Do you tend to swim upstream or go with the flow? Either way, you probably want to check out this weekend’s Rivanna RiverFest, hosted by Rivanna Conservation Alliance and Rivanna River Company. An afternoon of family-friendly activities, games, and educational opportunities shifts into an evening of celebration and jubilance with live performances from Hometown Choir (a children’s choir of students from the YMCA After-School programs at all Charlottesville City Schools) and We Are Star Children (a local nine-piece “adventure pop” group … and not literal children). Food trucks and beverage vendors will be on site, as well as many community partners, to rejoice in the majesty of the Rivanna River.
Saturday 5/18. Free, 2–9pm. Rivanna River Company, 1518 E. High St. rivannariver.org
Three Notch’d Brewing Company’s Nelson County location is expanding its entertainment options to include axe-throwing. Supplied photo.
Once a week, I travel to distant realms to smite evil. I’m half-orc when I do this. I’m also playing Dungeons & Dragons when I do this. While my character Brad the Bad wields various bladed weapons with ease (and alacrity), my day-to-day life involves far fewer stabby items. I butter toast. I chop onions. I sometimes resist the urge to try to lodge a well-thrown steak knife into my drywall.
So, when I heard that Three Notch’d Brewing Company offers axe-throwing at their Nelson County location, I knew my moment had arrived. The quest crystalized in my mind’s eye: I needed to get my D&D party members, a pack of fellas I’ve been playing with for at least seven years, to join me for an evening hurling blades while drinking beer at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But would my party answer the call? They did. This is the story of our adventure.
—Kristie Smeltzer
What
Throwing axes at Three Notch’d Brewing Company’s Nelson County location
Why
Because playing with bladed weapons under safe conditions is so fun.
How it went
All enjoyed themselves with no casualties to report.
We arrived in ones and twos, as adventuring parties are wont to do. Three Notch’d staff members at the check-in stand gave us waivers to sign, which resulted in a lot of laughs as we read them while waiting for a critical mass of our party to arrive and our lanes to be ready. Here’s the waiver’s gist: This could be dangerous, don’t be putzes, and wear closed-toed shoes. If I’m honest, my biggest concern upon reading the waiver was that we wouldn’t, in fact, be able to enjoy their libations whilst slinging axes, but fortunately, beer and blades can coexist at Three Notch’d.
When our lanes were ready, a kindly staff member took us to our barn. It was a single-car-garage-sized structure with a little porch with tables for our refreshments and our two axe-throwing lanes inside. We six had the whole barn to ourselves since we’d rented both lanes. The staff member showed us the two types of axes available for hurling: ones with metal heads and wooden handles and others solely made of metal. The latter were lighter and had the added benefit of a sharp edge in front and a small point on the back, so there was more than one way to get them to stick in the target. We learned their main rule of axe-throwing: Retrieve your axe after every throw. (Apparently, the first weekend the lanes were open, a ridiculous number of wood-handled axes perished because people hit the target with one axe, threw another with it still lodged there, and managed to break the first axe’s handle with the second one’s blade.) Judging by the state of our wooden axe handles, this rule is hard to remember – maybe because of beer.
We ordered drinks and food and got to hurling. The plain wood targets have a variety of designs that can be projected onto them, with different shapes and points associated with them. I stuck with a basic bullseye for this go at it. My friends and I had differing techniques. Some stood at the line where the walled sides of the axe lanes began, while others stood a few paces back. Some added a wrist flick as they threw to get more rotation. Others hurled the axes like they’d been storing up years of rage—oh wait, that was me, and I learned that brute force wasn’t the most successful strategy. When I managed to get the right distance from the target and amount of rotation on the axe, the sound of the blade thunking into the wood felt satisfying on a primal level, deep in the gut.
For $100, you too can hurl blades for 90 minutes with up to three of your closest adventuring buddies. Who knows, maybe the wood targets were made from evil trees who needed a little smiting.
Chris Dunbar and Robin McDaniel’s The Alley Light continues to be an upscale dining destination worth seeking out.
Photo by Tristan Williams.
Small and unassuming, the original Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, has served classic cocktails to celebrities and locals since 1931. The Alley Light restaurant owners, Chris Dunbar and Robin McDaniel, say it inspired Charlottesville restaurateur Wilson Richey when developing their intimate spot on Second Street SW.
“Will went to Europe a lot, and … Harry’s Bar is a place that he used to always reference. I think that was where the no sign thing kind of originated,” says Dunbar. “He always talked about how he wanted a place to have a proper cocktail, kind of a lounge setting, a little private, sort of off the path.”
It all took shape, “likely at a dinner party” with renowned chef José DeBrito, who quickly refined the menu concept from lounge fare to skillfully composed country French dishes, says Dunbar. Married couple McDaniel and Dunbar, along with DeBrito, joined The Alley Light team at the beginning. The three worked together at Fleurie, and when The Alley Light’s doors opened in February 2014, McDaniel was its pastry chef, and Dunbar took front-of-house duties a few months later.
Also on the opening staff was bartender Micah Lemon who, despite having an undergrad degree in science and a master’s in linguistics, says he sought out bartending. Lemon had been developing his mixology through experimentation and intensive projects, (such as bottle-conditioning ginger beer for Blue Light Grill). Once tipped off to Richey’s plans, he told him: “I’m into cocktails, and I kind of like to make things yummy and spend hours doing it.”
The opening of The Alley Light was a move that brought new energy to local upscale drinking and dining. DeBrito’s culinary talent had followers, and craft-cocktail lists had been shaking things up on metro scenes since the early 2000s. DeBrito’s elegant petit plats paired with Lemon’s innovative drinks created an immediate buzz.
Then in 2015, the James Beard Foundation nominated The Alley Light for Best New Restaurant, and Washington Post food critic Todd Kliman came to town to see what the fuss was about—and left a three-star review. The attention was a game changer. “Once we got the JB award nomination, it codified that we were good at something, and established a reputation that we made good things,” says Lemon.
Micah Lemon’s cocktail program adds to The Alley Light’s elegant speakeasy vibe. Photo by Tom Mcgovern.
Richey was a skilled restaurateur, who, to the devastation of the area’s food community, lost his life in a December 2023 car accident. At the time of his passing, he had nurtured several notable restaurant concepts into service, and fostered many careers. A big-idea man, Richey was a vivacious collaborator who believed in his people, tapped their talent, and gave them opportunities. In 2016, he sold The Alley Light to Dunbar and McDaniel.
“Will had established a pattern of opening up ownership to his restaurant team,” says Dunbar. “He had other projects and sped up the process to allow [our] buying Alley Light.”
Just a few months into new ownership DeBrito left for an opportunity at triple-Michelin-star legend The Inn at Little Washington, and McDaniel stepped into her first job as head chef.
McDaniel studied art and design, but always felt the pull of restaurant kitchens. “The running joke in art school was that I should be in culinary school,” she says. After graduating, she returned to Charlottesville, looking to cook and learn solid technique. It was as front-of-house manager at TEN, where McDaniel says she worked a few sushi bar shifts, and made her foray into cooking.
Focused and calm, McDaniel credits her natural ability to a balance of versatility and perfectionism, plus working under DeBrito, who taught her that “things are never fast, and the more work it is, the better it’s going to be,” she says. The evidence is all over her menu, where she pushes beyond pastiche with dishes such as chilled jumbo lump crab, watermelon, heirloom tomato, and prosciutto with lime-basil sorbet. A seasonal dish she runs only when she “can get the good tomatoes.”
Ten years in, it’s hard to decide what’s most alluring about The Alley Light. Is it seeking out the restaurant in its titular location? Or perhaps it’s the warm welcome into its cozy, loungelike dining room. But maybe it’s scanning the chalkboard of rotating menu items that reads like culinary poetry, or perusing the sophisticated cocktail list curated by Lemon and his team.
“There’s a lot of things that go into The Alley Light,” says Dunbar. “The atmosphere, cocktails. The attention to detail. Micah’s attention to detail. Robin’s attention to detail.” Mostly, he says, the restaurant works because The Alley Light asks its patrons to be adventurous. McDaniel says diners have grown into the food—beef cheeks and sweetbreads are popular. One young regular often dines on the bone marrow.
Sometimes it’s a customer who asks the staff to be adventurous. “The first couple years we were open, people just brought us weird things,” says Lemon. “One day, some dude brought José bear meat and wanted him to cook a bear steak.” The bear meat didn’t make it onto the menu, but DeBrito did oblige the patron.
Back-of-the-house adventures are more likely to be controlled chaos. “I think that’s what I find so exciting,” says McDaniel, whose tiny kitchen went without a stove for the first five years. “There are so many things that can go wrong.” For example? “The radish snack,” she says. “It’s the most simple, but it has to be perfect, and it will put you in the weeds. Everything is cut to order.”
After discussing drink recipes that include a calamondin sour, a ramp martini, and a stick cocktail, Lemon downplays his process. “Whatever bells and whistles you have on your plate or in your cocktail, it has to be fundamentally, unimpeachably tasty, or what’s the point?”
It’s about “tasting a time and a place,” he says. “I want people to appreciate coming here in June, and having a bourbon peach sour from The Alley Light.”
Winemakers like Chelsey Blevins of Fifty-third Winery and Vineyard are enthusiastic about the recent harvest. “2023 gave us some of the best fruit I’ve ever seen,” she says. “I believe this will be a benchmark year for Virginia.” Supplied photo.
Most of us check the weather forecast to decide how to dress, or evaluate the impact it has on our travel or events. For farmers who grow grapes and winemakers whose craft is innately tied to the whims and blessings of Mother Nature, the weather report is even more crucial.
Vintage variation, the impact of year-to-year weather differences on wine’s aroma, flavor, and overall quality, is an inherent part of winemaking. While all wine regions experience this phenomenon to some extent, vintage variation in Virginia can be quite dramatic, and poses significant challenges to local winemakers.
An extreme example occurred in 2018, when record amounts of rainfall plagued the region, leading to difficulty ripening fruit, a dilution of sugar and flavor in grapes, and increased disease from fungus. Some producers even abstained from producing red wine that year, due to subpar fruit quality.
Two years later, in 2020, another challenge presented itself: Frost alerts in April and May, capped off by record-setting freezing temperatures on Mother’s Day, damaged grapes and led to severely reduced crop yields. Without ample grapes to work with, winemaking can be an impossible task.
This year, however, the local wine industry was blessed with exceptionally favorable weather conditions for grape cultivation. The resulting fruit quality has local winemakers smiling, and wine enthusiasts eagerly anticipating the release of the 2023 wines.
Jake Busching, who makes limited-production wines under his Jake Busching Wines label, and was recently named winemaker at Eastwood Farm and Winery, has been growing and making wine in Virginia since 1997. He lauds 2023 as one of the best vintages that he has worked with. “While 2009 will remain as the ‘best’ vintage, this one outranks most others,” says Busching. “While the year was dry, it wasn’t very hot, and that is what makes the difference in Virginia. Low water uptake and lower heat at night makes for amazing wine here.”
The difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures is known as diurnal variation. A large diurnal variation means grapes benefit from warmer daytime temperatures for ripening but maintain acidity due to cooler temperatures overnight. Emily Hodson, winemaker at Veritas Vineyards and Winery, also compares this growing season to the best ones. “The most important part, or the magic of the vintage, was the acid retention from having relatively cool nights compared to other vintages,” Hodson says. “Reminds me the most of 2009, which is one of my favorite vintages on record.”
Early Mountain Vineyards’ Maya Hood White maintains that every year in Virginia is unique, but she feels 2023 has “aspects of 2009, 2010, 2017, and 2019,” other vintages considered excellent in Virginia. “The lack of rainfall led to early ripening and an overall low incidence of disease pressure afforded us the luxury of flexibility in when to pick,” says Hood White. Expanding on the factors that made this year special, she mentions early bud break combined with most vineyards being minimally affected by early season frosts.
“Quality was outstanding,” says Matthieu Finot, winemaker at King Family Vineyards. “I feel like all the reds outperformed. I had some cabernet franc with color so deep that it looks like petit verdot … and [there is] great acid on the whites.”
Unsurprisingly, multiple winemakers mention cabernet franc as a star in 2023. Ben Jordan, who has been a winemaker in Virginia since 2012 and last year co-founded the Common Wealth Crush venture, says, “I love how the cabernet francs have varietal aromatics and flavors alongside richness and ripe tannins.”
Benoit Pineau, winemaker at Pollak Vineyards, says “Cabernet franc, as usual,” but also highlights merlot, a variety that often receives less attention, as exceptional in this vintage. In fact, Busching, Hood White, and Jordan are all enthusiastic about this year’s merlot. Jordan goes as far as to say, “definitely the best Merlot vintage I have seen in the state.”
Pineau brings up a second variety not usually in the spotlight: cabernet sauvignon. Chelsey Blevins, winemaker at Fifty-third Winery and Vineyard, echoes this sentiment. Asked what was most impressive this year, she responds, “Our 2023 cabernet sauvignon, which came on to the crush pad in near perfect condition with some of the best numbers I have ever seen. … Getting cabernet sauvignon ripe in Virginia is a feat in and of itself. … So far, the wine is turning out to be a cellar favorite.”
In addition to excellent quality, there are other interesting projects coming out of the 2023 vintage. Several winemakers are continuing to expand their use of different winemaking techniques. Finot is increasing his use of whole cluster inclusion in fermentation and Hood White is expanding the co-fermentation projects at Early Mountain. Blevins is experimenting with a dessert wine made in the ice wine style. This utilizes the cryoextraction technique, removing water from grapes by freezing, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar and flavor.
Others are excited to be working with grape varieties less commonly seen in Virginia. Pineau will release the first nebbiolo from Pollak, produced entirely from grapes grown by Pollak. Hodson is also working with two varieties new to her, tannat and sauvignon gris. Jordan promises a sparkling chenin blanc, produced with the same techniques used to make Champagne.
October is the tail end of the harvest for Patrick Collins, the cidermaker behind Patois Cider. But the apples on one of his favorite trees are just about ripe.
“That guy there, with all the yellow orbs,” Collins says. “That tree is so delicious. See how it’s still full of leaves? It tastes fantastic, but the fact that it hasn’t defoliated means that it has a super strong immune system.”
Collins has driven his pickup truck to the top of a mountain pass in the Blue Ridge. There are other apple trees scattered in the area, but their branches are bare. This one, Collins notes, impressed and enthusiastic, still has dark-green leaves.
It’s been a dry summer, and drought stress can make trees let go of their leaves early. Even more challenging are the many pests and diseases that plague apple trees. There’s fire blight, cedar apple rust, blossom end rot, apple scab. They are such a problem that the general consensus among orchardists is, you simply can’t grow organic apples in Virginia. But these trees, left to grow untended for 100 years, are doing just fine.
Patrick Collins (right) and Danielle LeCompte formed Patois Cider just two years after meeting. While wild apples are at the core of their cidery business today, Collins and LeCompte began foraging because they had little in startup money and materials. Photo by Stephen Barling.
None of the apples here have names. Despite the saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” apples grown from seed famously have different characteristics than their parent trees. All of these have grown from scattered seeds. Collins speculates that the trees are descended from a former plantation nearby.
“Almost everybody back then, no matter if it was like a substantial landholder or just a homesteader, one of the first things they would plant would be apple trees,” Collins says. Apples have tremendous variety when grown from seed. “That would allow you to have a variety of different types of crop from the apple trees. Then you’d have fruit that was suitable for drying, fruit that would keep through the winter in your root cellar, and, of course, apples that were suitable for cider, or brandy.”
Now, they’re feral. Which is exactly what Collins is looking for. They’re the opposite of the giant, sugary apples prized in grocery stores.
“These apples are intense,” Collins says. “They’re small, they’re gnarled, the skins are thick, the flesh is substantial, and when you bite into it, you can get popped in the mouth. It’s also about the aromatics. Retro-nasally there’s all these leachy, rose-petal, or sometimes it can be really mossy.”
The things that have been bred out of commercial apples are exactly what Collins wants for cider. Tannins, which are bitter and astringent compounds, give the cider structure and body. High acid content helps control fermentation and adds an enticing flavor.
Collins and his partner, Danielle LeCompte, met while working in the beverage industry, thanks to their passion for cider and wine. They bonded over humble meals and bottles of wine.
“Working in restaurants kind of opened my world to wine,” LeCompte recalls. “There’s something special about a table ordering a bottle of wine instead of everyone getting a separate thing. There was this immediate sense of unity, of a shared experience.”
Photo by Stephen Barling.
Two years after meeting, the couple decided to launch a cider business. Collins read books on cidermaking while LeCompte held down a job as a wine distributor. At the time, foraging apples was a necessity. The pair had little more than their passion to work with.
“We started off with a couple thousand dollars in shared savings,” Collins says. “Enough money, essentially, to buy a press, some used barrels, and pay rent.”
Wild apples are a resource that is already out there, if you are willing to get them.
“Going on walks, we noticed an abundance of apples, the apple trees that are wild, on mountainside hikes and mountainside vistas,” LeCompte says. “And Patrick was super keyed in to just being able to look at topographical maps, finding out where some of these orchards are.”
Luck played a part too.
“In 2019, when we did our first fruit foraging run, there was a bounty of fruit,” LeCompte recalls. “Then 2020 followed and there was a late frost, so there was no fruit. If we had started the project in 2020, that would have been extremely discouraging.”
Slowly, Collins and LeCompte learned where to hunt for Virginia’s lost orchards.
“Most of them are around 950 feet on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, because that’s the frost line,” Collins says. “Everything above that, unless it’s on a really well-draining slope, will get frosted. If you see a road that goes to about that elevation and stops on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, there’s hopefully some trees there.”
Seedlings are better adapted to the climate, Collins says, and can be found by going up in elevation in an area where there have been apple trees.
“There’s probably a pretty good chance you’ll see at least one or two,” Collins says.
The pair found themselves retracing Virginia’s faded apple history.
Collins and LeCompte prefer to forage from wild apple trees, partly because they adapt to the environment over time, and genetic variability affects taste. Photo by Stephen Barling.
“Apples and peaches were a huge cash crop,” Collins says. “If you look at where the railroad goes, it sort of follows along where these old orchards were because it was exported across the Atlantic and to the West Coast.”
Some of those heirloom varieties, such as Winesaps and Albemarle Pippins, have lasted in abandoned orchards, and Collins and LeCompte still salvage them for cider.
“Albemarle Pippins were the export apple in the 19th century for Virginia,” Collins says. “It’s a keeper and it tastes like a pineapple dessert, but it has the complexity of flavor that you can make cider from it.”
For Collins and LeCompte, necessity overlapped with preference and, more importantly, values. The couple knew they wanted to make organic cider from unsprayed fruit, something that more acutely comes from the earth, rather than what a commercial orchard could supply.
Wild apples are organic as a matter of course, but they’re also uniquely sustainable. Because the trees are still entwined with the environment, they continue to adapt to it.
“Long term, it provides genetic renewal and suitability to the climate,” Collins says. “Genetic variability is not just about disease resistance, it’s also flavor. The apple has some amazing genetic variability and there’s so much potential for complexity of the flavors.”
That reward complements Patois’ forager spirit and the flavor of its cider. There is a sense of discovery, of finding out what nature has decided to make, adapting to it, and using it to its full potential.
Collins is the first to admit that he can romanticize cidermaking, but he enjoys the idea that someone is tasting the mountains and the year and how those regional forces have come together to form these apples year after year.
He contrasts that enjoyment to the enjoyment of commercial wine and its position as an aristocratic symbol.
“What are we celebrating when we celebrate wine?” Collins says, reflecting on the emphasis that is placed on styles made from a particular region or a particular grape variety. “There’s a lot that’s beautiful right here. We’re really motivated to make wine from the commons and celebrate nature as it exists. It’s not being formed or shaped or forced.”
Patois Cider’s 21 Bricolage, made from crab, heirloom, and seedling apples. Photo by Stephen Barling.
Collins says he would like to have an orchard of his own someday. Tending the trees year after year strikes him as a special and affectionate relationship. But even then, he says, he wouldn’t give up foraging.
“We’ll keep foraging for as long as our bodies allow,” Collins says. “I think there’s something very unique and special to the chance element of foraging. The fact that these just popped up. There’s something very special about them.”
Today’s apples from Jarman’s Gap will go into a particularly interesting cider from Patois, the Bricolage. Bricolage comes from French and denotes something that is built from the parts that are available. Patois Bricolage is just that—a mixture of the apples in abandoned orchards and feral woods crafted into the year’s unique taste.
“Whatever we have on hand, we try to make something beautiful out of it,” Collins says.
Other pressings available are bottled from just one area, one abandoned orchard, or one variety of apple. Albemarle Pippin is a heritage variety that Collins enjoys bottling on its own as an homage to the industry.
Most of their products go wholesale to small, craft wineshops as far away as New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. Locally, they can be found at Greenwood Grocery, Market Street Wine, and Wine Warehouse. For those who want to meet the makers, bottles are also available directly from Patois via its website.
Noe Garcia Corona will pour wine from Grace Estate Winery at the Two Up Wine Down Festival on Sunday at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Photo by Derrick Waller.
The Two Up Wine Down Festival will showcase Virginia wines of all kinds, but it will also shine a spotlight on broader talent from our winemaking region when 11 curators pour 15 wines at the Jefferson School on October 29 from 3 to 6pm.
Tracey Love, one of the event’s organizers and the marketing and sales head at Blenheim Vineyards, calls the afternoon “an opportunity to highlight the work of underrepresented communities of all sorts.”
Grace Estate Winery’s Assistant Winegrower Noe Garcia Corona says, “it has been hard to find people who want to bring the entire wine community together. In the past, sometimes vineyards have been stuck in a bubble.”
When asked what it means to be part of a more inclusive community, Garcia Corona says it makes him “feel comfortable, it’s an opportunity to meet passionate people who are contributing to the wider community of wines in Virginia, and it makes us better able to advise each other.” Today’s wider professional wine community better serves all types of people who are interested in wine, he says. “That is how you get more sales.”
Garcia Corona adds that the event is not only a chance to highlight Grace Estate’s wines, but also to impart his vineyard’s formal wine philosophy: “Everything we need to make great wine is already in the soil and the fruit itself, and so we strive to produce a product free of outside inputs.”
Garcia Corona and winegrowing partner Robbie Corpora use minimal, mostly organic insecticides, employ a chemical-free period before harvest, and depend on indigenous yeasts and bacteria on the grape skins for the final taste. They use no refrigeration and minimal sulfites. The result is popular—about 80 percent of the grapes grown at Grace Estate are purchased by other winemakers.
Love and Reggie Leonard, winemaker and co-creator of the fest, tout the many Charlottesville- and Shenandoah Valley-area wineries that women and BIPOC producers have founded or work for. Some are even a one-person show, like Seidah Armstrong, who owns Sweet Vines Farm Winery, and makes and sells her wines. “She does it all,” Love says. (And if you’re looking for some out-of-town star power, NBA Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade, a co-partner of Wade Cellars, is also on the program.)
The Wine Down is an offshoot of local efforts that continue year-round, Love says. “The name is an homage to our incredible Commonwealth, Virginia (Two Up, Two Down). The V is two fingers up (like a peace sign) and the A is two fingers down for VA and we riffed on that idea for the festival name and TUWD design by Tim Skirven.”
The Oenoverse, a wine club based at Blenheim Vineyards that includes people from historically underrepresented and excluded communities, and a related nonprofit group called the Veraison Project (volunteer wine industry professionals committed to making the industry more diverse and equitable) chose the curators for Two Up Wine Down.
By Mary Esselman, Maeve Hayden, Tami Keaveny, and Susan Sorensen
Walking in to a busy diner is an exciting sensory experience. The clang of silverware and dishes banging around, orders called from front-of-house to back, and air laden with the savory perfume of the kitchen. Trays go by filled with warm toasty waffles, deliciously greasy bacon and eggs, chicken-fried steak, Reuben sandwiches, turkey melts, and thick slices of lemon meringue pie. The anticipation builds until you’re seated, a server splashes coffee into a thick china cup, and asks, “What can I get ya?” Charlottesville has plenty of formal restaurants, but lucky for us, the city also abounds with (too many to count!) diners that deliver a nostalgic dream of American mealtime, where the food feeds the soul and the folks feel familiar. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorites. Post your go-to on our Facebook page and tell us why you love it.
Like its longtime proprietor Mel Walker, this legendary Charlottesville landmark exudes an aura of relaxed excellence.
Stop by near lunchtime, and you’ll find a line out the door, giving you a chance to peruse the menu taped to the window. Will you opt for breakfast, served all day? Perhaps the George Omelette: ham, cheese, onions, green peppers, and diced tomatoes, topped with chili beans? Or is lunch calling you to the fried fish sub or that BBQ rib sandwich?
Your stomach and heart rumble in anticipation of stick-to-the-ribs ecstasy, and already you know what you’ve heard is true: Mel’s, with its humble, homespun name, offers food for the soul.
Community photos cover the walls inside, along with tributes to beloved friends (and to the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins). A sign above the cash register reads: “Family, where life begins, and love never ends.”
Life and love never tasted as good as the fried chicken you order once you reach the counter and ask for Mel’s most popular dish. Hot, moist, and crunchy, it’s made to order and worth the 15-minute wait. Creamy mac and cheese, followed by Mel’s famous sweet potato pie complete the out- of-body experience.—ME
Something wonderful is going on at The Villa Diner. And it’s not just the joy we felt when The Wahoo (buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and sausage) and Super Big Complete Breakfast (bacon, hash browns, biscuits, and cheese on the scrambled eggs, please) arrived at our table.
We’re talking about an epidemic of paying it forward at the popular Emmet Street eatery. Just ask Mike, a local unhoused man. Or the Albemarle High School track team. Or the random person who’s caught the attention of a couple of UVA football players who regularly buy a stranger breakfast.
“It happens all the time,” says Jennifer Beachley, who’s co-owned the Villa with her husband Ken since 2005. One long-time customer buys everything from a veggie omelet to a Philly cheesesteak or grilled turkey melt (three of the diner’s most popular items) for people she’s never met, several times a month. “She says it’s the best part of her week,” according to Beachley, who gave the woman a map of the restaurant so she could give the cashier specific table numbers when paying her bill.
As if a Reuben and fries for under 10 bucks isn’t enough, imagine your delight when, after polishing off a plate of steak and eggs, you get to the register and learn that the guy who might score the winning touchdown at Scott Stadium this weekend has picked up the tab for your meal.—SS
Blue Moon Diner has evolved many times since its inception in 1979: owners Laura Galgano and Rice Hall took the reins, a lengthy closure, thanks to years of construction, COVID-19, and now a new service model. But some things never change.
Last month, the midtown diner switched to a coffee shop-style service. No more reservations, just walk in and choose your stickered booth (during the weekend brunch madness you’ll still have to put your name on a waitlist), then order through QR codes or up at the counter using a self-serve kiosk—and don’t forget to drop your dirty plates in a bus bin when you’re done.
Though ordering looks a little different, it’s still the same heavenly Blue Moon food coming out of the kitchen—like the ever-popular Hogwaller Hash with a side of home fries, or crispy beignets topped with powdered sugar—and the restaurant is full of familiar faces running food and making drinks, including Galgano.
Blue Moon’s coffee selection continues to reign supreme, with bottomless Trager Brothers Blue Moon Blend for $3, and canned Snowing in Space nitro cold brew for $5.
And, of course, Wednesday evenings are still for Jim Waive. The local musician brings the classic country tunes, Blue Moon shakes the cocktails and not-tails, and diners enjoy eggs all night long.—MH
Hiding in plain sight just before the Locust Avenue exit off 250 West sits the best little diner you’ve never noticed: Doodle’s. Walk through the door, and you’re in an American time capsule of clean, comfy, country ease: brightly lit booths and tables, homey decorations, and a sweetheart of a server named Kim.
Since she was 14, Melanie “Doodle” Lohr wanted to run a restaurant, she says, and for the past 10 years, she, her mom, and her Aunt Barbara have brought that dream to life. Morning regulars devour the breakfast combos and omelets, while evening folks come for the specials: salmon cakes, catfish dinner, hamburger steak, and Wednesday-night spaghetti. Popular desserts include three-tier cakes like the Sunshine (orange with mandarin oranges, whipped cream, and diced pineapple), chocolate chess pie, and bread pudding.
Almost as big a draw as the food is Kim, beloved for making everyone feel at home. When a grandpa comes in with his young grandson, Kim asks how their sleepover went the night before, and takes their drink orders. The boy asks for a soda, and Kim says, “Well, is that okay with Grandpa?” Grandpa smiles, “I don’t care, he won’t be with me today,” and Kim jokes back, “Oh, so a Mountain Dew then, huh?”—ME
If you’re looking for the classic country diner experience—with a twist—gather your herd and head to Moose’s by the Creek.
Tucked inside an unassuming building off Monticello Road, the family-owned eatery serves breakfast all day, juicy burgers, and specialty sweets for a reasonable price. Loyal patrons stop by every week to tuck into their tried-and-true favorites, like the Maine Moose (eggs, home fries, and your choice of meat and carb for $8) or the CVille Way (French toast topped with whipped butter, eggs, home fries, and a protein for $12). The pancakes are delightfully fluffy, the Mimoosas are bottomless for only $20, and it’s one of the few restaurants in town that serves scrapple as a side.
You can’t talk about Moose’s without mentioning the elephant in the room, which in this case is a moose—and a bear, and a turkey, and a deer. Yep, you read that right. Moose’s multiple dining rooms are tastefully decorated with busts of taxidermied animals. If that’s not your thing, they do offer takeout.
In addition to housing racks of antlers (with one that patrons stand under for the ubiquitous Moose crown), the restaurant also has a hockey sports bar in one of its back rooms, complete with foosball, pool, signed memorabilia, and, come hockey season, a room full of Caps fans rooting for Ovi to score another goal.—MH
Somehow Tip Top manages to be both a Southern and a Northeastern diner.
Head in for breakfast, and you’ll find corn cakes (“a true Southern delight,” declares the menu) and a country ham special that includes two eggs, home fries, and grits. A cheerful waitress greets you with “Good morning, honey!” and a hot mug of coffee (better than Starbucks but not as good as JBird Supply). You might try the popular buckwheat pancakes (“Tastes like you’re in Texas”), or the two biscuits with sausage gravy and two eggs, about as Southern as you can get.
Show up for lunch or dinner, however, and you’ll feel the “Seinfeld” vibe of Jerry, George, and Elaine’s NYC diner, Monk’s Café. Owner Terry Vassolous, originally from Greece, has crafted a menu full of Greek and Italian specialties, from grape leaves, souvlaki, and moussaka to lasagna, manicotti, and fettuccini alfredo. The meatballs are sublime, and the pizzas stand out for their Greek-influenced toppings, like the peasant’s feta cheese, fresh tomatoes, black olives, scallions, bell peppers, and pepperoni. There’s even a “big salad” (one Greek, one chef).
Any time of day, Tip Top feels sparkling and friendly, a haven for weary families, workers, students, and Route 250 travelers.—ME
Around the corner from UVA Medical Center, the Korner Restaurant has been feeding Cherry Avenue and Lee Street folks for over 50 years. “A good place to eat, where two streets meet,” proclaims the menu, and that’s what you find at the Korner, from 5:30am to 4pm, hefty, low-cost portions of hearty homemade food, with a side dish of neighborly love.
Philip Templeton runs the place that’s been in his family since 1950, arriving at 3:30am to prepare from-scratch dishes like macaroni salad, cole slaw, potato salad, and BBQ. Once the breakfast rush starts, he’s at the counter with his regulars, who show up every day.
Two Tammys and a core Korner crew keep the place humming. Tammy One greets you like your favorite aunt, bringing you heaping portions of home fries and grits, and keeping the strong coffee coming. A Korner mainstay for decades, she lights up describing customer favorites: the juicy burgers (fresh ground beef, never frozen), stuffed subs, tangy wing dings, and homemade chicken salad. Tammy Two handles the griddle, the register, and any diner thing that needs doing.
Wahoowa-proud, the Korner loves the community it serves.—ME
Waiting in line for a table at The Nook during the weekend brunch rush is one of those quintessential Charlottesville experiences. One of C’ville’s OG diners, The Nook opened in 1951, and offers an elevated diner experience with local and seasonal offerings and specialty cocktails.
A Nook brunch is best experienced at one of the coveted outdoor patio seats—just be prepared to wait in line (pro tip: Send one person to the restaurant 20 minutes before you’d like to eat to put your party’s name on the list). Though the wait can sometimes be up to 30 minutes, it’s not unpleasant. The hosts juggle and flip tables with ease, waiters bustle back and forth carrying steaming plates that make your stomach growl, and if you’re lucky, a busker’s accordion rendition of “Toxic” by Britney Spears will drift down the mall.
As you peruse the menu and begin sipping on your mug of coffee, keep these three things in mind: the breakfast potatoes, which are perfectly seasoned and served with peppers and onions, are some of the yummiest in the city, brunch pairs best with a boozy cocktail, like the Spiced Apple Mimosa, and you have to try the eggs benny at least once.—MH
Holly’s is a nighttime diner, offering comfort food and friendly fun from 5pm to 2am, Tuesday through Saturday. The place is funky and cute, with an industrial-meets-farm chic, and a honky-tonk happy soul.
An older crowd comes early to claim swivel-stool seats at the long concrete bar, or to grab a spot at the hidden outdoor patio. There they throw back signature cocktails like the Belmont Sweet Tea (Southern tea with a kick), while enjoying Holly’s most popular dinner dishes—homemade meatloaf, chicken poblano pot pie, Brussels sprout hash, and fried green tomatoes.
After 9pm, a younger crowd fills the tables and booths near the small stage that sparkles with live music on Fridays and Saturdays, Thunder Music Karaoke on Tuesdays, Open Mic Night on Wednesdays, Game Night on Thursdays, and, on occasion, Goth Takeovers with DJs. Folks who work and party into the wee hours love Holly’s late-night handheld options, like the catfish po’boy, Reuben sandwich, and the Hangover Burger (gently dressed with bacon, fried egg, pepper, pepper jack cheese, special hot sauce, and lettuce).
Even the olds often hang around for dinner and “a show,” just to chat with beloved manager, Morgan, and to soak in the diner’s welcoming vibe.—ME
Kylie Britt, Tasha Durrett, and Reggie Leonard at Wine Fest. Photo by Paige Poprocky.
An eager crowd of more than 300 people gathered at The Wool Factory’s Wine Fest in late January. The ambitious tasting connected a broad range of Virginia’s smaller producers to the public over the course of five hours, as part of the venue’s mission to further establish a community around Virginia wine.
Kylie Britt, The Wool Factory’s wine director, says the overall intention of the hospitality site is to highlight local craft products, and offer a curated selection to its guests. Wine Fest addressed that mission by giving lesser-known beverage makers an outlet to expand their reach, and by offering customers a tasting experience not normally available. Sixteen producers from as far away as the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia poured and discussed their products at the event. “When wine drinkers can directly talk to and learn from winemakers, it enhances understanding and appreciation of the craft,” says Britt.
Even before opening, the WF team began collaborating with Joy Ting, a local independent winemaker (who is married to this writer), to produce a line of small batch, locally produced Virginia wine under The Wool Factory label. The discussions with Ting were also the genesis for The Workshop, an onsite boutique that includes a retail wine store that not only champions Virginia wine, but highlights smaller producers and winemaker side projects that often don’t have their own locations for tastings and sales.
Kathy Wiedemann, who drove two hours from northern Virginia to attend, says it was a unique opportunity. “I looked at the lineup of producers that were going to be pouring and I just knew I had to attend. I opted to stay overnight … so there was some additional cost to it for me, but it was well worth it.”
Patois Cider’s Patrick Collins served his own products at Wine Fest, and says he observed one of the most diverse groups he’d poured for in Virginia. “The producers, all with their own creative perspectives and intentions, presented their work themselves, divorced from serene tasting room vistas or other distraction,” says Collins. “We were all there to focus on what was in the glass and why.”
Wine educator Reggie Leonard attended Wine Fest as an enthusiast, and says he loved seeing friends from Charlottesville, Richmond, and northern Virginia all under the same roof. “This event felt very emblematic of some of my hopes and even some of the best ways I’ve experienced Virginia wine as a whole—warm, inclusive, interesting, and well done,” says Leonard, who was also impressed with the creativity and new ideas. He says he tasted wines that ranged “from reds and whites, and grapes and peaches, to dry and sparkly, and sweet and herbaceous.”
Britt agrees that this type of event is a great forum for winemakers to flex their creative skills and push the boundaries of wine and cider as we know it.
It also shows how far Virginia wine has advanced, says Domaine Finot’s Matthieu Finot, who sees a place for his own wine craft in the small producer movement. “It is the crowd that I like to be associated with, the trailblazers of the indie winemaking scene,” says Finot. “Not sure how to describe us, but definitely slightly outside the norm.”
The takeaway for producers and consumers is a unique view of the current state of Virginia wine, and a glimpse of what things might look like going forward. As he was making plans to attend, Leonard says, “I couldn’t wait to be in the room where a renaissance was happening.”
Learn more about the producers featured at Wine Fest:
Antwon Brinson is one of the competitors on HBO Max’s cooking competition “The Big Brunch.” Photo: HBO Max.
Who moved my wine and cheese?
TheWine Guild of Charlottesville has officially moved into a new location at 600 Concord Ave., next door to Ace Biscuit & BBQ. For years, the Guild has been Charlottesville’s go-to spot for its finely curated selection of wine and beer, acting as a personal sommelier to its members and retail customers for over a decade. Owners Priscilla and Will Curley have expanded the wine bar, and say traditional Wednesday tastings will continue, plus an educational series launching in the new year. “The additional space means we can offer more interesting wine from around the world,” says Will, along with “a small kitchen serving great drinking snacks: cheese and meat plates, olives, almonds, and plenty of tinned fish.” Check them out at wineguildcville.com.
French connections
Wine from Charlottesville is journeying further than just across town. Local winemaker Michael Shaps recently presented his wine brands at the Paris home of the U.S. ambassador to France for a gathering of 400 guests. “It means a lot to me to receive such positive feedback from numerous dignitaries at such a historic and prominent place,” says Shaps. “I like to think that Jefferson, who I believe was as enamored of French wines as much as I am, would appreciate this celebration of the French and American collaboration of wine.”
Cheffing to the Max on HBO
Charlottesville’s outstanding food scene got some national attention recently when chef Antwon Brinson of Culinary Concepts AB was chosen to compete in “The Big Brunch,” a new reality TV show by Dan Levy and the creators of “Schitt’s Creek.” The competition began streaming November 10 on HBO Max, with 10 guests chosen for their cooking prowess, compelling stories, and a chance to take home $300 thousand for their individual cause. While we won’t reveal the ending for you late streamers (okay, one spoiler: Brinson is a cinnamon bun), we can say the show is enticingly shot, drool-provoking, and reveals the deep emotional core at the center of good food. With his Culinary Concepts, Brinson offers career training and life skills to underserved individuals who hope to break into the hospitality industry, all while building community and promoting unity.
Twinkle and fade
After just four years, Little Star restaurant, known for its contemporary Spanish fusion cuisine, has closed its doors. After chef and owner Ryan Collins stepped back from the restaurant earlier this year, Little Star announced it was closing permanently on November 5, leaving foodies around town mourning the loss of signatures dishes such as the Shibbity Dibbities, Pan Tomate with Manchego, and the Grilled Flank Steak.
Popped up
Popitos Wood Fired Pizza started in a backyard in Forest Lakes when Lauren and Ray Zayas began serving family and friends at small gatherings. The pizza was so popular that they expanded into a mobile kitchen, and estimate that they served over 1,500 pizzas at various music festivals, farmers’ markets, and school fundraisers. Now they are quick-firing pies at a new brick-and-mortar location in Rio Hill Shopping Center, next to Kroger. Pop by for a traditional margherita, the Fun Guy with pesto drizzle, or the Hot Pig with bacon and jalapeños—and don’t forget an arancini from the snack menu.
Blogger and influencer Renee Byrd throws a bit of comedy and entertainment into her “recipes” for health and wellness. Supplied photo.
Charlottesville-based wellness guru Renee Byrd was a successful influencer before being an influencer was cool.
Byrd launched her blog, Will Frolic for Food, in 2012. The goal was to “provide free tools for living well … recipes, advice, yoga videos, and entertainment to sensitive souls.” In a few short years, she was working part-time hours while making a full-time income through advertisements and sponsored posts.
But a bout with illness and a dose of influencer fatigue began to fray Byrd’s enthusiasm. At the end of 2020, she stepped away from her successful blog, which had earned her notice from national outlets like the Food Network, Better Homes & Gardens, and Self, to focus on her personal life and well-being.
“The thing that bothers me is the culture around influence,” says Byrd. “It can be very egotistical and fake. Thankfully, a lot of the people I’ve worked with in the past in the food realm have been great. I’ve always thought, ‘If you are going to be an influencer, be in the food space; they are kind people that are there to be educators.’”
Renee Byrd. Photo: Tiffany Jung.
Now, married and living in Belmont with her beloved Australian sheepdog and a baby on the way, Byrd is plotting her way back into influencer culture.
After stepping away from Will Frolic for Food, Byrd continued to create content through comedy. With a background in theater and music, she has counted herself an artist, photographer, writer, musician, yoga teacher, and entrepreneur over the years. To stay active, she developed an off-beat Instagram presence doing comedic skits with characters like the insatiable Sugar Gollum and a cringey cohort of earnest commune members. She took on issues as heavy as abortion and as light as hiking sandals. She grew her Instagram following to nearly 40,000.
“My philosophy about comedy is to be true to your own perspective,” Byrd says. “I have been very deeply involved in the wellness and food industry, and I know a lot about all those worlds. I feel it’s important to be a voice within the food world, because there is a lot of bullshit.”
Her next step is to get back to Will Frolic for Food. While she finds so much of the food and wellness influencer space to be about “greenwashing” and selling under the guise of self-help—“there is so much stuff out there that you don’t need to be healthy or happy,” she says—she still believes in the power of the medium.
Byrd, who also runs Frolic Coffee at the Ix Farmers Market with her husband, a wellness coach by training, has always focused on free-form health journeys. Folks have to follow their own path to happiness, she says, and they can do so many things to improve themselves without spending any money.
“There is a lot of amazing work being done, but it’s buried,” Byrd says. “In the wellness and health and food world, you get the best results with self-led discovery. A lot can be done with a health coach, but they can’t just tell you what to do. Proper coaching is being a masterful asker of questions so people can come to their own conclusions. To reach your own unique, ideal health, some people need to run a lot, and some people need to walk a lot.”
