Author: Laura Ingles

Categories
Living

Charlottesville favorites expand to Richmond

Champion Brewing Company owner Hunter Smith says the Richmond location, which opened in February, will allow them to get their beers in front of customers looking for the newest thing in the craft beer world. Photo courtesy of Ash Daniel.

If you’ve made the trip down I-64 recently to check out an REI garage sale or pop in at the General Assembly, you may have noticed a familiar sign or two in the area. Restaurants and breweries that are native to Charlottesville continue to appear all around our eastward neighboring city—and while we love any excuse to remind the world of our uniqueness, it’s important to remember that sharing is caring, right?   

Champion Brewing Company owner Hunter Smith is one of the most recent Charlottesville business owners to set his sights on Virginia’s capital, and the downtown Richmond location quietly opened in February. It’s hard to imagine our fair city without the beloved Shower Beer or Missile IPA, and for Smith it only made sense to introduce the brewery, the concept and the beers to a larger and, according to Smith, different market.

“In the Richmond beer scene we see a very savvy customer who’s always into the newest thing,” Smith says. “Charlottesville seems to really take favorites as far as beers they love, staple beers that they want to keep. There are staples in Richmond, but it’s all about what’s new and what’s next.”

Three Notch’d Brewing Company CEO and founder George Kastendike agrees.

“The beer culture there is extremely innovative, with some of the most educated consumers in the country on craft beer,” says Kastendike. “With the greater demographics of Richmond being larger than Charlottesville, it was challenging. In order to do it in an authentic way, we needed to put some real thought into the concept.”   

Much like Champion’s Richmond location, the newest Three Notch’d at RVA Collab House will always have its classics like the Minute Man IPA on tap. But it’s a different neighborhood, a different city and a different market, and the team’s mission all along has been to make each taproom consistent in culture and experience while embracing the surrounding community.

“What they’re looking for is a cultural experience,” says Kastendike of both Charlottesville and Richmond beer consumers. “That’s one of inclusion, a place where there’s freedom to express yourself. People are looking for innovative beer styles, definitely beers they can’t get in some of the other locations, and I think if you err toward that characteristic of experimentation, it offers some depth to the taproom and individuality to it.”

And craft beer isn’t the only piece of Charlottesville to make its way to the River City. Should you find yourself hankering for a meal reminiscent of home while you’re in Richmond, keep an eye out for Citizen Burger Bar, Marco and Luca, Zzaam!, Continental Divide and Christian’s Pizza.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

K&F: Side dishes worth building a meal around

The Fitzroy's street corn off the cob. Photo: Rammelkamp Foto

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the unsung culinary heroes, shall we? The sweet potato casserole so often overshadowed by the turkey. The tricolore salad pushed aside to make room for the pulled pork. Side dishes are so much more than fillers. Plus, cobbling together a meal out of sides is often less expensive than ordering an entrée, so we’re here to give them their due.

Street corn off the cob

The Fitzroy

Mexican classic meets home cookin’ in this one. The Fitzroy’s menu is all about comfort foods (see also: broiled mac ‘n’ cheese), and co-owner Richard Ridge says it’s not uncommon for guests to build entire meals out of side dishes. The street corn off the cob combines the spices and flavors of elote, or Mexican street corn, with the texture and heartiness of Southern creamed corn.

Orange-roasted fennel

Tavola

New York Times food writer Joan Nathan referred to it as the “best fennel dish ever” in 2012, and it’s hard to disagree. Originally created to accompany a salmon entrée, the simple dish—orange slices and fennel roasted together at high heat and topped with basil—was so well-received that it earned its own spot on the restaurant’s contori list.

Manchego bread pudding

Zocalo

Sous chef Mike Hollard describes it as a “fancy stuffing,” so obviously we’re on board. Zocalo’s manchego bread pudding is a concoction of cubed bread, sage, chicken stock, caramelized onions and (obviously) manchego cheese baked in its own little dish. Pair it with some grilled asparagus and smoked tomato grits and call it a meal.

Al Carbon Chicken's platanos fritos. Photo: Rammelkamp Foto

Platanos fritos (fried plantains)

Al Carbon Chicken

Al Carbon’s menu features enough side dishes to fill this entire page, but let’s talk about one of the simplest (and most delicious): platanos fritos, or fried plantains. The perfect balance of crispy, chewy, sweet and salty, and served with a side of dipping sauce, you could almost call them dessert. If you want to skip the entrée altogether, try the chiles toreados and cebollitas (grilled jalapeños with spring onions), nopalitos (roasted cactus) and arroz amarillo (yellow rice).

Belgian fries

Public Fish & Oyster

What would a side dish roundup be without at least one order of fries? Twice-cooked, sprinkled with sea salt and served with a side of aioli, it doesn’t get much better than the Belgian fries at Public Fish & Oyster. Order a simmering serving of moules-frites, or make a meal out of the fries, haricots verts and a couple oysters on the half-shell.

Categories
Magazines Weddings

Give a little: Big-day gifts for your special someone

Photo: Robert Llewellyn

You’ve pored through the registries, made a list of practical needs for every room in the house and created a honeyfund for that trip to Bermuda. But what about that special from-me-to-you gift for your spouse on the big day? We’ve got some ideas for you.

For her

Wish bubble bath from Roxie Daisy Light some candles and let her unwind at the end of the day in a luxurious bubble bath with the rejuvenating scents of vanilla bean, rice flower, jasmine leaves and sugar cane. $50, roxiedaisy.com.

Boris mink scarf from Scarpa This triangular mink scarf with magnetic closures will keep her warm and remind her that she’s worth it. $1,480, thinkscarpa.com.

For him

The Guardian midnight blue dial watch from Fink’s Jewelers He’s a classy guy, so he deserves a classy watch. $675, finksjewelers.com.

Dopp kit from Eljo’s That gallon-sized Ziploc bag holding all his toiletries isn’t cutting it anymore, so this beautiful canvas dopp kit will do the job. Available in three colors, $85-95, eljos.com.

To share

Sunrise hot air balloon ride from Blue Ridge Balloon See the sun rise over the mountains, and then enjoy a breakfast of pastries, fresh fruit and sparkling cider. $240 per person, blueridgeballoon.com.

Cooking class from The Spice Diva Have you and your spouse always wanted to learn how to cook Moroccan food? Or brush up on your knife skills? Sign up together for a class with the Spice Diva. Various prices, thespicediva.com.

Wine club membership from Blenheim Vineyards A gift that keeps on giving: four bottles of wine three times a year, and as club members, tasting fees will be waived on winery visits. $225 per year, blenheimvineyards.com.

Categories
Magazines Weddings

Premarital counseling: For couples in the know or out of date?

Annie Fitzhugh and Bill Scatena had regular counseling sessions throughout their year-long engagement. “I’ve learned a lot about my fiancé and a lot about myself,” says the bride.” Photo: Signe Clayton

Nobody was surprised when Annie Fitzhugh and Bill Scatena decided to get married. The couple met when they were both working at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, and they dated for two years before he put a ring on it. What did surprise some of their friends, however, was their decision to participate in premarital counseling during their year-long engagement.

“I definitely think that there’s a stigma around it,” says Fitzhugh. “I think some of my friends think it’s a little old-school, but to me it was just like, why not take the opportunity to get to know each other better during one of the most stressful times of your life?”

Fitzhugh and her fiancé are active members of Portico Church, a nondenominational congregation that encourages a nontraditional style of premarital counseling: The betrothed pair up with a couple who are already married for insight into lifelong partnership. The two couples meet regularly to discuss everything from finances to family planning, and Fitzhugh says it’s been overwhelmingly positive and eye-opening for both her and Scatena.

“It sounded like a great opportunity to really learn from a couple who’s been married for way longer than we’ve been together,” she says. “Everybody has disagreements, and if anything it’s really made me more self-aware. I’ve learned a lot about my fiancé and a lot about myself, how I communicate and why I make the decisions that I make.”

Fitzhugh says they began counseling last summer, and the process has helped relieve some of the pressure to have it all figured out by the time their January 2017 wedding rolled around.

“I think sometimes when people get engaged they get so swept up in the wedding and all the planning, and it’s been great to get to reset and talk about marriage, not the wedding,” she says. “At the end of the day, the wedding’s going to end and then the real journey begins.”

Portico’s couple-pairing approach certainly isn’t the only option. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Young offers counseling for both engaged and married couples. His services for married couples is intended to map out and address current problems in the relationship. For those preparing to wed, he recommends two or three sessions to discuss components of marriage that may cause conflict in the future: intimacy issues, parenting styles, relationships with in-laws, etc.

“The divorce rate is pretty high, and I know a lot of people want to prepare so they don’t have big problems when they do get married,” Young says. “If you’re getting married, you want to make sure you’re not diving into disaster.”

Fightin’ words

Couples bicker about any number of things (“Stop putting the mustard in the refrigerator,” “Why can you never put the cap back on the toothpaste?”). But when it comes to those foundational relationship issues, there are some things that should be addressed both before and during a marriage, says Dr. Robert Young.

  • Whether to have children
  • Parenting styles
  • In-laws
  • Religion
  • Finances
  • Intimacy expectations
Categories
Living

Zoom Indoor Cycling joins the local boutique fitness scene

Zoom Indoor Cycling owners Justin (pictured) and Cara Goodman brought in a light wall, created by a designer in the United Kingdom. The lights sync up to the music, to give you an added push during your workout. Photo: Martyn Kyle

When the owner of MADabolic grins at you from her bike and says, “Sometimes this class kicks my ass,” you know you’re in for a good workout.

On Saturday, June 26, about a dozen people clipped onto bicycles in the rows of stationary bikes at Zoom Indoor Cycling, located in the Barracks Road shopping center, for a rainbow-and-love-themed workout. Affectionately named the Pride Ride, this particular session cost $15 per person, and all the proceeds went to the OneOrlando Fund, which provides support to the families of the Orlando shooting victims. A bubbly and theatrical instructor with a long ponytail and a bright tie-dyed T-shirt bounced into the room and onto the elevated bike at the front, where she led the group through an intense 45-minute class. Spinning your legs that hard for that long is great exercise no matter what the cause. But when the floor-to-ceiling mirror erupts in dancing rainbow lights and every person in the room is pedaling in perfect sweaty unison as Beyoncé blasts through the speakers, it’s easy to get swept up and feel like you’re a part of something.

And that’s exactly what owners Justin and Cara Goodman want.

“One of the reasons we put the bikes as close as they can be without infringing on personal space is that the feeling of riding as a pack is tremendously powerful,” says Justin Goodman. “When everybody’s doing a gritty climb to the beat, left, right, left right, it looks cool and feels cool, and it’s really drawing on that group experience.”

With a plan in mind to open a cycling studio, the Goodmans moved to Charlottesville in the summer of 2015 after living in Washington, D.C., for several years. They traveled as far as Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai to visit and research cycle studios all over the world, and Zoom’s official opening day was April 1.

“Charlottesville is definitely growing into a much more cosmopolitan city than when I was growing up here, and we wanted to bring in studio elements that you typically only see in larger cities,” Goodman says. “We really wanted to do something that Charlottesville hadn’t seen before.”

One of those big city elements? The light wall, created by a designer in the United Kingdom. The giant mirror behind the instructor has an elaborate lighting system that syncs up with the music so just when you’re starting to wonder whether you’ll make it through a tough climb, a vibrant light show, hand in hand with the thumping beat, gives you a push.

“It gives this emotional lift and it’s a cool surprise from behind the mirror,” he says.

Right now Zoom offers two types of classes: ZRide and ZPower. ZRide is a rhythm-based class in which the pedaling always matches the beats of whatever playlist the instructor designs. It incorporates climbs and sprints, plus strength training elements like handlebar push-ups and hand weight exercises. Goodman describes the ZRide as more “whole body focused.” ZPower is a more classic, cardio-heavy ride without the upper body movements. Instructors encourage riders to use the computers mounted on the bikes—it’s more metrics based, and Goodman recommends this class for anyone whose goal is to track progress.

You’ll never hear the same playlist twice, according to Goodman, and he often reminds beginners that the resistance knob on the bike gives them complete control. Oh, and the first class is free, so really you’ve got nothing to lose—except a bucketful of sweat. And if you missed the Pride Ride but want to exercise for the greater good, keep an eye out for future Zoom events.

“We definitely want to make charitable giving an emphasis of what we’re doing,” Goodman says. “People our age like to have an impact with the business they start, and they expect the businesses they patronize to have that type of focus. We want to have an impact when we can, and keep it light and fun.”

Sweat all over town

“Really nobody should tell you that any one form of exercise is all you ever need to do for your body,” says Justin Goodman. “You need a combination of strength, cardio, stretching and rest.”

Which is where I Sweat Cville comes in. The Goodmans have teamed up with the owners of three other local boutique fitness studios—MADabolic, b:core methods and treadHAPPY—to offer class packages that incorporate all four of those elements through high-intensity interval training, barre, running and spinning. Class passes expire 60 days after activation.

Intro $49 for four classes (one at each studio)

Plus $175 for 12 classes (three at all four studios or four classes at three studios)

Ultimate $340 for 24 classes (six classes at all four studios or eight classes at three studios)

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Local buzz: Hungry Hill Farm keeps the bees

Photo: Rammelkamp Foto

It’s honey season, y’all! Bee colonies like the ones at Hungry Hill Farm have been buzzing around for months, and it’s time to reap the rewards. According to farm owner Glenn Clayton, June and July are the “height of the honey flow,” and one beehive can hold upward of 60,000 honeybees this time of year. 

Most of the farm’s harvest is classic wildflower honey, made from the nectar of whatever flowers the pollinators go out and collect, which is available at $7 for 16 ounces. For the true connoisseurs, there’s the sourwood honey—more difficult to produce, it’s made with the nectar of sourwood trees, which only bloom for a few weeks during the summer. Those bees are kept separate from the others and given easy access to the flowers, and a 16-ounce jar of the sourwood honey goes for $12.

As for what to do with the honey once it’s harvested? Clayton’s list is endless.

“It does well in making barbecue sauce, it’s really well used as a replacement for sugar in just about any recipe,” he says. “It’s sterile, good for treatment of wounds, good for treatment of a sore throat.”

It’s also great for keeping the bugs at bay if you happen to spend a lot of time outside. Just mix equal parts honey, apple cider vinegar and water, drink about four ounces a day for a couple weeks, he says, and say goodbye to pests.

“After about two to three weeks of doing that it’ll keep the chiggers away, it’ll keep the ticks away,” he says. “It’ll even keep your husband away from you because by then you’ll smell like a vinegar pod.”

Clayton has been keeping bees for more than 50 years, and for him it’s a labor of love. When he first picked up the hobby in the 1960s, he had no way of knowing how much the practice would change and evolve over the years, mostly due to corporate pesticides and an influx of invasive foreign insects that devastate honey bees. There was a day when he only had to check on his bees a few times a year, but now keeping the bees healthy and safe requires about triple the amount of work and attention as it did when he started. 

“Why do I still do it? Well, I’ve been stung so many times, it’s in my blood and I can’t get it out,” he says. “But really, even though it’s gettin’ to be a hassle doin’ it, it’s still enjoyable to keep bees. It’s just demanding.”

Honey at home

Want to try your hand at using some of the area’s best local honey? Tavola bar manager Christian Johnston recommends mixing up an Airmail, a classic summery cocktail.

Combine and shake 1 oz. aged rum, .5 oz. fresh lime juice and .5 oz. honey syrup* in a metal shaker and strain
into a cocktail couple. Top with 2 oz. sparkling wine and enjoy.

*Honey syrup is equal parts still water and honey. Feel free to create a twist on the classic by adding ingredients
like rosemary, orange blossom water or sumac.

Categories
Living

Southern Crescent makes Cajun-Creole debut in Belmont and more restaurant news

The muffuletta (and po’ boy) sandwiches are made with bread sourced from Leidenheimer Baking Company in New Orleans. Photo: Tom McGovern

Anyone who pays attention to Belmont will tell you the same thing: This has been a long time coming. Lucinda Ewell and her husband, Ian Day, first conceptualized Southern Crescent in 2009, when they started dreaming about turning their New Orleans garden-esque Hinton Avenue home into a restaurant. Seven years later, after successfully rezoning the property and undertaking an extensive remodel of the house, Ewell and Day officially opened the doors of Southern Crescent.

“It’s been a very slow, soft opening for us, which we’ve enjoyed,” says Ewell, adding that the space turned out exactly how she and her husband pictured it. “From the renovation to the opening, every step has been fun.”

Ewell, who grew up in New Orleans and spent several years with Day and their son on a 31-foot sailboat in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, has worked in the food industry for years. So it made sense that her next business venture would be a restaurant inspired by the Cajun and island Creole flavors she knows and loves. Chef de cuisine Taylor Pitts helps Ewell in the kitchen, and Day runs the operational side of the business.

Lucinda Ewell and Ian Day combine influences from Ewell’s hometown, New Orleans with time spent in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti to create their Cajun-Creole menu. Photo: Tom McGovern
Lucinda Ewell and Ian Day combine influences from Ewell’s hometown, New Orleans with time spent in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti to create their Cajun-Creole menu. Photo: Tom McGovern

Ewell and Day finally received their ABC license last weekend, making the dinner menu and a selection of beer, wine and cider available. The menu started off small but mighty—oysters on the half-shell, gumbo and a selection of po’ boys, plus sides and starters like salad and heirloom tomato gazpacho.

All the seafood is from the U.S. and wild-caught, and Ewell says she uses local and regional purveyors to source the rest of the ingredients. She even handwrites the menu each morning based on what’s available that day, and dinner entrées like fresh fish, Bahamian fried chicken and New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp will rotate depending on what’s available locally.

A non-local exception on the menu is the bread they use for the po’ boys and muffulettas. Sourced from Leidenheimer Baking Company in the heart of New Orleans, the soft, pillowy French loaf is the only acceptable bread when it comes to po’ boys, Ewell says, and she swears even the most skeptical Louisianan will feel right at home with these sandwiches. The lightly battered catfish is tender and flaky with a little kick, and the housemade thinly cut purple potato chips round out the platter. Other po’ boy options include fried shrimp and fried oysters.

Lunch and dinner are both available now, along with a small selection of booze, on the garden-style brick patio. The inside dining room and full bar with cocktails aren’t up and running quite yet, but Ewell says the goal is to be fully operational in about a month.

Good food, good cause

The Charlottesville 29 blog writer and C-VILLE columnist C. Simon Davidson as well as the other guys at law firm McGuireWoods are collaborating with more than two dozen local restaurants to benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Each of the eateries on Davidson’s list of his top 29 restaurants in town is creating a signature dining experience to be auctioned off, and the proceeds will go directly to the food bank, which feeds an average of 118,000 people per month.

For more information about the restaurants and auctions, visit charlottesville29.com.

Farewell

“You’ve got the best job in town.”

As a food and drink writer, I get that a lot. And I can’t say I disagree—yes, my job involves sampling dishes and cocktails on a pretty regular basis. But it also involves sitting down with chefs, farmers, restaurant owners and mixologists who have so much passion for what they do you can (literally) taste it.

When I moved here in 2011 and showed up at C-VILLE Weekly to pester then-editor Giles Morris for a freelance gig, Charlottesville was foreign to me. I couldn’t tell you the name of a single city councilor, where to find the best Sunday morning Bloody Mary or how to get to Monticello. Stonefield hadn’t opened yet, and I didn’t know the difference between Belmont and Fry’s Spring.

Four-and-a-half years later, I don’t claim to be a food expert by any stretch of the imagination—just a reporter who knocks on a lot of chefs’ doors and has a tendency to pepper friends and visitors with (mostly useless) knowledge about every restaurant we pass.

As I wind down at C-VILLE and prepare to move to Richmond, where I’ll take on the role of digital editor at Virginia Living magazine, I can’t help but reflect on how Charlottesville and I have both grown and evolved since 2011. I could prattle on for pages about the affection I have for this town and this paper, but I’ll spare you.

Thanks for reading, Charlottesville. If anyone needs me, I’ll be eating my way through Richmond.

Categories
Living

Michael Shaps Wineworks opens new facility and other restaurant news

Wineworks Extended, owned by Michael Shaps and located on Avon Street Extended, is a tasting room arm of Michael Shaps Wineworks. Photo: Martyn Kyle

Wegmans hasn’t opened its hallowed doors yet, but at least one new business nearby is up and running. Located at 1585 Avon St. Extended, Wineworks Extended is the newest iteration of local custom contract winemaking operation Michael Shaps Wineworks. The warehouse was originally scouted out as a bottling facility, and owner Shaps says he figured why not turn the extra space into a tasting room?

“We thought it would be a great opportunity since our original tasting room is pretty far out of town,” he says, referring to the Michael Shaps Wineworks location on Harris Creek Way, about 20 minutes south of Charlottesville.

The newly constructed tasting room, which features high tables, brightly colored stools and floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with bottles of wine, opened for business a few weeks ago. Guests can choose between two tasting options: the $6 flight of wines on tap or the $8 flight of “Michael’s picks” bottled wines. Each tasting includes four 40 ml pours, and the flight-style presentation allows you to compare and contrast rather than rinsing out one glass between each different wine. 

Claire Hart, who works in the tasting room, says each flight always features at least one red and one white—they’ll rotate every few weeks, with more whites during the summer and more reds during the winter.

The wines available to take home include a large selection of Michael Shaps wine (both in bottles and boxes), like the 2015 Viognier and 2015 Odette. There’s also the option of taking home a growler of wine—a full liter for around $15.

“The wine on tap is styled a little differently,” Shaps says. “They’re fresh, young wines that are made for immediate consumption, and with the growler you’re getting a better deal.”

For more information about tastings and hours of operation, check out the Wineworks Extended Facebook page.

All hopped up

First the bad news: The strawberry-ginger cider the team at Potter’s Craft Cider made in collaboration with Kardinal Hall is all dried up. But the good news is Potter’s just released a new seasonal style. Introducing the Passionfruit Mosaic Cider—infused with passionfruit and hopped with tropical, fruity Mosaic hops, it screams summertime. But it won’t be around for long. This stuff is in limited supply, so be sure to keep an eye out for it at restaurants and bars around town before the supply runs out.

Lucky libations

’Tis the season for new booze, apparently. Silverback Distillery rolled out its new Blackback Lucky 13 Rye Whiskey just in time for Father’s Day last weekend. Aged for 13 months in virgin white oak barrels, the rye is available for sipping in half-ounce pours (either neat or with mixers) at the distillery in Afton. You won’t find it on the shelves of ABC stores yet, but you can take a bottle home with you from the tasting room. According to co-owner Denver Riggleman, the mash is 67 percent rye, 22 percent white corn and 11 percent malted barley, and all the grains are sourced in Virginia.

As for future releases as the whiskey continues to age, Silverback plans to make this a Father’s Day tradition. So, if you missed this year’s release event (complete with cigars and food), you’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future. And the whiskey will only get better.

Categories
Living

Solidarity CrossFit makes classes safe and approachable for mothers-to-be

Five women at Solidarity CrossFit, including Melissa Sacco, were all pregnant at the same time last year. Owner Michael Towne helped them with exercise modifications so they could safely work out while pregnant. Photo: Courtney Coker

When Melissa Sacco was a few months pregnant with her second son, she posted a photo on Facebook of herself standing next to a loaded barbell that she had just deadlifted.

“You’re not lifting that while pregnant. Correct?” commented one of her friends.

Turns out she was. Sacco, a UVA grad, pediatrician and assistant professor, is one of those “crazy CrossFitters.” She and her husband joined Solidarity CrossFit a few months after their first son was born in 2013, and when she got pregnant again last year, she was determined to continue working out.

“My ob/gyns really helped me manage my fitness program,” Sacco says. “At that first visit I told them that ‘I do CrossFit now and I don’t want to stop.’”

And Sacco wasn’t alone. Around the time she found out her son was on the way, four other members at Solidarity also announced they were expecting. Owner Michael Towne had just installed a new water fountain and led the group through a squat cycle before the pregnancy episode, so take that for what it’s worth.

“It was such a great environment, everyone was so supportive,” Sacco says. “All of us were pregnant together and there was sort of a nice little bond there.”

Despite the old wives’ tale that mothers-to-be shouldn’t lift anything heavier than 20 pounds (which Sacco scoffs at—her 2-year-old was already 35 pounds by then), Sacco says her doctors were on board. She took it upon herself to read up and ask questions, and with the help of her doctors she created a fitness plan that made her feel both strong and safe.

Early on it was clear there were some exercises she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do during those nine months. Continue to work on unassisted pull-ups? Pass. Climb the ropes hanging from the ceiling and risk falling to the floor? Nope. But there were plenty of things she could do, such as set a personal record in her deadlift at 28 weeks and continue doing box jumps two months later. And on her birthday, about a month before her due date, she arrived at class to find that everyone had strapped weighted medicine balls to their bellies in an act of solidarity.

Much of the fitness community has a love-hate relationship with burpees—a move that involves dropping to a plank position, doing a push-up, jumping back up and repeating an ungodly number of times. Obviously Sacco and her fellow mama bears couldn’t lower themselves down for a full push-up once their bellies had grown to a certain size, so they worked with Towne on incorporating safe adaptations. By the time the third trimester rolled around, their burpees were a push-up against a wall followed by a squat jump. In fact, Sacco says her friend’s water broke while they were doing their adapted burpees. (Let’s all keep that in mind the next time we’re feeling too lazy to leave the couch, shall we?)

For Towne, who opened Solidarity CrossFit in late 2012, there was no question that he and his team of coaches would do everything they could to make the classes safe and approachable for everyone and not make any members feel isolated—pregnant or otherwise.

“We hold everybody to the same high standards from a safety perspective. If you come in with a bad knee or you’re pregnant, there’s certain things that we’ve got to look at,” Towne says. “But it’s really not that different in my book, as in there are just certain things we’ve got to take into account. With any adult population you’re not going to meet anybody that doesn’t have something they need to work around.”

Hanging on the wall in the gym is a poster entitled “CrossFit During Pregnancy,” with safety tips such as “No GHD [glute hammer developer] sit-ups” during the first trimester and “Decrease weight as necessary, dependent on form and comfort” during the third trimester. It also lists substitute exercises, like elevated push-ups and dumbbells instead of barbells.

As the brigade of pregnant members progressed through their pregnancy and their workouts, Towne and the other coaches learned alongside them, gradually putting in place more resources. The coach-to-athlete ratio is already eight-to-one during classes, Towne says, which means members get individualized attention when they need it. And to make the gym accessible postpartum, Towne also provides free childcare during some classes.

Sacco says her second pregnancy and second time giving birth were far easier than the first, which she attributes to CrossFit and the overall belief that carrying a baby shouldn’t stop her from being an athlete.

“This isn’t a place where they come and they’re a pregnant person,” Towne says. “They’re just an athlete who happens to be pregnant.”

Categories
Living

Doma opens for business and other restaurant news

Imsook “April” Lee and her husband, Doyoung Moon, opened Doma Korean Kitchen on West Main Street at the end of May. The menu features build-your-own entrées such as stir fry with rice or noodles, with protein and veggies and a selection of sauces. Photo: Ryan Jones

Imsook “April” Lee and her husband, Doyoung Moon, moved from Korea to the United States in 2006. The daughter of a restaurant owner who loved to cook, Lee worked in a Washington, D.C., deli, where she gradually introduced Korean sauces and items such as kimchi onto the menu to see how American customers responded to the food she grew up with. To her delight, she found that many of the pickled, fermented, spicy tastes of Korea went over pretty well.

“We were serving mostly American food, but I know all Korean recipes,” says Lee. “So I started making kimchi, salad and Korean sauces, and people really loved it.”

After their daughter enrolled at UVA, it wasn’t long before Lee and Moon fell in love with Charlottesville. So, last year, equipped with years of management experience and recipes passed down from family, they made the move and set up shop for Charlottesville’s newest Korean restaurant, Doma Korean Kitchen.

Located at 701 W. Main St., Doma quietly opened on Tuesday, May 31. The menu features build-your-own entrées such as stir fry with rice or noodles, a selection of five proteins, up to five veggies and one of three housemade sauces. The Doma lunch box includes a serving of rice (prepared with cooking wine, oil and seasonings), a side salad with light, sweet yuja citrus dressing and a serving of juicy, tender, overnight-marinated Korean barbecue meat.

“American people, they know about Korean barbecue,” Lee says, adding that each of the four meats (chicken, beef, pork and shrimp) is marinated in a different sauce that she created, the pork being the spiciest.

There’s also a Korean-style barbecue burger with kimchi slaw and housemade pickles, a fried pork belly salad and small plate items such as crispy fried wings in hot-chili sauce and dook-galbi, a marinated Korean chicken meatball.

For now, the drink menu includes water, soda and frozen slushes in flavors such as lemon, ginger, grapefruit and misugaru (roasted grain). Moon (who renovated the space with a friend) included a bar in the design, which will be stocked with local beer, sake and soju, one of the most popular types of alcohol in Korea, as soon as a liquor license comes through.

Cross-country crawl

Being fit doesn’t mean you can’t indulge every now and then. The team at MADabolic, the high-intensity interval training franchise with studios from Ontario to South Carolina, will host a multi-city bar crawl on Saturday, June 25. All locations will participate, and members and nonmembers alike are invited. The event begins at the MADabolic studio in the IX Art Park at 2pm before the group heads downtown for some locally inspired day-drinking.

Charitable collaboration

What’s better than local beer? Local beer with a purpose. The brewers at Three Notch’d, Starr Hill and Devils Backbone have teamed up to create 65 Roses, a rose hibiscus blonde ale to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Brewer’s Ball, that was held June 9. The collaboration beer will be available exclusively at the Three Notch’d tasting rooms in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.