Author: c-ville-weekly-writers

Puttin’ places Mini-golf isn’t just for trips to the beach and boardwalk. Charlottesville has two family-owned greens that offer classic summer fun for little putters—and parents, too. The Putt Putt Fun Center on Rio Road East near Fashion Square Mall has been around for decades, and offers two 18-hole courses. Tickets are $6, with $14 specials on three-game tickets. The course is open from 10am to 11pm seven days a week through the summer. Your other option is Pirate Pete’s, an all-ages putting green at the Highlands Golf Park on Route 29 in Ruckersville. The 18 holes have nautically themed decor and obstacles. Adult admission is $6, kids pay $5, and toddlers 2 years old or younger get in free. The adjacent driving range offers extra fun for big swingers; the facility is open until 9pm Monday through Friday, and closes at 8pm Saturday and 7pm Sunday. Both spots offer group rates and can host parties, too.

Summer camp doesn’t have to be just for the kids. More and more camps are offering family camp sessions, so parents and kids can enjoy the quintessential summer experience together.

Camp Friendship and Shenandoah Summer Camp both offer Family Camp sessions, during which groups stay in rustic cabins, eat hearty meals in the dining hall, and participate in guided activities. Families can wander freely from one activity to another at Camp Friendship, and Shenandoah provides a structured schedule, with two or three things to do in each time slot.

Family camp is a great alternative for young children who want to experience summer camp but may not yet be ready for an entire week away on their own. Families can participate in everything from archery and climbing to crafts and outdoor cooking. Just remember: No camp weekend is complete without a campfire and s’mores.

Shenandoah Summer Camp
(Luray, Virginia)
August 10-12 (15 family limit)
$525 for three people,
$125 per additional person

Camp Friendship (Palmyra)
One week: August 20-26
$700 for up to four people
$120 per person for five-12 people
Half week: August 20-23
$700 for up to four people
$130 per person for five-12 people
Weekend: August 24-26
$700 for up to four people
$200 per person for five-12 people

Sitting on a restaurant’s patio in the summer heat is a summertime rite of passage. Here’s a list of al fresco places around town to eat, drink, see, and be seen.

Aguas frescas at Cinema Taco (Photo by John Robinson) Melon heads What says summer better than a slice of fresh fruit in your hand, its juice dripping from your chin? Fruit poured into a glass, that’s what. Here are three of our favorites. Mild Get an aguas frescas (1) from Cinema Taco (we’ve seen watermelon and lemonade there) and pair it with some chips and tomatoey salsa. Misty The watermelon-lime Italian soda (2) at Mudhouse makes your mouth go pop, pop, fizz, fizz. Relax with a tall glass on the patio out front. Mixed Slurp down a Snoop from Bang!: Tanqueray with cranberry, pineapple, and orange juice. That’s practically a daily serving! Cool as a cucumber sandwich A hot, humid summer day will kill your appetite. All the things you usually crave sound heavy and sleep-inducing. But getting by on a handful of carrots and doubling your caffeine intake isn’t going to help your metabolism any, and come mid-afternoon, you’ll be in for a blood sugar bonk. Here are three cold lunches that will keep you going and tickle your taste buds. The rice noodle salad at The Box is, like many of its new lunch offerings, Vietnamese styled. A pile of vermicelli topped with thin-sliced cucumber, carrot, cilantro, and jalapeno beside bean sprouts and your choice of pork belly or skirt steak. Pour over a generous helping of nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce) and you’ve got something light enough to eat under the sweltering sun and substantial enough to keep you moving. Sitting outside can be cool if the summer breeze is just right, but during a brain-killing heat wave you’re going to want to seek shelter. Miyako, tucked away in York Place, occupies a dark, windowless universe in a large air-conditioned building. The only thing on the lunch menu is sushi, and you can order a la carte, but a better deal, more suited to a quick lunch, is to order the kaisen donburi, lunch chef Ted Nogami’s choice of sashimi artfully arranged over a mound of perfectly-cooked sushi rice. You’ll get pieces of the usual suspects—salmon, tuna, tamago–and you might also get a spotted sardine if you’re lucky. The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar is another Downtown Mall hideaway that offers a cool, dark oasis on a sweltering day. Order a Zen Wrap, a tasty combo of organic tofu, seaweed, and salad topped with ginger-carrot dressing and done up in a teff pancake. Pair it with one of the freshly iced teas on tap if you’ve got a cool combo that will stand up to the hottest day of the year. Moroccan mint tea will help with your garlic breath.

29
Mykonos
Panera Bread Co.
Rhett’s River Grill
Sultan Kebab

Barracks Road Shopping Center
Aromas Café
Brixx Wood Fired Pizza
Buffalo Wild Wings
Chipotle
Five Guys
Greenberry’s
HotCakes
Panera Bread Co.
Tara Thai

Belmont
Beer Run
Belmont Bar-B-Que
The Farm Cville
La Taza
The Local
The Lunchbox
Mas Tapas
Pad Thai

The Corner/Fontaine
3
Atlas Coffee
The Backyard
Baja Bean
Basil Mediterranean Bistro
The Biltmore
Bodo’s Bagel Bakery
Boylan Heights
Buttz BBQ
Christian’s Pizza
Fry’s Spring Station
Guadalajara
Jimmy John’s
Mellow Mushroom
Michael’s Bistro
Para Coffee
Pigeon Hole
Qdoba Mexican Grill
Sushi Love
Take It Away
Trinity Irish Pub
The Virginian

Downtown
Baggby’s
Bang!
Bashir’s Taverna
Bizou
Blue Light Grill
The Box
C&O Restaurant
Café Cubano
Chaps
Christian’s Pizza
Cinema Taco
Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar
Eppie’s
Escafé
Fellini’s #9
Five Guys
The Flat
Fleurie (in the works)
Guadalajara
Hamilton’s at First & Main
Henry’s
Inn at Court Square
Java Java
Marco & Luca’s Noodle Shop
Miller’s
Mono Loco
Monsoon Siam
Mudhouse
The Nook
Petit Pois
The Pointe
Positively Fourth Street
Rapture
Ristorante Al Dente
Sal’s Caffé Italia
The Shebeen Pub and Braai
Shenandoah Joe
Splendora’s Gelato
Sweet Frog
Tastings of Charlottesville
Ten
Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
Vita Nova
The Whiskey Jar
The X Lounge
Zocalo

High Street/East Market
Fabio’s New York Pizza

Ivy Road
Arch’s
Foods of All Nations
Shenandoah Joe
Vivace
Zazus

McIntire/Preston
Café 88
C’ville Coffee
McGrady’s Irish Pub
Shenandoah Joe
Sticks

Pantops
Christian’s Pizza
Guadalajara
Lazy Parrot
Sticks
Tip Top

West Main
Albemarle Baking Company
Ariana Grill Kabob House
Balkan Bistro & Bar
Calvino Café
El Jaripeo
Feast!
Maya
Horse & Hound Gastropub
L’étoile
Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar
Sweethaus
West Main
Wild Wing Café
Zinc

Other
Café at Monticello
Clifton Inn
Fossett’s Bar at Keswick Hall
Pizza Bella

Our office is a motley crew with myriad accents and hometowns, but our summer food memories are all sweet and ripe with nostalgia. Here’s what we still taste from our summers growing up…

Julian Belvedere, Account Executive: “Spinning the wheel of fifty flavors at an ice cream parlor in San Francisco’s Sunset neighborhood. If I felt adventurous, I’d ask them to spin the wheel.”

Lindsay Bowerman, Sales Support: “Walking to the general store with my grandparents in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where they’d buy me a chocolate ice cream in a cookie cone with rainbow sprinkles.”

Graelyn Brashear, News Editor: “Picking fresh peaches from our trees in Crozet or gathering wild wineberries—my mom would toss them in a casserole dish and top them with a simple, sweet biscuit mix.”

Todd Cutruzzula, Account Executive: “Cooking fresh peppers, onions, and homemade sausage on the grill with my grandfather in Pittsburgh. They made the best sandwiches ever.”

Randi Henry, Account Manager: “Walking to the Downtown Mall with my cousins, where we we’d go to the Hardware Store and buy a huge jawbreaker for a quarter. At home, we’d take a hammer to it for all of us to share.”

Jane Hammel, Account Executive: “Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, eating my mom’s ice cube tray orange juice popsicles.”

Megan J. Headley, Food and Wine Editor: “Swimming in the ocean at the Outer Banks and then eating Nutter Butters that were cold from being in the cooler.”

Tami Keaveny, Arts Editor: “Helping out at my grandparents farm in Massachusetts picking tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn to sell at their farm stand. My Gram would slice fresh, ripe beefsteak tomatoes onto toast with mayo for lunch.”

Lian LaRussa, Graphic Designer: “Getting a lemon or cherry Italian ice from my cousins’ bakery in Marlboro, New York. Haven’t found anything like it since.”

Beth McLaughlin, Account Executive: “I grew up in Lewisburg, West Virginia, and would beg my dad to take us to Dairy Queen after supper every single night for a nut cone. Nine times out of ten he said no, so that ice cream cone was a fairly huge deal.”

Bill LeSueur, Art Director: “My mom made sweet pickles in an antique crock, soaking them for days. I still steal them from the pantry shelf in the basement.”

Debbie Miller, Controller: “Spending the day climbing the sand dunes near Lake Michigan, then going to The Whippy Dip for some huge hot fudge sundaes.”

Giles Morris, Editor in Chief: “Going to this hole-in-the-wall bakery on Wisconsin Avenue in D.C. for glazed donuts that were gummy almost, not airy, but without that chemical taste you get with some doughnuts. If you got more than you could eat, they’d be inedibly stale the next morning, but you could never resist trying.”

Chip Sawyer, Account Executive: “Walking my dog to the gas station in Albany, Kentucky with two quarters and getting a Yoo-Hoo and a pack of peanuts from the vending machine and then dumping the peanuts in the Yoo-Hoo.”

Susan Sorensen, Copy Editor: “After a day at Lake Independence in Maple Plain, Minnesota, my brothers and I would pile into my mom’s red Chevrolet Impala and head for the A&W drive-in restaurant for root beer floats.”

Ashley Sult, Classified Manager: “Walking to the local fast food place in Kingsport, Tennessee for a rich, chocolate milkshake and then sitting by the city pool.”

Caite White, Managing Editor: “Eating watermelon in my bathing suit every night with my grandfather on my grandparents’ back porch in Mayland, Virginia. He’d put a little salt on it, which is still how I like to eat it.”

The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros.)

For the indoor enthusiast:
We know your type. You drive with the windows rolled up and the air conditioner blasting. You always feel sweaty.

Grab yourself a snack and sneak it into a theater to hunker down for a blockbuster. Here are the big releases this summer:

Prometheus (June 8); Rock of Ages (June 15); The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3); The Dark Night Rises (July 20).

Or, maybe you’d prefer to fly north for the summer? Beginning July 11, Charlottesville Albemarle Airport will offer a round-trip Delta flight to New York’s LaGuardia and Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National airports. This means an upgrade in aircraft (to a 50-seat jet from a 37-seat turbo-prop) and convenient travel times. Hop a plane at 7am and you can be in NYC by 9.

Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA (Photo by John Robinson)

For the energetic child:
Waiters cringe when they see your precious angel emerge from the mini-van. Teachers quiver behind their desks as he makes his way through the halls. You’ve got a wild one on your hands.

Try the SPCA (3355 Berkmar Dr., 964-3331), which offers a summer camp for rising third to sixth graders. The five-day program lasts from 9am to 3pm and gives each camper an opportunity to interact with the animals and even observe a veterinary surgery. Four sessions are offered; the first one begins June 25.

Channel some leftover energy into something creative at The Glass Palette’s Summer Studio. Kids will make unique glass art while learning how to fuse, lump, sandblast, and mosaic. Kids ages 7 to 14 are welcome, and the first session starts June 25. Visit theglasspalette.net for more info.

For the family of penny-pinchers:
Do your kids think a night out at Burger King is a special occasion? Is that because you usually eat free samples at Sam’s Club for lunch on the weekends? It might be time to loosen the purse strings a bit, all in the name of good fun.

An hour and a half north of town in Bealeton, The Flying Circus & Airshow wows crowds every Sunday from May through October. The show features parachute jumpers, wingwalkers, and barnstormers who perform tricks atop vintage biplanes. It’s $10 for adults, $3 for kids ages 3-12 and free for little ones. If that’s not enough, the biplane pilots take passengers! Visit flyingcircusairshow.com for more info.

Even cheaper (read: free) are Jefferson Madison Regional Library’s summer offerings. Activities vary by location, but many have a reading kickoff party at the beginning of June (with free ice cream!). Visit jmrl.org for more info.

For the recreation junkie:
You’re the type who craves fresh air. You feel sexiest when you’re glistening with sweat. You think sleeping is a waste of time.

Head to James River Rafting & Reeling in Scottsville to suit up for a day of canoeing and rafting on the James River. Choose your level of experience and set out for Class 1, 2, or 3 rapids spanning 50 miles. Visit reelingandrafting.com for more information.

If that’s not wild enough for you, sign up for Wintergreen Resort’s Adventure Challenge. As they say, “Every muscle from head to toe will be screaming” as you make your way through an obstacle course that includes log walls, a water pit, stacked hay bales, and more. Head to wintergreenresort.com/AdventureChallenge to register before June 24. The fun begins Saturday, June 30.