Month: January 2016

Categories
Living

Mac attack: Up close and personal with everyone’s favorite cheesy pasta

Photo: Rammelkamp Foto

Listen, we all know that there’s a time and a place for Easy Mac. The time is 2am and the place is your freshman-year dorm. But unless you’re trapped in a 10’x10′ room in the middle of the night with nothing but a microwave, a packet of noodles and cheese powder and some running water, there’s no excuse for settling for subpar macaroni and cheese—especially in this town.

According to Monticello’s records, none other than Thomas Jefferson requested the procurement of a “mould for making macaroni” when William Short traveled to Naples in 1789. His notes stated that the machine included “a set of plates which may be changed at will, with holes of different shapes and sizes for different sorts of macaroni.” We can’t give TJ all the credit for introducing mac-n-cheese to America, but records indicate that he was a fan of the dish and may have popularized it by serving it to dinner guests during his time in office. We think he would be pleased with the many varieties of macaroni and cheese that can be found in Charlottesville these days.

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but if you’re looking for some good ol’ cheesy comfort food, it’s a great place to start.

The classic

Maya Restaurant

Chef Christian Kelly doesn’t mess around when it comes to macaroni and cheese. The creamy dish starts with a béchamel before he adds just one type of cheese: aged white cheddar.

“It’s a pretty old-school approach,” Kelly says. “There’s no truffle oil or four different types of cheeses. Just a seriously sharp white cheddar.”

It’s available as a side, and Kelly recommends pairing it with pork or catfish, collard greens and a beer.

Tater-topped

The Virginian

Need some carbs with your carbs? The Virginian has been serving up the Stumble Down, with its cavatappi pasta, pepper Jack cheese and fried potato cake, for more than a decade.

“Most people mash [the potato cake] into the mac and cheese, and that creates an amazing crunchy texture,” The Virginian owner Andy McClure says.

It’s available as a $5 appetizer, but for twice that you can get a full entrée-sized plate of it.

Between the buns

Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint

If you haven’t had mac-n-cheese on a burger yet, perhaps your life has been a little too sheltered. Not only does the Greg Brady feature a mountain of gooey, creamy homemade macaroni and cheese on a bun with a griddle-top burger patty, but the whole concoction is topped with crispy Martin’s Bar-B-Q potato chips.

True to Jack Brown’s form, there’s no lettuce, tomato or anything healthy found anywhere near this burger. And, thankfully, the Greg Brady isn’t a special daily item—it’s in the “everyday burgers” section of the menu, so there’s no waiting an entire week for it to make its appearance again.

Under the sea

The Local

As if macaroni and cheese isn’t decadent enough, chef Matthew Hart at The Local adds chunks of Maine lobster to his version to put it over the top.

The dish is made-to-order, with Mountain View Marmac cheddar cheese, Parmesan, heavy cream and lobster from Seafood @ West Main married together in one pan with classic elbow macaroni noodles.

As for what to sip with your lobster mac, the guys at The Local recommend a glass of pinot grigio from Barboursville Vineyards.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Blade Runner

Photo: Courtesy of The Ladd Company/Entertainment Pictures

With Harrison Ford’s name buzzing thanks to the new Star Wars release, and director Ridley Scott’s The Martian up for a Best Picture Oscar, the time is right to revisit Blade Runner. Although the 1982 sci-fi flick portrays a vision of 2019 that now seems far-fetched, it’s easy to get lost in the dystopian world created by Scott and navigated by Ford. The film tells a tale of corporate greed as the fictitious Tyrell Corporation creates replicants (genetically engineered humans) who go rogue and have to be hunted down.

Sunday 1/31. $6.50, 2pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Pride and Prejudice

Gorilla Theater rolls out playful staging and witty banter for Pride and Prejudice on Sunday. Photo: Anna Lien

Experience the epic romance of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Gorilla Theater Productions’ staging of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The tale, written in 1813, is riddled with drama, lust, love and conditions of human nature that ring true, even in the present day.

Through 1/31. $10-15, 2pm. The Director’s Studio, 1713 Allied St. Ste. 2A. 547-7986

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Lemolo, Mercyland, Daughter

Get the scoop on the latest releases from Lemolo, Mercyland and Daughter in this week's album reviews. Photo: File photo

Lemolo

Red Right Return/self-released

There is an undeniable ghostly beauty to this record from Meagan Grandall. The lush vocals on Red Right Return play off of the swelling, often moody musical aesthetics, resulting in a euphoric experience. Ambient piano ballads such as “White Flag” are beautifully offset by alt-rock flair on tracks such as “One to Love,” and “Runner” employs a catchy time signature that holds you in its sway. “Backslide” and “Fuel” highlight Grandall’s adventurous spirit by combining jazz drum cadence, thrumming bass and an occasional layer of synths augmenting her siren song. The tracks are at times hopeful and mysterious, while others balance sonic beauty against dark lyrics, bound by a narrative of hanging on through the ups and downs.

Mercyland

Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us, Vol. II/Mercyland Records

In this powerhouse collection that brings together Emmylou Harris, John Scofield, The Lone Bellow and others, there’s no shortage of raw gospel, Americana and soul. Whether it’s the dusky, desperate melancholia on Sugar + the Hi-Lows’ “God Don’t be a Stranger” or Angel Snow’s rapturously understated “I Said it, I Meant it,” these are not the cries of joyous saints, but the ragged utterances of the weary. And while the rockabilly gospel of the McCrary Sisters’ “Boom Chicka Boom” is decidedly upbeat in the face of trouble, it only takes one listen to Will Kimbrough’s stirring, down-tempo “Madness of the World,” with lines such as “Coltrane in the ’60s / Blind Willie lost in time / Mahalia, like an angel / The hymns of humankind,” to find the meaning of exorcising your demons through art.

Daughter

Not to Disappear/Glassnote Records

From its ruminations on motherhood (“Doing the Right Thing”) to how we cope with pain (“How”) and loneliness (“Alone/With You”), there is an intriguing thread throughout this record about the power and importance of human connection. Amid the broken relationships is a hypnotic combination of rock ‘n’ roll, ambient beats and electronica that gives the songs a (sometimes devastating) raw vulnerability. Singer-guitarist Elena Tonra’s slightly trembling vocals are confessional on songs such as “Made of Stone,” where she muses, “I think I am made of stone / I think we are all / Built out of memories.” And she is unflinching on “To Belong” in which she asks, “Don’t you think you’d be better off / Without me tied around your neck?” Not to Disappear is an album that touches you at your core.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Dylan LeBlanc

A two-year hiatus proved beneficial for Americana prodigy Dylan LeBlanc, whose new album projects a sense of discipline and wisdom. Photo: Publicity photo

Four years after releasing his second album, Dylan LeBlanc returns with Cautionary Tale, his most mature record yet. At 25, LeBlanc, who has been called the new Neil Young, caught the attention of powerful singer-songwriters such as Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams, and Rolling Stone magazine hailed him as one of the “Artists You Need to Know” in November. Up-and coming local songstress Caroline Spence opens.

Saturday 1/30. $10, 6:30pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.

Categories
News

Tom Tom Founders Summit speakers announced

The Tom Tom Founders Festival's director Paul Beyer stands between Doug Stoup (left) and Bill Crutchfield, who will speak at the 2016 Summit Speakers event in April. Photo courtesy of Tom Tom

Mark your calendars for the 2016 Founders Summit, a day of inspirational talks by world champion athletes, famed entrepreneurs and inventors, sponsored by the Tom Tom Founders Festival in partnership with the iLab at UVA.

Speakers for this year’s day-long Summit will gather at the Paramount Theater on April 15 to discuss everything from entrepreneurship to climate change and lip balm. With plans to announce more speakers in February, those already lined up for the event are listed below.

Bill Crutchfield

The founder of Crutchfield started his business from his mother’s basement with only $1,000 in savings and has since built the company into a $250 million annual revenue, 500-employee Charlottesville-based enterprise.

Rodney Mullen

This 35-time skateboarding World Champion is also an inventor and investor with a deep understanding of the role of passion and creativity in entrepreneurship.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

As founder of Joyus—the leading online video entertainment platform reimagining online shopping—she is a leading technology executive and entrepreneur who served as president of Asia Pacific and Latin America at Google, leading an 18 country expansion.

Craig Dubitsky

As founder of Eos Lip Balm and Hello Products, his approach to the $30 billion dental industry launched his products into 20,000 stores. Along with numerous honors and awards, Dubitsky holds six patents.

Doug Stoup

A movie stuntman turned extreme explorer and founder of Ice Axe Expeditions, he is the world’s leading polar adventurer who documents the effects of climate change on his record breaking expeditions.

The fifth annual Tom Tom Founders Festival will take place April 11-17 at various locations in Charlottesville and include “concerts, talks, competitions and public art that connect hundreds of bands, startups and visionaries,” according to a release. In 2015, over 26,200 people attended the festival, which showcased over 400 community organizations and had an economic impact of $1.5 million on the city.

Tickets are on sale for the “Early Bird” price of $69. The price will increase when the next round of speakers is announced.

Categories
News

Randy Taylor prosecutor Anthony Martin resigns

Anthony Martin ends his term as Nelson commonwealth's attorney in February. Publicity photos

Anthony Martin, the Nelson County commonwealth’s attorney who got a murder conviction without a body in the case of missing teen Alexis Murphy, resigned from his position January 26 after being reelected in an unopposed race in November.

In an e-mail, Martin says, “[R]eally it boiled down to wanting a change after 10 years of prosecution. An opportunity to go back into private practice came up and I decided to take it.”

Martin did not say which firm he will join March 1. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jerry Gress will be sworn in as acting commonwealth’s attorney until a special election is held.

In May 2014, Martin prosecuted Randy Allen Taylor for the murder of 17-year-old Murphy, whose disappearance in 2013 right before the start of her senior year at Nelson County High rocked the region. She was last seen with Taylor, who was sentenced to two life terms. Martin accomplished the extremely rare legal feat of obtaining a conviction without a body.

“There’s precedent, but such cases are few and far between,” legal analyst David Heilberg told C-VILLE after the trial. The last such local case was the 1983 conviction of Glenn Haslam Barker for the year-earlier murder of 12-year-old Charlottesville schoolgirl Katie Worsky. “Murder cases are difficult enough, especially if you have no body,” he said.

Heilberg says he’s sorry to hear about Martin’s departure. “I really like working with Anthony,” he says. “He’s a good guy and a straight shooter.” Martin is “tough but fair,” adds Heilberg. “That’s not easy to do as a prosecutor.”

 

Categories
Living

Canine couture: When dog clothes make sense

Doggy sweaters have a practical use beyond keeping them on trend. Photo: File photo

Another year, another Internet controversy. Although it hasn’t reached the fever pitch of last year’s ambiguously colored dress, I understand that people are now very concerned about whether a dog’s pants should cover all four legs or just the hind two.

There isn’t much sense to the question, of course. It’s hard to imagine any good reason for any dog to wear pants regardless of how many legs they’ll cover. Now that’s not to say that dogs should never wear clothes. Sure, it’s easy to snicker at your neighbor’s lapdog adorned with pointless pink frills, but sometimes dogs need to brave elements they simply weren’t bred to endure, and a garment or two may put function squarely above fashion.

Although there’s been a delay, winter is finally getting around to being cold. Big arctic breeds such as huskies and samoyeds have little need for concern. But if your skinny whippet steps out for longer than necessary to check the mail, you’ll likely find him shivering in a hurry. Not only do smaller and lighter-framed dogs lose body heat quickly, but dogs with short or sparse fur (whether by their nature or because of illness) can struggle when temperatures fall. And puppies or elderly dogs are inherently more vulnerable. A pet coat is an entirely practical way to keep them warm.

Winter weather can also be a particular challenge for dogs’ feet. Not only are they in direct contact with cold surfaces, but they have to deal with snow, ice and whatever humans have sprinkled on the ground to melt it. Pads become chapped and cracked, and can take a long time to heal. Dogs with longer fur often get painful balls of ice jammed up between their toes, and road salt (even the “pet-safe” kinds) can be terribly caustic. There’s nothing wrong with fitting your dog with a good set of boots to help keep their feet protected. It’s still wise, however, to clean and dry their feet once the boots come off at home.

Regardless of how you might decide to outfit them, no dog is completely impervious to severe cold. Extremities such as ears and tails are vulnerable to frostbite even in the most densely insulated breeds. And if there’s precipitation in the air, wet fur will quickly lose its ability to provide warmth. No dog should ever be left in the cold unattended or without appropriate shelter, and if you start to see your dog shivering or slowing down during an extended winter walk, it’s time to get back inside to warm up again.

Dog clothes can serve a perfectly valid purpose under the right circumstances, and don’t have to be embarrassing. Except for those pants. Those are plainly absurd. But for the record, anybody with any sense can see that dog pants would only cover the hind legs.

Categories
News

Old and new: West Main complex keeps Blue Moon Diner

A new apartment complex will wend between two hidden historic houses behind Blue Moon Diner. Photo courtesy of Neighborhood Development Services

A new apartment complex is in the works for West Main, but the Board of Architectural Review has already ruled out tearing down some of the street’s oldest buildings to accommodate the building.

Developer Jeff Levien says he would prefer to demolish Blue Moon Diner and the next-door convenience store and rebuild them, adding that Blue Moon tenant Laura Galgano has publicly supported the plan, and the diner and store are not historical by nature or registered landmarks.

Blue Moon, built in 1951 at 512 West Main and originally operated as the Waffle Shop, is an addition on the facade of a two-story duplex called the Hartnagle-Witt House, which was built in 1884.

Beside the Hartnagle-Witt House sits the Hawkins-Perry House, which was built in 1873 by Ridge Street resident James Hawkins. Cecil Perry added a store, called Midway Cash Grocery, to the front of the house in 1931 and operated it for 30 years while his family lived above the store. That space at 600 West Main is now a convenience store.

“They’ve seen their better days,” Levien says about the old buildings, but the Board of Architectural Review insists that the structures remain standing, citing that the properties are the only two remaining dwellings built along West Main in the last half of the 19th century. Levien calls the BAR’s November decision to preserve them putting “history over function.”

In its reasoning for not permitting demolition, the BAR also says, “Both houses could be reproduced, but would not be old” and “the public purpose is to save tangible evidence and reminders of the people of Charlottesville, their stories and their buildings.”

Blue Moon2
Photo courtesy of Neighborhood Development Services

Staff requested both houses be incorporated into the new development proposal, so that’s what Levien and his architect Jeff Dreyfus, are planning to do.

In preliminary site plans, the four-story mixed-use building can be seen to the left of and behind both historic houses, which include the diner and convenience store. Levien says the ground floor will be used for retail and higher levels will include rental apartments.

“It won’t be like The Flats,” Levien says. The Flats @ West Village was highly criticized for its height, which required a 101-foot special use permit and “turned everyone off to these big-box buildings,” he says. Levien has addressed height by planning for a 35-foot-tall street wall along West Main and setting the remaining three stories of the complex back.

Proposed zoning plans for West Main will eventually allow four-story buildings, so Levien says he isn’t asking to add any extra height. He also says he hopes to rent to young professionals, hospital employees, professors or even graduate students rather than undergrads.

Design-wise, Levien looks to Oakhart Social, a restaurant across the street from his complex’s proposed site that has taken over a renovated building, but used its historic character in its aesthetic by featuring the space’s original exposed brick walls and showcasing “old and new,” he says.

Categories
News

Free-er speech: Controversial display prompts library policy changes

Some critics thought NOW’s sex-ed display in the library was too pro-choice and unsuitable for children. Staff photo

Nine months have passed since library patron Mike Powers voiced his concern over a sex-ed display in the front lobby of the main branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. Following April’s public outcry, on January 25 the library’s board of trustees approved proposed changes to its public display policies that will clarify its stance on freedom of speech.

The display that offended Powers was sponsored by the Charlottesville National Organization of Women and featured books on sex education and birth control, along with the slogan “My Body, My Choice.” Powers says the display was not appropriate for all ages and argues that the display’s “prominent front-lobby positioning” at the central branch implied an endorsement by the library.

“[The display] had a political advocacy slogan and it was very confusing whether the library itself was endorsing a political advocacy position,” Powers says, “That, to me, didn’t seem to match the mission of the library.”

Central Library Manager Krista Farrell says that despite objections to the display, it did not violate the library’s previous display policy. However, she notes that the controversy “highlighted the need to make some adjustments and updates to the existing policy.”

Among the changes, the library plans to remove the phrases “balanced” and “age appropriate” from its policy because the meaning of these phrases is “open to interpretation” and caused disagreement between patrons and board members, says Farrell. The new proposed policy would say freedom of speech displays will be “unfettered” unless they contain obscene or defaming materials.

In addition to somewhat loosening the restrictions on freedom of speech displays, the library plans to enforce new rules on where these displays may be seen and require that each display have a sign indicating sponsorship.

“Realizing most library visitors do not come to the library to view displays,” the proposed policy reads, “the ‘Freedom of Speech’ display cases shall be located in areas generally used by adults at a minimum of 20 feet from the front door.”

Brian LaFontaine, president of the board of trustees, believes these changes will help to clarify the library’s role in offering an equal opportunity for freedom of expression, saying the library has “a responsibility to all of our patrons no matter their political, religious, cultural or social beliefs.”

LaFontaine adds, “We hope, if adopted, the new displays and handouts policy will offer the opportunity for educational displays that will support freedom of speech, a tenet all libraries are charged with, yet be sensitive to the concerns some of our patrons may have on subject matter or presentation.”

Although the process has taken longer than he imagined, Powers says that overall he is supportive of the proposed changes and thinks these changes will better identify the library as a neutral organization.

“It’s going to be more clear that these messages are from an outside organization,” Powers says. “If they feel it’s an important library function to provide a platform for free expression, then I think this is the best compromise.”