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News Real Estate

Now what?

The Quirk Charlottesville is one of the buildings that was approved to be built among the historic structures on West Main Street. Photo by @quirkhotelcva.

Nearly a month has passed since Charlottesville City Council approved a new development code intended to increase the number of places for people to live. But the city still has several finishing touches to put in place before the code goes into effect on February 19. 

One of them is the adoption of a manual to govern the various requirements for affordable housing construction. 

“This manual outlines the responsibilities of developers in complying with the zoning code and the duties of city staff in ensuring this compliance,” reads a written response to questions asked at a December 21 meeting between city officials and neighborhood leaders. 

The manual will also include the amount that would be paid by developers who choose not to build units below-market. City Council is expected to take up the draft on February 5. 

One of the first tests of the Board of Architectural Review’s power to influence the size of new buildings could soon come with the redevelopment of 715-729 West Main. That’s the site of Mel’s Diner, a structure that’s part of the street’s Architectural Design Control District. 

The BAR will hear a preliminary review of a redevelopment proposal on January 17, but no materials were made available in advance. The project could also involve 118 Cream St. and 731 West Main, since all three properties have the same owner. Specifics for the proposal will be presented at the meeting. 

Under the new zoning, an eight-story building could be built by-right. The previous maximum height for this property was 52 feet. 

The BAR would have to approve a demolition request, if one is made, but there are nearby precedents for historic structures to be incorporated into a new development, such as at Six Hundred West Main and the Quirk hotel. 

Several people have expressed concern that the new code will encourage the purchase of homes by out-of-town investors. 

“On Little High we’ve seen several cases where an investor buys a house, and it stays empty and unused for years afterward,” said a speaker at the recent neighborhood leaders meeting. 

The city responded in writing, saying that steps are being taken to give more tools to people who want to buy homes to live in. 

“One way the city is doing this is by supporting affordable housing programs that offer down payment assistance through the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund and subsidy layering for rental/multi-family development,” officials wrote. 

Another person asked if the city will track people who are asked to leave rental homes because landlords decide to build newer units. (Charlottesville’s new housing program manager will have a lot on their plate.) 

The city says it “will be monitoring the impact of new developments on low-income residents and will use regular data runs and reports from various sources, such as the market, [city staff], and third-party providers, to track displacements and ensure that new developments include affordable units.” 

Others expressed concern about potential impacts from the decision to no longer require developers to include off-street parking. The city’s response is that market conditions will dictate they be built to satisfy customers and that a parking study will be initiated to see if the city’s on-street permit parking program should be expanded.

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News Real Estate

More beds at ABC

The renderings above are for the Albemarle Business Campus, which may end up with more homes than originally approved in October 2020. Image by Shimp Engineering.

Rezonings for large, mixed-use complexes include a legally binding document called a “code of development” that lays out what can be built in a given project and how much the public can expect. 

In October 2020, the Board of Supervisors approved the Albemarle Business Campus, a mixed-use development on Fifth Street Extended that allowed for a maximum of 128 residential units and 401,000 square feet of non-residential use. 

Developer Kyle Redinger now wants to amend ABC’s code of development to allow a maximum of 368 units. The application, crafted by Shimp Engineering, was the last rezoning filed in 2023. 

“The Charlottesville area has a chronic housing shortage, and there will continue to be more demand for apartments than we can build in the current development area,” Redinger says. The 128 units at 5 Row Apartments that are under construction at ABC are awaiting certificates of occupancy. 

The other tenants at Albemarle Business Campus are a 715-unit storage unit and a firm called PS Fertility, according to the development’s website. Redinger says his company has made efforts to bring in more biotech companies, but nothing has materialized. He says the amendment to the rezoning would provide the flexibility to go in a different direction if need be. 

“This is due to local market challenges and macro real estate factors such as post-COVID demand changes, interest rates, affordability challenges, and so on,” Redinger says. “Of course, we welcome office and biotech tenants, but we just want to make sure we have a viable project if our office tenant does not materialize over the next few years.” 

Bioscience and medical devices is one of the target industries identified by Albemarle’s economic development office, with companies such as Afton Scientific and MicroAire. 

There are nearly 2,000 people in the area who work in the biotech sector, according to the data tracked by the advocacy group CvilleBioHub. A map on its website shows these are clustered in downtown Charlottesville and along Route 29, with none currently in the vicinity of ABC. 

There’s also currently nothing shown at UVA’s Fontaine Research Park, which in a few years will be home to the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. 

Redinger had previously sought to build more units at ABC. In October 2019, the Albemarle Planning Commission recommended denial of a version of the plan that had 300 units.

ABC is in what Albemarle planners refer to as Neighborhood 5, which also includes a maximum of 1,450 homes in the two phases of Southwood as well as another 100 homes allowed to be built in a portion of the Biscuit Run development that stayed in private ownership. 

The plans for ABC also show land that will be dedicated for the roundabout that will be built at the intersection of Old Lynchburg Road and Fifth Street Extended. That work will be done as part of a design build bundle with three other roundabouts in Albemarle and another intersection improvement at Belvedere. 

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Culture Food & Drink Knife & Fork

More than a beverage

Keep an eye on Corey Hoffman’s socials (@neonculturebrewing) for details on the upcoming tasting room at Murphy & Rude Malting Co. Photo by Tristan Williams.

All roads flow back to beer for Corey Hoffman, founder and head brewer at Neon Culture Brewing, a small-but-mighty start-up with big plans and singular suds. 

Hoffman’s history with beer as a drinker includes—like many of us—college-age encounters involving red Solo cups, ping-pong balls, and cold cans sipped at a bar. That all changed in 2017 when Hoffman’s brother asked a simple question that launched a career: Have you ever heard of homebrewing? 

“At the time I was looking for something to pour myself into,” says Hoffman. “I was trying to get out of my mom’s house, as all millennials try to do after you’re there way longer than you’re supposed to be, so I bought this [homebrewing] kit on a whim.”

Hoffman’s first beer was pretty undrinkable, but the experience inspired him to start researching and learning more about what goes into brewing beer. As he delved deeper into the worlds of homebrewing and beermaking, it became abundantly clear to him just how white the brewing industry is.  

“When I started homebrewing I quickly realized there weren’t a lot of people that looked like me that were doing what I was doing,” Hoffman says. “I wondered in my mind, why don’t Black people like this beer? Why don’t I see a lot of Black homebrewers? It’s not that they don’t like it, it’s just that either you’re not exposed to it, or maybe the price point is too high, but mostly that it’s very intimidating walking into spaces when you don’t know anything about them.” 

“That was the catalyst for me starting my own thing,” Hoffman says. “I wanted to share what I was doing with people, but at the same time I wanted to change the perception of what craft beer is—who it’s for and what it’s about.” 

So Hoffman launched Neon Culture, a grassroots, community-organized brewery that keeps inclusivity, community, and collaboration at the heart of its mission. It’s also the first Black-owned brewery in Charlottesville. 

While many breweries today embrace a classic style, Neon Culture brings a different vibe into the local beerscape—one that embraces experimentation, unconventional ingredients, and welcomes seasoned hop-heads and beer newbies alike. 

“I think of all my brews as mixtapes,” says Hoffman, who is inspired by ’80s and ’90s aesthetics, including bright colors, vintage technology, and music. “We always have one or two beers that are on the normal side, and then there’s at least one with that Neon Culture vibe that’s a little different.”

Hoffman’s previous brews include Appetite for Inclusion, a hazy IPA made with Richmond homebrewer Rusty Barrel, HAZELWHAT?!, an imperial stout with hazelnuts, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans, and Summer at the Dreamhouse, a wheat beer that blends nostalgia with current pop culture and notes of grilled pineapples, mangoes, and habanero.

All of Neon Culture’s beers are brewed at and released in collaboration with Decipher Brewing, as Hoffman slowly works toward opening his own brewery. The next step in his journey—a small taproom and tasting bar in Murphy & Rude Malting Co.’s expanding space—is coming sometime this year. 

“I’m not in a rush,” says Hoffman, who is embracing every step of the process. “I’m trying to make a new culture around here.”

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News Real Estate

New year, new process

The original design for an apartment building at the old Martha Jefferson Hospital site may not work under the city's new zoning code. Image by Two Street Studio.

Now that 2024 is here, one of the challenges for a land-use reporter will be how to cover potential buildings as they make their way through Charlottesville’s new rules for building. City Council adopted a zoning code on December 18 that eliminated most discretionary review of land-use applications.  

One day later, Charlottesville’s Board of Architectural Review held a preliminary review of one project for which a site plan had been submitted in mid-November. That’s after the August 18 cut off, as recommended by staff and agreed upon by council, so it will be reviewed under the new rules. 

The site plan by Two Street Studios shows a five-story building with 192 residential units constructed in what is now a surface parking lot for the building that formerly housed Martha Jefferson Hospital. An internal garage will supply spaces for both the new homes and the converted office building. 

The property at 915 E. High St. is in one of the city’s historic conservation districts. That will continue to give the BAR a role to play in shaping future buildings. 

“The design guidelines would say new construction should be at the prevailing height,” says Jeff Werner, the city’s preservation planner. “That would suggest two stories.”

However the guidelines would also allow the BAR to issue a certificate of appropriateness for a structure to be 200 percent of the prevailing height. 

“The new zoning, once everything gets put in place, would allow a 10-story building at this site,” Werner says. “It’s not a single-family detached house. This is a building within a neighborhood of single-family detached homes.” 

The new zoning ordinance will cap the building width at 175 feet, and Warner says a new design will need to incorporate some sort of a break in the structure to avoid it becoming too monolithic. 

Planning Commissioner Carl Schwarz also sits on the BAR, and he pointed out that the original design may not fit under the new zoning.

“The setbacks on this project are significantly greater than would be allowed by what I believe our new zoning code is going to permit,” Schwarz says. 

Schwarz wanted to know how much leeway the BAR might have in granting greater setbacks. Werner says some of the ramifications of the new zoning will come out as individual projects are reviewed.

“Now that they’ve approved the ordinance, staff kind of got to the point where we said, ‘Let’s see what they approve and then we’ll go back in and become experts on it,’” Werner says. 

The BAR review also allows a conduit for neighborhood feedback to be taken into consideration. Chair Breck Gastinger read the comments from people who wanted more information on how the project would improve pedestrian connectivity in the area. He also added his own comment. 

“I think it could be appropriate to add height on East High Street if that is desired,” Gastinger says. “Having more height variation across that facade would break down the mass.”  That additional height would be allowed by-right under the Node Mixed Use 10 zoning that is now codified in the approved zoning ordinance. 

Categories
Abode Magazines

Creating community

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Dorothy Batten has traveled to some of the world’s most iconic places: the Galapagos Islands, Africa, New Zealand, and Indonesia. And everywhere she found that wildlife, ecosystems, and ways of life were endangered. But she’s taken to heart the dictum to start with your own backyard. Batten is turning Oakencroft Farm and Vineyard in Albemarle County into a showcase for sustainable agriculture, and hopes to foster both environmental education and action through her new venture, The Center at Oakencroft.

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Batten has lived in the Charlottesville area for years, on farms and in town. With her sons graduated, she was looking to return to a more rural life when the Oakencroft property came on the market in 2018. Batten bought it—partly to protect it from development, she says, but also as a place to put into practice what she had been learning. The reinvigorated vineyard will be a showcase for sustainable wines, and the farm will be a model for regenerative agriculture practices. 

Her most ambitious undertaking is creating a place for community education and activation on a range of environmental issues. The Center will host knowledge-sharing discussions for local landowners and farm managers, meetings of conservation and climate action groups, and conferences on environmental challenges, from wildlife protection to habitat restoration and carbon sequestration. 

To redesign Oakencroft for its new mission, Batten called on H. Adams Sutphin of local firm Sutphin Architecture. She knew the work he had done for friends of hers, and she knew him personally because their sons played lacrosse together. “I wanted someone I knew would be a joy to work with,” Batten says. Sutphin, meanwhile, calls this project “the most collaborative” he’s worked on. (A Darden MBA, Batten also studied interior design at UCLA.)

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Batten and Sutphin started with a reuse/recycle look at the existing buildings. The original Oakencroft Winery’s tasting room and winemaking space, created by connecting two cattle barns, was outdated—and far too large for the new, smaller winery operation—and it was sited right next to the farm’s pond, a perfect spot for the gathering space Batten envisioned. The plan: Renovate that building as The Center, and turn the existing hay barn into the winemaking/wine-tasting space. 

“I always see value in [using] existing construction,” Sutphin says, “but this was a real puzzle piece, getting the program into this structure.” The Center would need a reception area, a conference room, break-out rooms, and a catering kitchen, as well as some residential units for multi-day events. The design also needed to include handicapped access, state-of-the-art audiovisual technology, and sufficient parking—while using sustainable materials as much as possible.

Their first decision was to replace the gravel parking lot between the building and the pond with a garden area that features the natural surroundings and creates a contemplative ambience fitting for one of its purposes, as a place to host retreats. The existing open walkway along the length of the building was enclosed in glass walls, which connected all the spaces while allowing light and the outdoor setting to pervade the building. Placed along the glass walls are sliding wooden-slat screens that can be moved as the sun moves, cutting the glare, reducing the need for air conditioning, and adding a Japanese Zen touch that suits the building’s style and its setting. Landscape architecture firm Waterstreet Studio designed the garden (fed by recaptured rainwater) with walkways that invite strolling under the shade of decades-old willow oaks that used to be surrounded by gravel and parking stops.

The cathedral-ceilinged central lobby/reception area sets the tone for The Center—airy, open, neutral natural colors and materials, decorated with large artworks from Batten’s travels to Africa and Asia. “We wanted to feature natural materials, a calm palette, and a clean and contemporary feel,” notes Sutphin—and, Batten adds, “we didn’t want it to feel like an office.”

The south hallway leads to the main conference room, two break-out rooms, and the facility’s kitchen. It ends in a large room that can be another meeting room, a dining room, or a social gathering space—with outdoor nooks for lunch, conversation, or quiet time overlooking the gardens. The north hallway holds the restrooms, bedrooms (one handicap-accessible), and a large suite at the end.

“Throughout the building, we wanted to use materials that are both natural and long-lived,” Sutphin says. Several rooms have vaulted ceilings of white pine; the exterior is clad in Accoya, a modified wood made in the Netherlands from fast-growing pine that has been “baked and pickled” (in Batten’s words) to be longer lasting and pest resistant. One interesting stylistic touch: the vertical wood panels at both front and rear entrances feature random holes, an element Batten took from Scandinavian design.

Scandinavia, Japan, the Netherlands, Africa, Asia, and Virginia—blended to make a place to consider and work for our planet. 

Categories
Knife & Fork Magazines

Renewing a tradition

With Près des Prés, Andrew Pearson aims to bring fine French dining back to the Main Street site of Rochambeau and its nationally known predecessor, Pomme. Photo: Stephen Barling

Andrew Pearson is Virginia born and bred, and always thought he would return to his home state one day. When the COVID shutdown found him and his family quarantined in Birmingham, Alabama, he decided it was time. “I’ve always had my Virginia bag packed,” he says, and soon the family had bought a farm between Gordonsville and Cismont.

Soon after, on a stroll through Gordonsville, Pearson passed the recently closed Restaurant Rochambeau, once a highly regarded draw for the town. “I looked in and saw the tables were still set,” he says. “Everyone here wanted the restaurant to reopen.” With a background in hospitality as well as farming—while he was growing up, his family owned an inn that his grandmother ran—Pearson had a conversation with the restaurant’s owners. 

“I expected a long discussion,” Pearson admits, “but within 10 minutes Jacqueline Gupton and her husband said okay.” His new restaurant opened a month later, in August 2023, under a new name: Près des Prés, meaning “near the meadows” (the Pearsons’ farm is called The Meadows).

Pearson was drawn to the idea of bringing fine French dining back to the Main Street site of Rochambeau and its nationally known predecessor, Pomme. While many people may think French dining features stereotypical French dishes, he says, “French cooking is more about ingredients and techniques.” Beyond that, he was really excited at the prospect of “doing something good for Gordonsville and the wider community.”

Luckily for his suddenly short timeline, Pearson found the perfect chef close to home. Abby Duck, a graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s noted culinary program, had worked her way up to chef du cuisine at the Tasting Counter outside Boston, and when she decided to move closer to her family in this area, she was his first choice to help him launch the new venture.

When it comes to preparing French food, Duck says she starts “with what I would like to eat, and then make it French. I like to use lesser-known French ingredients, things that people aren’t as familiar with.” Working from a list of seasonal vegetables, Duck designs each month’s menu to include three vegetarian dishes and three protein-based dishes. She looks for ingredients from the area (including from the Pearsons’ farm and garden), and is working on building relationships with local suppliers. For now, Duck makes every dish from scratch, including the desserts: “I do all the baking, except the bread—that’s from Albemarle Baking Company.”  

Photo: Stephen Barling

For now, Près des Prés is open for dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays. Service is limited to 10 tables or a maximum of 26 guests, with a three-course prix fixe menu of the month posted on the restaurant’s website. As an example of Duck’s mix of tradition and originality, November’s menu featured pistachio soup with squash, crème fraîche, and tuile or Brussels sprouts with yam, lemon, Dijon, and blood orange as starters, followed by fresh spaghetti with yuzu, chive, sea urchin roe, and cream or pommes darphin with chili oil, crème fraiche, and watercress. Entrées were scallops with risotto, hazelnut, sage, and pomegranate, or venison with sunchoke, green peppercorns, and broccoli rabe. 

“We want dining here to be an experience,” says Pearson—but not the intimidating one some people associate with fine French cuisine. The restaurant still looks much like Rochambeau, warm and inviting, a place you want to linger over a meal. Families are welcome, says Pearson, who makes sure to be a visible host. 

Reactions from patrons have been very positive, says the new restaurateur: “It’s a real honor to have people come from D.C., Fredericksburg, and Richmond. We even had a couple come here as their honeymoon treat.” In response to that positive interest, the restaurant will be open for one Sunday this year, on December 31, for a special five-course New Year’s Eve tasting menu.

But Pearson also wants Près des Prés to be a gathering point for locals, and he hopes to be open more days as the business settles in, and wants more people to stop by the restaurant’s bar (open from 5 to 9 every night the restaurant is open). Duck’s bar menu includes crêpes, frites, and French onion soup (naturellement!), as well as desserts and a grazing board. A recent addition is the newest gourmet treat: artisan tinned fish. It goes very well with Champagne.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Supper’s ready

Greenwood Grocery’s new kitchen managers, Reggie Calhoun (pictured) and Nathan Hatfield, have launched Supper Club, a $45 dinner that feeds two people, with a menu that changes every two weeks. Photo: Eze Amos

There’s something special about family-owned establishments. The storied buildings contain years of history, the owners are always hard at work alongside employees, and regulars come back year after year for recipes that are passed down and tweaked through the generations. 

In Crozet, Greenwood Gourmet Grocery has been a roadside staple since 1999. Owners Nina Promisel and David Atwell built the shop on the foundations of a traditional fruit stand, and they’ve worked hard to build it into the sandwich and wine emporium that it is today. 

The shop is bustling year-round with Route 250 roadtrippers looking for a snack, and regulars who stop by to grab fresh bread from Albemarle Baking Co., local produce, or a cold can of craft beer. On the weekends, the kitchen churns out sandwiches like the Blue Slate (smoked turkey, havarti, lettuce, tomato, and ancho lime mayo) and Italian (soppressata and Genoa salami, provolone, diced peppers, lettuce, and housemade Italian vinaigrette) faster than you can count.

Promisel and Atwell’s kids, Zeke, Amos, and Ella, have been instrumental in Greenwood’s success over the years—one of them could usually be found manning the register, managing the kitchen, or moving one of the many impressively large pots that live outside. 

Nowadays, the kids aren’t working in the store as much, and an ever-growing customer base meant Promisel needed to bring in some extra hands. 

Reggie Calhoun and Nathan Hatfield joined the Greenwood team as kitchen managers at the beginning of the year, and they’re helping usher the store into a new chapter of culinary creativity. Their journey to the Greenwood kitchen is almost unbelievably coincidental. Some might chalk it up to fate.

“I was in D.C. up until five years ago,” says Hatfield. “I moved here and was working at Mount Ida until November of last year.” 

After leaving Mount Ida, Hatfield was hired at former West Main Street restaurant Little Star, where Calhoun had been working for four years. Before Hatfield’s first day of work, Little Star closed.

So the two went job hunting, and both landed at Greenwood. Hatfield started just after Christmas in 2022, and Calhoun soon joined him. 

“Nina asked if I would be okay if Reggie came on, I was like hell yeah,” says Hatfield. 

They’ve been tag-teaming Greenwood’s kitchen ever since. Their easy collaboration is obvious watching them move about the space, and their new items fit in perfectly alongside Promisel’s tried-and-true favorites. 

Calhoun’s pizza Sunday special is a big hit for customers looking to grab-and-go, and on the weekends, the limited Reggie Burger appears on the menu, featuring local in-house ground beef, housemade pickles, a relish spread, bacon, and havarti. 

One of their largest undertakings, though, is the Supper Club, a $45 dinner that feeds two people. The menu changes every two weeks, and you can add desserts, sides, and wine pairings. Calhoun and Hatfield collaborate on the menu, with Calhoun usually tackling the savory side and Hatfield making the breads and desserts.

Past Supper Clubs include the Greek Goodness dinner, which featured housemade pita and hummus, with grilled mushrooms and a black-eyed pea stew and a grilled half chicken with lemon, garlic, and za’atar. The Breakfast for Dinner meal had a bacon and potato tortilla española with tomato jam, biscuits, and house sausage gravy, chickpea cakes, and a panna cotta with granola and a fall fruit compote. 

“It’s going awesome. It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this,” says Promisel. “They’ve mastered the stuff that we are already doing and they’re building on it and enhancing it. It’s a great way for these guys to do more interesting and creative stuff than we can offer out of the deli case.”

Hiring two kitchen managers might seem unconventional, but Promisel says it’s been the best decision she’s made. 

“It wouldn’t have worked with other people,” she says. “But between their personalities it’s worked out beautifully and really well.”

The KMs have a ton of ideas up their sleeves that they can’t talk about yet, but in the meantime they’re enjoying sharing their ideas with the Greenwood community. 

“I’m mostly just trying to preserve [the legacy] and add my touches,” Hatfield says. “Nina is open to all of it. I know almost everyone who walks through that door has been here before and I want to make it a good experience for them.”

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Glass half full

At Public Fish & Oyster, the Spritz and Giggles mixes pomegranate syrup, orange, lemon, and soda. Or sip on a Fleur de Nie at Maya, which combines elderberry syrup with lime and soda. Photo: Eze Amos

As the holidays wind down, many of us start to question our copious alcohol consumption. For some, the best way to counter a wet holiday season is with dry January—a month-long hiatus from drinking alcohol. If the thought of giving your body and mind a break from alcohol appeals to you, but you’re worried about missing out on the yummy libations all your friends will be imbibing when you go out, fear not. Charlottesville’s bar scene has developed a surprisingly broad menu of NA cocktails and beer. And guess what? Taking a break from alcohol—even if only for a few weeks—can help improve your body and mind almost immediately. In addition to a clearer head (alcohol consumption is linked to memory trouble, slowed reaction time, difficulty controlling behavior, poor concentration, and even long-term depression and anxiety), you may notice clearer-looking skin, more sound and restful sleep, and better-fitting pants. As you dive into a dry January, try one of these.

Sidle up to the bar at Public Fish & Oyster House for mocktails made with Lyre’s NA spirits. We love the Spritz N’ Giggles because it’s really fun to say and, with its mix of Lyre’s NA Campari, seltzer, grapefruit cordial, and lemon, it’s a tart and tantalizing treat.

Duck into Maya and choose from five different mocktails including the Fleur de Nie. We loved the combination of elderberry syrup (yay, immunity booster!), lime, and soda. Maya’s menu also features Heineken Zero beer, a good near beer option for those craving the hoppy refreshment of a cold lager. 

Further down West Main Street, grab a nonalcoholic margarita at Continental Divide (extra salt, please!) to go with your Red, Hot N’ Blues and Santa Fe Enchilada. 

Kanak Indian Kitchen at Fifth Street Station serves some of the best Indian food we’ve ever had stateside, along with a selection of nonalcoholic beverages to wash down your Sabjiwala. The Cacaowali Thandai mixes milk, cardamom, saffron, iris, and black tea for a spicy, satisfying sip.

At The Bebedero on the Downtown Mall, enjoy modern Mexican cuisine and let the bartender mix up a mocktail to suit you. When we visited, the bartender customized a mocktail for us (slightly sweet and tropical) that perfectly complemented our tacos al pastor.

Just off the mall, Tonic offers several zero-proof cocktails, like the Pom Pom Spritz, a zingy mix of pomegranate syrup, orange, lemon, and soda. (There’s also NA beer on the menu from local Three Notch’d Brewery.) 

Down in Woolen Mills, Selvedge Brewing offers two different mocktails, including one that’s perfect for cold winter nights: the Harvest Mule. The Mule combines apple cider, ginger beer, and lime for a spicy and interesting palate pleaser that’s as close as you can get to a Moscow Mule without the booze. 

Finally, pop into Firefly for a selection of mocktails and other nonalcoholic beverages including kombucha and Crunchy Hydration’s Om grapefruit sparkling water drink with an added 15mg of CBD. Come for the NA drinks, stay for the arcade and board games. 

Pleasing pints

In addition to the array of mocktails you can find in Charlottesville’s restaurants, many craft brewers have also started offering NA beer, or near beer. Three Notch’d brews some stellar NA options, while Random Row sells Athletic Brewing Company beer at its tap room on Preston Avenue. Kardinal Hall also offers NA beer and kombucha, as does Beer Run, where you can take a wide variety of NA beers in six-packs to go.

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Knife & Fork Magazines

Humph’s day

Chris Humphrey’s been in a lot of kitchens around Charlottesville, and soon he’ll add a new venture to his list: Seafood spot Bonny & Read, in the former Brasserie Saison space, will serve up surf and turf. Photo: Eze Amos

Chris Humphrey has paid his dues in local kitchens. So when he and restaurateur Stefan Friedman officially open their new seafood spot Bonny & Read, he’ll have earned the right to call the shots.

Humphrey has experience writing menus going back at least a decade to his time as executive chef at Rapture. But there have always been restrictions to his reign. Even when he bought Fellini’s and installed himself as executive chef in 2017, he “had to do Italian.”

Other career stops have been at Maya, Bizou, Metropolitan, Brasserie Saison, and The Whiskey Jar. That last, a soft landing space offered by friend and restaurateur Wilson Richey after Humphrey’s Brasserie travails, ended up being a shorter stay than he’d expected. Just months after going to work at the Jar, Humphrey began talking to Friedman about a concept the chef had been thinking about for 20 years: casual, modern Mid-Atlantic seafood. And just weeks after they started talking, Humphrey had a new job.

According to Humphrey, one reason the timeline was short was the need to jump on the Downtown Mall space Friedman found for the restaurant—namely, the one vacated by Brasserie Saison. Friedman, who bought Ace Biscuit & Barbecue earlier this year, saw in the old Brasserie dining room an opportunity to expand his own growing restaurant group, which he’s branded A Moveable Feast.

Bonny & Read held a soft opening for friends and family in mid-November, but Humphrey and Friedman aren’t ready to announce a formal opening date. According to Humphrey, when they do open, patrons can expect something other than “your classic seafood place,” with a local beef program running alongside features like flounder and crab.

“It’s not a raw bar,” Humphrey says. “A lot of seafood places don’t have many non-seafood options. Being on the Downtown Mall, we want to offer that.” Humphrey points to Public Fish & Oyster to help position Bonny & Read. “They do what they do really well,” he says. “There’s no need for us to replicate that.”

Humphrey, who’s been known over the years for creative southern dishes like Rapture’s Hillbilly Egg Rolls and Fellini’s Pimento Cheese Ravioli, said he’ll be true to his roots at Bonny & Read. Going down-coast to the Mid-Atlantic means he can capitalize on ingredients from below the Mason-Dixon and serve dishes like butter bean hummus, she-crab soup, and whole roasted fish. 

“Really what we are trying to do is modern-feeling but recognizable food in a casual setting,” Humphrey says. 

Humphrey promises the libations at Bonny & Read will be wine-driven but also feature craft cocktails. He and the Moveable Feast team have made some changes to the Brasserie Saison space, but “it was set up for success.”

In addition to the lack of creative restrictions, Humphrey hopes his latest career move comes with some much needed stability. During his three years at Brasserie, he engaged in a public exchange over lack of payment by ownership; that, followed by the quick in and out at The Whiskey Jar, have been difficult.

One upshot is Humphrey and Friedman are content to take it slow with Bonny & Read. Humphrey says Moveable Feast has a few other projects in the works (that he’s not free to divulge), and as Friedman works on those, he’s hoping to set a hard opening date and be cooking at least four days a week by early next year. Humphrey’s in the process of hiring a front-of-house manager, sous chef, line cooks, and bar manager—all the while working on the part of restaurants he loves: menu writing.

“I’ve got this dessert I’ve been playing around with that I’ve never had the right audience for,” Humphrey says. “It’s an old forgotten dessert I discovered 10 or 11 years ago—think key lime pie but made with lemon, and instead of graham cracker, it has a slightly-sweet saltine cracker crust.”

Humphrey’s seen a lot in his decades as a Charlottesville chef, and he says he’s hopeful for the future—and not just his own. He sees the restaurant industry continuing to improve and other kitchens around town bustling.

“You know, the last couple of months, I haven’t done a lot of cooking,” he says. “I’m sort of out of the loop, but all my friends keep telling me how tired they are ‘cause they’re so busy. I think Bonny & Read can fill a spot that needs to be filled downtown. There are a lot of great restaurants and variety, but I think we’ll be unique.”

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Dinner and a show

At the casual sister restaurant to Botanical Fare, Bar Botanical, expect bar food—and the occasional drag show. Supplied photo.

If it weren’t for the Blue Ridge Mountains, restaurateur Ryan Becklund might not have brought her downtown vegan eatery Botanical Fare to Charlottesville.

A seasoned food service worker with eight years under her belt, Becklund was working at a vegan restaurant with locations in Washington, D.C., and Virginia Beach when the pandemic began. 

“[The restaurant] was starting to grow and it became a much more full-time role for me,” says Becklund. “It was a career path that I wound up loving. And then COVID hit and it gave me time to reprioritize and think about what I really wanted to do long-term. I decided I wanted to do my own thing.”

Becklund had been vegan for years, so she knew she wanted her menu to be entirely plant-based. The challenge was deciding where to go. Becklund and her partner wanted to be on the East Coast, and eventually they were deciding between Charlottesville and Asheville. 

“The decision to come here was the mountains. That was a big draw,” says Becklund. “I could see in Charlottesville that there was a lack of a fully vegan place. There are some great options in a lot of the restaurants here, but I knew there wasn’t a fully vegan one. So I figured it might be a little easier to get in and hopefully excite all the customers here.”

After its March 2022 opening, Botanical Fare quickly solidified itself as one of the city’s most popular new joints, for vegans and carnivores alike. The Crunchy Cauliflower Bowl, a savory dish with sticky rice and garlic ginger cauliflower nugs, has a cult-like following, the seasonal specials are always worth a try, and every now and then the unsuspecting space is transformed into a drag venue. You never know when you’ll see queens dancing between the tables and showing off their moves on top of the coffee counter.

It’s no surprise that Botanical quickly outgrew its kitchen, so talk turned to expanding, and this past summer, its sister concept, Bar Botanical, opened in Crozet. 

Bar Botanical offers the same from-scratch, healthy vegan food that flagship regulars have come to know and love. 

“It’s very similar in terms of the style of food,” Becklund says. “We do a little more ‘bar-style’ food. In Botanical we don’t use meat substitutions, but we use some impossible meats in Bar Botanical. It’s a little more approachable, casual.”

Located in Piedmont Place’s coveted rooftop space, Bar Botanical serves up delectable dishes like loaded hash browns, popcorn chicken bites, and wonton nachos alongside craft cocktails, draft beers, and wine. 

Inclusivity is at the core of Botanical’s mission, so it was always the plan to bring the drag shows out to Crozet, and the performers have even more room to strut their stuff thanks to the larger space. In a small town with little to no nightlife, the drag shows have been a hit. 

Even without performances, diners can still enjoy dinner and a show thanks to the rooftop views, which perfectly capture the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains.