The confluence of Preston and Grady avenues and 10th Street NW is a bewildering series of merges. The new Dairy Central development faces the spot where Grady and Preston merge, a site of frequent vehicle crashes. Photo Credit: Skyclad Aerial
By Spencer Philps
The opening of the Dairy Central apartment, retail, and office complex, slated for May 2020, is likely to bring more traffic to one of Charlottesville’s most confusing and dangerous intersections.
According to development materials on the Dairy Central website, Preston Avenue, a primary link between US 29 and downtown, sees about 39,000 vehicles per day, making it one of the busiest streets in the surrounding area. In front of what will be the Dairy Central complex, Preston converges with two other streets (Grady Avenue and 10th Street NW) in a bewildering series of merges. Grady gets about 20,000 vehicles per day, and at the spot where it merges with Preston, vehicle crashes are frequent. At least 15 reported crashes have occurred there between 2015 and 2019, according to state data.
Dairy Central, which started construction in 2018 at the site of the former Monticello Dairy Building on the corner of 10th Street and Grady Avenue, will boast 180 luxury apartments along with a food hall (known as Dairy Market) with 18 merchant stalls, 50,000 sq. ft. of office space, and an event area. Per city requirements, 15 apartment units will be set aside as affordable housing units. The plans for the development say that there will be 179 parking spots on-site.
Josh Lowry, the general manager of Sticks Kebob Shop (located across Grady and Preston Avenues) says that he feels like he sees at least one accident a day outside his window. He assumes that the traffic in the intersection will increase with the addition of the Dairy Central development, but sees the real issue at the intersection being the traffic layout.
“If there’s increased traffic to the area, I think that could be problematic, but I think that the key…is to simplify the traffic pattern in front of Dairy Market,” he says.
That could happen: Brian Wheeler, communications director for the city of Charlottesville, says the city is seeking funding for intersection improvements under the state’s Smart Scale program. The proposal includes plans to modify traffic lanes and combine Preston and Grady Avenues with Grady Avenue and 10th Street to make a single intersection. It also seeks to to install curb ramps, add sidewalks within the median islands, and create high visibility crosswalks including flashing beacons to protect pedestrians. But these changes likely won’t happen before Dairy Central is finished.
Meanwhile, Christopher Henry, the president of Stony Point Design/Build, the firm leading the development, stresses the positive impact of their project on traffic.
At the macro-level, Henry says, adding density to a centrally-located property should (in theory) lead to a net-decrease in citywide traffic. In a city like Charlottesville that has a mounting need for housing and office space, adding developments in the outer reaches of the city and Albemarle County would only lead to more traffic, he says. He sees the construction of walkable or bikeable developments such as Dairy Central as reducing the need for vehicular usage.
Residents, he says, “can walk across the street and work at their jobs and never have to get into a car. They can walk downtown, they can walk to West Main Street, walk to the University of Virginia or the hospital, or they can get on the bus, which stops across the street from the building.” Henry says. “Dairy Central’s type of development has the least impact on traffic from that perspective.”
At the micro-level, Henry says that the developers are doing everything they can to ensure that the development makes as little impact as possible on the intersection’s traffic patterns.
“We have met many times with the neighbors and have made some accommodations to our site plan to address the traffic impacts as best we can, and there’s been talk in the past of doing some sort of permanent parking on the street,” Henry adds.
In addition to working alongside the city to design plans to reconfigure the intersection, the developers have also been in close contact with the city’s traffic engineers while they have been doing construction on the site.
The developers have also come up with creative ways to alleviate the traffic that will be coming in and out of the property once its completed, by restoring the small roads and lanes that were constructed in the early 1900s by the Monticello Ice Company.
“We’re actually redividing the property into multiple parcels, and putting streets and alleys back in, which will add more connections and more ways for cars to get in and out of the site and not just funnel people onto just one specific intersection,” Henry says.
Meanwhile, despite the traffic concerns, Sticks manager Lowry says he’s happy about the addition of office space and housing which he hopes will drive more people to his restaurant.
“More people in the area will definitely benefit us,” he says. “We’re a popular lunch and dinner destination, and we look forward to having more people in the neighborhood.”
Updated 10/31 to correct second reference to Josh Lowry, who is general manager at Sticks.
Dr. Jalane Schmidt and reporter Lisa Provence outside the courthouse. Photo by Jenny Mead
Case dismissed
Judge throws out defamation lawsuit against C-VILLE and UVA prof
On October 28, the Albemarle Circuit Court ruled in favor of C-VILLE Weekly and former news editor Lisa Provence, concluding that a defamation claim brought by Edward Tayloe II lacked the legal basis to proceed.
Judge Claude Worrell also ruled in favor of UVA professor Jalane Schmidt, whom Tayloe also sued for defamation, citing comments she made in C-VILLE’s story.
The story at issue, “The Plaintiffs: Who’s who in the fight to keep Confederate monuments,” published in March, profiled the 13 people and organizations suing the city to keep the statues in place. Tayloe’s entry noted his lineage as one of the First Families of Virginia, and included information about his family’s history as one of the largest slave-holding dynasties in the state, a matter of historical record published, among other places, in the 2014 book A Tale of Two Plantations. Schmidt is quoted observing, in respect to Tayloe’s ancestors, “for generations this family has been roiling the lives of black people.”
In May, Tayloe sued the paper, Provence, and Schmidt, alleging that the story and Schmidt’s statements were defamatory because they implied that he was racist, and seeking $1.7 million in damages.
As lawyers for C-VILLE argued in their reply in support of their request to dismiss, Tayloe “does not contend that C-VILLE Weekly got any facts wrong in the article at issue. Instead, he is aggrieved by the truthful, if perhaps uncomfortable, presentation of his family history in connection with an accurate report on a subject of public concern.”
Attorneys for C-VILLE and Schmidt characterized the lawsuit as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), and ACLU attorney Eden Heilman, representing Schmidt, warned of the “chilling effect” that such lawsuits could have on public discussion.
Before giving his decision, Judge Worrell noted that the “political discourse has gotten pretty rough and tumble” and that it “requires all of us to have a pretty thick skin,” except if one has been defamed or libeled. He went on to declare that neither Schmidt’s statements nor C-VILLE’s story as a whole were defamatory or libelous.
The ruling means the case is dismissed and will not go to trial.
Quote of the week
“It’s both the right and the smart thing to do.” —UVA PresidentJim Ryan on the university’s decision to expand its living wage plan to include contracted employees.
In brief
Firing back
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held oral arguments on October 29th on a case to block Dominion Energy from placing a 54,000-horsepower compressor station, fueled by fracked methane gas, in the historically black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County. The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board—comprised of members appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam, who owns stock in Dominion—issued a permit for the facility in January, inspiring uproar over what supporters call environmental racism.
Land grab
The City of Charlottesville has purchased 142 acres of land adjoining the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, which will be used for trails, environmental education programs, and forest protection, the city announced last week. The city paid $600,000 for the property, most of which was covered by a federal Community Forest Grant, and landowner Louisa Heyward donated the remaining value of the property (roughly $500,000).
Going bagless
For “both budgetary and environmental reasons,” the City of Charlottesville is swapping bagged leaf collection service for vacuum trucks. Starting October 28th, residents can rake their loose leaves to the curb for collection three times a season. Those who insist on bagging leaves can bring them to 1505 Avon Street Extended on Saturdays from 8am-1pm.
Pay raise
UVA announced on October 24 that its major contractors will be paying their full-time workers at least $15 an hour, fulfilling a promise UVA President Jim Ryan made when he raised pay for all full-time UVA employees. The new policy will lift the wages of more than 800 workers, including food service and janitorial staff, and will go into effect January 1.
Showing the receipts
Days after city residents at the October 21st City Council meeting expressed the need for policy transparency, Mayor Nikuyah Walker has announced that the Charlottesville Police Department will post all policies and general orders to the city’s website, starting in January. At the meeting, speakers said the Police Civilian Review Board should be able to review all CPD policies. Council will vote on a proposed ordinance and bylaws for the CRB on November 4th.
Daily Progress reporter Nolan Stout speaks with local media during an event announcing the newsroom's intent to unionize outside of the Northside Library on Monday. The effort includes the members of the reporting staff and the copy desk. Photo Credit: Zack Wajsgras
By Ali Sullivan
The story is all too familiar: Media corporation buys local newspaper, budget cuts ensue, and seasoned journalists lose their jobs. The staff at the Daily Progress doesn’t want to be next.
Murmurs of unionizing began in January, and the formal announcement came on October 14. The Progress staff has formed a union—the Blue Ridge NewsGuild, a unit of The NewsGuild-CWA’s Washington-Baltimore Local.
“People shouldn’t be waiting for the day that they come in and their job is done,” says Katherine Knott, a K-12 reporter for the Progress. “That’s particularly terrifying [and] unsettling.”
The Progress, family-owned for its first 78 years, has been bought and sold several times since 1971—first by The Worrell Newspaper Group, then by Media General. In 2012, it was bought by BH Media Group, controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, who made headlines last spring when he called the newspaper business “toast,” and declared that newspapers are “going to disappear.” In 2018, BH handed management duties over to the media company Lee Enterprises.
“Lee Enterprises has a history of cutting off the edges in places that they manage, so [the union] is more for my co-workers to know they have a little more peace of mind for the possibility of layoffs or cuts in the future,” says Nolan Stout, the Progress’s City Hall reporter.
The union will be fighting for fair wages (Progress reporters currently earn salaries in the low $30,000 range, on average), severance pay, and appropriate benefits, and is asking for voluntary recognition from BH Media. Knott says the company has yet to respond, so the NewsGuild plans to win recognition via a National Labor Relations Board election, which will take place in the Daily Progress office October 30.
The months-long process that preceded the announcement involved attempts to get all sections of the paper on board—a tricky process considering the high turnover in local newsrooms.
“You don’t just walk up to someone and say, ‘Hey, let’s form a union,’” Stout says. “It took time, and eventually we decided to just do it as a newsroom.”
Following the unionization announcement, the Progress had an all-staff meeting to discuss it. Stout says the meeting in part consisted of managing editor Aaron Richardson discussing “the things he thinks would be negatively affected” by the NewsGuild, but says the decision to unionize wasn’t a personal one.
“We like the people we work with,” Stout says. “We want to keep the environment the way it is, and this is the best way to do that.”
Signs emblazoned with NewsGuild’s logo decorate the newsroom, and Stout says the general sentiment among staff is one of excitement coupled with “a sense of camaraderie.”
While increased benefits and safety nets are central to the Blue Ridge NewsGuild’s mission, members also want to acknowledge the Progress’ checkered history and strengthen the paper’s bond with readers. To do so, the union plans to bargain for greater editorial control, a minority-hiring practice, and the reinstatement of a community-sourced editorial board.
“As recently as 2017 we had an editorial blaming Wes Bellamy for the Unite the Right Rally,” Stout says. “We want to be advocating for our management to let the community have a say.”
Knott and Stout aren’t sure what the future of local news is, but they know that the Blue Ridge NewsGuild is a step in the right direction.
“Seeing newsrooms…and journalists across the country, trying to take back some control and fight for their papers through unionization has really been the only thing giving me hope,” Knott says. “My advice to people is to assist in that movement.”
A community group called The People’s Coalition held a rally and press conference outside City Hall to protest City Council’s proposed changes to the CRB bylaws. Photo Credit: Staff Photo
Nearly two years after appointing the initial Police Civilian Review Board, Charlottesville City Council inched closer to making a permanent oversight board a reality at their October 21 meeting, with a first reading of the CRB’s ordinance and bylaws.
But members of the initial CRB were not pleased, saying councilors had severely weakened the proposal they’d spent a year crafting. In a press conference held outside City Hall and during public comment, they and supporters criticized council’s changes, including limiting the board’s authority and removing transparency in the selection process.
“For us to give them the proper bylaws and ordinance but for them to water it down, after so much work…I’m very disappointed,” says board member Rosia Parker.
After the CRB presented its proposal on August 5, City Council members met in small groups with the city attorney and published their own version on October 16. At the October 21 meeting, Mayor Walker noted that it was the first time all the councilors had met together and reviewed the complete proposal.
“It’s a little bit frustrating,” CRB member Guillermo Ubilla told council at the meeting. “All of the questions and things you talked about tonight we spent a year tackling. And we have ideas and suggestions for all of them, and they’re in the packet that we sent you, so I really really hope you guys take a second look at that, maybe a third look, just to kind of see what’s in there.”
Local attorney and longtime CRB supporter Jeff Fogel says the board had created its proposal to accommodate anticipated concerns from the city, as well as state law. “I don’t think the city understands that that document already represents somewhat of a compromise,” he says. “[The council] is now looking for a compromise when it’s built into this proposal.”
City Council created the initial CRB with a resolution on December 18, 2017, in the wake of the Unite the Right rally, in an effort to improve trust between the Charlottesville Police Department and the community.
CRB members met for a year to create bylaws and an ordinance establishing the permanent board’s composition, staff members, and authority. “We did our homework,” says CRB member Gloria Beard, noting the board researched other civilian review boards to inform their work. Its proposal included two staff positions (a police auditor and an executive director), as well as a budget of no less than 1 percent of the police department’s budget. The board would have seven members, four coming from historically disadvantaged communities or public housing.
The initial proposal also allowed the CRB to review any complaint against the Charlottesville Police Department, review the internal investigation into the complaint, and (in certain circumstances) conduct an independent investigation, having access to personnel files, internal investigation files, and other department data.
The board would send any disciplinary recommendations to the police chief and city manager.
City Council’s version differed from the CRB’s initial proposal in multiple ways.
“There was an expectation that we were going to basically take exactly what was given to us,” says Councilor Heather Hill. But she says councilors, who met in small groups “for the sake of efficiency,” had some concerns.
In the new proposal, board members would be appointed by the council in a closed session, rather than the originally proposed public process. Hill says councilors feared a public interview process would deter candidates.
Instead of hiring an auditor right away, the council proposed requiring the board’s executive director to present a report about whether the city should hire a full-time (or part-time) auditor, or contract with an auditing firm instead. And the council’s proposal did not include a budget for the CRB.
Hill says the council understands the auditing role must be filled and a budget created, but that these steps can come later.
“Right now we have to agree on an ordinance and bylaws. That’s going to help them determine our budget,” Hill says.
The council’s ordinance also changed the board’s membership requirements, proposing that it has three members from disadvantaged communities and one from a racial or social justice organization, and eliminating the initial proposal’s requirement that a councilor serve as an additional nonvoting member. And it specifies that the board would only be able to review internal affairs investigations that are ruled as unfounded, exonerated, or not resolved (not those that are sustained). It would also be able to review an investigation if a request is filed with the executive director, and initiate its own review of internal affairs investigations.
The councilors will take into account all of the comments made during the meeting, says Hill. They plan to make revisions to their proposal before next month’s meeting.
“We hope and pray they are going to change their minds,” says Beard. “We need transparency between the police force and the community…to create relationships with the people, so they can have real trust again.”
There’s a Virginia wine for every classic holiday dish. Just follow our little guide! Photo: Morgan Salyer
If you haven’t already noticed, it’s time to take a look. Over there, in the wine section at your favorite market, the made-in-Virginia selection has grown. The commonwealth’s industry is coming into its own, presenting a bounty of bottles that will not only please the crowd but also impress the connoisseurs at your holiday table. That said, we understand there are still choices to be made, so we’re here to remove the guesswork. We can’t guarantee you won’t be dissed by that guy, the wine know-it-all. But opting for local wines—like these exceptional bottles—will make you look just that much more enlightened. We even throw in a cider recommendation, because…cider.
Easy-drinking white
Deer Rock White, DelFosse Vineyards
This wine checks all the boxes for a one-size-fits-all white: Its blend of four grapes comes together with light, tropical aromas and a touch of sweetness on the tongue for under 20 dollars. The 2017 bottling—a blend of viognier, pinot gris, petit manseng, and sauvignon blanc—won gold in this year’s top Virginia wine competition, the Governor’s Cup. $18. DelFosse Vineyards. 500 DelFosse Winery Ln., Faber. 263-6100. delfossewine.com
Easy-drinking red
Table Red, Flying Fox Vineyard
A versatile, smooth, semi-dry blend of cabernet franc and merlot, Table Red fits in anywhere, from hors d’oeuvres to dessert. Drink it chilled or mull it for warmth when you go a-wassailing—just heat with a few cinnamon sticks and cloves. $18. Flying Fox Vineyard. 10368 Critzer Shop Rd., Afton. 361-1692. flyingfoxvineyard.com
Easy-drinking cider
Ragged Mountain, Albemarle CiderWorks
Albemarle CiderWorks is known for crafting complex ciders that rival wine in finesse and the knack for elevating food flavors. Crafted from a blend of apples including Albemarle Pippin, Goldrush, Pink Lady, and Virginia Gold, Ragged Mountain is among the cidery’s simpler styles, with a nice balance of sweetness and acidity, making it approachable for cider newbies, and also a good pairing for rich foods like aged cheddar cheese. $15. Albemarle CiderWorks. 2545 Rural Ridge Ln.,, North Garden. 979-1663. albemarleciderworks.com
Appetizer pairing
2011 Blanc de Noir, Keswick Vineyards
The region’s abundant fall produce makes it simple to whip up an over-the-top platter: think beet hummus, smoky grilled zucchini, roasted peppers with feta and oregano, and homemade spiced apples. All of these flavors demand a vibrant sparkling wine like this one, which is made from the red cabernet franc grape but using the traditional methods of the France’s Champagne region. $35. Keswick Vineyards. 1575 Keswick Winery Dr., Keswick. 244-3341. keswickvineyards.com
Roast turkey pairing
Pinot Noir, Ankida Ridge Vineyards
Ankida Ridge Vineyards’ Burgundian-style (meaning, earthy and refined) 2016 Pinot Noir is available online and in some local shops, but consider taking a leisurely drive to buy a few bottles at the winery’s views-for-miles mountain-top tasting room. Each time you pop a cork, you’ll remember the beautiful journey. This wine, which is “rich with ripe red fruits [and] cranberry,” according to Ankida’s website, is perfect with turkey. (For an elegant touch, add some wine to the gravy.) $44. Ankida Ridge Vineyards. 1304 Franklin Creek Rd., Amherst. 922-7678. ankidaridge.com
Holiday ham pairing
Riesling, Cardinal Point Winery
Dry or semi-dry riesling is a classic holiday food wine, but the grape isn’t typically suited to Virginia’s hot, humid climate. At Cardinal Point Winery, though, winemaker Tim Gorman has been nurturing some riesling vines for years, mostly for use in blending. The 2017 harvest gave him just the right conditions to make his first varietal riesling since 2007. With just a touch of sweetness, the pairs beautifully with ham, whether it’s brown sugar-glazed, smoked, or brined with a peppery crust. $25. Cardinal Point Winery. 9423 Batesville Rd., Afton. (540) 456-8400. cardinalpointwinery.com
Veggie pairing
Petit Manseng, Horton Vineyards
Raw veggies can make for a difficult wine pairing, but adding a little heat and spice opens the door to inspiration. Brussels sprouts roasted with onions and beets, savory sweet potatoes with nutmeg, and green beans sautéed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and fresh-cracked black pepper (are you hungry yet?) will find a flavorful complement in Horton Vineyard’s dry, citrus-y 2016 Petit Manseng. $25. Horton Vineyards. 6399 Spotswood Trail, Gordonsville. (540) 832-7440. hortonwine.com
Dessert pairing
Paxxito, Barboursville Vineyards
Barboursville Vineyards’ voluptuous Paxxito is a classic dessert wine. Crafted from early-harvest, air-dried moscato ottonel and vidal grapes, the apricot and nectarine flavors tease out the sweetness of a ginger pumpkin pie with toasted coconut, while its rich texture and fresh acidity also make it a perfect foil for simple frosted sugar cookies. $32 (375 ml). Barboursville Vineyards. 17655 Winery Rd., Barboursville. (540) 832-3824. bbvwine.com
The Farmhouse at Veritas plunks you down in the middle of the vineyard, setting the tone for the farm-to-table fare inside. Photo: John Robinson
“I think this may be the next Inn at Little Washington,” I said to my husband as we stepped off the wide porch of The Farmhouse at Veritas and out into the moonlight. I was tipsy, and the evening had been romantic, so I was happy and maybe exaggerating a little. Only time will tell.
Like the acclaimed Inn at Little Washington, which opened its doors more than 40 years ago with a menu that included shrimp scampi and veal scaloppini for under $10, The Farmhouse at Veritas, in the Blue Ridge Mountains foothills west of Charlottesville, started with modest intentions. A family home for nearly 200 years, the early 1800s farmhouse was repurposed in 2012 as a comfortable and graceful six-room inn that echoes the welcoming style of its namesake, Veritas Vineyards, next door.
Chef Andy Shipman rarely dines out, relying mostly on his culinary instincts—and inspiration from books like The Noma Guide to Fermentation and the multi-volume Modernist Cuisine—to guide his cooking. Photo: John Robinson
“Because we were so small, we started off thinking we’d just be catering to the house guests,” says Patricia Hodson, co-owner with her husband, Andrew, of the vineyard and farmhouse. “But then people who weren’t staying would ask, ‘Can we come and dine?’ And we’d say, ‘Sure, why not?’”
As word got out, more cars wound their way up the mountain for the four-course, wine-paired dinner, which always starts with a glass of Veritas sparkling wine on the shaded porch or stone patio. It was easy enough to see what was fueling the word-of-mouth marketing: guests exhaled deeply as they relaxed into a rocker and took in the view—a hillside of vines across the road, dripping with the same viognier and cabernet franc they’d find in their glass later.
After about a year, with the 36-seat restaurant selling out every weekend, the Hodsons had preliminary proof of the need for fine dining in Nelson County. But without a major population center nearby (no offense to Charlottesville, of course), an owner’s steps along the fine-dining continuum can be a tightrope walk: the risks of a misstep can be considerable, but the potential for glory—well, just look 70 miles north.
Chef Patrick O’Connell’s balance has been perfect at his Washington, Virginia, restaurant in Rappahannock County. After four decades of creative cookery and synchronized service with a huge dollop of theatrical whimsy, The Inn at Little Washington is now one of a handful of Michelin three-star restaurants in the country. (Many people think the town’s actual name is Little Washington: Such is the power of the restaurant.)
Chef Shipman’s mid-September menu opened with this rabbit-ramp sausage with chili hot sauce, egg yolk, upland cress, and American cheese. His plate compositions tend to be elegant and minimal. Photo: John Robinson
In the kitchen at The Farmhouse at Veritas, Chef Andy Shipman, 32, balances space, time, and expense against flavor. Flavor typically wins. Take breadso, for example. Like miso, breadso begins with a grayish mold called koji. The koji is added to leftover sourdough bread dough, salted lightly, and set aside to ferment for four months. Egg yolks are then laid carefully in the breadso, which acts like a blanket as they cure for several days. The yolks harden a bit, and are grated over a seasonal tomato salad, for garnish and a bit of umami flavor. The process is precise and requires patience, but the results are delicious.
Shipman could have skipped the breadso step if he’d used a sugar- and salt-based curing recipe like the one that made the rounds on social media last year. But he says the breadso gives the egg yolks a deeper, richer flavor that balances with that of the tangy tomatoes from the inn’s garden.
Chef Shipman is mostly self-taught as a cook. His restaurant career began at The Sunken Well in Fredericksburg, where he picked up skills as a dishwasher and busser—plus a lot of empathy for the grind of many kitchen jobs. Later, as a line cook at Foode, also in Fredericksburg, he learned from the smart and charismatic chef Joy Crump, who impressed Shipman with her dedication to craft and masterful kitchen management.
Shipman—an introvert with a close-cropped beard and unblinking blue eyes that let you know he’s listening—is not an easy interview: given a yes-or-no question, he’ll answer yes or no. But when asked about his cooking, out comes the Instagram and a verbal cascade.
About plating constructs, for instance: “Most plates we’ll go high and tight. We try to keep it in the middle. We like to hide a lot of things. Not too much garnish.”
That’s apparent in what at first seems to be a simple plate of asparagus with hollandaise. “It’s asparagus with roasted red peppers on the bottom, there’s preserved lemon underneath, and the hollandaise is actually mouselline,” the chef explains. “It has a little cream added to it, and instead of using butter we use duck fat, so it’s a duck fat mouselline topped with a sorrel leaf.”
Shipman hasn’t been to The Inn at Little Washington. He gets most of his ideas from reading. (The Noma Guide to Fermentation and Modernist Cuisine are recent sources of inspiration.) He ponders whether visiting superstar restaurants would help or hurt his creativity.
“There’s a natural urge to copy,” Shipman says. “When you don’t go to a lot of restaurants, instead of ideas coming from the outside in, they come from the inside out.”
Were Shipman to drive north and check out the Inn, he might notice that the air is magical but not so rareified that it leaves you breathless. The secret ingredient that makes an amuse-bouche of truffled popcorn and a tiny tumbler of minted pea soup so addictive? A very pragmatic device: sugar. In the snug dining rooms, the tables can be a bit tight, placing the occasional entering or exiting derriere directly at eye level. And romantic conversations take a back burner to constant food deliveries—12 amuse- bouches, entrées, and sweets on a recent visit—plus plenty of plate clearing and silverware shuffling. Dining at a Michelin three-star restaurant isn’t about you. It’s for you, but not about you.
Not so at the Farmhouse at Veritas. “Remember that we had some customers who told us they left [here] feeling hungry?” Patricia Hodson asks her husband at a recent dinner.
Finished with his work in the kitchen, Shipman stops by the owners’ table, where Mr. Hodson engages the chef on the portion size of one of the night’s menu items. “You have these lovely delights of the palate, but then you have the main course and you get this…galumph,” he says. “Might the rib-eye portion have been a bit too large?”
Patricia disagrees, saying they’d intentionally added a substantial meat course to the menu. Shipman has likely heard this back-and-forth before but still listens attentively. He’s a partner in the evolution.
Whether to keep a hearty and popular meat- and-potatoes course on the menu or downsize it and add maybe a fish course, or a cheese course before dessert—a French practice that Andrew Hodson likes—is one of many steps a fine-dining restaurateur must finesse on the way toward creating a legacy.
For now, future plans for The Farmhouse include expanding the kitchen and then adding a second seating. What stays the same? The convivial pre-dinner glass of Veritas sparkling wine, served on the patio on warm summer evenings, or comfortably ensconced in a leather armchair by the fire in cooler weather. A flavorful, four-course tasting menu that’s both abundant and original. Generous wine pairings. Friendly but unobtrusive service. In the end, a night that’s all about you.
The Farmhouse at Veritas. $85 per person plus tax and gratuities for four courses plus wine pairings. Reservations required. 72 Saddleback Farm, Afton. (540) 456-8100. veritasfarmhouse.com.
Taleofthetape: How two great restaurants measure up
Food
The Inn at Little Washington offers three tasting menus ($248 per person, plus optional wine pairings for $170 per person.) One menu starts off with “a Tin of Sin”: a cunning sardine-type tin filled with imperial osetra caviar, Chesapeake blue crab, and cucumber rillette. The Inn’s trademark fanciful naming and adorable (really!) packaging can elevate a special night out into a gaga fest. The food, never more than a few bites of any one plate, ranges from fork-stoppingly, eye-closingly good (pepper-crusted duck breast with brandy-roasted peaches) to a bit overwrought (a rather mushy tin of tuna and foie gras confit in black truffle vinaigrette).
The Farmhouse at Veritas offers a four-course menu ($85 per person, including wine pairings) that changes every other week. A recent first course featured an engaging minimalist plating of a square of maple-brined Autumn Olive Farm pork belly roasted for 60 hours, a spoonful of Dr. Pepper-tamarind reduction, a tiny round of cornbread, and a small stack of housemade pickles. Deep flavors and texture contrasts throughout the meal show plenty of thought, and classic sauces—such as a spectacularly flavorful bordelaise on an eye of rib-eye sourced from Lynchburg’s Seven Hills Food Co.—show patience.
Ambience
The Inn at Little Washington is awash in silks and brocades, fringed lampshades and fabric-swagged ceilings. Conversations are muted, superlatives many.
The Farmhouse at Veritas has that rambling feel and wood smoke smell of the best old houses. Couples are seated on an enclosed porch ringed by windows, with tables spaced to allow quiet conversation, while small (and the occasional large) groups move inside to two formal dining rooms. Tables are set with flowers from the garden and special touches like vintage cutlery with pearl-handled knives.
Service
The Inn at Little Washington’s service is a gliding minuet danced by an army of attractive, graceful servers somehow not colliding, never spilling, always smiling. You don’t care for that particular wine pairing? Here’s a new one. Want to know what’s in a dish? Just ask. Everyone knows the answer. To everything.
The Farmhouse at Veritas’ service begins and ends with restaurant manager, Angel Cruz, who, at 7pm on the dot, with a broad smile and erect posture, invites guests to take their seat for dinner. Cruz or Chef Shipman briefly introduce each course, and Cruz describes the wine pairings, all from Veritas Vineyards. Attentive servers smile but don’t intervene without a cue. Cruz keeps a watchful eye on every detail. The meal moves at a leisurely pace—one of the benefits of having only one seating a night, but still like clockwork through the four courses.
Clientele
The Inn at Little Washington’s price tag means “special occasion” for most diners, but the crowd is surprisingly diverse with a mix of families, lovestruck anniversary couples, and blasé Washingtonians who know the staff by name.
The Farmhouse at Veritas’ pre-dinner wine helps loosen everyone up, so there tends to be friendly chatter, especially if the day was spent a-winerying. The crowd is mostly couples who’ve driven out from Charlottesville or nearby Wintergreen, guests staying the weekend at the Inn, or the occasional girlfriend group.
Down on Water Street, Wilson Craig’s Waterbird Spirits production facility is cranking out tens of thousands of cans of premium cocktails. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Under normal circumstances, having your jaw broken and reset in order to correct an underbite—and then being laid-up in recovery for two months—would be a bummer. But Wilson Craig was happy for the time on the couch. It gave him an opportunity to think. He took his meals through a straw, and wasn’t able to talk, so he spent a lot of time in his own head.
This was about a year ago, and he was living in Manhattan, where he worked in real-estate finance. In this regard, he was following in his father’s rather large footsteps. Hunter E. Craig is one of the biggest landowners and developers in town, a co-founder of Virginia National Bank, and a member of the board at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
With many alternative canned beverages entering the market, including hard seltzer and non-alcoholic “euphorics,” some using CBD, Craig might have reason to temper his enthusiasm for his own product. But, um—not a chance. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
But the younger Craig didn’t necessarily want to pick up the paternal mantle. Not long before the operation, he told his dad that he had an idea to create a canned-cocktail brand. He wanted to return from New York, settle down in Charlottesville, and launch the business in the city he knows and loves. His father liked the idea. He liked it so much that he helped his son start Waterbird Spirits.
“He asked, ‘Have you secured the name?’” Wilson Craig recalls. “I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I bought the domain name.’ But he was talking about the trademark. I was really starting from square one.”
More importantly, the Craigs connected with Delegate David Toscano, who introduced and secured quick passage of an amendment to Virginia liquor laws, allowing Waterbird to become the first business in the commonwealth to make and sell a “low alcohol beverage cooler” using a distilled spirit. Introduced in January and approved by the governor in mid-March, the amendment specifies a limit of 7.5 percent alcohol by volume.
After the law went into effect in July 1, Waterbird Spirits began cranking out tens of thousands of 12-ounce canned vodka-and-sodas and Moscow Mules from a sharp-looking shop on the corner of Water and West Second streets. The official launch took place on September 20, when the drinks—at $13.99 for a four-pack—hit shelves at Kroger, with sales at other food markets and retailers like Beer Run expected to follow. The space on Water Street will open for tours in 2020. (Waterbird does not have a license to offer on-site tastings.)
On a blistering-hot day in August, Craig tilts back in a chair in the Waterbird office and crosses his long legs. A woman knocks on the door. Craig uncrosses his legs, bolts upright, and hurries over to greet her.
“Hi,” says the woman.
“Hello,” Craig says, or rather, almost shouts.
“When are you guys opening?” she asks.
“Not for awhile, but we’re in production now,” Craig says.
“Great!” says the woman.
“Thanks so much for your interest,” Craig says. “Really—thank you!”
This is not an act. Craig relishes telling people about Waterbird. “We get a lot of that,” he says, bounding back to his chair. “I love it. People are curious, and we want them to see what’s going on here.”
He also wants you to know that the building, once The Clock Shop of Virginia, actually started as a Sears auto service center. “Sears used to be one of the biggest companies in the United States,” Craig says. “But what happens to a company when they don’t pay attention to their customers? They end up in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.”
His point: Waterbird will succeed by focusing relentlessly on what consumers want. In his opinion—shaped by months of conversations with his father and local winemakers, distillers, and brewers, including his official consultant, Hunter Smith of Champion Brewing Company, and some work with focus groups and taste-testers—consumers want high-quality canned cocktails. “We’re going to use potato vodka because it’s so much better than corn vodka” Craig says. “And we’re going to use cane sugar, because it’s infinitely better than high- fructose corn syrup.”
With many alternative canned beverages entering the market, including the aforementioned hard seltzer and non-alcoholic euphorics, some using CBD, Craig might have reason to temper his enthusiasm for his own product. But, um—not a chance.
“When I was living in New York, all my friends were drinking Bud Light, but not for the taste or any other redeeming factor—it was just convenient,” he says. “Convenience is king. So I thought, why isn’t there a better alternative for portable cocktails?”
As for marketing and branding, Craig sees Charlottesville, Virginia—which is clearly stamped on Waterbird’s label—as an asset.
“Charlottesville has received a lot of bad publicity,” he says. “But I just want to embrace the good. We want to be a product that people see and feel happy and proud that it’s made in Charlottesville. Excited, happy, upbeat, positive—that’s what this brand is.”
Personal chef Della Bennett delivers home-cooked meals directly to your home in Pyrex dishes and Mason jars. Photo: John Robinson
You grow up in Fluvanna County, graduate from the local high school, and you’re wondering, what am I going to do with my life? College is the next step—at least, it is for many people—so you attend Christopher Newport University, in Newport News. You study sociology and anthropology, and there’s one class, the anthropology of food, that you find really interesting. This is the first clue to your future: You enjoy learning about what people eat, how they produce and prepare it, the everyday rituals and customs of nutrition. In high school you worked in a couple of kitchens, including the one at Wild Wings Café. There might be a thread here but you don’t realize it yet.
Not up for cooking? Della Bennett of Plenty (plentycville.com) has what you’re hankering for: healthy, fresh, home cooking. She turned her experience as a private chef into a thriving business. Photo: John Robinson
You decide to leave college. You move to Charleston, South Carolina, living there for three years with a friend. In Charleston the food is amazing—so many good restaurants! But you feel the pull of home, and you’ve started dating someone in Charlottesville, so you move back, even though you’re still not sure what kind of work you want to do. You need to support yourself, so you take a nanny job you saw on Craigslist. You like the people you work for. They take you in, sort of like family. They have a personal chef but that doesn’t work out, so they ask if you would like to cook for them, too.
One thing leads to another, and you end up taking on a couple more nannying jobs. You also pick up more kitchen work, at Edible Arrangements. The food preparation there is like clockwork, precise, well-composed. Also, one of the families you nanny for has a beautiful kitchen, and you cook for them, too. On Tuesdays you go to Whole Foods, buy ingredients—healthy stuff, like whole grains and fresh veggies—and you cook in that kitchen all day. You make the same thing over and over again, a Mediterranean quinoa salad with a bunch of toppings. Someone else might find this monotonous, but not you. You’re learning knife skills, bulk preparation, and how to balance flavors, like the tangy lemon and rich acidity of the balsamic vinegar in the dressing.
While you’re helping this family to eat well, you decide you ought to do that, too. You discover the Whole30 program—it’s like paleo but even more strict. You eliminate certain things from your diet—sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, dairy—and you begin to feel…different. Better. You get into a routine, preparing food for the whole week, placing portions in containers and stocking your refrigerator.
Now you’re feeling really, really good. Boom! It hits you. Before, you were Della Bennett, a nanny and a cook. You were looking after others. But now you’re Della Bennett, looking after yourself.
Business is personal
“I prepared all of my food in advance, and it was always waiting in the fridge for me,” Bennett says. “That changed the game—changed my entire life, actually. Not even just the food and stopping eating certain things, but just having meals there in the fridge. It sparked this feeling in me: I want this for everyone. I want people to feel nourished and taken care of, even if they don’t like to cook or don’t have the time. I want everybody to feel this way when they open the fridge.”
Today, Bennett, 33, owns and runs the personal chef service Plenty, preparing and delivering food to as many as 30 clients a week. Since launching the business in January 2017, she has reached a point where she needs a bigger kitchen, and two delivery vehicles aren’t quite cutting it, so she’ll have to get a third, and eventually a refrigerated truck.
Of the many things that helped her achieve this, four really stand out:
1.Six months in the kitchen at Common House, working on the line for chef Antoine Brinson. From Brinson she learned that everyone in the kitchen is part of a single organism—they all work together, doing their own part, to create good food. Brinson also taught Bennett that as a cook, you have the opportunity to improve other people’s lives. “Working with chef Brinson was a great experience.” she says. “It propelled me and reassured me that I was going in the right direction, and that I had something positive to offer the community.”
2. Bennett’s partner, Kt Ehrlich, who is somewhat famous in Charlottesville food and art circles. Ehrlich gained a following as a bartender at Mono Loco and the Downtown Grille, and she’s now a glass artist, creating colorful, whimsical pieces as the owner/operator of Torchress Glass. She always has Bennett’s back, and helped her muster the confidence to start Plenty.
3. Instagram. Foodies love it, and it connects Bennett to clients and fellow cooks. “I really enjoy interacting with people there, and a lot of my clients follow me,” she says. “They send their requests and feedback, and tell me how they heard about me. I just really like that intimate interaction that I get. It’s the antithesis of having that jar of tomato sauce sitting on a shelf in the store, and you don’t get to interact with the maker.”
4. The families she nannied and cooked for upon arriving in Charlottesville—they got her started.
Here’s how the business works: Clients sign up on plentycville.com, and pay a one-time $50 fee to cover the serving dishes and an insulated bag. Bennett uses Pyrex and fills Mason jars with salads. On Wednesday, she emails the weekly menu to clients. It includes a quiche of the week, a couple of jarred salads, four entrées (chicken, beef, fish, and a vegetarian dish), and a dessert. “My menu is free of a lot of added sugars and preservatives,” she says. “It’s made from fresh vegetables and sustainably sourced meats. I’d like to move more in that direction, and do more farm-to-table cooking. I guess my meals are very veggie-friendly. There are some grains in there but no heavy pasta—I’m sure that’s what my clients are eating when they don’t order from me!”
The deadline to order is 9pm Friday—$50 minimum, and entrée offerings for two, four, or six people, with side dishes, ranging from $25 to $45.When all of the meals are ready, she parses them into individual orders, and then places them in the bags with ice packs. Monday morning she makes the rounds, delivering nourishment to people’s doorstep.
Bennett says she’s preparing to move into a bigger kitchen, a shared commercial space. She’s considering a couple of places, but she’s agreed not to mention them by name. Wherever she lands, we’re betting on her continued success.
Jason Becton and Patrick Evans, owners of the MarieBette Café & Bakery, reaffirmed their commitment to one another while moving to their new home with their daughters and two dogs. Photo: Rob Garland
Moving is stressful.
Moving to an old place that needs a gut renovation is more stressful.
Fighting with your spouse every step of the way? That’s a major test.
Jason Becton and Patrick Evans, owners of the beloved MarieBette Café & Bakery, were at odds about their new place. “Jason wanted nothing to do with the project in the beginning and definitely didn’t want to ever live in the house,” Evans says.
It was a rough start to a transition that would take a year to complete. “The house was in bad disrepair when we bought it, and it was hard for Jason to see the potential,” Evans continues. “It wasn’t until it was stripped down to the studs that he was able to start seeing that it could be a nice place—not to mention a home for our family.”
Becton and Evans persevered, taking great care to restore the charming cottage, inside and out. “We like to think we brought back the house’s original aesthetic and flow,” Evans says. “Also, when I first saw the house it had a red roof that had faded from its original color. But it was one of the things that caught my eye and I wanted to keep it. The triple gabled roof is also unique and I thought the color really brought attention to that feature.”
The partners in life and in business moved into the rehabbed place about three years ago, and they are glad to call it home—along with their daughters Marian, 8, and Betty, 6, and their dogs Seeta and Ponyo, rescues from Blue Ridge Greyhound Adoption.
Today, it’s a full house but a happy one, the product of a huge effort and an emotional journey. “It caused a few tense moments in our relationship, but in the end it worked out for the best,” Evans says. “We have learned to trust each others’ instincts and try our best to support each other, even if it’s not a decision we agree on.”
The kitchen and living room are the heart of the renovation. A suspended partial ceiling made of reclaimed wood defines the cozy space with the fireplace. Photo: Andrea Hubbell
Enlisting your best friends to design and manage the renovation of your home can be a risky endeavor, particularly when you encourage them to exercise creative freedom in designing what you hope will become your dream house. If you don’t like their work, can the friendship survive?
“When I’m standing at my kitchen sink, I feel like I’m at command central,” Sarah Shields says. “I can be cooking, conversing, and keeping an eye on all things from that special spot.” Photo: Andrea Hubbell
That was the question friends often asked photographer Sarah Cramer Shields and her husband, Matt Shields, a Charlottesville High School engineering teacher, when they entrusted HubbHouse founders Brian and Andrea Hubbell to remodel their 1910 farmhouse. Sarah, Matt, and their boys, Albert, 6, and Cramer, 4, bounced among four living spaces during the eight-month project, keeping up their busy lives while Brian and Andrea worked on the house.
“We knew we needed more space with two boys and two 80-pound dogs living in 1,200 square feet,” Sarah says of her family’s Belmont home, which she purchased in April of 2006. In 2015, the couple added a backyard structure to accommodate a small rental unit and Sarah’s photography studio, but they hadn’t upgraded their original house.
“We were desperate for a smart, thoughtful, beautiful, creative addition,” Sarah says. “And the only people we would ever want to do it would be our best friends. We literally told the Hubbells to do what they wanted. They know us and our lifestyle so well.”
Neatly integrated into the first floor, the back porch leaves plenty of room for grilling and socializing. Modern details like the welded-wire mesh below the railing contrast with the classic clapboard and board-and-batten siding. Photo: Andrea Hubbell
The couples’ friendship began in 2011, when Sarah and Andrea met while waiting in line at Mudhouse on the Downtown Mall. But the double “dream team” renovation didn’t begin until seven years later, and in the intervening time they grew very close.
As they started the process, the tight friendship helped, as did the Hubbells’ backgrounds. Both are trained as architects and had worked as architectural designers in Charlottesville. Before launching HubbHouse in 2016, Brian directed user experience design at a local tech firm, and Andrea worked as an architectural photographer (often for this magazine). She’s also a licensed realtor, now working for Nest Realty.
HubbHouse specializes in buying fixer-uppers to remodel and put back on the market. But Brian says he and Andrea had been “designing [the Shields’] renovation and addition in our minds for years.” They knew that the new space needed to support the Shields’ high-energy lives, including their love of hosting friends and family for birthdays, playdates, and dinner parties. “Once pencil finally hit paper, the general form of the addition came almost immediately,” Brian says.
The Hubbells knew they would lean modern instead of traditional, yet still hold on to the historical roots and framework of the charming two-story farmhouse, including the inviting front porch. “We wanted the addition to feel, at first glance, like it had always been there, but upon further scrutiny, express its own unique identity,” Brian says.
That meant, for example, leveraging the moderately sloping backyard to emphasize the sectional characteristics of the addition. This led the designers to drop the level of the new space by 18 inches and add a couple of steps, creating a pause at the connection of the two structures.
In designing the family room and kitchen space, Brian focused on areas of rest and relaxation. For example, above the large sectional sofa and modern gas fireplace, he added a carefully detailed hanging panel of reclaimed heart pine. This compressed and defined the family room without the addition of walls, which would have obstructed sight lines and hindered movement. In the kitchen, the Hubbells added a cozy breakfast nook as well as a stunning waterfall countertop island with four stools that serves as the kitchen’s gathering place and centerpiece. The Hubbells wanted the Shields to be able to cook, hang out, and enjoy casual dinners in one inviting, gorgeous area, so Brian designed the roof of the new back porch to meet the home’s original roof lines, tying together the old and the new.
Upstairs, the incredible views of the mountains meant allowing for a second-floor master suite that showcases the scenery as the sun rises. Filled with windows and light, the southeast-facing master bathroom has become a family attraction, with a double vanity designed around the couple’s differing handedness (Matt’s a lefty, Sarah a righty), large walk-in shower, and modern soaking tub that is favored by adults and kids alike.
The couples stayed in touch by group text during the renovation, checking in on little details and sharing creative ideas. They also met once a week, usually at the project site, to discuss bigger issues and keep abreast of progress.
Ultimately, after a few unexpected discoveries during construction, the renovation was complete in February 2019. “We had the best possible scenario,” Andrea says. The Shields have a stunning new home, and their best friendship is stronger than ever.
