Feast week: Our guide to a can’t-miss culinary staycation

Set aside for a moment that eating out three times a week is perhaps excessively gluttonous, and come with me on a quick trip. It’ll be like a vacation, but you’ll get to stay right here in Charlottesville. Oh, hey, we could call it a STAYcation! Get it? No one’s ever thought of that before, […]

Down home: Red Hub brings back classic, no-frills Southern fare

Ryan Hubbard and Mark Marshall aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. The two guys behind Red Hub Food Co., a catering service that recently opened a lunch counter at its 202 10th Street NW location, are serving up classic North Carolina-style barbecue, plain and simple. For them it’s not about being on the cutting culinary […]

Come and gone: The year in food in rhyme

Food is love. Food is happiness. And, once a year, food inspires us to conjure our inner poet and present to you a list of the year’s openings and closings—entirely in rhyme. It wasn’t a great year for restaurants downtown: Five Guys, El Puerto and Song Song’s, all down. Plus, we said bye to Peking […]

New Close-Hart led kitchen to craft modern Mexican cuisine, Hamiltons’ Sandwich Lab whips up a locally sourced banh mi and more local restaurant news

Junction’s function Even chef Melissa Close-Hart seemed surprised when she revealed the concept behind the new Belmont eatery she’s opening with The Local owner Adam Frazier: It’ll be called Junction and serve up modern Mexican with a touch of “cowboy cuisine” thrown in. Close-Hart said she’s never cooked Tex-Mex professionally—hence the surprise—but said it’s something […]

Whiskey business: Locals keeping up with global demand for aged grain spirits

A “global whiskey renaissance”—that’s what the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States is calling the trend in spirits over the last five years. Domestic and international demand for whiskey—bourbon in particular—has forced some of the largest producers to warn consumers of impending shortages, as demand is significantly outpacing supply. U.S. Whiskey exports topped 1 […]

Darden students launch Caribbean-inspired juice line, boutique wine bar replace Toro’s Tacos and more local restaurant news

Darden students and Dominican Republic natives team up to create line of Caribbean-inspired juice Why did the Darden students cross the border? To bring back tropical fruits for a new line of local juice, obviously. When Luis Solis took a trip back home to the Dominican Republic earlier this year, his buddy and Darden classmate […]