Author: Nathan Alderman

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Abode Magazines

How to sell a fully furnished home

With the real estate market still red hot, you may have noticed a new trend on Instagram: buyers selling their houses fully furnished. They don’t have to pay to pack up and haul all their worldly goods elsewhere, and sellers get a custom-decorated house with minimal unpacking. But before you decide to jump on this trend, consider two crucial words of advice: Don’t, maybe?

For one thing, selling your house with all its furnishings might not be as common as the internet makes it look, especially in our area. “On rare occasions, a seller might know that a certain set or furniture piece won’t fit into their new place, and [offer it] for sale to the buyer or others,” says Nest Realty’s Jessica Russo. “This is more likely happen if it is a second home or vacation rental, like a Wintergreen place.”

Luxury homes and their high-end designer furniture, or getaway homes in vacation spots, are most likely to sell with their furnishings. In the former case, buyers might not want to throw out a fancy decorator’s work, especially if they like the overall look and mood the furnishings create. In the latter, getting a vacation spot fully furnished saves time and trouble for folks who want to start enjoying their new home away from home as soon as possible.

But aside from those very specific cases, “I don’t believe offering the furnishing with the home makes the sale more appealing,” Russo says—and she wouldn’t advise her clients to try it. Nor does bundling furnishings with the home they occupy tend to offer the kind of financial windfall sellers might be imagining.

Most buyers don’t want a home prefilled with someone else’s furniture. And even if they do, the highly personal nature of furnishings means they might not want yours. No matter how elegantly you’ve framed and lit it, your collection of, say, black-velvet paintings of cats dressed as Elvis impersonators might actually drive potential buyers away.

Throwing in furnishings won’t bump up the value of your house, either. Banks only issue mortgages for land and buildings, so buyers can’t tuck the additional cost of furnishings into their home loan. Potential sellers will have to negotiate a separate, special contract for the furniture itself, and report the money they make as income to the IRS. 

And while it’s relatively easy to guess a home’s worth by looking at its appraisal price and the sale amounts for nearby, similar homes, furniture doesn’t work that way. Even the fanciest, trendiest pieces start losing value the instant you buy them. Expect to get back only a fraction of what you paid for that leather sofa or mahogany bed. Potential sellers need to go online and search item-by-item for reasonable pricing for the furniture they want to sell, and those furnishings need to be in good condition. (If you have small children in your house, well, good luck with that.) Even if you do find an interested buyer, you may need to be ready to slash your asking price for furniture to seal the deal.

If all these hurdles don’t keep you from trying to sell your furniture alongside your home, Russo advises you try it only if your gorgeous furniture in great shape has been carefully staged and photographed for maximum impact. Or maybe just resign yourself to the reality of a moving van, packing tape, and lots of cardboard boxes.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

The Downtown Mall gets Lucky

Lucky Blue’s owner Patrick McClure envisions his new bar as a day-to-night kind of eatery. Photo: Eze Amos

Patrick McClure had spent four happy years running Citizen Bowl Shop on the Downtown Mall—“Well,” he says, “not 2020”—when he decided it was time for a change. 

You wouldn’t know it from the outside, where the old CB sign still hangs. But the old Bowl Shop’s been reinvented on the inside as Lucky Blue’s, a bar where rock n’ roll, burritos, and killer cheese steaks happily hang out alongside vegan tofu bowls.

“Coming out of the pandemic era—that’s what we’re doing, right?—I felt that what I, and everyone really, needed, was a comfortable neighborhood bar to help us ease back into our formerly normal social behavior,” McClure says. “Lucky Blue’s is intended as that ‘something for everyone’ kind of place, where you can have a civilized lunch with friends or co-workers, a lively dinner of comfort foods and beverages that don’t require lengthy explanations, or blow off steam after dinner, whether you’re a bourbon aficionado or love shots of Fireball.” Lucky Blue’s beverage menu balances variety with simplicity, offering enough beers, wines, ciders, and cocktails to give imbibers plenty of choices, without ever feeling overwhelming.

McClure describes Lucky Blue’s as a throwback to the days of “good bar, great jukebox”—even if it doesn’t actually have a jukebox. Having traveled the country as he wandered in and out of the orbit of his and his brother Andy’s various Charlottesville restaurants, McClure wanted to evoke the old bars of San Francisco, which “feel worthy of reverence, yet look like places your mother might warn you about.” He’s dreaming of live music one day, when health and safety permit, but for now, he’s making do with some truly excellent playlists.

Though cheesesteaks and burritos remain Lucky Blue’s mandate, McClure’s equally proud of the bar’s less artery-clogging offerings. “The Bowl Shop menu lives on, and my amazing lunch regulars that depended on that healthy-eating ethos will not be forgotten,” he says.

So far, McClure says, the Delta variant hasn’t squelched Lucky Blue’s success. “We have to take everything with a grain of salt, dash of Tapatio salsa, and a cold beer these days, but people have really enjoyed our space, and the feedback has been tremendous!” he says. “That, despite the lack of a new sign and very little advertising, shows us that we’re on our way to being a Downtown Mall ‘must do.’”

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Cider project

Staff photo.

Chris and Laura Denkers come from apple country in upstate New York. “Apples, orchards, and cider donuts have been in our blood since we were young,” Chris Denkers says. So in 2015, when they wondered what to do with the 37 acres they’d purchased in Mineral, Virginia, planting an orchard and making their own hard cider seemed like the natural choice.

Six years later, the orchard’s still growing, but the cider is already flowing. Coyote Hole Ciderworks is named in homage to the area’s mining past, after the small holes prospectors would dig. “We do all aspects of the cider-making in-house from fermentation, blending, and filtering to canning and kegging,” Denkers says.

With roughly 1.6 pounds of apples ending up in a single 16 oz. can, the orchards at Coyote Hole are still too young to meet the ciderworks’ ever-thirstier needs. So the Denkers source the majority of the apples in their ciders from other orchards in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Local farmers also help to supply peaches, pumpkins, and other ingredients for seasonal blends. According to Denkers, Coyote Hole even gets some of the pears it uses from wild trees growing in local homeowners’ yards.

In addition to its five flagship flavors available year-round, Coyote Hole offers numerous seasonal blends, including ciders aged with cold brew coffee, blended with other fruit juices, or spiced up with chai tea. Depending on the time of year, cider enthusiasts can enjoy dry pear cider, pumpkin cider, or cider brightened with pineapples or fresh peaches. But its most distinctive offerings may be its sangrias—a blend of cider, fruit juices, and wine. 

“We started making our original sangria fresh in our tasting room as a special drink for our guests,” Denkers says. “It became so popular that we decided to can it up back in early 2018. Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own.” 

Indeed, three of Coyote Hole’s year-round offerings are sangrias, including its top-selling Sister Sangria, which adds cabernet franc, cranberries, blackberries, and tangerines to Coyote Hole’s Oma Smith green apple cider. Sister Sangria and its sibling, Sunset Sangria, even took the silver and bronze medals in the 2020 U.S. Open Cider and Beverage Championship.

The sangrias rank among Coyote Hole’s most popular options, but Denkers says he’s particularly proud of “my personal favorite,” Bel-Hole, a single-variety Granny Smith hard cider aged in whiskey barrels, in collaboration with Culpeper’s Belmont Farm Distillery.

Coyote Hole even turned COVID-19 into an opportunity for creativity. When lockdowns limited access to their tasting room, the Denkers began holding livestreamed virtual cocktail hours on Facebook, devising new libations based on its ciders. As dining establishments and bars reopen, it’s now sharing those recipes with its restaurant partners, like Beer Run and The Market at Grelen.

With fall approaching, Coyote Hole’s preparing to revive a few fan-favorite flavors, including the pumpkin-enhanced Apparition and an apple pie cider—plus a few yet-to-be-announced flavors still in development. 

Make it at home

The Sangria Temple

– 8 oz. (1/2 can) of Sister Sangria

– 2 oz. vodka

– 1 oz. grenadine

– 1/4 oz. lemon juice

– Orange zest

Combine and enjoy!

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Abode Magazines

Elegant carriage

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Pamela DeGuzman and Stefan Bekiranov didn’t want much: A little extra storage space for their cul-de-sac house in North Downtown. A garage, at long last. Maybe a small apartment above it for the older kids in their recently blended family to live. And, hopefully, flooring that didn’t end up looking orange.

Two and a half years and one global pandemic later, they got a lot more than they bargained for from architecture firm Gehrung + Graham: A slim, beautiful carriage house that boasts striking treetop views, refined interiors, and state-of-the-art eco-friendly construction to keep its heating and cooling bills low. 

“It’s so beautiful and so airy and so lovely, with the high ceiling, the huge windows,” says DeGuzman. “The view from that front window—have you seen that front window?”

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

The carriage house, nested above a one-car garage and laundry room, feels at once cozy and spacious, open to light but intimate and private. A living area overlooks the driveway, while a sleeping area gets a great view of the main house’s backyard. Between the two, a small kitchen with elegantly hidden appliances and a bathroom with a glass shower break up the space and provide a little privacy. Their lower volumes contrast the openness of the pitched ceiling above, which lets light and air pass freely throughout the structure.

Architects Alisha Savage and Mark Graham, working with contractors at Dwell Construction, had to navigate a lot of challenges to work this particular bit of magic. The small lot and steep-banked backyard made siting tricky without running afoul of zoning laws. The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily brought construction to a standstill. And in keeping with Gehrung + Graham’s environmentally friendly ethos, Savage and Graham had to find ways to stay within DeGuzman and Bekiranov’s budget while maximizing the house’s energy efficiency.

By running computer models before they started building, Savage and Graham could see which construction options produced the best efficiency without breaking the bank. The resulting house is built to be as airtight as possible, with outside surfaces and windows that minimize how much heat or cold seeps from the house’s exterior to its interior, and vice versa. 

Keeping the inside temperature stable and strictly limiting air leakage, means the carriage house requires a smaller, less power-hungry HVAC system to keep occupants comfortable. Giving the house’s well-insulated walls, floors, and roof fewer places for heat to enter or escape also cuts down on the chances that condensation or mold will form inside them, making the house more durable and easier to maintain.

“With its particular constraints and objectives, this carriage house is shaped by and unique to its context,” Savage says. “We hope the project brings something both complementary and special to this already unique and vibrant neighborhood.”

The passage of time meant that some aspects of the finished house didn’t quite turn out the way DeGuzman and Bekiranov had planned. For one thing, the kids they hoped would stay there grew older and lost interest in the space. Instead, the carriage house now entertains a near-continuous stream of guests as an in-demand Airbnb.

And the floors? Not even remotely as orange as DeGuzman had feared.

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434 Magazines

Post modern

Photo: Brianna LaRocca

Greg Breeding’s art has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, easily. It’s traveled across the entire country. You might even have some in your house. But you might not know it—because Breeding’s art is approximately one square inch.

Breeding, president, co-founder, and product studio director for Charlottesville’s The Journey Group, designs postage stamps. Since 2013, he’s served as one of four art directors contracted to the U.S. Postal Service, honoring everything from stage magic and dragons to Jimi Hendrix and Batman.

“The opportunity to design a stamp is on most every graphic designer’s bucket list,” Breeding says. “We like to say that they are ‘miniature works of art.’”

Getting to design “Batman” stamps in 2014 ranked especially high on Greg Breeding’s list of achievements. Photo: Brianna LaRocca

Art directors supervise every aspect of a stamp’s design. Sometimes, Breeding secures image rights, selects artwork, and arranges type to create the stamp himself. For other assignments, he figures out what look the stamp needs, finds the right artist to collaborate with, and helps them create the final images. 

“Even when we commission artists, we are still melding the original art into the stamp format with special consideration to typography, color, cropping, and how it all comes together,” Breeding says. He and his artistic collaborators often toil on a stamp for a year or two to meet the USPS’s demanding standards.

Getting artists comfortable with such a tiny canvas can be a challenge, Breeding says. But the small size, he says, “encourages us to explore new ways of creating innovative design while also being visually accessible to the public.”

Breeding grew up in Bristol, Virginia, cultivating a love of art alongside his dad, who painted for fun. While studying at what’s now VCUArts in Richmond, Breeding kindled a passion for Swiss modernist design that continues today in his annual vacations to Switzerland. (He also loved the “Batman” TV show as a kid; getting to design those stamps in 2014 to honor the character’s 75th birthday, he says, registered an 11 on an excitement scale of 1 to 10.)

The past few years haven’t been kind to the postal service, and Breeding says stamp design can only do so much to help: “While it’s true that postage stamps have high visibility to the public, the related revenue isn’t significant to the bigger issues.” 

But Breeding’s doing his part, both artistically and commercially. Since he started designing stamps, “I make it a part of my business life to write more postcards and notecards, especially to thank our colleagues and clients,” he says. “I have come to deeply appreciate a handwritten note.”

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434 Magazines

They run these streets: As the pandemic drove people apart, Prolyfyck Run Crew helped bring them together

Photo: Derrick J. Waller

They gather in the dozens at the Jefferson School at 6am every Monday, Wed­nesday, and Friday: Black, brown, and white, women and men, old and young, united by the road ahead of them. Year-round, they run, jog, or walk a challenging route through the city. Members say the group has changed their lives for the better—and together, they’re working to do the same for Charlottesville.

William Jones III, co-owner of Charlottesville’s His Image Barber Shop and Natural Hair Studio, began what’s become the Prolyfyck Run Crew—inspired by lyrics in Nipsey Hussle’s 2018 song “Victory Lap”—to share his love of running. 

Jones ran solo when he moved to Charlottesville in 2006, but over the years, he invited friends and customers to come with him, and the group began to grow one or two people at a time. 

By 2019, its ranks had begun to bloom; new members included former vice mayor Dr. Wes Bellamy, who worked with Jones to design a roughly five-mile course through Charlottesville’s historically Black neighborhoods and public housing projects. 

“We run the route weekly to encourage an active health lifestyle,” says Crew member James Dowell, who runs marketing for the Virginia reggae band Mighty Joshua, “and to also show that it’s people of color, their color, out here running the streets. They’re community members and residents who greet us every day, and they are family.”

Therapist Juanika Howard says the group is her “accountability partner,” helping her get up and go when she’d rather sleep in. She’s seen close to 100 people gather for some runs. Other group members say Prolyfyck lets them run with more safety and confidence. 

While collectively the runners don’t speak frequently about how the death of Ahmaud Arbery—who was murdered in 2020 while jogging in Georgia—affects them, “It’s important to be as vigilant as possible while we’re running, especially if it’s alone,” says Chris Cochran, a counselor at Monticello High School. But running with the group makes the whole experience better, he says. “Running with people you know that are going to motivate you, encourage you to push yourself, and hold you accountable really has a way of bringing the best out of you.”

Photo: Derrick J. Waller

That’s proving true on and off the road. “The crew has become an amazing networking vehicle,” says Derrick Waller, a product manager at PRA Health Sciences, “both supporting each other’s businesses and projects, but also serving as a way to positively impact the community.” Those efforts include picking up trash as they run, raising money for charity, dedicating runs to different community causes, and even helping one of their neighbors along the route with an upcoming move.

Cochran says he hopes that in the years ahead, Charlottesville as a whole will start to look more like the Prolyfyck Run Crew: “A bunch of people who don’t all look alike trying to leave the place better than they found it by pitching in and doing what they can individually,” he says. “When we’re all making small contributions, the results can be massive. I’m looking forward to seeing that change.”

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News

On the move

The Prolyfyck runners complete a five-mile course through Charlottesville’s historically Black neighborhoods each week. Photo: Derrick J Waller

They gather by the dozens at the Jefferson School at 6am every Monday, Wed­nesday, and Friday: Black, brown, and white, women and men, old and young, united by the road ahead of them. Year-round, they run, jog, or walk a challenging route through the city. Members say the group has changed their lives for the better—and together, they’re working to do the same for Charlottesville.

William Jones III, co-owner of Charlottesville’s His Image Barber Shop and Natural Hair Studio, began what’s become the Prolyfyck Run Crew—inspired by lyrics in Nipsey Hussle’s 2018 song “Victory Lap”—to share his love of running. 

Jones ran solo when he moved to Charlottesville in 2006, but over the years, he invited friends and customers to come with him, and the group began to grow one or two people at a time. 

By 2019, its ranks had begun to bloom; new members included former vice mayor Dr. Wes Bellamy, who worked with Jones to design a roughly five-mile course through Charlottesville’s historically Black neighborhoods and public housing projects. 

“We run the route weekly to encourage an active, healthy lifestyle,” says Crew member James Dowell, who runs marketing for the Virginia reggae band Mighty Joshua, “and to also show that it’s people of color, their color, out here running the streets. They’re community members and residents who greet us every day, and they are family.”

Therapist Juanika Howard says the group is her “accountability partner,” helping her get up and go when she’d rather sleep in. She’s seen close to 100 people gather for some runs. Other group members say Prolyfyck lets them run with more safety and confidence. 

While collectively the runners don’t speak frequently about how the death of Ahmaud Arbery—who was murdered in 2020 while jogging in Georgia—affects them, “It’s important to be as vigilant as possible while we’re running, especially if it’s alone,” says Chris Cochran, a counselor at Monticello High School. But running with the group makes the whole experience better, he says. “Running with people you know that are going to motivate you, encourage you to push yourself, and hold you accountable really has a way of bringing the best out of you.”

That’s proving true on and off the road. “The crew has become an amazing networking vehicle,” says Derrick Waller, a product manager at PRA Health Sciences, “both supporting each other’s businesses and projects, but also serving as a way to positively impact the community.” Those efforts include picking up trash as they run, raising money for charity, dedicating runs to different community causes, and even helping one of their neighbors along the route with an upcoming move.

Cochran says he hopes that in the years ahead, Charlottesville as a whole will start to look more like the Prolyfyck Run Crew: “A bunch of people who don’t all look alike trying to leave the place better than they found it by pitching in and doing what they can individually,” he says. “When we’re all making small contributions, the results can be massive. I’m looking forward to seeing that change.”

This story was originally published in our debut issue of 434 magazine, on stands now.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Now touring: Soak in autumn with help from these emerging businesses

Photo: Zack Wajgras

Maybe you like to take it slow. Relax. Stay in one place. With wine.

Maybe you’re on the go. Real fast. Keep up the pace. With wine.

If you’re inclined to check the first box, C’ville Picnic is for you. The new-to-Charlottesville concept offers upscale picnic experiences at local vineyards. If you’re more into box B, you’re in luck. VinGo is back from a hiatus to hop you from winery to winery.

C’ville Picnic

Best part about a picnic? Relaxing with friends over good food and drink. Worst part about a picnic? Everything else. C’ville Picnic takes care of it.

Starting at $189 for two guests and running to $489 for 12, the luxury al fresco dining provider delivers themed picnic décor (think pumpkin spice, Cali cool, vintage charm) and charcuterie boards, as well as food from local restaurants and wine from local partners, all set up and ready for you and yours. Winery options include Valley Road Vineyards, Hark Vineyards, King Family Vineyards, and Eastwood Farm and Winery, with more locales on the way.

“I came across a similar experience in Savannah, and I’m super excited to bring this to Charlottesville,” C’ville Picnic owner Stephanie Guevara says. “We have so many beautiful wineries and breweries.”

VinGo Tours

VinGo Tours, which offers customized half- or full-day winery, brewery, and distillery tours based on customer requests, has been on a break. But grape-fully, owner Kristen Gardner Beal is planning a comeback for Virginia Wine Month in October.

VinGo tours lets you leave the keys at home and does the driving to three to five of your favorite spirits-slinging spots. Half-day tours are $280 for four guests. Full days are $360.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Pot luck: The Outer Banks Boil Company brings a taste of the beach to Charlottesville

Photo: Zach Wajsgras

Admit it: You’ve succumbed to the pandemic menu blahs. You’re stuck inside all the time, your brain’s frazzled, and it’s easier—but not necessarily more satisfying—to make the same few dishes over and over. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could enjoy something different? Maybe a taste of summer all year round? The Outer Banks Boil company can help, with take-home kits of seafood that’ll shake up your routine while offering an ideal meal to enjoy outdoors.

Owner Kyle Vrhovac met the folks behind the Outer Banks Boil Company during one of many family trips to the beaches of North Carolina. “Once we tried the food, we absolutely fell in love with it,” he says. After years of enjoying the hefty pots of boiled seafood and fixings, he jumped at the chance to open a franchise in Charlottesville.

Though the local branch began its planning in the hazy pre-pandemic days of November 2019, Vrhovac lucked into a pandemic-compatible business model, in which customers either pick up their ingredients to prepare at home themselves, or have Vrhovac and his team cater the meal under safe conditions. When the pandemic finally fades, Vrhovac says they’re hoping to welcome diners to “a small indoor section of seats.”

The Outer Banks Boil Company powers through 250 pounds of food in an average week for takeout orders alone. Customers call ahead, and OBBC employees assemble shrimp, Louisiana-sourced andouille sausage, corn, potatoes, onions, lemon, butter, seasonings, and optional add-ins from across the seafood spectrum. (For a proper boil, you’ll need to order enough for at least two people.)

Once the hungry patrons get their haul home, they steam everything in a pot with their liquid of choice for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the size and power of their cooktop, and then drain and devour. The company’s most popular offering, the Crab Pot, adds clusters of snow crab to the standard boil, but Vrhovac says the menu’s best-kept secret is the Ben Franklin, which has both crab and either clams or mussels in the mix. (Feeling super swanky? Throw in scallops or a lobster tail, or ask for Carolina-approved pork barbecue on the side.)

“We pull our inspirations from the classic beach boils people know and love from North Carolina,” Vrhovac says. If nothing else, a simmering stack of seafood sounds like a surefire cure for the most mundane case of the menu Mondays.

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Knife & Fork

Cup of mud, meet glass of grape: Local cafes offer coffee and wine side-by-side.

Bright and breezy, the dining room at Belle is perfect for enjoying a light meal and a beverage (caffeine or alcohol, your call). Photo: Stephen Barling

In a town obsessed with coffee and wine, it was only a matter of time before the two beloved beverages started shacking up. Cafes in Europe have long kept both on the menu, and now a host of local java joints and new establishments are following suit.

“I think most people love cafes, even if they don’t know it, and creating a comfortable space where you can get great coffee, great and quick bites to eat, and some wine when ready has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” says Andy McClure, who opened Belle Coffee & Wine last spring in the former La Taza space in Belmont. “Having a 2-year-old certainly helps with opening early, too!” (McClure owns The Virginian Restaurant Company, which is best known for Citizen Burger on the Downtown Mall.)

In uniting coffee and wine under one roof, Belle joins local stalwart C’ville Coffee & Wine; Crozet’s Rocket Coffee, which recently added a tasting room for offerings from nearby Lovingston Winery; Charlottesville’s Smallest Wine Shop, whose modest by-the-glass selection enhances the ever-eclectic offerings at Milli Coffee Roasters; and local chain Grit Coffee, which has served wine alongside its house-roasted coffee at its Stonefield location since 2017.

“We’ve been interested in the relationship between coffee and wine for a number of years,” says Grit co-owner Brandon Wooten. “Both coffee and wine can easily be enjoyed by novices but also can be explored in a way that brings other levels of enjoyment.” But Wooten says it’s been tough to add wine to an existing cafe: Once customers think of a place as a coffee shop, “it’s a challenge for them also to view that as a place to drink wine or beer.”

To rectify that, Wooten and partners Brad Uhl and Dan FitzHenry will be combining coffee and wine from the start at The Workshop—part of The Wool Factory, the food-and-drink conglomerate opening later this year in the Woolen Mills development. “The Workshop will primarily be a bottle shop focused on selling interesting small-batch wines,” Wooten says. Those offerings will include international vintages alongside passion projects from area winemakers. As for coffee, “this space will be different from a normal Grit Coffee location in that there will be a much bigger focus on coffee tasting and telling the story about the factors that go into delivering really great coffee,” Wooten says.

McClure also champions a more thoughtful approach to these often-gulped offerings. “I think the European style of coffee drinking is something we can all appreciate,” he says. “Less rushing and more a fundamental part of the eating or drinking part of the day.”

Since Belle opened in late April, McClure and his team have been busy tweaking the menu of locally roasted Trager Brothers coffee, wine by the glass and bottle, light breakfast and lunch items, and happy hour snacks. “I am still not done messing around with the offerings,” McClure says, “but I do see a finish line at this point.” It’s easy for McClure to stay hands-on; he lives two blocks away. “This was designed for Belmont specifically. I am hoping it’s a great fit for years to come.”

For Rocket Coffee’s Scott Link, adding wines was a practical proposition. He’s already brought in pastries, sandwiches, and barbecue to help draw a more varied audience to his converted gas station near downtown Crozet. “Things have been going well for the coffee shop in the mornings,” Link says, “but we were not hitting our daily traffic targets and needed to help stimulate traffic in the afternoons.”

Link had space free to rent and had already been considering adding beer and wine, and Lovingston Winery wanted to open a tasting room in the area. It’s too early to tell how the new offerings will work out, Link says, but “the place feels better, and initial response has been positive.”

Matching coffee, a stimulant, with alcohol, a depressant, might seem odd. But Belle’s McClure says there’s a good reason for this unusual combination. “Every drink should be delicious, but it also serves a purpose. We love wine, and when you love it too much at one time, that’s when it may be time for an espresso.”