By Joe Bargmann
When you were a kid, you climbed trees to see what the world looked like from aloft. In New York City, you paid to take in the astonishing urban panorama from the open-air observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. In Charlottesville, you may not reach such a dizzying height, but it’s unnecessary, because a nine-floor elevator ride at The Graduate hotel will deliver you to one of the best—if not the best—prospects in town. Named for the 10.4 square miles that make up Charlottesville proper, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, Camp Ten Four, offers a whole new perspective of our city and its environs, with a view stretching from West Main Street all the way the Blue Ridge Mountains. As a recent patron put it, “This is the spot.”