The first "guest chef" sandwich to debut at Keevil & Keevil this year comes from Mason Hereford, of New Orleans’ Turkey and the Wolf. Photo courtesy Keevil Kitchen
Harrison Keevil’s departure from Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar is already paying dividends at Keevil & Keevil. With his full attention back on the shop he runs with his wife Jennifer, Keevil has big plans for 2019. Kicking off the year is the re-launch of his guest chef sandwich series, where each month a different chef collaborates with Keevil on a special sandwich. Past iterations have been stellar.
As always, there are too many albums I didn’t hear in 2018, but here are 10 favorites in roughly chronological order.
Khruangbin
Con Todo El Mundo
(Dead Oceans)
This was the runaway crowd pleaser of the winter, spring, and summer. Though they’re from Texas, Khruangbin’s hybridized funk invokes the musical reaction to ’60s soul that took place in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (the band name means airplane in Thai). But this is no geopolitical treatise—it’s sun-baked, chilled- out goodness.
How thrilling to discover a glossy pop album that sounded personable rather than generic. Major props to the just-out-of-her-teens Cabello, who’s willing to take chances with her voice and to set it in minimal acoustics as well as dance floor bangerdom. Here’s hoping she gets the creative leeway she deserves going forward…
Rio’s Lancelotti evokes the restless creativity of the best MPB, incorporating and elegantly updating bossa nova, psychedelia, and turn-of-the-’70s pop. There are delicious instrumental nuggets on The Good Is a Big God, but Lancellotti’s vocals cast vaporous spells, especially on “Tudo Ao Redor” and “Insatiable.”
I’ve long loved Roanoke dream
punk trio Eternal Summers, but
the first bars of Every Day It Feels Like I’m Dying felt like a fresh discovery—“Motionless” is a perfect indie anthem, tuneful and laden with anthemic keyboard-horn lines. It’s a golden rush, and an apt opener to the Summers’ best album as a trio.
My album of the year, video of the year, and artist of the year altered the trajectory of 2018for a great many folks. Not everyone seems to get the Philly rap/soul/pop savant, but those who do, really get her (signature T-shirt slogan: I WAS ADOPTED BY TIERRA WHACK). Joyous, poignant, surreal, earthy, and inspired above all, Whack World announced the arrival of an artist who instantly felt necessary.
Exotic Worlds and Masterful Treasures (Stones Throw)
Also from Roanoke (see above) is Sam Lunsford, who led jangle rockers Young Sinclairs and reinvents himself here as a blue-eyed R&B seducer, circa 1984. His retro-electro soul production touches are spot-on, walking the line between deadface serious and hilarious, but never overshadowing the earnestly good songs themselves.
With Room 25, Chicago rapper Noname gave us the Trojan horse of the year, assaying sexual and social politics in an ever-smiling, girl-next-door voice. And the sunshine funk backing tracks make the incisive, even subversive lyrics go down that much smoother. Touring in early 2019, Noname should soon be a known name.
Austin’s Molly Burch has a jazz-school background and classic song-writing chops, and puts both on display on First Flower. Her voice, a cross between Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee, perfectly delivers these songs of humor and heartache, and the record floats by like jasmine breezes on the impeccable, twangy arrangements.
A cappella I can deal with. These three Bennington pals intertwine pure, vibratoless voices on modern songs that evoke Appalachian/shape note traditions—not with precious, studied pretension but exquisite, sparkling vitality. Acoustic guitars show up on occasion—as does whimsy—but nothing detracts from the harmonies’ constant, sustaining wonder.
New country I can deal with (admittedly because it sounds like old country), delivered by another trio of pals. Apparently, country radio doesn’t know what to do with a No. 1-charting country album, which is all you need to know about the pitiful condition of country radio. Not pitiful: Pistol Annies, whose characters may be bruised, but are also resilient, wry, and headed for another joint.
In 2018, over 50 authors living and working in the Charlottesville area published new books. They built fictional worlds populated by talking animals, anti-terrorist teenage space fighters, and ordinary humans trying to find the truth. They documented last year’s violent white supremacist rally in our city and dug into our history of racism. They redefined Appalachia, encouraged us to question our dependence on social media, and inspired us to draw and color our inner and outer worlds. They crafted lyrical lines articulating this human moment of advanced technology and precarious climate. And they reminded us what it’s like to hope, to love, and to dream. Here you’ll find just some of the local talent constructing worlds with words.
Fiction
Rita Mae Brown
Probable Claws: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery
In the town of Crozet, Harry and her animal companions search for clues to her friend’s daylight murder, and unearth centuries of greed and corruption.
Homeward Hound: A Novel
Humans, horses, foxes, and hounds must solve the mystery when the president of an energy company with plans to build a pipeline through central Virginia goes missing during a festive gathering.
M.K. England
The Disasters
When terrorists attack a space station academy in 2194, it’s up to five teens to save the space colonies.
Talley English
Horse: A Novel
A teenage girl befriends a horse in the aftermath of her parents’ separation.
John Grisham
The Reckoning
A Mississippi community must reconcile a horrible crime with the man no one would ever suspect.
John Hart
The Hush: A Novel
Titled for the fictional parcel of North Carolina land under dispute, The Hush delves into the historical trauma of colonization and the enslavement of Africans.
Jan Karon
Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim’s Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Drawing from the 14 novels of the Mitford series, Karon distills the advice and encouragement of the fictional Father Tim.
Randall Klein
Little Disasters
A love triangle in New York City comes to a head when the city’s transportation system fails.
Doug Lawson
Bigfoots in Paradise
Dark comedic short stories set in Santa Cruz, California, explore human drama amid the threat of earthquake and fire.
Inman Majors
Penelope Lemon: Game On!
Majors’ fifth novel chronicles the online-dating misadventures of a single mom living with her mother.
Adam Nemett
We Can Save Us All
Princeton students prepare for the apocalypse and spark a revolution.
Anne Marie Pace
Vampirina in the Snow
Vampirina Ballerina and her family venture outside for snow day fun.
Ethan Murphy
Blackmoore: Gifted
Divine Influence: The Fall
Screenboy: The Departure
Slate & Ashe #6
Comic book writer Murphy premiered three new series this year featuring a female mad scientist, fallen angels, and an interdimensional cop, along with the sixth issue of his golem-cop partner series.
Thomas Pierce
The Afterlives: A Novel
A man with a heart condition that left him temporarily dead at 30 explores the possibility of an afterlife.
Non-fiction
Elizabeth Catte
What You Are Getting Wrong about
Appalachia
While she’s a bit further to the west, we’re including Catte here for her important challenge to Appalachian stereotypes, as an Appalachian resident herself.
Jane Friedman
The Business of Being a Writer
Advice for navigating the publishing industry.
Lee Graves
Virginia Beer: A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft’s Golden Age
A guide to award-winning breweries and the history of craft brewing in Virginia.
Laura Lee Gulledge
Sketchbook Dares: 24 Ways to Draw Out Your Inner Artist
Prompts to inspire anyone, regardless of skill, to draw.
Jeffrey L. Hantman
Monacan Millennium: A Collaborative Archaeology and History of a Virginia Indian People
A history of Virginia’s Monacan Nation from 1000 A.D. to the present.
Claudrena N. Harold and
Louis P. Nelson, editors
Charlottesville 2017: The Legacy of Race and Inequity
UVA faculty examine the relevance of our community’s history to our present following the white supremacist rally of 2017.
Uzo Njoku
The Bluestocking Society: a coloring book
This coloring book by local artist Njoku features renowned women of color with brief biographies, as well as portraits of anonymous women of color.
Charles Shields
The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel: John Williams, Stoner, and the Writing Life
A biography of cult-favorite novelist John Williams.
Hawes Spencer
Summer of Hate: Charlottesville, USA
Investigative journalist Spencer gives an accounting of the white supremacist rallies.
Earl Swift
Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island
An in-depth look at the Chesapeake Bay community whose island is disappearing amid rising tides.
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
UVA professor and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship chronicles how Facebook unwittingly became an instrument of propaganda, misinformation, and misdirection
Poetry
Paul Guest
Because Everything Is Terrible
Guest explores the end of the world and the end of words, destruction and its counterpoint, love and other things worth living for in “this emergency we call life.”
Erika Howsare
How is Travel a Folded Form?
A conversation between the poet and Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman explorer from the Victorian era, on their imagined travels together in the American West.
Molly Minturn
Not in Heaven
A chapbook of quick-paced thought with beautifully startling juxtapositions: “Please turn me deciduous. Scarlet / the parlor. My terrible arms wing up in the dark.” (A Child’s Garden of Verses)
Lisa Russ Spaar
Orexia: Poems
A collection on aging and desire, both of the body and the spirit.
Before we turn the page on 2018, another tumultuous year, this issue takes a look back at what grabbed our attention over the last 12 months. Like the year itself, this is a somewhat incongruous mix, with the A/12 anniversary lockdown jostling against MarieBette’s insanely good “prezzant”(a pretzel croissant) and the great music, art, and theater that has carried us through.
I like to ring in the new year with poems, and if I could fit them here I’d gift you Kim Addonizio’s lovely and moving “New Year’s Day,” and Mac McCaughan (of Superchunk)’s still-apt 2016 anthem, “Happy New Year: Prince Can’t Die Again.”
New Year’s is about hope, that we can leave the bad stuff behind and start anew. Whenever I’m visiting friends and family in NYC for the holidays, I stick around for the Poetry Project’s marathon reading at St. Mark’s Church In-The-Bowery. As the organization describes it, the roughly 12-hour, drop-in benefit involves “over 140 poets together revealing not just that a better life could exist, but that it already does, sexy and wise, rancorous and sweet, big hearted and mad as hell.”
Wherever you are this New Year’s, I wish those same sentiments for you. —Laura Longhine
Protesters confronted police in full riot gear on the August 12 anniversary.
Photo: Eze Amos
As much as we love words, it’s the photographs–and our incredibly talented team of freelance photographers–that really make our stories sing. Here is just a handful of the images that were captured this year.
A revived Charlottesville Players Guild continued its ambitious effort to stage all 10 plays of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, and the troupe performed Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Jefferson School in April. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
Dave Matthews Band came home for two performances at the JPJ in December. Photo: Eric KelleyVenerable soda fountain Timberlake’s made our list of spots around town to find a cozy wood fire. Photo: Stephen BarlingZyahna Bryant, who prompted the initial debate around removing the Robert E. Lee statue, made headlines again this fall, as a source in the blistering ProPublica story on racial disparities in Charlottesville City Schools. Photo: Eze Amos
The Charlottesville Cardinals, a wheelchair basketball team founded in 1980, finished the 2017-18 season ranked 13th nationally. Photo: Tristan WilliamsLocal activists celebrated after James Fields was found guilty on all counts in the August 12, 2017, car attack. Photo: Eze AmosThe Charlottesville Symphony performs 15 times a year. Photo: Martin Kyle
In September, a local church offered public sanctuary to Maria Chavalan-Sut, a refugee from Guatemala. Photo: Eze Amos
Downtown Mall on the A12 anniversary. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
By Lisa Provence and Samantha Baars
Most of the biggest stories we followed this year were fallout
from 2017: both the direct effects of the Unite the Right rally, with
its continuing arrests and trials, and the continued furor over
monuments, free speech, and present-day inequities as our city grapples with its full history.
Martial law for August 12 anniversary
Understandably there was some trepidation about the first anniversary of the white supremacist, neo-Nazi invasion, but a heavy police presence that was 1,000 officers strong, Downtown Mall lockdown, checkpoints, and mandatory searches raised new concerns.
James Fields trial
The Ohio man who mowed down a crowd of citizens on Fourth Street was found guilty on 10 counts, including first-degree murder for the death of Heather Heyer. For the survivors who marched on Fourth Street after the verdict, it was a step in taking their lives—and their streets—back.
August 12 arrests
The year saw nonstop court dates and some heavy sentences meted out, particularly for the assault of DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage. Four men were charged, and two have already been sentenced to six and eight years in prison. “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell was banned from Virginia for five years, and Maryland Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard Richard Preston will spend four years in jail for firing a gun at the rally.
Pilgrimage to Montgomery
A group of about 100 citizens traveled to the Equal Justice Initiative’s new lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, bringing soil from the site where John Henry James was lynched in 1898 (now owned by Farmington Country Club). The pilgrims hit every civil rights museum and landmark on the way, learning more about this nation’s painful legacy of anti-black terrorism and how that plays out in the present.
Amtrak crash in Crozet
A chartered train carrying GOP congressmen to the Greenbrier in West Virginia slammed into a garbage truck on the tracks January 31, killing Time Disposal employee Christopher Foley, 28. Driver Dana Naylor, who tested positive for pot, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and DUI maiming.
Keith Woodard has enough
The would-be developer of West2nd, which would have housed the City Market and other retail on a city-owned parking lot, pulled the plug on the luxury condo project. After facing a new City Council, less supportive than the one in place when he started work on West2nd nearly five years ago, Woodard decided to stop jumping through hoops to build it.
Flash flood kills two
Ivy is not known for flash flooding, but as much as nine inches of rain came down May 30, turning Ivy Creek into a raging river that swept two cars off Old Ballard Road and killed a White Hall couple. Ten water rescues were made during the storm and nearly 40 county roads were closed.
Racial inequity in schools makes national news
A New York Times/ProPublica story in October on widening achievement gaps between white and black students in Charlottesville schools rocked the community, prompting soul searching and ongoing discussion about causes and solutions.
UVA president Jim Ryan Photo: UVA Communications
Changing of the guard
The year saw lots of turnover—and not all of it was related to the events of 2017.
In
Nikuyah Walker
It’s safe to say there’s no one else quite like her. The Charlottesville native ran for council as an independent under the campaign promise of “unmasking the illusion,” and as the city’s first black female mayor, she could also be its No. 1 advocate for transparency. She’s become an international sensation, traveling to Ghana and France, and appearing on “The View” and “Face the Nation.” Whether she’s bashing local media on Facebook Live or keeping councilors and council-watchers in check on the dais, with frequent 4-1 votes, Walker has shown that she’s not afraid to go her own way.
Jim Ryan
The university’s ninth president, who packed up and moved into Pavilion VIII this summer, made his first impression on many incoming Wahoos during move-in, when he disguised himself as a greeter and helped families unload their kids and their belongings. He immediately tackled the anniversary of August 11, 2017, when white supremacists marched across Grounds, by apologizing to the students and faculty who weren’t protected that day—something his predecessor never did. Ryan is also known for inviting students and community members on his early-morning runs, and they often turn up in droves.
RaShall Brackney
The city officially welcomed its first female police chief in June. When former chief Al Thomas abruptly resigned a year ago, city officials initiated a months-long search and selected Brackney out of 169 candidates. Mayor Nikuyah Walker, a critic of local police profiling and mass incarceration, called her initial interview with the former George Washington University chief and Pittsburgh police commander “refreshing.”
Joe Platania
Charlottesville’s top prosecutor took his post as commonwealth’s attorney in January after defeating local civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel for the spot that Dave Chapman held for nearly 25 years. Platania, who had worked under Chapman since 2003, angered many activists by choosing to prosecute DeAndre Harris and two other local African American men for fighting white supremacists on August 12. But he is the only law enforcement representative to so far suggest that the local jail stop voluntarily notifying federal immigration agents of undocumented inmates’ release dates. And he got national facetime for taking on the biggest case of the year—the first-degree murder trial of August 12 car attacker James Fields—alongside prosecutor Nina Antony.
Brian Wheeler
The former executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow made waves when he left his news nonprofit in February to become the city’s new director of communications—a job most were sure no one could ever want after the PR nightmare the city faced when Charlottesville became a national hashtag.
Denver Riggleman
Though this defense contractor and distiller has never been a fan favorite in blue Charlottesville, the newly elected Republican 5th District congressman didn’t have much trouble defeating Democrat Leslie Cockburn. While their stances on many issues were actually quite similar—including decriminalizing marijuana and opposing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline—only one of them has been mocked nationally for being an alleged “devotee of Bigfoot erotica,” and here’s a hint: It wasn’t her.
Out
Boyd Tinsley
If something seemed different about the recent DMB concerts at JPJ, it likely was the absence of longtime violinist Tinsley, who exited the band in May after a Seattle man’s lawsuit alleged sexual assault, harassment, and long-term grooming. DMB claimed it knew nothing of Tinsley’s alleged predatory behavior, unlike the rest of Charlottesville, which lit up on social media over “Fiddlegate.”
Maurice Jones
The former city manager became another casualty of the August 12, 2017, debacle when Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced May 25 his contract would not be renewed. The former NBC29 sportscaster had served as city manager since 2010, and had stints as assistant city manager in 2008 and six years as director of communications starting in 1999. By July, Jones had landed a job as town manager in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, while Charlottesville still seeks a permanent CEO.
Tom Garrett
The one-term Republican 5th District congressman stunned constituents when he announced in May he would not seek reelection so he could deal with his alcoholism. The Buckingham resident also had to deal with a House Ethics Committee report that said he and his wife, Flanna, had inappropriately used staffers to do personal errands, including picking up dog poop, helping the couple move, and changing the oil in their car.
Steven Meeks
For years, former Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society board members approached reporters to urge a story about questionable board decisions at the society—but no one wanted to speak on the record. That changed last year after its membership had dropped 50 percent and the city threatened to not renew the society’s heavily subsidized lease in the McIntire Building. Amateur historian Meeks abruptly resigned February 11 amid accusations of bylaw violations and autocratic mismanagement.
Rob Jiranek
The former Daily Progress publisher was shown the door May 1 after a little more than two years of leading the struggling daily. Jiranek’s tenure earned a Columbia Journalism Review rebuke—“The outrageous editorial by a Charlottesville daily that preceded violence”—for an editorial that blamed the city’s only black councilor at the time, Wes Bellamy, for calling for the removal of Confederate statues and drawing white supremacists here. Jiranek, a former co-owner of C-VILLE, made a lasting mark at the Progress by tearing down the wall—literally—between advertising and editorial.
Charlottesville mayor Nikuyah Walker Photo: Eze Amos
What they said
Nikuyah Walker was elected mayor at City Council’s first meeting in
January, and became our most quoted person of the year.
“I’m comfortable with making people uncomfortable.”
—January 2, at council’s first meeting of the year, which was unusual both for the public sniping among councilors and the fact that votes for mayor, normally cast behind closed doors, were made publicly.
“While it has been better, it has been very difficult to conduct the meetings and have business take place.”
—April 2, after clearing the chamber during another out-of-control City Council meeting
“This is an attempt to put me in my place.”
—In July, after fellow councilors ask
if she should recuse herself from
the selection of a new city manager
because she’s a temporary Parks
& Rec employee.
“How civil and orderly were the community members who auctioned offblack bodies in Court Square?”
—Walker responds October 24 to a Daily Progress op-ed on bullying at City Council meetings
“I didn’t respond to request for comment because I think these reporters are, a lot of them, not all of them…but the majority of these reporters, they have ill intentions and it’s not how I roll.”
—On Facebook Live December 5, responding—again—to a Progress article, this one about councilors’ credit card spending
And then there was everyone else…
“There was definitely a Festivus feel to it with the airing of the grievances.”
—Dave Norris referring to a “Seinfeld” episode in describing the no-holds-
barred public selection of mayor by City Council January 2
“That was a thorough butt-whupping.”
—UVA Coach Tony Bennett after the loss of his No. 1-seeded Cavaliers to No. 16-seed UMBC in the first round of the NCAA tournament
“I don’t think you can understand the country today if you don’t understand the legacies of slavery and how they have shaped our understanding of rights, freedoms, and opportunities.”
—Montpelier President & CEO Kat Imhoff at a February summit on teaching slavery
“We’re like a mosquito on the giant’s ankle.”
—Anti-pipeline activist Kay Ferguson
“An all-too-familiar story in my timeline: A beautiful woman’s life cut short by a violent relationship.”
—Trina Murphy, great aunt of murdered Nelson teen Alexis Murphy, after her
son Xavier Grant Murphy is charged with the June 22 slaying of his girlfriend
“There was no one that was searched that was not consensual.”
—Police Chief RaShall Brackney raising eyebrows of those who could not enter the Downtown Mall during the August 12 anniversary without agreeing to a search
“You know, if you stare long enough at anyone, you can fall in love with them.” But it was the viewer who became smitten with Read’s hyperrealistic work, which set the local art scene abuzz, and caused Mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret (visiting with a delegation from our sister city Besançon, France) to declare, “We leave Charlottesville under the spell of Megan Read.”
One of the performances in Ghost in Reverse, co-produced by Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell and Zap McConnell. Photo courtesy the artists
After nightfall on October 13 and 14, 20 local artists and performers gathered in the Woolen Mills building, to perform in a place where, many years ago, people labored to make silk and wool. The performance, Ghost in Reverse, sought to “re-animate” those workers’ hands “with care and joy,” wrote Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, who co-envisioned, curated, and produced the show along with Zap McConnell. To close, Tidwell buried in the dirt outside the mill a metal box containing water samples from the Rivanna River, rubble, and a voice recording taken from the performance. The time capsule is a gesture of hope for the future of art in Charlottesville. Tidwell and others have performed in abandoned industrial spaces in the area since A Charlottesville Wunderkammer at IX in 2006, and when Woolen Mills is developed to house tech company WillowTree, that tradition will come to an end. As Tidwell wrote in an Instagram post, Ghost in Reverse was “our last chance to make art in industrial spaces in Charlottesville. We are at max redevelopment.”
Theater performances that dazzled us
Ghost in Reverse produced by Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell and Zap McConnell
A King’s Story (written by Monticello High School student Joshua St. Hill)
Black Mac (Jefferson School/Charlottesville Players Guild)
Zack Mexico/New Boss/Illiterate Light at the Southern Café and Music Hall
Brent Cobb at the Southern Café and Music Hall
The War and Treaty at the Southern Café and Music Hall
The Landlords/Fried Egg/Wild Rose/Girl Choir at ChampionBrewing Company
Ruth B. at the Southern Café and Music Hall
Sarah White at The Festy
Rugged Arts showcase with A.D. Carson/Black Liquid/Marcel P. Black/Sons of Ichibei
Hop Along at the Southern Café and Music Hall
Death Cab for Cutie at the Sprint Pavilion
Personal Bandana/Wume/Pnqbud at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative
Soweto Gospel Choir at the Paramount Theater
Pink Martini at the Paramount Theater
Brandi Carlile at the Sprint Pavilion
Margo Price sitting in with Widespread Panic at Lockn’
Anderson East at the Jefferson Theater
Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven at the Jefferson Theater
Father John Misty the Sprint Pavilion
The National at the Sprint Pavilion
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit at the Sprint Pavilion
We got on the phone with David Crosby, George Clinton, and David Cross this year, and they each offered insights on performing.
David Crosby: “Your idols musically are human beings, they are not flawless. That whole stardom thing is absolutely bullshit.” Read the full Q&A
George Clinton: “You realize how much shit you don’t know when you get behind that microphone.” Read the full Q&A
David Cross:“I won’t talk about John Deere products for personal reasons, and also the difference between whoever and whomever. Those are just two topics that are too taboo for me.” Read the full Q&A
Allen Hughes. Photo: Eze Amos
A.D. Carson, rapper and professor of hip-hop and the global South at UVA, spoke with Menace II Society co-director Allen Hughes in advance of the Virginia Film Festival. The result was an intimate essay on family, film, culture, creativity, and much more. Carson wrote, “Menace II Society was released the year our cousin was murdered: ’93. Reports said at around 11pm he was with a group of friends playing cards that September evening when gunmen walked up and fired into the living room. We never needed a movie to tell us what our life was like, but Menace, and similar films, gave us a way to see us and, to an extent, be seen.” Read the full essay.
People we listened to
Playwright and director Moisés Kaufman in residency at UVA
Journalist Dan Rather at the Tom Tom Founders Festival
Artist Wendy Red Star at The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA
Screenwriter and director Allen Hughes at the Virginia Film Festival
Standup comedian Ashley Gavinat United Nations of Comedy at the Paramount Theater
“People weaver” Grace Aheron at August’s CreativeMornings talk
Guitarist Daniel Bachman at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
Artist and entrepreneur Destinee Wright, with her “Solidarity Cards Project” at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative
When it comes to Charlottesville food and drink, there is no such thing as a bad year.
In 2018, MarieBette Café & Bakery unleashed its prezzant, a sorcerous pretzel and croissant hybrid, where buttery, delicate pastry gets an addictive umami boost from a dip in lye. Not to be outdone, Albemarle Baking Company launched Roman pizza, rectangular slices of room temperature ’zza made from a 48-hour naturally fermented dough, using organic wheat and whole wheat flour. Meanwhile, Reason Beer’s hop-forward Collaboration 29, a delicious IPA created in tribute to Charlottesville, won not just sentimentality points but also a major beer competition, where it earned top prize over some of the nation’s most acclaimed IPAs. At Prime 109, the Lampo team broke ground with steak cut from locally sourced heritage beef, dry-aged 60 days or more. And, after the ham biscuit was declared Charlottesville’s signature dish, an impeccable new version became a menu fixture at Ivy Inn.
MarieBette’s prezzant
Last but not least was my 2018 Dish of the Year: Fleurie’s Autumn Olive Farms’ Heritage Pork, Prepared Nose to Tail. Many elite chefs have worked wonders with the extraordinary products from Autumn Olive Farms, but never have I encountered a dish that better honors the farms’ hogs than this one. Read more about it at charlottesville29.com.—Simon Davidson
2018 saw a lot of happenings on the Charlottesville food and drink scene. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggest changes around town. —Jenny Gardiner
Welcome to town
Armando’s on the Corner for late-night Mexican eats
Augustiner Hall and Garden rolls out the barrels
Beijing Station from Marco & Luca Dumpling owners
Box’d Kitchen serves up meat or
veggies, over rice
Brewing Tree Beer Company, courtesy of Starr Hill founder
Druknya House brings a touch of Tibet to town
Farm Bell Kitchen cooks up Southern cuisine in the Dinsmore Boutique Inn
JBD Soul Food whips up catfish on Hinton Avenue
J-Petal scoops Thai rolled ice cream and more
Maru for Korean on the Downtown Mall
North American Sake Brewery, with vaunted Côte-Rôtie chef on board
Patisserie Torres delivers sweet and savory treats from Fleurie’s pastry chef
Peleton Station for bikes, beer, and noshes
Pho 3 Pho gives us uptown Pho on 29 North
Prime 109 launches to rave reviews and pricey beef
Rocket Coffee brings coffee and bagels to Crozet
Quality Pie converts the former Spudnuts space into a new café
Renewal, for West Main dining in the new Draftsman Hotel
Sicily Rose makes cannolis just like your nonna’s
Sugar Shack Baby Ruth donuts, anyone?
The Yard at 5th Street Station includes Basil Mediterranean, Extreme Pizza, and Chimm Thai
Peleton Station Photo: Stephen Barling
Leaving the scene
Back 40, Escafé, Greenie’s, Kebabish, La Taza, The Local Smokehouse (catering still available), Mono Loco
Pearl’s Bake Shoppe, Shark Mountain Coffee(at UVA’s iLab), Water Street, Zzaam! Fresh Korean Grill
A new lease on life
Aromas Café moves to Fontaine Research Park
The Clifton receives an overhaul, and adds a Michelin-starred executive chef
JM Stock gets a new owner, but keeps its amazing ham biscuits
Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen also gets a new owner—and lowers its prices
Market Street Wine employees take over from longtime owner Robert Harlee
The Nook reopens after kitchen renovations
Pie Chest and Lone Light Coffee add a second location on High Street
Silk Thai Restaurant keeps it authentic in former Thai 99 space
Tavern & Grocery welcomes a new owner and a new “top” chef
Villa Diner moves to Emmet Street North corridor
Meals on wheels
Angelic’s Kitchen on Wheels
Bluegrass Creamery
FARMacy food truck
Firefly on the Fly
Good Waffles & Co.
OrderUp!
New Year’s wish
For Bang! to return rice balls and pork spring rolls to their rightful place on the menu. Sure, the tuna poke is delish, but isn’t there room for some old-school lovin’ too?
Antony and Cleopatra will be broadcasted live from Sunday, December 30 at 2pm from The Paramount Theater. Image: Johan Persson
Shakespeare’s tragedies are mercilessly disastrous, but Antony and Cleopatra elevates callousness with political intrigue and brutal battles for power. Caught between two war-torn empires, a Roman general (Ralph Fiennes), and the Queen of Egypt (Sophie Okonedo) find love against the odds—then face heavy consequences. Adopting a creative take on history, the classic play takes a new form under director Simon Godwin in this National Theatre live broadcast.
Sunday 12/30 $11-15, 2pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.
It’s not that easy to find out what a doctor’s visit will cost, especially at the appointment. Photo by SKYCLAD Aerial
When you buy a house or a car, you know how much it’s going to cost. That’s not necessarily the case when you go see a doctor, especially if you don’t have insurance, a local woman discovered on recent visits to a UVA clinic.
Sara Ensey is a self-pay patient, and when she went to UVA Primary Care Riverside December 12, she asked twice what the cost would be before she saw a healthcare professional, and was told, “We cannot give you that information,” she says. One person added, “You don’t have to pay all at once.”
“This is an outrage and a disgrace, and it should not be legal,” says Ensey.
Too many people have to choose between medical care and other necessities, and UVA Health System should be transparent about costs, she says.
She had a similar encounter in June, and later received a $385 bill for a 10-minute primary care visit that involved no labs, blood work, or x-rays. Worse, she says, the bill had none of the codes that categorize the services she received.
“We do provide price estimates upon request,” says UVA Health System spokesperson Eric Swensen. Patients need to call or visit uvahealth.com for an estimate, which can take up to two days, according to the website.
Ensey questions why the burden is placed on a patient to log onto a website or place a phone call to obtain the information. “If they are so forthcoming with pricing information, why the hurdles? I asked in person and was denied—twice.”
Swensen says the estimate depends on several factors, including the complexity of care a patient needs and the details of her insurance coverage, and it can take some time to develop an estimate that is as accurate as possible. “The estimate review process is detailed to capture procedures and tests that may be needed together with the patient’s insurance coverage to best determine the patient’s out-of-pocket estimate,” he says.
But Ensey thinks the information should be available at a patient’s appointment. “How is a patient to self-advocate and make a cost-benefit analysis if no one can tell you what the cost will be?” she asks. “That’s ridiculous.”
Ensey recently moved here from Vermont, and she says the University of Vermont is required to provide patients estimates at the time of the visit. And some health systems offer online calculators specifically designed for just this purpose.
“It surprises me UVA doesn’t have something similar,” she says.
Charlottesville’s other main health care provider, Sentara Martha Jefferson, doesn’t seem any different. Spokesperson Jenn Downs says in an email, “Our patient financial service customer service representatives can provide an estimate of total charges.” But as at UVA, that must be done in advance.
Ensey wants to make it clear that the issue is not about pointing fingers. “This is about raising awareness so that the situation can change for the benefit of patients in the greater community and beyond—because it won’t if no one calls attention to it.”
