Month: December 2009

We can’t tell you exactly when Semolina Gourmet Pizza Bakers—the new Corner restaurant on W. Main Street from Basil Mediterranean Bistro owner Raif Antar—will open, because the notoriously fastidious Antar is mired in the final details and won’t be rushed.

Decisions, decisions. Basil owner Raif Antar will serve up more than 45 different styles of pizza at his new Semolina Gourmet Pizza Bakers on the Corner.

“That annoying last 5 percent? That’s the most important 5 percent,” says Antar, a native of Lebanon and a veteran restaurateur. He has owned nine restaurants during his tenure, including one most recently in Washington, D.C. before moving to Charlottesville to open Basil five years ago. Antar admits that his meticulousness and his insistence on doing all the design work himself—“everything in my restaurants is custom”—might make him a little “crazy.”

Crazy perhaps, but also successful. Basil, with its signature Mediterranean blue and orange paint and regional accents, is one of a handful of Corner restaurants that has developed a loyal following that extends beyond the UVA student population. Its reliable delivery and take-out service can take some of the credit for that. The same set of drivers will serve both Basil and Semolina from the 14th Street parking garage that sits between the two businesses. Antar says he’d already been busy planning a second Charlottesville restaurant (a new high-end place on Route 29—more on that below) and hadn’t until very recently planned to start Semolina. When, earlier this year, Pacino’s Deli vacated the narrow spot where Semolina now sits, however, Antar says, “I just had to grab it” and capitalize on his existing Basil systems just a block away, as well as expand his footprint (both dining rooms have about 45 seats). Opening a second, nearby Corner establishment also gives him the chance to bring back the quirky, Wolfgang Puck-like gourmet pizza combinations he’d started serving at Basil three years ago until the time-consuming pies almost crashed his kitchen and he had to stop.

“I’d have doctors not making it back to work in time after ordering a sandwich because someone at the table ordered a pizza.”

Those who miss Basil’s interesting Greek, Turkish and even Moroccan-inspired pizzas will find familiar favorites and then some at Semolina. The “crazy” long list of over 45 pizzas in 8" and 12" sizes (no slices) divide into 1) “Basics and Vegetables,” from the classic Margarita to a “Fico,” which has Malucci ricotta, honey, balsamic glaze, figs and arugula; 2) Meat (toppings include sirloin steak, salami Genoa and grilled lamb strips); 3) Sausage, all varieties of which are made in house; and 4) Seafood, with toppings including baby clams, smoked oysters and even Langostino lobster. There are also dessert pizzas, appetizers, salads, seasonal panini and other classic Italian desserts. In addition to Italian wines, Antar is offering over 200 bottles and 12 taps of beer from around the world—a beverage operation extensive enough that it has its own logo and name: Birreria Semolina.

Antar says his other new fine dining restaurant will feature French-Lebanese cuisine and open next summer in the new Rivanna Plaza strip mall, which shares a site with Kegler Bowling Alley. More juice on that to come.

Winemaker Matthieu Finot siphons wine from oak barrels to give a reporter a preview of the 2009 vintages from King Family Vineyards. Outside the barrel room, scores of tourists and wine enthusiasts buzz through the tasting room—swirling, talking, snacking and purchasing wine. It’s Saturday afternoon, and it’s business as usual at a popular Crozet winery in Virginia’s largest grape-growing county.

Isn’t it?

Thirteen Albemarle businesses, including King Family Vineyards, where the tasting room was busy on a recent weekend, would be affected by zoning changes that could limit the number of people who attend farm winery events.

Recent discussions between the Albemarle County Planning Department and county wineries raise questions about exactly what comprises normal activity at a winery—and even, to a degree, what constitutes a farm winery, itself. Planners want to bring the county’s current zoning ordinance in line with the State Code that regulates farm wineries. It seems that, so far at least, the language and stipulations they’ve come up with are leaving a sour taste in the mouths of some local wine professionals.

It boils down to three areas of concern: hours of operation; limits on numbers of people that can attend winery events without a zoning variance; and, as mentioned, the definition of farm wineries as well as agritourism.

Let’s backtrack. In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly passed a measure stating that local restriction on farm wineries “shall be reasonable and shall take into account the economic impact on the farm winery of such restriction…and whether such activities and events are usual and customary for farm wineries throughout the Commonwealth.” Then in the March 2009 legislative session, the Assembly amended statute 15.2-2288.3, as it’s known, to further instruct localities to take into account “the agricultural nature of such activities and events” when imposing their own restrictions. Feeling, at that point, that there were “adjustments we should be looking into that would more directly reflect the State Code,” says Wayne Cilimberg, the county’s director of planning, Albemarle planners held a roundtable last summer with members of the local wine trade. In early November, they followed up with a work session. That’s when the three main points of contention surfaced.

As currently worded, the county’s amended ordinance defines a farm winery (“An establishment located on one or more contiguous parcels in Albemarle County licensed as a farm winery under Virginia Code…”) and what constitutes “agritourism” (“A commercial enterprise at a farm or farm winery conducted for the enjoyment or education of visitors that generates income for the owner of the farm or farm winery”). Beyond that, it would limit by-right activities, such as wedding receptions and business gatherings, to 200 people. In addition, the county wants to specify normal hours of operation as between 9am and 6pm.

Not so fast, says Matt Conrad, director of the Virginia Wine Council, a lobbying group. “The language in the state statute is fairly explicit,” he says. “Usual and customary events shall be permitted without local regulation unless there is substantial impact on the health and welfare of the public.

“Is there a substantial impact on the health, safety and welfare of the public from these activities? I’ve seen no such study that says so,” he continues. “And the county has not considered that restriction of these activities would have an impact on wineries’ economic viability.”

Kerry Hannon, who is the general manager at King Family, says that margins are a lot tighter at wineries than people might realize. Large events play a central part in getting the word out about the local agricultural product they produce, though she acknowledges that King Family to date has not exceeded a capacity of 200—albeit voluntarily. “But if someone came to me and said I have a 500-person event and I have to say no, it would kill me. The upside of that event is enormous.”

In other words, wineries have to drive customers to their locale to keep business churning. The Free Enterprise Forum, a conservative pro-business group headed by Neil Williamson, has even chimed in. “My reason for being at the work session,” he says, “was in support of agricultural enterprises that help keep Albemarle County lands rural. The idea of keeping those lands financially viable by way of a farm winery is something that the Free Enterprise Forum supports. We are proponents of the wine industry and we consider wineries to be good neighbors.”

Cilimberg says the intention in limiting the number of events that can exceed 200 attendees is to “address traffic generation and the facility’s ability to handle the numbers.” Further, on the subject of keeping rural lands rural, Cilimberg says this is one reason that restaurants are unequivocally banned. “We don’t have restaurants in our rural area. We can see restaurants becoming their own commercial activity in themselves,” he says, which would take them to another realm than, say, tasting rooms that offer cheese plates—an activity associated with a winery but secondary to its operation. (Hard to imagine someone driving out to a winery just to get a cheese plate, though she might drive out to a winery only to dine at its restaurant.)

But where defining commercial activity falls within the scope of the planning department, Conrad and others question the right of the county to stipulate what hours they can keep. As Chad Zakaib, the general manager at Jefferson Vineyards, points out, “our hours of operation are regulated by Virginia ABC as part of our licensing process.”

The discussion in November was courteous but direct. At this stage Cilimberg and other planners are hoping to revise the ordinance amendment and get it to the Planning Commission shortly after the New Year, taking into account the wineries’ objections. “In all cases when we work on an amendment, we rely on the policy of the county and on our knowledge of what businesses are trying to do,” he says. “I am not aware of all the particulars of the business model that wineries use. But over time the wineries have been very communicative about how they operate.”

Still, some are left wondering why Albemarle won’t just leave well enough alone and let the State Code dictate the terms? After all, only three Virginia counties in total have decided to tinker with their ordinances following 2009’s action by the General Assembly. “When we talk about health, safety and welfare of the community, are we talking about the welfare of the community as a whole or the welfare of the neighbor across the street?” says Hannon. “Are the people of Albemarle County better off because wineries are here? Is the community enhanced by having wineries present? I would say yes.”

More green, please

This house on a prominent Ridge Street corner will soon get a green rehab.

Want more green housing in Charlottesville? You got it. In a unique collaborative effort, UVA students of architecture and engineering have partnered with the city and Barton Malow Company to rehabilitate and redesign a house in the historic district of Ridge Street.

“Absolutely nothing is more sustainable than a building that already exists,” says John Quale, a UVA architecture prof leading students through the design process. (He also leads the ecoMOD initiative, which has many similarities to the Ridge Street project.) “We’re trying to demonstrate that you can keep buildings and keep the original materials but you can make them much more energy efficient,” he says. Plans include patching up the exterior stucco and original interior trim and molding while adding things like storm windows and insulation for greater energy efficiency.

Chris Weatherford, project manager at Barton Malow, describes the company’s role as “helping to manage the process, getting the right people to help out along with assisting with construction down the road.” Keep an eye open for the next few years and watch this ambitious project unfold.—Lucy Kim

Your shopping, done

Retail Relay’s Graham Evans, left, Ted Corcoran, center, and Dennis Bates, right, at Foods of All Nations, one of the local stores where they pick up groceries for their customers.

Here’s an unusual facet of the eat-local movement in Charlottesville: Retail Relay, the local business that takes grocery orders on its website and then delivers the food to centralized pickup spots, is growing like crazy. This year they’ve gone from four employees to 10, and from 10 vendors to 24. Those vendors include stores (Reid’s, Rebecca’s) plus small local farms (Davis Creek) and restaurants (HotCakes, Revolutionary Soup).

On November 13, the Relayers kicked off a big new part of their operation, in which they’ll bring their service to residents at UVA Hospital. It seems they’ve hit a nerve with their business, cutting down on one-person driving trips and bringing customers to local food producers outside the more familiar farmer’s market and CSA models.

Retail Relay, which identifies itself as part of a national trend, lets farmers set their own prices and gives them a much bigger cut (70 to 80 percent) than they’d get with most other middlemen. If you’re interested in trying online groceries for yourself, check out their offerings at retailrelay.com.—Erika Howsare

Clean air act

Forget about artificially scented candles or odor masking chemical sprays—one of the best ways to improve your indoor air quality is with plants. If you hate the sight of the exposed dirt in potted plants, or if you’re a fan of eco-friendly design, you might want to check out the Andrea, a new invention that will let you turn a leafy plant into an air filter and purifier. The product puts your humble houseplant under a clear dome, with a quiet fan pulling in toxins and pushing out cleaner air that has been filtered through the plant.

$199 is a steep price for a house for your houseplant (we are in a recession, for goodness sakes, and you could buy about 20 Christian’s pizzas with that), but the system doesn’t require replacement filters and reduces the pollution in your house. If that doesn’t win you over, the sheer cool factor and aesthetics of this sleek, curvy pod might. A list of retailers can be found at andreaair.com.—L.K.

Join the green party

One way to survive the cold, dark, post-Fridays-After-Five season is to host or attend a cozy, holiday party. But if December is already booked with invitations, your carbon snow-print might be mammoth.

Follow these tips for green merrymaking:

Choose invitations printed on recycled paper; or postcard-sized, bamboo or hemp invites; or simply welcome friends with digital e-vites.

If you must have a tree, splurge on a fresh, local Christmas tree from the nearest tree farm (consult the Buy Fresh Buy Local guide at buylocalvirginia.org).

Do you really need another seasonal decoration? Search your home for lost treasures, or ask close friends to loan decorations for the night of your party. Gather fresh rosemary or holly berry branches to garnish your soy, beeswax or palm wax candle. Fill your favorite glass bowl or jar with cranberries and water and top with a tea light. Old CDs make glittery hanging ornaments; so do non-toxic gold and silver painted pinecones. Create recycled magazine Christmas trees by folding down every page. And garlands of leftover greenery, apples, cinnamon sticks and twine provide fragrance and fun.

Why not explore a local menu with Caromont chevre and a bottle of Gabriele Rausse’s Rosso? Be sure to serve guests on real or biodegradable plates. Here’s a gift idea for you and the planet: a set of sturdy, fashionable bamboo plates suitable for future parties!

And a beautiful handcrafted gift from local artists at the farmers’ market, or a gift certificate to your favorite locally owned business, captures the seasonal spirit of giving.—Better World Betty

In 1996, when architect Neal Deputy adapted the original Coca-Cola Bottling Works (CCBW) Building on 10th Street NW into four residential apartments, there wasn’t much like it for renters in town. Almost 14 years later, such “loft-style” apartments—former industrial buildings converted to residences with large open floor plans—are more common. The rage that began in big cities like New York, with its Meatpacking District-turned-Bobo-haven, has caught on in Charlottesville and other towns. Seems “adaptive reuse”—the catchphrase for refurbishing stagnant industrial spaces—has hit the mainstream.

Deputy works at the long table in the office portion of his loft.

Still, CCBW remains unique. (Full disclosure: The building is now majority owned by Shannon Worrell, wife of Bill Chapman, who owns C-VILLE Weekly.) For one, Deputy retained so much of the building’s original bones and character that from the outside it’s difficult to tell that no bottling actually goes on there any more. Two, it continues to blend with the surrounding neighborhood—10th & Page—which has experienced surprisingly little other luxury development or gentrification. 

Deputy, a Charlottesville native with architecture degrees from UVA and Princeton, went on from CCBW to establish himself as a busy designer with thriving businesses in three places—Charlottesville, South Beach, Florida, and the British Virgin Islands (he spends a third of his time in each)—and yet, he still seems a bit surprised by the immediate and continued popularity of CCBW.

“It was a great learning experience, and they’ve been incredibly successful,” says Deputy, who credits friend Wyn Owens, the building’s former owner, with the forethought to convert the bottling building.

“Wyn was interested because it was a relic of the industrial heyday of Charlottesville,” says Deputy.

Coca-Cola only used the building, erected in 1920, for a short time before establishing a larger bottling facility on Preston Avenue. After that, the building was used for milk bottling and several other industrial purposes before falling vacant until Owens purchased it in the mid-1990s.

Deputy says after demolishing the interior of the building, he reused much of the existing infrastructure and materials. All the windows are original, much of the plumbing was reused and remnants of the building’s hardworking past are still evident in the overhead ductwork, pipes and visible elevator motor that give the apartments their quirky character. Deputy admits that the heat pump that warms and cools the building and those original windows aren’t terribly efficient, however.

“At the time, we weren’t focused on being environmentally responsible,” says Deputy. “It just wasn’t the concern back then, but we were concerned with being economically responsible.”

The Coke building retains its industrial look on the exterior.

One strategy was to retain the masonry and steel frame, Deputy says: “It took us about a year and only about $20 a square foot.”

The conversion created two first-floor apartments of about 1,000 square feet and two second-floor apartments of about 1,500 square feet with additional outdoor terraces. CCBW also includes an attached commercial space and a smaller detached commercial outbuilding.

Though there’s often a waiting list for CCBW occupancy, Deputy is probably his own best testament to the good design of the place. He’s continued to rent one of the units as his own home and office during the parts of the year he works in Charlottesville. In his current spot—Unit 1 on the first floor—a working and drafting desk spans almost the entire length of the floor. Framed photographs of his many designs featured in architectural magazines over the years line the walls over his parked scooter, which he drives right into the unit. His tiny open kitchen backs up to the small bathroom, which, Japanese-style, is completely lined in tile with no doors to delineate shower from sink and toilet space. 

Deputy fit the bathroom into the unit using drywall in a curved rather than squared-off manner.

“It’s less intrusive, says Deputy. “I walk past this wall a dozen times throughout the day.”

The curve also created an area for storing a TV and entertainment center in the sleeping loft built above the bathroom. The loft, which holds little more than a bed, leaves plenty of living, working and playing space on the floor. Deputy has even opened up his unit to the public on occasion as a gallery for artist friends.

Long-term tenant

“People always ask why I don’t just buy something,” says longtime CCBW tenant Julia Bargmann, a landscape architect and UVA professor, “but I can’t find anything as nice as this. When guests come they often say I have the best apartment in Charlottesville.” 

Bargmann has rented Unit 3 since the building opened, and it’s no wonder that she finds bliss at CCBW. In her own design business, D.I.R.T. (DirtStudio.com), she specializes in regeneration of derelict industrial properties and fallow brownfield sites. 

“When I moved here from New Jersey in January 1996, there were so few industrial buildings available [for rent]. When I walked into this place, I snapped my fingers and said ‘This is it.’”

Having come to Charlottesville for a faculty position at the A-school, Bargmann says many of her colleagues tried to advise her that the neighborhood and, in particular, the Westhaven public housing development located behind the building, was “dicey.” 

Julia Bargmann has lived in CCBW for well over a decade.

“‘You live where?’ they’d ask me, but it wasn’t a big deal to me. I’m from New Jersey.”

Bargmann says she loves the neighborhood because it’s diverse and “working class.” She uses terms such as “perfect” and “just enough” to describe the compact size of her open kitchen, the square footage of the two separate but doorless bedrooms, the fact that she has so much open living space and her 15’x15′ outdoor terrace, to which she’s lent her own modern, post-industrial design sense with aluminum planters and a large aluminum tub.

“I take dips out there in the summer,” says Bargmann, who says that she’s considered bathing in the terrace tub (like all the units, her compact bathroom only contains a shower), but hasn’t actually done it. Though Big Jim’s Catering is located just under her terrace, privacy isn’t an issue. The window coverings on the bedrooms are only to shade the light and regulate the temperature in summer. 

Bargmann says her poodle loves the place too. Blanche has ample open space to work up to a full-tilt run to fetch a ball on the other side of the apartment.

CHECK BACK FOR VIDEO OF CORRY AND HILARY’S APARTMENT!

Efficiency breeds efficiency

In Hilary Ritt and Corry Blanc’s downstairs unit, the apartment’s tiny kitchen and solo storage closet have inspired the couple to design their own creative space-saving solutions.

“The kitchen just has open shelving, so we bought an old filing cabinet from the Habitat Store and painted it. That holds all of our food,” says Ritt.

Corry Blanc and Hilary Ritt say their CCBW loft has forced them to be tidy.

The couple, who previously rented the basement of a detached home in Fry’s Spring for roughly the same rent, pared down their belongings when they moved into CCBW. They also quickly learned to be more tidy—“This place definitely makes us stay on top of our chores,” says Blanc.

The compromises of living in an atypical multiunit dwelling have been worth it for the couple, however. They say they enjoy hearing their upstairs neighbor in Unit 4 playing his banjo in the evenings, and love that they can walk to shops and restaurants from their location, especially since Blanc, a blacksmith and ornamental ironwork designer, has a long commute to his Silver City Iron studio in Zion’s Crossroads. Ritt, a Ph.D. student at the Curry School of Education, says she often walks to Preston Avenue to work at Shenandoah Joe’s or shop at Integral Yoga.

As their previous basement apartment had only one window, the couple flipped for the almost-floor-to-ceiling vintage glass along two of the unit’s 12′ walls, which has them bathing in natural light. The extensive windows also admit the fluorescent glow of the traffic light on 10th Street, which, for the most part, they find charming. There’s just one small problem at bedtime: the flashing red streaming directly into Blanc’s pillow-lain face on his side of the bed.

“I have this ritual I have to do every night,” say Blanc. “I have to tuck this window shade in over here and I have to prop a pillow in this window over here. Then I’m good.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THE BUILDING, CLICK HERE

Set to weather well

Often, we’ve had guests who, against all reason, have actually volunteered to stay overnight in our chaotic household so that they may donate their elbow grease to our renovation cause. (Perhaps they are persuaded by the embarrassingly large breakfasts we serve.) One project I look on as a special monument to generous houseguests: the cedar shingles my sister-in-law and I installed on the front of our dormer.

The dormer lacked siding (top) until we shingled it with sweet-smelling cedar (bottom).

The dormer had been retrofitted with a bay window that was A) unattractive and B) smashed, so my husband and I had replaced it with a flat picture window. In doing so, we more or less destroyed the siding that surrounded it. This provided a convenient excuse to add cedar shingles in its place—an upscale-looking material, but not expensive when you only need to cover a few square feet.

My able partner and I spent one whole day mapping out the top row of shingles, which had to be custom-cut to fit around the rafters, and marking the backs of them with an arcane numbering system. The second day was for nailing up first those, then the row below, and so on until the dormer was fully suited up.

This, while our husbands were removing and replacing much of the house’s wiring. My sister-in-law and I were quite pleased with ourselves, none the less so when we realized we’d nailed one shingle (number A2, if you must know) with its mark facing out. I consider it a lasting memento of our partnership.—Spackled Egg

Crafter’s Christmas

The last thing we here at Instant Decorator wish for you this season is to be boring. When you dig out your holiday regalia and find that old evergreen wreath with holly berries that you tucked away last winter, you’ll realize that it’s missing some originality. This month’s project is a little bit kitschy, a little bit sparkly and oozing with holiday spirit. We recommend drinking some eggnog while crafting.

Materials: Styrofoam wreath ring, Christmas tree ornaments in varying sizes (and colors, if preferred), thick ribbon in color complementary to ornaments (or plain white).

Tools: Hot glue gun.

1. Wrap ribbon around the wreath, overlapping edges to cover Styrofoam completely. Hot glue to fasten.
2. Lay wreath flat and hot glue larger ornaments at random points around the wreath.
3. Fill in empty spots with smaller ornaments, gluing directly to the Styrofoam or to other ornaments.

The wallpaper scorer’s teeth punch tiny holes in the paper, which make it easier for stripping agents to do their work. Easy removal still not guaranteed.

Stuck on the scorer

When my significant other and I moved into our first home, we spent the first few weeks cursing the previous owners for their bonehead D.I.Y. moves. We lamented their shoddy electrical work and bad design decisions—from covering the original 1924 kitchen cabinets with robin’s egg blue paint, to hiding the fir floors with laminate—but mostly we shouted their names in vain for taking the easy way out on the home’s vintage wallpaper: painting over it. That was until we tried to remove the floral fiasco in the one room they hadn’t touched.

Let’s just say, they don’t make wallpaper glue like they used to. While newer wallpaper often strips off without the use of water or chemicals, this older stuff could hold a space shuttle together. What we finally discovered after days of steaming, scraping and swearing at ourselves to no avail was the wallpaper scoring tool.

On the underside of this round object that fits in the palm of your hand are rotating disks of metal teeth. As you run the scorer over the wallpaper in small circles with light pressure as if sanding it, the teeth perforate the paper without damaging the wall. The holes allow steam or special stripping liquid to seep through the paper to the glue beneath, making removal possible. Not easy, just possible.