Month: April 2014

Categories
Living

Friends remember former C&O owner Dave Simpson

Friends remember former C&O owner Dave Simpson, who died Tuesday, for his culinary talent, kindness, and humor. Photo: Andrea Hubbell

“I’m no Dave Simpson, and I can’t live up to his spirit,” said C&O Restaurant owner Dean Maupin. “But I certainly reveled in his spirit.”

Simpson, the longtime C&O chef and owner who sold the restaurant to Maupin last year, died Tuesday morning after being hospitalized for a heart attack, according to his brother Mike Simpson.

The son of a city cop, Simpson was born in January 1955 and grew up in Charlottesville. He got his first taste of the food service industry when he was hired at Shoney’s as a teenager. As a young adult, he spent several years on the West Coast, where he worked as a chef at a retirement home, but his nascent cooking career was quickly challenged by the first of many health issues when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue. He underwent intensive radiation therapy in California and Oregon which, according to his brother, put him in remission but caused vascular health issues that plagued him for the rest of his life, and led to a triple bypass surgery 13 years ago.

Despite those intermittent bouts of illness, friends and family say Simpson never sat still and never stopped smiling. Mike Simpson described his brother as an “extraordinarily beautiful father” to his now 18-year-old daughter, Grace, with his former wife, Pat.

Simpson joined the C&O team in the late 1970s, and it wasn’t long before he bought the place. Friends say in his 30-plus years as owner of the C&O, Simpson was known as the guy who gave everybody a chance, and he carved out a safe, welcoming environment with an unflinchingly loyal following.

“He gave people chances, people who were often struggling in life,” Mike Simpson said. “He just had such a sunny view of people.”

Maupin, who got his chance when he showed up at the C&O as a 19-year-old chef in the 1990s, described Simpson as “entirely original,” and said his experience working under him was magical.

“He hired so many different people based on their character, and allowed them to really grow up in his restaurant,” Maupin said. “He was such an original character, and had more friends than anybody I’ve ever known.”

Simpson passed the torch to Maupin, and Maupin has made a concerted effort to keep the beloved restaurant and bar exactly the same.

“Dave sold me his baby, you know?” he said. “He bestowed upon me my life’s dream in a very generous way, and I’m even more inspired to keep true to the spirit of the restaurant.”

Jim Puopolo, who now owns 20 South Catering, grew up spending his afternoons and summers at the C&O, where he’d hang out at the bar for hours and help out with catering events, soaking up all the knowledge, humor, and people skills from Simpson that he could. Puopolo described Simpson as brutally honest, with a distinct sense of humor and the ability to tell it like it is.

“Most chefs and restaurant people are assholes,” Puopolo said with a laugh. “But he did not fit that mold at all. I think that’s what people really loved about him. He was always looking for the good, and just had a huge heart.”

Simpson’s longtime friend turned fianceé Judy Berger said it was ironic that it was ultimately his heart that caused his death.

“His heart was physically very compromised, yet it was so strong and just full of love,” Berger said. “I learned how to love from him, and trust and be patient. He taught me so many things.”

Berger and Simpson had drinks at the C&O for their first date.

“I fell in love with him that night,” she said. “I just knew that this was the person, this was the soul I had been looking for my whole life. We were together 24/7 after that.”

Even in retirement, Berger said Simpson never stopped running around. They recently traveled to Scotland and France and took up backyard gardening. His latest project was constructing a 12′ by 16′ stage at his home for small, non-commercial performances, with a sign that read “Future site of Mickey Rooney Theater.” She said he just wanted a place for friends and family to gather and feel relaxed and at home, not unlike the C&O.

“So many people found refuge in Dave Simpson,” Berger said. “That’s really all I can say.”

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Burlesque in Bloom

Deanna Danger and friends make spring pop with some good old fashioned bump and grind at the Jefferson. Publicity photo

Dust off your derbies and gather your garters, ladies and gents, because spring has sprung and it’s time to celebrate. What better way to kick off the most frisky of all seasons than an evening of vaudevillian delights presented and hosted by Richmond’s most titillating leading ladies? Burlesque in Bloom is a classic variety showcase featuring sideshow, live music, bawdy balderdash, and of course, lots of vintage va-va-va-voom.

Friday 5/2. 9pm, $12-17. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: The Sound of Music

The Albemarle Players take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless classic The Sound of Music. Publicity photo

The Albemarle High School auditorium comes alive with The Sound of Music as dozens of teenage thespians bring the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to the stage for four performances. If last year’s live, television production of the show was one of your favorite things, you already know the play centers around Maria, a singing nun-in-training-turned-governess, who brings joy, music, and love into the strict home of stern Captain von Trapp and his seven children. Until, that is, they all have to hightail it for the hills to escape a bunch of Nazis.

Thursday 5/1– Sunday 5/4. $10-20, times vary. Albemarle High School Auditorium, 2775 Hydraulic Rd. ahspresents.com.

Categories
Living

Women’s history: Seven decades of wisdom from 24 locals we admire

Marilyn Fantino, Tamika Richeson, Cathy Coffman. Photo: Jackson Smith

In this week’s Q&A, we asked you to tell us what women you find most inspiring. Your answers are varied—mothers, friends, employers—but not unexpected. And as I began to think about my own answer to that question, I realized the women I would choose (my mom, a handful of remarkable friends) shared the same trait: courage. In one way or another, they rose above a personal challenge and were brave enough to chart their own course—my mom, who ran a successful business and was a single mother for the first five years of my life; my friend Britt, who recently earned a master of divinity degree, which she’ll use to help others in the LGBT community feel love and acceptance; and my friend Jen, who quite literally navigated her way to a new life as she made a 10,000-mile trip around the U.S. by herself. Really, courage is what all of the women in this issue have in common. But we’ll get back to them in a second.

For the first time in C-VILLE’s history, women are running the show. With a female CFO, a female publisher, and a female editor-in-chief (not to mention an entirely female editorial staff), we felt especially equipped (and fortunate!) to pay tribute to some of the very noteworthy women in our midst.

What follows is an appreciation of the kind of women we’d like to grow up to be (“The kind of women we just want to crouch down next to for a while,” said our editor in a planning meeting for this issue). You’ll find profiles of seven local ladies from ages 28 to 81—teachers, businesswomen, volunteers, and more—as well as words of wisdom from more than 15 others we couldn’t resist including.

They answered our questions on everything from their greatest struggles to their biggest influences, and offered advice for other women, both younger and older. There’s plenty of insight from each of them, but the central theme is clear: No matter one’s age, there will always be more to learn about the experience of being a woman. Let’s teach each other.—Caite White

By Graelyn Brashear, Elizabeth Derby, Laura Ingles, Tami Keaveny, Susan Sorensen, Courteney Stuart, and Caite White

Categories
News

UVA Law funds the first jobs of many of its grads—should it matter?

At a time when there are more new lawyers than law jobs, UVA’s School of Law has one of the highest employed-at-graduation rates in the country—a big deal for prospective students. Photo: Elli Williams

A degree from a respectable law school used to all but guarantee you a job, but in today’s post-recession market, that’s no longer the case: According to statistics from the American Bar Association, only 56 percent of 2012 law school grads landed in full-time positions requiring bar passage. UVA’s School of Law, however, is sitting pretty when it comes to job placement stats. When U.S. News and World Report released its law school rankings last spring—a list that carries serious weight—it revealed UVA had an employed-at-graduation rate of 97 percent, higher than any other law program in the country, including Harvard and Yale.

But what U.S. News didn’t report was that UVA was paying the salaries of 15 percent of its 2012 graduates.

So-called “bridge-to-practice” programs that subsidize new lawyers’ early careers have become commonplace at law schools around the country, and critics are increasingly calling schools out for using the practice to boost their employment numbers. In recent years, UVA had among the highest rate of graduates going into school-funded jobs among its top-tier peers. But proponents of the law school’s program say that’s not a problem.

According a survey last year by the National Association for Law Placement, the practice of paying for graduates’ first jobs saw a massive spike in the wake of the recession; half the programs the NALP analyzed were created between 2009 and 2010.

Some schools were blunt about their motivations. Duke University School of Law, for instance, boasted a stunning 100 percent employed-nine-months-after-graduation rate in the post-recession starving time of 2008 and 2009, and promoted its bridge-to-practice program primarily as a way to keep those numbers high. Law school Dean David Levi put it this way in a story published on the Duke Law website in 2010: “Our students deserve to leave here with a job.”

But UVA School of Law Dean Paul G. Mahoney said UVA’s program stands apart for a few reasons. For one thing, it was early to the party: The Robert F. Kennedy ’51 Public Service Fellowship program, which pays a one-year salary to graduates in public-interest law jobs, was created in 2007, before the recession started leaving even highly ranked schools with an unexpected glut of unemployed graduates.

And while it’s not unusual to see pay-for-placement programs focusing on getting grads hired in lower-paying public sector and nonprofit law jobs, Mahoney said UVA has always had a focus on encouraging some of its brightest students to go into public interest law.

“I think it’s important that top law schools both tell their students that public service careers are a worthy goal, and that they do what they can to facilitate it, given the cost of a top-tier legal education,” he said.

Holly Vradenburgh knew she wanted to work in a prosecutor’s office after she graduated from UVA Law in 2012. But such public sector jobs are hard to land right out of school for a very specific reason: There’s a months-long lag between taking the bar and officially passing it, and unlike big law firms, most public employers can’t afford to take on a new hire who isn’t a full-fledged lawyer.

Vradenburgh’s $31,500 Kennedy Fellowship funding bridged the gap, paying her to volunteer as a practice intern in the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, where she worked under the supervision of an attorney until her bar results came in.

“Then it got really fun, because I got to be a prosecuting attorney,” she said. “I ran my own dockets and prosecuted my own cases while still under the fellowship.”

She said that by the time she graduated, nearly all her classmates had jobs lined up, and those who took fellowships didn’t see them as an option of last resort. While Vradenburgh ended up going into private practice after a year—she now works for Michie Hamlett, just across the street from the county courthouse in Charlottesville—she said most of her fellowship classmates used the program as a springboard to full-time public service jobs. Plenty of them could have taken plush positions and paid off their student loans much faster, but they wanted to work in a sector that paid less. “If you can take a job at a big firm in New York, it’s tempting to do that,” Vradenburgh said, “so it’s helpful to have a program in place so that you know a career in public service is possible.”

There are a couple of other reasons to assume UVA’s fellowship program isn’t just a rankings ploy, said David Lat, the founder and managing editor of Above the Law, a legal news and information website that has been critical of the growth of bridge-to-practice programs.

“The UVA program is done well, because it provides for long-term employment,” Lat said—not just to the nine-month mark, which is the measuring stick used by U.S. News and World Report. It’s also almost entirely funded by alumni giving, he said, so it’s not a drain on the school’s primary resources.

The kicker: By several other estimates, UVA doesn’t need to pad its employment numbers to come out at or near the top. Even when you strike out school-funded jobs, the law school has one of the country’s highest rates of employment after graduation—80 percent, according to a story in this month’s National Law Journal.

Lat’s colleagues at ATL created their own law school ranking system that, unlike U.S. News and World Report, totally ignores “inputs” like incoming students’ LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs, while giving much more weight to “quality” employment post-graduation, particularly judicial clerkships and jobs at top firms. ATL doesn’t take school-funded jobs into account at all, and UVA comes in at No. 7 in its recently released ranking. The 2014 U.S. News and World Report list puts UVA at No. 8 overall.

But even if UVA deserves its high marks, the industry- and academia-wide obsession with law school rankings—and specifically with employment stats—is indicative of a continuing problem, say observers like Lat: There are just too many new lawyers. “It will take some time for the market to achieve a new equilibrium,” Lat said. In the meantime, everybody’s watching the numbers, and even U.S. News and World Report—still “the Big Kahuna” when it comes to rankings—may be redrawing its rubric as the clamoring for greater transparency in measuring school success grows louder.

Robert Morse is the director of data research for U.S. News’ rankings. Now that the ABA is breaking out school-funded jobs numbers, “we’re definitely going to research and think about that,” he said.

But UVA’s Kennedy Fellows program is here to stay, said Mahoney, because it works. The law school makes a point of following up with its fellows to check in on their careers, and as of last spring, 35 out of the 40 2010 fellows had jobs.

“This isn’t masking some big underlying unemployment problem,” he said.

Categories
Living

Two of a kind: Omelets are a breakfast staple, whatever form they’re in

Tip Top Restaurant’s scrambled-style omelet stands out as one of the area’s best breakfast options. Photo: Elli Williams

My mom had the most ridiculous omelet maker when I was a kid. It was essentially a hinged non-stick skillet, with two half-moon shaped sides. You would pour your egg mixture into the pan, top either or each side with your omelet ingredients, and when the egg was just beginning to set, flip the skillet at the hinge to flop one side on top of the other.

The hinge was comically wide. You had to be quick to make sure you didn’t get any egg on your face, and the whole proceeding was more violent than an OCD chef wielding a Slap Chop.

Somehow, though, the contraption made great omelets, and it’s influenced my thinking about omelets to this day. To me, the archetypal omelet is essentially an egg-based Hot Pocket: fluffy chicken ovums folded delicately around melted cheeses, crisp-tender vegetables, and salty breakfast meats.

If you’re looking for an omelet that could have come out of the egg-flip-o-matic itself, look no further than The Nook. The Downtown Mall diner’s been serving breakfast under one name or another since 1912 and went through a major renovation in 2007, making it no stranger to the comings and goings of a trend or two. But the omelet they’ve settled on these days is all folds of thin egg layers winding around tasty filling. The individual layers of egg are well seasoned and all so nicely layered that the overall effect is almost flaky.

The Nook’s omelets aren’t perfect, though. The amazing-sounding combination of sweet basil, tomato, and asiago cheese tucked inside layers of scrambled eggs, doesn’t quite work for me, and the restaurant has fallen victim to a few careless errors on my visits. Last time I was in, the kitchen sent out its Original Ham Omelet—shown on the menu with ham, caramelized onions, cheddar, and Monterey Jack—with no cheese at all. And on a previous visit, the mushrooms were distributed in such a way on my mushroom and Swiss omelet that half the omelet was just a Swiss.

Still, properly cheesened with its salty-sweet caramelized onions and stacks of deli ham, the Original Ham from The Nook is a solid omelet that stands in contrast to so many omelets these days that are really no more than a glorified scramble, eggs and ingredients thrown together in a pile and served flat and without substance. More often than not, this strategy results in a dense, rubbery mouth full of indistinct ingredients. But, done right, it can be a satisfying diner meal, indeed.

Take the dish served up at Tip Top Restaurant, the oft-forgotten Pantops joint tucked between row after row of new and used cars at the surrounding auto dealerships. Tip Top’s omelets are the type that would never come out of my mama’s kitchen, but their deliciousness is in their simplicity.

“We throw all the ingredients into a bowl, scramble them, throw it on the grill, flip it and fold it,” said manager Cody Vassalos, whose father runs the joint. “When you mix it all together, the ingredients still get sautéed, it cooks in the eggs, and it adds to how quickly we can make an omelet.”

Both Tip Top’s Western Omelet (green peppers, onions, ham) and Greek Omelet (feta cheese, black olives, onion, tomato) are satisfying breakfast options. The eggs used in either case are cooked perfectly, and served fast and with a smile. The veggies, although a little undercooked due to the quick sauté, taste fresh, and the knife work is consistent, which helps both dishes come together.

“These cooks have been here for a long time, and they’ve cut a lot of produce,” Vassalos said. “They have it down to an art form.”

If you decide to go for the diner’s Western Omelet, be advised it’s a straight-up traditional Western, meaning no cheese. Even my server last time I was at Tip Top knew I was not going to be happy to see a plate of hot eggs, peppers, onions, and ham come out without some melted cheese on it.

“Would you like cheese on your Western?” she asked me. Why, but of course. How did she know? “I know people,” she said. And I’m inclined to believe her.

Categories
Arts

The meticulous collaboration to pull off Candide

Oratorio Society of Virginia Music Director Michael Slon conducts musicians during a rehearsal of Candide. The Society and Ash Lawn Opera are collaborating on two performances of the operetta, which is based on a novella written by Voltaire in 1759 and adapted for theater by Leonard Bernstein in the 1950s. Image: Chris Pecoraro

Are you familiar with the Night-Blooming Cereus? It’s a flower, or, more properly, a flowering cactus that blooms only one night a year. That’s it. And if you’re not there, you won’t see it.

Ash Lawn Opera and the Oratorio Society of Virginia’s production of Candide promises to be far more spectacular than flowering cacti, but the message is the same: There is a small window to see something truly special. Don’t blink.

“The collaboration brings together 12 principal soloists, a production team, 85 choral singers, and an orchestra,” said Michelle Krisel, general and artistic director at Ash Lawn Opera. “For two performances. It’s a tremendous amount of work.”

The planning began two years ago when the newly appointed music director of the Charlottesville-based Oratorio Society, Michael Slon, approached Krisel with an idea. Could the two groups join together and pull off what couldn’t be done alone? Could they join together and perform Candide?

Originally written by French novelist Voltaire in 1759, Candide was adapted for Broadway by Leonard Bernstein in the 1950s.

The narrative follows a young man, Candide, on a Sisyphean adventure—whether it’s love, business, law, or politics, the hero is hopelessly, methodically, voraciously overmatched, outwitted, under skilled, and unprepared. And when all is lost, and no hope is to be found, what does Candide do? He, like a children’s toy on a spring, pops upright, and starts anew.

The narrative brims with a dark, cynical humor, as if a contemptuous, almost malicious, chuckle resonates through the performance.

For Slon, who is also a UVA professor, Candide was an obvious choice. “I’m a huge Bernstein fan,” said Slon. “He represents a unique force in the landscape of American music… and there is a spirit of fun throughout this score. Some of it is in the lyrics, but some of it is in the satirical playfulness of the music itself.”

Picking the show is the easy part of this affair. What comes next is a staggering amount of preparation. Soloists from all over the country are vetted, auditioned and hired, months, sometimes a year in advance.

In this case, many of the soloists have been hand-picked by Krisel. The chorus, supplied by the Oratorio Society, which brims with local talent, must be prepared. The orchestra must be assembled. The various players practice separately—the choir with their music, the soloist with theirs, and so on—until each perfects his or her component.

Then, literally days before the performance, they all arrive in the same place for the first time, and Slon assembles this massive edifice of sound, movement, and performance over three rehearsals.

It’s the equivalent of pulling the string on a ship in a bottle. Everything is meticulously arranged, carefully constructed, and completely prepared; all that’s left to do is the marvelous, magical raising of the mast.

“There’s no way the Oratorio Society could have done this on their own, or the Ash Lawn Opera could have done it on their own. The reason that we’re working together is to bring the best of all possible worlds together,” said Jane Colony Mills, executive director for the Oratorio Society.

“The spectacle of seeing 128 musicians all in one place is an extraordinary thing,” she said. “It’s awe-inspiring to hear the sound that a large group of voices can make. It’s awe-inspiring to hear a professional singer be able to carry something all on their own, blow the doors off, make the place shake.”

The Ash Lawn Opera began performing at the Paramount when it moved from Ash Lawn-Highland to Charlottesville in 2009. Michelle Krisel was named general director in 2010, bringing with her a wealth of experience in the opera world. One of her biggest, if not the biggest, priorities is making opera “accessible.”

Slon echoes this. “Music is for everyone,” Slon said. “Part of the excitement is introducing something new, letting [the individual] experience it… be moved by it… enjoy it. Hopefully get past some of the stereotypes they have harbored.”

Stereotypes, indeed. Let’s clear a few things up. Operas are not exclusively performed in different languages by fat ladies in braids. Candide, along with countless others, is written and performed in English. And many of the soloists are young and beautiful.

Operas are not necessarily long, drawn out, soppy affairs. Candide (which is technically an “operetta”) runs just over two hours with an intermission. Krisel describes the show as “witty, hilarious, and fast-paced.”

Operas are not for fancy, snooty folks who eat caviar by the bucket. They are for everyone, everywhere. If you’ve never been to the opera, this is a chance to try it for yourself. After all, when will the flower bloom again?

~David Hawkins

Categories
News

Big victory for local Legal Aid center as Herring extends in-state tuition to DACA-eligible immigrants

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. Photo: Adrin Snider/MCT/ZUMAPRESS.com

Last year, Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice Center filed a lawsuit seeking in-state college tuition for Virginia youth who emigrated to the U.S. illegally as children. Today, the plaintiffs in the suit won a major victory—though not in the courtroom. Attorney General Mark Herring announced this morning that under Virginia law, immigrants covered by the Obama administration memorandum known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, can pay lower in-state rates at the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities.

“This is about Virginia high school graduates wanting to continue their education here in Virginia,” said Tim Freilich, legal director of the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Immigrant Advocacy Program, in a press release issued Tuesday. “It’s completely appropriate that Virginia should help these students realize their dreams. Today’s policy change is a smart investment in the futures of these students, and the future of Virginia.”

The LAJC brought the suit on behalf of seven students—some from the Charlottesville-Albemarle area—who had been granted DACA status by the federal government. The special status had authorized them to work in the U.S. and get Virginia driver’s licenses, but when it came to getting approved for in-state tuition that would have allowed them to attend college, they were turned down by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Their LAJC lawyers argued the DACA memo made them eligible. The plaintiffs have dropped the suit.

“I’ve been paying out‐of‐state tuition rates at Piedmont [Virginia] Community College, even though I’ve been here in Virginia since I was four years old,” 19-year-old 2013 Monticello High School graduate Miriam Garcia Aleman said in the JAJC press release. “My parents have worked hard to pay for my studies. In‐state tuition will make things much easier on my family financially.”

As a Washington Post story pointed out, Herring’s move is likely to stoke the already healthy partisan fires burning in Richmond, as it comes on the heels of a legislative session that saw Republicans kill a bill that would have allowed for exactly what the Attorney General just made legal. One Republican delegate from Salem tweeted that Herring’s announcement amounting to him “making up the law.”

 Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe issued a statement supporting Herring’s interpretation of the federal memo.

“As I said throughout my campaign, I believe that Virginia children who were brought here at a young age, grew up here, and have stayed out of trouble, should absolutely have access to the same educational opportunities as everyone else,” Herring said. “To grow a 21st Century economy, Virginia needs to be open and welcoming to all who call our Commonwealth home, and I am encouraged to see progress being made in this area during my administration.”

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Ami Dang

The uniquely talented Ami Dang merges Indian folk music with electronica through her accessible mastery of the sitar. Publicity photo

Though the sitar doesn’t often appear in contemporary American music, Maryland musician Ami Dang strives to break the barriers between New Delhi and Baltimore by pairing the instrument with modern electronic beats and drones to create a distinctive new sound that she calls “Bollywave.” Her sitar shines with the help a looping pedal, creating a canvas on which Dang paints a musical mandala of cyclical sounds, introducing reggae to raga and twang to twerk.

Wednesday 4/30. $5, 8:30pm. Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, 414 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 293-9947.

Categories
Living

Overheard on the restaurant scene: This week’s food and drink news

File photo.

Korean BBQ taco joint in the making on Emmet

The owner of sweetFrog is moving into the old Arch’s spot on Emmet Street, but he’s not bringing frozen yogurt. Founder of the nation-wide froyo empire with the name that stands for “Fully Rely On God,” Derek Cha plans to unveil Zzaam! Fresh Korean Grill by the end of July.

Zzaam! will serve up freshly grilled meats (and tofu) in tacos, rice bowls, salads, noodle bowls, lettuce wraps, and even sliders. The free-range chicken, beef, and pork will be cooked in traditional Korean marinades, and, “similar to the Chipotle model,” guests will move on down the line, choosing from different vegetables, toppings, and sauces to build their meals. Toppings will include Chinese-style broccoli, sautéed mushrooms, carrots, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, and spicy sauces that Cha promises have a “light kick that goes away quickly and doesn’t linger.”

“It’s authentic Korean food with a slightly Mexican twist,” Cha said. “Charlottesville is into new, fresh concepts, and quick-serve healthy food with a lot of taste. It’s the perfect market to start this.”

If you absolutely can’t wait another three months before getting your hands on some Korean tacos at the restaurant, Cha has already launched a Zzaam! food truck. It’s currently making a name for itself in Richmond, but keep an eye out for it on the Charlottesville streets between now and July.

Early Mountain Vineyards rolls out new summer wine

Looking for something new to sip on a sunny weekend? Early Mountain Vineyards announced last week that it is now serving its 2013 merlot rosé, which features notes of strawberries, melon, and fresh fennel. It’s available by the bottle at the Marketplace and at www.store.earlymountain.com for $18. The rosé is the first of a long line of new wines coming from Early Mountain, including a late spring release of a 2013 pinot gris, an early summer debut of a 2012 eluvium, and a 2013 merlot coming in mid-summer.

Early Mountain’s chef Jenn Crovato is also introducing new springtime menu options, like a Tall Cotton Farms chicken panini with Moonshiner’s BBQ sauce, grilled red onions, and Mountain View cheddar.

Richmond to host regional food writing workshop

Calling all aspiring food writers! Real Richmond Food Tours owners Susan Winiecki and Maureen Egan will host the Mid-Atlantic Food Writers Symposium June 20-22, which will feature panels of nationally known cookbook authors, bloggers, and food stylists, like Matt Gross from Bon Apetit and Bonnie Benwick of the Washington Post. Panel topics include “how to cook up a book” and “feeding the beast that is social media,” plus a few lucky attendees will get to take a master class with James Beard finalist Todd Kliman. Tickets cost $350. To order online, visit www.midatlanticfoodwriters. com/register.

We’re always keeping our eyes and ears out for the latest news on Charlottesville’s food and drink scene, so pick up a paper and check c-ville.com/living each week for the latest Small Bites. Have a scoop for Small Bites? E-mail us at bites@c-ville.com.