It’s another (delicious) quirk of living in Charlottesville that some of the best food in town happens to be served out of gas stations. This week, we share some of our favorites, from the Friday fried fish at the GoCo on Harris Street (get there early!) to the steak baleadas at El Tropical Deli, at the Shell on 5th Street. And readers add their own best under-the-radar spots, from food trucks to diners.
In Arts this week, we talked to the hardworking, idealistic young people who have refreshed the hit musical Rent—itself a modern retelling of La Bohème—for a new generation. The difficult Maureen, for example, has been recast as a “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” If you know that character, and know what a TERF is, you’ll know that’s perfect (and if you don’t, just enjoy the show.
The kids have got this.)
And in News, we cover what was a busy week in the courts, with more developments in the seemingly endless Monument Fund lawsuit, and the state sentencing of James Fields.
Fields, of course, was one of the violent white supremacists who came to town for a rally ostensibly in defense of our Confederate statues, which remain standing as the Monument Fund lawsuit proceeds. Last week, the judge moved that the city councilors who voted to remove them aren’t personally liable for that decision. And on Monday, Fields was sentenced to life plus 419 years.
The sentence was largely symbolic for Fields, who is already facing two life sentences. But if we’ve learned anything since the summer of 2017, it’s that symbols matter. —Laura Longhine