. “We’re very grateful to all of you for helping us make our drive-thrus work as well as they did.”
Making the jump away from counter service was a natural choice: Both stores were already equipped with drive-thru windows. The Emmet Street shop was originally a Bob Evans and the Preston location had been a Rob Roy. “We are literally the only restaurant in the city that had an unused drive-thru,” says Bodo’s co-owner Scott Smith.
The touchless drive-thru system worked smoothly, complete with handheld credit card scanners and radio headsets. The staff braved all kinds of bad weather, and no Charlottesvillian had to miss their Deli Egg or Cleo salad.
While it seemed like the new model would be a keeper, Smith says it was always temporary. “I know that a lot of people love the drive-thrus, but we’re told that our by-right use of them lapsed years ago with changes to zoning law, and we’ve been running them on the basis of an agreement with the city that we would return to our in-store model soon after all COVID restrictions have been lifted in the city.”
Smith promises that it’s better on the inside, and he sees his customers as more than just a number on a printed ticket. “Apart from any issue of by-right use, we are simply faster and better inside, but we also really just miss having people in,” he says. “Seeing people is part of the idea.”
Not so fast
Since December of 2019, Charlottesville police officers have been scooting around the Downtown Mall on three-wheeled Segway SE-3 Patrollers. Do the Segways prevent crime? Fair question, though it seems that’s not the vehicles’ purpose. The police department released its annual report last month, which said, “Our new Segways are mostly used on the Downtown Mall as a community engagement tool.”
According to Segway, each SE-3 Patroller costs $12,999. The vehicles have a 15-mile-per-hour top speed. Anyone interested in evading the “community engagement tools” should try running up a hill—the Segways can climb a 15-degree slope at the steepest.
“If you’re going to shoot off illegal fireworks, at least make sure you’re getting enough elevation that the burning remnants of phosphorus don’t land on your neighbor’s roof.”
Charlottesville reddit user redd-zeppelin, posted while watching the festivities on the Fourth of July
In brief
Money set aside for statue disposal
City Council is set to hold a special meeting on July 7, in which it plans to set aside $1 million for “removal, storage, and/or covering” of the downtown statues of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, as well as the Ridge Street statue of Sacagawea, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark. Council resolved to remove the Ridge Street statue in 2019, and voted to remove the Confederate monuments last month. According to 2020 laws regarding the removal of war memorials, the City Council can do whatever it wants with the Confederate statues beginning July 7.
New citizens sworn in at Monticello
Monticello held its annual naturalization ceremony for new American citizens on Sunday, July 4. The event saw 21 people from 14 different countries become official Americans. Welcome, everyone! We hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Skill games are now illegal
A host of new laws went into effect on July 1, including a rule banning skill games from Virginia. The gambling-adjacent slot machines had become popular in convenience stores around the state and in Charlottesville. A group of Norfolk business owners unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, reports Norfolk’s WAVY-TV 10. Meanwhile, five cities around the commonwealth are in the process of setting up full-scale casinos, after a rule change in 2019 gave select localities permission to do so.
