Month: April 2009

Categories
Living

Lucky and luckier

Giving fresh hope to all single barhoppers in town, Suzie Lucca met her husband Chris Schenkkan during a Saturday night out on the Downtown Mall in 2006. When Suzie’s group of friends collided with Chris’s between Zocalo and Blue Light, it didn’t take the girls much urging to join the boys at Zocalo.

Suzie Lucca and Chris Schenkkan
June 28, 2008
Photo by Sarah Cramer

At the bar Suzie, a labor and delivery nurse at Martha Jefferson, loved that Chris, an SNL Financial employee, named Dumb and Dumber as his favorite movie rather than something more pretentious from the Criterion Collection. Equally unguarded in matters of dating, Chris called Suzie the next day to invite her to a Super Bowl Sunday party. She already had plans, but undeterred, the two dated up a storm for the next six weeks.

Suzie and her sister, with whom she roomed on the Downtown Mall at the time, had St. Patrick’s Day plans to visit their brother in Boston, but on their drive through Connecticut they were in a bad car accident. “That was a galvanizing moment for our relationship,” says Chris. “Realizing how upset I was at the prospect of losing her forever, made me realize that this was special and I really was in love with her.”

For three weeks Chris drove back and forth from Charlottesville to visit Suzie in the northern hospital where she began her convalescence. “He was my cheerleader the whole time,” says Suzie. The following March the couple vacationed in Antigua and Chris proposed with his feet in the Caribbean. “He had already told every other person we knew [about the engagement],” says Suzie. No one was surprised when she called with the news.

Because two months wasn’t enough time to plan a June ceremony, Suzie and Chris pushed their outdoor wedding back until the next year. Discovering King Family Vineyards on a wine tasting, the couple committed to the location right away.

Suzie’s sister helped her plan her “intimate, amazing” wedding to Chris, and now Suzie is able to return the favor. A few months after Suzie and Chris hit it off, her sister met her current fiancé (who consequently performed the King Family Vineyards ceremony in June). Now the two sisters can conveniently share wedding florists and photographers. Even better, they own houses in the same neighborhood.

And Suzie’s not the only one who likes to share her good fortune with her family. While Suzie was calling her sister on the night she met Chris to rave about her new Zocalo acquaintance, Chris was calling his brother with the same glowing report about Suzie.

No one was surprised when Suzie called with news of her engagement. “Chris had already told every other person we knew,” she says.

Categories
News

Cinnamon Band brings restraint, wreckage

At the start of The Cinnamon Band’s recent set at Outback Lodge, one of the band’s members—either guitarist John Harouff or drummer Neil Campbell—leaned into a microphone and announced in a sly, clear voice: “Cut the shit, start the pit.” It’s a testament to the band’s power as a live act that, for an instant, I expected a chasm to open up in the middle of the room.

In some respects, The Cinnamon Band had a rough show that night. Harouff had trouble hearing his vocals through a monitor, and it seemed to color his mood a bit; later, when he passed me a copy of the band’s first release, the five-song Buena Vista EP, he spoke humbly about the scope of the album. But I understand Harouff’s modesty: At its best, The Cinnamon Band is a two-piece band that sounds more like a five-piece, a minimal act whose impact is expansive, all-consuming—but only when every element fits together just so.

Fortunately, it’s a dynamic that Harouff and Campbell know how to execute. In the late ’90s, the pair pulled off a similar “small boys, big noise” feat as two-thirds of The Union of a Man and a Woman—an act signed to Darius Van Arman’s Jagjaguwar record label when the band members were still in high school. With Buena Vista, The Cinnamon Band restrains the elements that made Union a formidable act—lets them build like water slowly filling a house until the walls crack and the structure falls swimmingly down.

Of course, every house needs a foundation. Buena Vista’s opening title track sets a template for the group—drums that only know crescendo, vocal melodies that only know how anthems sound or feel, guitars that set simple patterns and progressions, then look for ways to snap them. 

And if the brilliance of The Cinnamon Band is in the slow build, the fun is in the breakdown. Campbell crumbles the towering tension of “Buena Vista” during the first eight bars of “To Cool You,” sledgehammering his drum kit like he was wrecking piñatas or splitting logs. One of the record’s highlights, it also shows Harouff’s knack for turning a phrase: Over squalls of feedback and organ buzz, Harouff carefully swaps “Too cool to warm to” with “Too kind to be cruel to you,” then shows his hand: “Just trying to cool you.”

A distracting bit of noodling opens the middle track, “Keep On Rolling.” Neither an ascending nor a descending point in the album, the song feels like something of a plateau—not a low point, simply a bit flat. But within minutes, Harouff and Campbell gather a bit of momentum for “On One Hand,” barbed like the post-punk of early U2, bombastic as Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town.
 
“On One Hand” eases into “Yer Bluff,” the second half of a brilliant final combo—the pair of songs shrinks from earthquake to tremors to the settling of dust. And as Harouff belts over spare drums towards the song’s conclusion—“Nobody’s gonna call my bluff/ Even singing at the top of my lungs/ No way I’m gonna wake anybody up”—the band seems primed for a final, explosive swing at the track’s remaining tension.

Instead, Campbell and Harouff are content to let the dust settle and the tension persist. But there’s something to be said for the pair’s restraint alongside its power. After all, bands use the same tools to build things up and break them down again. The Cinnamon Band just happens to be one of the best bands I’ve heard at doing both.

Categories
News

City workers make more than their county counterparts

Nearly five years have passed since we last shared with you the salaries of the 10 highest-paid employees in both Charlottesville and Albemarle. And not much has changed. Charlottesville still pays its employees better than Albemarle, and many of the names in the top 10 of jurisdictions remain the same. This time around, however, all of the top 10 salaries have risen well above $100,000. In 2004, the lowest salary was $87,133; this year the lowest is $120,339.91. [Here’s a PDF of that list]

On the other end of the salary spectrum, the lowest-paid County employees earn $20,300.70. Though we don’t have an exact number for the lowest City employee salary, all City employees “make over $10 per hour,” according to spokesman Ric Barrick, meaning the salaries of the lowest-paid City employees are probably about the same as in the County. 655 people are employed by the County, and 916 people are employed by the City. These figures do not include school system personnel. The median salary in the County is $63,619 while the median salary in the City is a much lower $37,195.

One thing that has certainly changed since 2004 is the state of the economy. The country remains in the midst of one of the worst ever economic downturns, and it shows in the budgets of both localities. The 2010 county budget, adopted on April 8, is $303.7 million, which is about $30 million less than last year’s budget. The city budget, adopted on April 14, did not decrease, but the 2010 budget of $142.4 million represents the smallest year-to-year increase in a decade.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Categories
Arts

Battle for Terra is human after all

Yes, Battle for Terra is just another CG-animated, science-fiction action fantasy. And yes, it does belabor its allegorical insistence that human beings are stubbornly imperialist and environmentally rapacious. It even has a Planet of the Apes sort of twist, but in this case it’s more like Planet of the Cute, Saucer-Eyed, Gravity-Defying Tadpole People.

Creature discomforts: Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) and Lieutenant Stanton (Luke Wilson) learn a few inconvenient truths in Battle for Terra.

Who are pretty much minding their own business, living peaceably and harmoniously and, of course, cutely among the treetops of their world, swimming/flying with the sky-whales and generally celebrating life, when one day a huge object appears overhead, ominously eclipsing one of the many moons. Some folks think it might be “a new god,” but most indications suggest otherwise. Indications such as the battalion of invading, abducting, war-mongering aliens.

When one rather feisty native named Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) sees her kindly father (Dennis Quaid) kidnapped, she can’t help but put up a fight, downing a hostile ship, then instinctively rescuing its pilot. Now comes the big reveal: The pilot is human.

With help from the man’s mannerly onboard robot (David Cross), Mala supplies him with a needed oxygen tent, learns his language, and gets to know him a little. A military man since birth, Lieutenant Jim Stanton (Luke Wilson) descends from a crew that set off from a war-ravaged Earth generations ago in search of a new home for humanity. By now, with their mothership falling apart and their commanding general (Brian Cox) entirely out of patience, the humans are more than ready to move in by force.

So Mala will help the man fix his ship and get out of here, sure, but not without a short lecture. “The elders say a long time ago we were apart from nature,” she begins, and we understand that Lt. Stanton and his entire race are in for a good finger wagging. Of course, it was the same elders who responded to the humans’ first appearance with public-address announcements of  “Everything is all right” and “Go back to your homes,” exuding just enough nervously authoritarian control to make you wonder whether this organic, peace-loving utopia really is all that.

As Mala discovers, it isn’t. Turns out the tadpole people have a less than peaceable past. And they’ll need to remember it in order to defend themselves. Thus, the war between their races will afford Mala and her new human friend a chance to learn what they have in common—besides the irrepressible impulse to annihilate each other.

Director Aristomenis Tsirbas, co-writing with Evan Spiliotopoulos, can’t be accused of excessive finesse in matters of story (seeing one of those sky-whales caught in crossfire is upsetting, yes, but also shameless), yet the movie’s knack for atmosphere and architecture goes a long way toward mitigating the inherent, persistent artificiality of computer animation. Battle for Terra is forgettable, yes, but well-stocked with wonders while it lasts.

 

 

Coal mining through the windshield

I’m just back from a little trip through West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. It wasn’t specifically meant to be a tour of coalfields, but it did wind up causing a lot of thought about the black stuff that’s probably powering my computer even as I type this.

Driving through southern West Virginia, we saw, in a way that was new to me, the absolute predominance of the coal industry. That isn’t news to a lot of you, but I just had never been through places which so obviously owe their existence to mining. There’s plenty of mining activity where I’m from, in Western Pennsylvania, but not like this. We saw piles of coal, train cars full of coal, and coal tipples soaring over the ravines. We may also have spotted some removed mountaintops, but we’re not sure.

Itmann, West Virginia

And the signage along the road reminded me over and over again of the local economic picture. There were signs for Appalachian Power and signs for mineworkers’ unions. And there were head-turning signs, on a Cat equipment plant and elsewhere, that said: "YES, COAL. Clean, carbon-neutral coal."

A brief search reveals that I’m not the first person to find this slogan absurd. This is a blog post that echoes my reaction: "Has the chemistry of coal changed recently?" This is a video, expanding on the theme, to be taken with enormous grains of salt. And this is a Charleston Gazette article in which West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd uses the same phrase, with a tiny sliver of added context.

It seems that "clean, carbon-neutral coal" is a marketing chimera that refers, with only the loosest of connections, to an idea for sequestering the emissions of coal-burning power plants. This is not a technique that’s really in use right now. Coal mining and burning, as it’s done right now, is truly dirty and it ain’t carbon neutral. 

As luck would have it, we returned home to find the awesome documentary Harlan County, USA in our mailbox. It rounded out the picture by testifying to the human cost of coal. This is one dark business. And it’s a Virginia business too, of course.

So, anyway, who’s got a good power-conservation tip for us?

Categories
News

Up & Comers

FOOD

Kate Collier
Proprietor, Feast!
Already an established player due to her ownership of Feast!, Collier is arguably one of the most recognized names in the local food scene. Now, she is leveraging that success to begin other ventures, like the Local Food Hub. Conceived and organized by Collier in 2008, the Local Food Hub will increase the accessibility of local food to area residents and, ultimately, support local farms. Having already raised $230,000, Collier—with husband Eric Gertner and Marisa Vrooman—is a promising bet for positive change in the local food movement.

Michael Keaveny
Owner and Head Chef, Tavola
Up until January, the Culinary Institute of America alumnus managed all of Coran Capshaw’s restaurant empire and in that position had, at one time or another, hired and trained just about every restaurant worker in this town. When a guy that connected decides to go out on his own and start his own place, it has the makings for the most anticipated culinary event of the year. His new restaurant is an Italian-inspired open kitchen pad called Tavola, scheduled to open in May in Belmont.

Taylor Smack
Co-Owner and Head Brewer, Blue Mountain Brewery
Why? Because he spent six years making South Street a great brew pub and then decided he could do something better. That something better is Blue Mountain Brewery, a hop farm, brewery, restaurant and beer lovers’ destination all rolled up in one. We now have a respectable beer trail springing up here in wine country. Why? We think it’s because of Mr. Smack.
 
Martha Stafford
Proprietor, Charlottesville Cooking School
With the current economic downturn fostering a trend of dining in and self-reliance, Stafford is looking like a local Nostradamus. The New York Cooking School alumna opened the Charlottesville Cooking School a year ago in April as a place for amateur cooks and potential chef school types to learn real skills. Plus, her focus is on seasonal cooking, and she stocks her school’s kitchen with ingredients from local farms and farmers’ markets.
 
Megan Weary
Proprietor, Roundabout Farm
As proprietor with her husband, Rob, of Roundabout Farm, Weary has become one of the faces of the new young farmer movement. A UVA grad, Weary left a professional job in Northern Virginia to start the organic and environmentally sustainable 65-acre farm in Keswick in 2006. In addition to running one of the most popular Community Supported Agriculture programs for Charlottesville residents, Weary is out in front of the local food issue. She recently sat on a panel discussing such (along with Martha Stafford) at the Virginia Festival of the Book.
 

DEVELOPMENT

Charlie Armstrong
Southern Development
Armstrong has quicken risen in local development circles. He leads the development efforts of Southern Development (lead by Frank Ballif), the company responsible for Brookwood in the city of Charlottesville and the Pavilions at Pantops in Albemarle County. Armstrong also chairs the governmental affairs committee of the Blue Ridge Homebuilders, priming him to become another Chuck Rotgin.

Amy Kilroy
Director of Redevelopment,
Charlottesville Housing Authority
The redevelopment of Westhaven has long been rumored, but now it’s finally happening, along with the redevelopment of other public housing projects in Charlottesville. And who will lead that effort? Amy Kilroy. On top of all that she will have to adjudicate any conflicts between current public housing residents and the housing authority.

Gordon Walker
Executive Director, Jefferson Area Board of the Aging
Sure, the former Albemarle School Board member isn’t exactly new to the Charlottesville area, but he’s becoming a more important player in the development scene. In the last decade, JABA has been involved in maintaining or creating hundreds of units for the elderly in Charlottesville, Crozet and the surrounding counties, and its influence should only grow as local demographics shift with the graying of the Baby Boomers and the continued influx of retirees.

J.P. Williamson
Octagon Partners
Along with his partner Sean Stalfort, Williamson has proven that he can get things done with the rehabs of the Gleason and the Hardware Store. Now, he’s trying to add onto that track record with the condo project at the Gleason, though we’ll really see what he’s made of when he tackles Octagon’s portion of Hollymead Town Center—the part that’s actually supposed to be mixed use in practice, not just in theory.

UVA

Tony Bennett
Head Coach, UVA Men’s Basketball Team
The UVA basketball team’s new million-dollar man! (Well, $1.7 million annually, according to his five-year contract.) Bennett’s three years as head coach of Washington State University were three of the finest in the school’s history, including the school’s only consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and only Sweet 16 game. It’s the kind of short, strong coaching statement to make a Wahoo hope Bennett can single-handedly make up for this year’s 10-18 record under ex-coach Dave Leitao and restore fans’ enthusiasm for the program.

Dr. Steven T. DeKosky
Dean, UVA School of Medicine
An international leader in Alzheimer’s research, Steven DeKosky became the new vice president and dean of UVA’s School of Medicine last August. Though he’s a newbie as dean, DeKosky is a de facto power player: The School of Medicine’s annual budget is half that of the entire University, about $500 million. Scientifically speaking, DeKosky was charged with beginning to establish UVA as a prime center for Alzheimer’s research.

Harry Harding
Dean, Batten School of Leadership
A renowned China scholar and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Harry Harding was appointed the first dean of the new Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in January. Harding is charged with crafting the curriculum for the school’s two-year master’s program, choosing new faculty, recruiting the first class of students and implementing a recruitment and hiring plan—in short, shaping the well-funded institution from the bottom up.

Bob Pianta
Dean, Curry School of Education
Pianta, the new and energetic dean of the Curry School of Education, has long been a noted professor and a national expert on early childhood education. (Bragging rights: He advised the Obama transition team on those topics). In the dean’s office since 2007, he’s now also poised to lead the Curry School into a new era and into its brand-new building, Bavaro Hall.

Meredith Woo
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Dean of Arts and Sciences is a big job, and when Meredith Woo took it on less than a year ago, she was stepping into particularly big shoes—those of Ed Ayers, who left the post to become president of the University of Richmond. Watch for this expert on East Asia and political economy to return some emphasis to the “sciences” part of the equation, balancing out a longstanding prevalence of arts-minded deans.

GOVERNMENT

Maurice Jones
Assistant City Manager
A former city spokesperson, Jones knows the local government machine inside and out, and many see him as the heir apparent to City Manager Gary O’Connell. At the beginning of his tenure, Jones was charged with citizen engagement and neighborhood relations. Recently, he was appointed to develop a concrete and detailed plan for a city-wide, sustainable dialogue on race and racism.

Kristin Szakos
Democratic Candidate for City Council
A writer, editor, singer and the lead volunteer coordinator for the Obama campaign, Kristin Szakos has won over many people, who will, it’s likely, contribute to her solid run for one of the two seats on City Council. Married to Joe Szakos, executive director of the Virginia Organizing Project, Kristin Szakos will focus her efforts on bringing new solutions to old problems: budget cuts, affordable housing shortage, and inequality.

Tom Perriello
U.S. Congressman
With the ability to procure federal earmarks and change laws to benefit the local community, Perriello has the potential to hold significant sway—assuming he can survive the 2010 election. It probably doesn’t hurt that he was voted one of the top five most handsome congressional freshmen by The Huffington Post.

ARTS

Peter Agelasto
Proprietor, Monkeyclaus
Visionary proprietor of Nelson County’s own post-consumer, pro-community recording studio, Monkeyclaus, Agelasto has harnessed volunteer labor and Web 2.0 to build a place that looks like a barn, functions like an uber-hip charitable donation center and attracts top-notch local musicians from Birdlips to Trees on Fire. It’s becoming the place to go to make an album; count on Agelasto to keep dreaming up new ways to connect ears with tunes.

Ty Cooper
CEO, Sure Shot Events
By day, he’s the director of marketing for EcoDry Cleaners. By night, however, Ty Cooper runs Sure Shot Events, an events booking and promotion group that serves as a cultural hub for Charlottesville’s African-American community. This coming weekend, Sure Shot will be screening Mark Wahlberg’s controversial documentary Juvies.  And in the last year, Cooper’s events—the “Best of Both Worlds Dance and Step Competition,” the recent “Virginia Got Talent?” contest—brought in larger and larger crowds while offering big stages and awards to gifted locals. Cooper got talent? Absolutely.

Jeyon Falsini
Proprietor, Magnus Music
Having worked for years as an independent music promoter and a booker for venues like Outback Lodge and Starr Hill, Falsini is now the man to see if you want to book a gig at the new venue Is (formerly Starr Hill Music Hall). With a space dedicated to his wares, so to speak, Falsini’s Magnus Music stands to further cement his reputation as a key figure in the local live scene. Bands will want his number; fans will thank him for the beats.

Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell
Co-founder, Performers Exchange Project
A founding member of the clowning troupe Foolery, the hallmark of the events Tidwell helps to organize now with PEP is a merging of disciplines: theater, circus, dance, music, art and a few others thrown in. There was CLAW, the ladies’ arm-wrestling fundraiser-spectacle; Miss Representation, a theatrical and effective protest of Sacagawea’s subordinate place on the Lewis & Clark statue; and Shentai, the 2007 carnival at the Ix Building. Whatever Tidwell helps to cook up next—a monthly, by-invitation artists Assembly just kicked off at The Bridge and a late-winter physical theater piece, Our American Ann Sisters, coming to Live Arts—it will surely draw in loads of interesting folks and make an artful splash.
 

John Gibson announces resignation from Live Arts

Longtime Live Arts artistic director John Gibson told C-VILLE Weekly this morning that he will resign from his position on January 4, 2010—18 years after he first set foot inside the local theater.

"It’s a totally positive choice, and largely but not completely a personal one," Gibson explained during an interview. "My longtime partner died in January, and he was a real rock of stability for me and vice versa," said Gibson. "In the wake of his death, I began a process of really deep soul-searching."

Gibson, who oversaw more than 200 productions during his time at Live Arts, will retain three major responsibilities during the months approaching his resignation: supervision of Live Arts’ annual participation in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, producing Live Arts’ 18th annual Gala on November 7, and directing a musical this fall, title to be announced during the annual Live Arts season announcement on Monday, May 4.

Asked if he would remain in Charlottesville, Gibson answered, "Yes, yes. Charlottesville, I hope, will long be my home. I have a profound connection to this community and these people and to my little corner of the world on Lexington Avenue." As for his future with the stage, Gibson said he would "probably take a break from the theater for a while, because I’ve had a great run," but would stretch a few other creative muscles.

"As much as I love directing at Live Arts, I’m also curious about other types of stages and other forms. So, could it be anywhere other than Live Arts? Yeah, it could be," Gibson explained. "But will it always, in some form, be Live Arts? Yes. Of course."

Stay tuned to c-ville.com for more about Gibson’s announcement, and read Feedback in next week’s paper for expanded coverage. In the meantime, I’d like to hear a few tributes to our parting artistic director, and thoughts about the direction of our theater. Also, you can read more about Gibson’s history with Live Arts in our current feature here.

Artistic director John Gibson will resign from Live Arts on January 4, 2010.

NEW C-VILLE COVER STORY: More power to them

When it comes to power in Charlottesville, who’s at the top? That’s the question we ask with this week’s cover story. C-VILLE staff sifted through a long list of names, ranked the top five local power players in the realms of food, development, UVA, government and the arts. And then, for good measure, we came threw in some up & comers. Read the cover story here, find out who might make a future power list here, and don’t forget to leave comments!

Categories
News

Virginia politics must be over-stimulated

If you’re anything like us (and honestly, our condolences if you are), you probably spend way too much time following the vagaries and vicissitudes of Virginia’s preening political class. And if you’ve been watching closely over the past few weeks — while completely ignoring that insignificant little thing we call real life—you could be excused for thinking that our Commonwealth is absolutely awash in cash.

Kaine took his pro-stimulus message straight to the people…of Israel, Dubai and Morocco, courtesy of Virginia’s taxpayers.

For starters, just take a look at the eye-popping first quarter fundraising haul for the governor’s race, in which the four candidates raked in nearly eight million smackers, setting a pace that seems sure to make this the most expensive electoral free-for-all in Virginia’s history. And if you’re wondering where all of that sweet, sweet green is going, just head on over to YouTube and take a gander at the massive sign gauntlet (aka “Terry McAuliffe’s Sea of Hubris”) that greeted this year’s Shad Planking attendees.

But even more impressive than the ability to rake in massive amounts of loot (and spend it like Michael Jackson in a Baby Gap) is the devil-may-care insolence it takes to be handed a heaping pile of cashola on a silver platter, and then blithely hand it back because the platter isn’t shiny enough.

Yes, that’s exactly what the swells over at the General Assembly recently did, giving the old “thanks but no thanks” to $125 million in federal stimulus funds because, even though it would fund a nice chunk of current state unemployment benefits, it might just possibly maybe make it necessary to expand unemployment coverage in the future. Now, we’re certainly no experts, but with Virginia’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent and rising, you’d think these guys would just take the money and concentrate on creating new jobs, thereby solving the problem, instead of assuming that we’re headed for a post-apocalyptic future where everyone is on the dole, and the only available work revolves around the shoe-shining and suit-pressing needs of our god-like legislators. But hey, that’s just us.

Now, there is one way in which Virginia’s pols resemble regular people when it comes to money: They just can’t stop talking about it. In fact, it seemed like the entirety of last week’s gubernatorial debate was dedicated to charges and counter-charges of shady fundraising (for those keeping score at home: Brian Moran took money from defense contractors with business in front of his brother, Creigh Deeds wanted to take money from defense firms but failed, Terry McAuliffe takes money from anything with a pulse, and Bob McDonnell takes money from a Virginia Beach law firm, but claims to be “sort of unemployed”).

Not to be outdone, Governor Tim Kaine (who’s sort of over-employed, if you ask us) has been berating the Assembly non-stop for turning down the Fed’s free dough, and recently promised to take his message to the people to force lawmakers to “do the right thing.”

So what’s the Gov’s first message-spreading stop? Why, an eight-day trip to Israel, Dubai and the Kingdom of Morocco, of course, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $32,000.

Like we said: as long as you ignore everything outside of politics, we’ve got the best economy in the world!

Categories
Living

Coran Capshaw’s flagship restaurant gets new menu and staff

Rumors have been swirling about the fate of Blue Light Grill ever since January when owner Coran Capshaw’s director of restaurant operations Michael Keaveny departed to start his own restaurant and then commercial real estate agent and Nook owner Stu Rifkin stepped in to oversee Capshaw’s fleet of eateries that also includes enoteca, Mono Loco, Mas, Ten and the Three Notch’d Grill. First, Restaurantarama heard speculation that Rifkin was planning to turn Blue Light into a sports bar. Then there are the constant rumors that Capshaw is trying to sell off his restaurant businesses, that Rifkin is trying to buy them or that they simply are going to close. Whew, that’s a lot of talk. Turns out none of the above is true according to Rifkin, who sat down with Restaurantarama to share the real news on Blue Light.

From the Si Tapas kitchen, former Charlottesvillian Josh Hutter has taken over as chef at Blue Light Grill.

“We’re transitioning to more classic American seafood,” says Rifkin, who’s been slowly making adjustments to Blue Light’s menu and staff over the last few months with the purpose of making the place “more approachable,” he says.

“No sports bar, no Asian-fusion. Just fresh fish we’re getting locally from Seafood at West Main.” Prices are coming down as well, he says, with most appetizers in the $7-15 range, salads in the $5-7 range and entrées in the $17-25 range. The most expensive entrée will be $25, adds new manager Carrie Throckmorton.

Rifkin and his staff are also making some adjustments to the design and interior of the space—new paint, new chairs, a large chalkboard to indicate daily specials seven days a week. While Blue Light will continue to serve raw bar items such as oysters, the raw bar area of the dining room is being transformed into a bar bar with a new beer cooler. That’s good news for anyone who’s been to Blue Light on a busy weekend and struggles to get through all the congestion to order a beverage at the existing front bar. All these changes are in an effort to accommodate the new theme—or maybe it’s a return to the original theme. “We’ll actually be using the grill again,” says Rifkin.

As for new kitchen staff, Josh Hutter, who returned to Charlottesville from California just a few months ago to take the inaugural chef spot at Si Tapas, has taken over as chef at Blue Light. Turns out Rifkin was Hutter’s first boss years ago in the kitchen at Rococo’s—the Italian restaurant that used to occupy the La Cocina del Sol spot on Commonwealth Avenue. Pei Chang, long-time sous chef at Ten, is taking over as executive sous chef of Blue Light as well. According to Rifkin, Chang’s new two-part role is part of a plan to “make these two assets work together rather than separately.”

Over all of them in the organization is General Manager Dan Cotting, who is also the sommelier and General Manager at enoteca.

As for precisely what Rifkin’s role is in the organization, he is a bit vague:

“My relationship with Mr. Capshaw is between Coran and me.” But he says, “This is a long-term partnership.”