Category: 2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Who is the Pie Guy? In a sense, it’s Keith Groomes who’s always been destined for the role.

Groomes started working with the original Pie Guy, Justin Bagley, in 2015. Bagley then sold the business—at the time a well-known food cart on the farmers’ market, festival and Downtown Mall lunch circuits—to cattleman Rob Harrison. Harrison made Groomes a partner, and in 2018, Groomes bought out Harrison’s piece of the pie.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” Groomes says. “Things work out.”

Groomes took a big step in rolling out his pie empire in January, opening Pie Guy Coffee at 1325 W. Main St. In addition to the Guy’s classic savory (pi.e., the Big Sky, with beef tenderloin and burgundy au jus, and the Sun Valley, with green coconut curry, chicken and veg), and sweet pie offerings, the coffeeshop is dealing cinnamon buns, sausage rolls, mac and cheese, and of course some baller brew.

For Groomes, the classic pies (eat.g., the savory North Eastern, with chicken and mushrooms in a Dijon cream sauce, and sweet potato) are still the faves. And the nostalgia doesn’t end there. He still remembers when he first thought about being the Pie Guy himself. 

“I was cooking vegan and vegetarian with my high school English teacher, and we were next to Justin at the market,” he says. “We did smaller festivals and events, and he was the next tier up. I wanted to see what that lane was like.”

When Edgar Lara moved to Charlottesville 10 years ago, he soon learned two things. One, the Latinx community was isolated. Two, a tiny, brand new local organization, Sin Barreras, was on a mission to change that.

Lara, now the organization’s executive director, first connected with Sin Barreras and founder Fanny Smedile at its flagship event, Cville Sabroso. There, he discovered the like-minded Latin American community members he’d been seeking.

“In getting to know Charlottesville, I didn’t see the community I came from,” Lara says. “The people I would meet, they didn’t understand me. The microaggressions—it was constant, and it made me feel like, ‘Wow, you have no idea.’”

Smedile herself moved to Charlottesville in 2000 and felt much as Lara did 12 years later. An immigrant from Ecuador, she had taken it upon herself to make changes in her first U.S. home of New Jersey. She brought the same outlook to C’ville. Working mostly through her church at the time, she frequently gave out her cell phone number to Latin American people new to the area and others who she thought she could personally help make their way.

Smedile founded Sin Barreras officially in 2012. It was a 100 percent volunteer agency for roughly its first four years. Smedile and her small group of volunteers built on the work she had done connecting folks with resources—be it food, interpretation, or legal support—for more than a decade.

The organization grew in response to need. Sin Barreras applied for and obtained its first grant in 2015. The group’s volunteers built their budget further through grassroots fundraising and hired their first employee in 2016.

According to Lara, the first Sin Barreras hire didn’t work out. That’s when he decided he would pause his own career and take the position himself. The 2016 election only accelerated his plans to push the organization forward. The 2017 Unite the Right Rally pushed everyone even harder.

Today, Sin Barreras provides more comprehensive services to Spanish speakers and the immigrant community than it ever has before: social, legal, and health support; adult education programs; events like the annual Cville Sabroso; and community engagement. The education component is significant—Sin Barreras assists with primary and secondary schooling and helps folks obtain GEDs and complete leadership and tech training. The group doesn’t have lawyers on staff, but the organization can help those in need through its network of affiliated attorneys. Most recently, Sin Barreras began advocating for immigrant rights on a national level.

“We are there for people’s urgent needs first of all,” Lara says. “Our community has all kinds of different needs…every challenge you can imagine.”

Sin Barreras offers office hours Monday to Thursday from 2-7:30pm, and the organization still takes calls at the same phone number Smedile gave out as her personal cell years ago. 

“This is a community that is taken advantage of. It happens constantly,” Lara says. “Everything we do is advocacy, raising voices, and empowering people.”

Eat good, do good: DYK that a portion of annual profits from The Ridley—The Draftsman Hotel’s Black-owned Southern cuisine spot—is given to The Ridley Foundation? Named for Dr. Walter Ridley, the first Black graduate of UVA and the first to earn a doctoral degree from a traditional white college, the foundation pursues high-achieving Black students to attend the university.

Local foodies of the greener persuasion have been getting some love lately, with four plant-based eateries opening in the past few months. Check out the following to get your fill of vegetarian and vegan goodness. 

Botanical Fare: This downtown lunch spot fulfills your daily servings of fruits and veggies with its soups, sandwiches, and Insta-worthy bowls like the Crunchy Cauliflower, with white beans, mango, and cauliflower nugs. 

Vegan Comforts Soul Food: Who says comfort food can’t be vegan? Inspired by her daughter’s dietary restrictions, owner Casandra Rodriguez whips up mouthwatering batches of biscuits and gravy, lasagna, and “Mac no cheese,” 100 percent vegan and allergy-friendly. Catch the pop-up locations around town. 

GRNBRGR: No diet’s complete without the all-American classic, and Dairy Market’s GRNBRGR is committed to making burgers better. Each one—from the Street Double to the Bacon Ranch—is vegetarian and “easily vegan.” 

Organic Krush Lifestyle Eatery: The East Coast chain comes to Stonefield, serving up all-day breakfast, bone broth, and bowls, as well as an impressive array of smoothies and juices.

After her husband, Damien Banks, founded the Banks Collage Basketball Association, a men’s summer basketball league, in Charlottesville in 2010, Shawna Banks was inspired to create an all-women hip-hop team to perform during halftime at the league’s games in 2014. Receiving an overwhelming amount of interest, Banks also started a BCBA hip-hop team for young girls. By the following year, the growing dance program had transformed into an all-girls team, featuring dancers ages 9 through 18.

In 2018, the newly renamed Elite Empire team transitioned to performing hip-hop majorette, a high-energy and unique dance style combining lyrical, West African, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop choreography. Since the 1960s, hip-hop majorette troupes have performed alongside marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities.

Elite Empire performs original choreography at hip-hop majorette competitions across the region, and has brought home over 20 awards. Dancers also put on community performances and participate in team-building activities, strengthening their self-confidence and leadership.

“We want the dancers to know how important it is to love themselves as they are, as well as everyone around them,” says Banks. “We encourage them to uplift and motivate one another and to be good role models to anyone who may be watching them.”

Elite Empire currently has six coaches and around two dozen members, and expects to grow significantly within the next year at its new dance studio—before the pandemic, it had as many as 40 members. Starting in August, the team will hold auditions for new members, open to children of all backgrounds.

After having multiple traumatic experiences with the local mental health care system, activist Myra Anderson founded Brave Souls on Fire in 2015, creating a supportive and affirming space for Black individuals with mental health conditions. In addition to discussing the impact that systemic racism, cultural stigma, and other issues have on Black mental health, the grassroots organization provides free one-on-one and group peer support, as well as advocates for funding for Black-led organizations and spaces dedicated to Black wellness.

In honor of her late husband Ray “Junior” Arroyo, who loved to garden, local resident Terri Arroyo teamed up with her daughters to open Plant Studio last fall. The Downtown Mall shop offers walk-in build-your-own terrariums—miniature gardens inside a glass container—workshops, wine and craft nights, and other creative activities, as well as hosts private events and parties, catering to kids and grown-ups alike.

Courtney Commander and Tobiah Mundt are working on bringing a proper skating rink to Charlottesville, but until then, their occasional pop-up skate events (look for the group at Tonsler Park, and on Instagram for more info) have us rocking while we’re rolling, with a live DJ on site, plus food trucks and merch. Don’t skate? They give lessons. Don’t have skates? There’s some to rent. Let’s roll.

While ax throwing has grown increasingly popular in recent years, it has long been part of the world of lumbersports. In April, Devils Backbone brought lumbersports back to the Charlottesville area with its second Lumberjack Classic, during which 24 lumberjacks and 12 lumberjills from across the country used razor-sharp axes and saws to compete for cash prizes in nearly a dozen events, including standing chop, hot saw, and springboard. The free family-friendly event also featured chainsaw demos, food stands, and—of course—plenty of beer on tap.

When you’re ready to upgrade your downriver rambling, proceed directly to the James River Batteau Co. “This is the Cadillac tour of the James River,” Company co-founder Will Smith says. “If you want to float with a big bunch of friends, this is the most comfortable way to go.”

Batteaux (batteau’s Francofied plural) are flat-bottomed wooden boats designed in the late 1700s specifically for central Virginia’s unique rivers. The James River Batteau Co., founded earlier this year by Smith and buddy Will Cash, operates a 50 x 8-foot batteau outfitted with benches and chairs.

The nascent business offers two riverbound experiences: a midday float with a historical bent and a sunset cruise with charcuterie boards and live acoustic tunes. Clients are welcome to B their own B, while the James River Batteau team provides cups and ice along with those meats and cheeses.

Smith and Cash have been in batteaux since their youth, with Smith’s father having floated in the James River Batteau Festival for the first time in 1987, the year his son was born. The Batteau Co. founders’ experience makes them knowledgeable tour guides—and steady-handed batteaumen.

“You wouldn’t bring your grandmother tubing down the river, but we’ve had people up to 90 years old out there,” Smith said. “This is a pleasure, flatwater float, not an adrenaline experience.”