Category: 2023 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Holly’s Diner on East Market Street offers up affordable eats and a
cozy bar, but stick around late enough and you’ll see what keeps patrons coming back for more night after night. Holly’s has a packed calendar when it comes to live entertainment—from open mics to game nights, rockin’ blues bands, and even a goth night. And returning this August on the third Friday of every month is Honky-Tonk Karaoke.

The three-hour event combines live music with karaoke and a two-step dance lesson. A one-hour jam session kicks things off, and by the second hour eager singers donning cowboy hats and boots will be lining up to belt out country tunes with the band. As long as diners know the words and the key, they’ll be good to get on stage. And once the tables and chairs have been pushed to the side to clear the dance floor, you know it’s a party.

But savvy music fans don’t just have to wait for the third Friday of the month for their slice of Americana. Gritty singer-songwriter Eli Cook regularly brings his brand of bluesy rock to Holly’s (with a full band), as do local staples like the Chickenhead Blues Band and Ian Gilliam & The FireKings.

The Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers returned in style after a three-year hiatus. Just before Halloween 2022, the collective that combines cosplay, competition, and charity into a raucous show of bulging biceps clashed at Champion Brewing Company. Each event raises money for a women-led organization or business, and this one honored the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund.

“I came to win tonight, but the real winner is BRAF,” said wrestler Zsa Zsa Gabortion. That night’s CLAWing It Back event raked in nearly $14,000—the most ever for a CLAW show. “All funds raised will support people from or traveling to Virginia for their abortion care,” says Deborah Arenstein, BRAF director of development. 

Zsa Zsa Gabortion was the champion of the night, but she was just one member of a colorful cast of outrageous characters locking arms for a chance at glory. Like Sally Williamson, who plays her own mashup of Zsa Zsa Gabor and an abortion rights activist, many women in CLAW don familiar personas or create whole new characters for each performance. And they come from all walks of life, from a wide age range, to take on roles like the dolled-up flapper ChiCLAWgo—portrayed by Amy Hill, a graphic designer and marketing professional, and Fist of Furiosa, a Mad Max-style warrior played by Lucy Fitzgerald, a Ph.D. candidate at UVA.

“We’re just regular people,” says ref Tightship McLeod. “But we do it all—we know how to have fun, and we help the community. That’s what happens when women run the show.”

Who can say why it’s fun to sit with a group of friends, in a room of strangers, competing to see who can correctly answer questions like, “What sitcom character defeated the Bubble Boy with the Trivial Pursuit answer, ‘the Moops’?” It just is. Especially in Charlottesville, where almost every night of the week a local venue invites you to match wits while wetting your whistle.

Monday

Decipher Brewing 6:30pm

National trivia game purveyor Geeks Who Drink provides the questions, but a local host runs the game. Tough questions in an easygoing, dog-friendly atmosphere, with gift cards for top teams, and $3 off tabs for correctly answering bonus questions. 

Brightside Beach Pub 6:30pm

Fins to the left, fins to the right, and $1 wings all day! A Jimmy Buffett vibe means no one cares if you come late or can’t spell (especially after downing the pitcher special). Original material, local hosts, and generous gift cards for winners. 

Tuesday

Firefly 8pm

Playful and community-minded, Firefly offers local comfort food and a later-than-most start time for their Geeks Who Drink trivia. This crowd is young(ish), queer-friendly, and whip smart. Reservations encouraged.

Fry’s Spring Station 7pm

Tricky, wacky questions from an eclectic, droll host. Play from the patio or inside, while munching family-friendly pizzas, or indulging in a Bucket-o-Beer special.

Wednesday

Birdwood Grill at Boars Head Resort 6pm

A distinctly local event, from the Carter Mountain views to the casual Southern fare, with complimentary putting on the Ridges Putting Course. Homegrown questions and hosts
each week.

King Family Vineyard 6pm

Teams of up to 10 people play four rounds of original trivia, for tasting room and food truck prizes. Expect light-hearted themes, like Name That Tune, and the occasional wine category (snag a sommelier for your team).

Pro Re Nata 6pm

Crozet locals and guests enjoy custom-curated questions from veteran trivia host Ron. Laid-back fun in a setting that feels like your favorite uncle’s dream of a sports bar brewery. 

Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint

First and Third Wednesdays 7pm

Bawdy trivia and banging burgers. “I usually stand on the bar or a stool and ask the questions over a megaphone,” says bartender/host Alyssa. “There is always a lot of fun heckling, some cursing, and I sometimes throw in math equations where 69 is involved—semi-crass humor, if you will.” Get there by 6 for a table!

Starr Hill Downtown 7pm

Nerd heaven. Dairy Market eats, and funny-tough questions from legendary hosts Nate and Olivia. Bring friends, and strive to crush the spirit out of the brilliant young wiseacres who usually win.

Thursday

Potter’s Craft Cider 6pm

Trivia and Thai one Thursday per month

Pair Chimm Thai food with the trivia talents of Mountain View Elementary’s John Daniels. Add a crowd of wild public school teachers. Set the whole thing in a magical forest cidery, and you’ve got a storybook trivia adventure, right down to a grand prize of ringing the historic Chapel Bell in the Tasting Room.

Alamo Drafthouse 7pm

Come for the happy hour-priced drinks and appetizers, stay for the antics of beloved host, Fernando. Questions via Triviatainment’s Think-and-Drink, except on occasional theme nights, when you’ll need to brush up on your Harry Potter, “Friends,” Star Wars, or “Gilmore Girls” knowledge. 

Sunday

Random Row 5pm (above)

Cold beer, Neapolitan-style pizza, and a welcoming crowd make this trivia night a feel-good win, even if you place last. Geeks Who Drink questions range from mind-bending to easy-peasy, but the game almost feels secondary to the buoyant community vibe.

Saunter up to Dürty Nelly’s on a Wednesday night and you’ll see a gaggle of people crowding the entrance outside. It’s not that they can’t get in—they’re just taking a breather, chatting with friends, maybe having a smoke before they plunge back into the chaos inside. In the parking lot, you might hear a drunken diva blaring through a Kesha song at karaoke, or a local band blowing the doors off. Dürty Nelly’s makes an explosive impression, and that’s before you’re blinded by the bright neon lights of its signature stage sign.

“I think the community loves our thriving dive-vibes,” says owner Jordan Brunk. “There’s nowhere else like Dürty Nelly’s.” He’s right: People flock to his pub for its party-time atmosphere, and its friendly staff make sure that party rages until the clock strikes midnight.

Since COVID restrictions started easing up, Brunk has been determined to bring more live music to Dürty Nelly’s. In the spring of 2021, he hired Koda Kerl to manage the bar’s bookings, in part to emulate the casual live-music setup at Brunk’s other bar and restaurant, Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar. At Nelly’s, Kerl and Brunk have launched a “curated writer showcase,” and expanded their performance space from the single neon-lit indoor stage to an additional pickup truck bed outside.

The pub’s shift toward being a live music venue has caused some locals to declare the bar’s going through a renaissance. But while Brunk can’t vouch for the pub’s heyday—“Dürty Nelly’s is older than I am,” he says, “and the origin story is best told by our lovely happy hour regulars that have been there since day one”—he does believe that Nelly’s is “a safe haven for the talented van people” now that bands are on the road again.

Kerl’s been a touring artist himself, with Chamomile and Whiskey, so he knows the value of smaller clubs like Nelly’s. And that know-how has helped him bring local talent to “Koda’s Corral,” including Adam Long, Emily Kresky, Kai Crowe-Getty, Rob Cheatham, Will Overman, and Kerl himself.

“We don’t have an enormous budget, but we’ve been gaining a reputation for being fun and an easy stop on the way to more lucrative shows,” Kerl says. 

The bar’s booker has striven to keep things diverse, too, from the sounds to the crowds. Country, garage rock, and jangly jagged indie stand side by side on the calendar, and the bar has even hosted music video shoots for local bands. Sometimes the only things showgoers might have in common are a love for cheap drinks and great tunes.

“It’s fun to see people in their 70s hanging out with college kids and people of different tastes,” Kerl says. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes us proud and happy to be a part of the scene.”

Jazzman John D’earth has his hands in so many Charlottesville music scene projects that his own record releases can go unnoticed. But his newest LP, Coin of the Realm, demands attention. The seven-track album is vintage D’earth—experimental enough to interest the hardcore jazz fan, catchy enough for the casual listener. “It’s a poetic impulse to play music this way,” D’earth says.

It’s always fun to see a local face on TV (remember when chef Laura Fonner won “Guy’s Grocery Games”?). This summer, it was area realtor Kara Rojer (formerly Bass), who with her now-husband Guillermo Rojer appeared on TLC’s “90-Day Fiancé,” a show in which couples with foreign fiancés who’ve applied for a Visa have 90 days to marry or break up. Rojer and her husband, who is from Venezuela, were the first couple on their season to wed, and welcomed a baby boy in November of 2022. Dreams really do come true.