Charlottesville Ballet dancers Cassidy Burk (left) and Jonah Sunnen perform a selection from The Nutcracker at Champion Brewing Company on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019. Photo: Zack Wajsgras
The unlikely pairing of beer and ballet—under an outdoor tent, no less—drew a standing-room-only crowd last Saturday at Champion Brewing Company, beside the railroad tracks downtown. Attendees, including plenty of kids, were treated to a pas de deux from The Nutcracker by member of the Charlottesville Ballet. The event, which kicked off the ballet’s 2019-20 season, is the brainchild of Champion’s taproom manager Sean Chandler, whose daughter Maeze is a budding ballerina. (She will appear in the troupe’s performance of The Nutcracker, December 19-22, at Piedmont Virginia Community College.) “Connecting with the arts and creating a community space have always been priorities for me,” says Champion founder and owner Hunter Smith. Let’s all raise a frothy glass to delightfully unconventional events like this one.
Down on Water Street, Wilson Craig’s Waterbird Spirits production facility is cranking out tens of thousands of cans of premium cocktails. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Under normal circumstances, having your jaw broken and reset in order to correct an underbite—and then being laid-up in recovery for two months—would be a bummer. But Wilson Craig was happy for the time on the couch. It gave him an opportunity to think. He took his meals through a straw, and wasn’t able to talk, so he spent a lot of time in his own head.
This was about a year ago, and he was living in Manhattan, where he worked in real-estate finance. In this regard, he was following in his father’s rather large footsteps. Hunter E. Craig is one of the biggest landowners and developers in town, a co-founder of Virginia National Bank, and a member of the board at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
But the younger Craig didn’t necessarily want to pick up the paternal mantle. Not long before the operation, he told his dad that he had an idea to create a canned-cocktail brand. He wanted to return from New York, settle down in Charlottesville, and launch the business in the city he knows and loves. His father liked the idea. He liked it so much that he helped his son get started. And now, after a whirlwind startup, Waterbird Spirits is cranking out tens of thousands of 12-ounce canned vodka-and-sodas and Moscow Mules from a sharp-looking shop on the corner of Water and West Second streets. If all goes as planned, four-packs of Waterbird cocktails priced at $13.99 will appear in local supermarkets by the end of September, and the space on Water Street will open for tours in 2020. (Waterbird does not have a license to offer tastings on-site.)
On a blistering-hot day in August, Craig tilts back in a chair in the Waterbird office and crosses his long legs. A woman knocks on the door. Craig uncrosses his legs, bolts upright, and hurries over to greet her.
“Hi,” says the woman.
“Hello,” Craig says, or rather, almost shouts.
“When are you guys opening?” she asks.
“Not for awhile, but we’re in production now,” Craig says.
“Great!” says the woman.
“Thanks so much for your interest,” Craig says. “Really—thank you!”
This is not an act. Craig relishes telling people about Waterbird. “We get a lot of that,” he says, bounding back to his chair. “I love it. People are curious, and we want them to see what’s going on here.”
He also wants you to know that the building, once The Clock Shop of Virginia, actually started as a Sears auto service center. “Sears used to be one of the biggest companies in the United States,” Craig says. “But what happens to a company when they don’t pay attention to their customers? They end up in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.”
His point: Waterbird will succeed by focusing relentlessly on what consumers want. In his opinion—shaped by months of conversations with his father and local winemakers, distillers, and brewers, including his official consultant, Hunter Smith of Champion Brewing Company, and some work with focus groups and taste-testers—consumers want high-quality canned cocktails. “We’re going to use potato vodka because it’s so much better than corn vodka” Craig says. “And we’re going to use cane sugar, because it’s infinitely better than high-fructose corn syrup.”
With many alternative canned beverages entering the market, including the aforementioned hard seltzer and non-alcoholic euphorics, some using CBD, Craig might have reason to temper his enthusiasm for his own product. But, um—not a chance.
“When I was living in New York, all my friends were drinking Bud Light, but not for the taste or any other redeeming factor—it was just convenient,” he says. “Convenience is king. So I thought, why isn’t there a better alternative for portable cocktails?”
As for marketing and branding, Craig sees Charlottesville, Virginia—which is clearly stamped on Waterbird’s label—as an asset.
“Charlottesville has received a lot of bad publicity,” he says. “But I just want to embrace the good. We want to be a product that people see and feel happy and proud that it’s made in Charlottesville. Excited, happy, upbeat, positive—that’s what this brand is.”
Born into a winemaking family in France, Damien Blanchon received his formal training in the craft there before moving to Virginia in 2006. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
One morning last April, Afton Mountain Vineyards winemaker Damien Blanchon stood under a canopy in the rain, his yellow rain slicker a bright spot on the gray day. Smoke streamed out from the firepit he tended. The night’s meal, a freshly butchered pig, dripped fat onto the coals.
Blanchon’s on friendly terms with Polyface Farm’s Joel Salatin—the celebrity livestock farmer, author, and speaker—and earlier the winemaker had driven to Swoope, Virginia, to pick out one of his pal’s celebrated pastured pigs. Salatin’s son, Daniel, normally does the butchering but couldn’t get around to it, so Blanchon, equipped with the necessary tools, got busy with the carving. An hour later, he and the pig were on their way back to the winery.
Big on biodiversity, Blanchon recently introduced goats to the property at Afton Mountain. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Rainwater dripped from the edge of the canopy. Blanchon, who has a scruffy beard and intense blue eyes, peered at the smoke. After pressing grapes later this year, he said, he will deliver pomace—the skins left over after the crush—to Salatin to use as feed. It’s a sustainable, natural cycle that Salatin has preached for years, and which Blanchon also believes is the way forward.
“When I look at this little place, we are trying to do things the right way for the environment,” says Blanchon, who’s overseen Afton Mountain’s 25 acres of vines for nearly a decade. “In the long term, I’m trying to have a beneficial impact.”
Blanchon applies no insecticides to the vines, and only sparingly uses fungicides. “The vines are smart,” he says. It’s his shorthand way of expressing his respect for the plants, and the deep knowledge he has gained during more than two decades of tending grapes.
Blanchon’s winemaking education began when he was a child, on his uncle’s vineyard and small winery in Beaujolais. His formal schooling in viticulture and enology began when he was a teenager and led to work at wineries in France. He arrived in the U.S. in 2006, after answering an ad for a winemaker at Old House Vineyards in Culpeper. When he called, Mattieu Finot picked up. Now the winemaker at King Family Vineyards, Finot was consulting at Old House at the time. The rest, as they say, is history.
Blanchon brought with him the organic practices that he uses to this day. He brews huge quantities of herbal teas and sprays them on the vines, which, he says, bolsters their natural immune systems. It takes years for this to happen, but Blanchon believes using the method will keep the vines healthy and productive for 40 to 60 years—instead of the 20 years he says much larger commercial vineyards plan for.
“Looks like it’s working, because last year it was very rainy and we did only 10 [fungicide] sprays compared to an average of 25 to 30 sprays for [many other] wineries,” he says. “All around the vines, I plant some wild flowers that bring in insects that are beneficial for us, like the bees. Last year it was very humid and dewy in the morning, so you could see the spider webs easily, they were everywhere, and thanks to the spiders, we didn’t have a fruit fly problem. I was like, ‘Well, that makes sense.’”
A few hours later, in the glass-walled pavilion overlooking the vineyards, Blanchon prepares platters of sliced pork. He lays them out on a table with whole roasted potatoes and a simple salad of arugula with vinaigrette. He’s serving dinner for a group of journalists and friends of Afton Mountain’s owners Elizabeth and Tony Smith. The meal is the culmination of a long day for Blanchon, who also led a cellar tour and wine tasting.
The Smiths—whose son, Hunter Smith, is the founder and owner of Charlottesville’s Champion Brewing Company—purchased the winery a decade ago. Since then they’ve doubled the vineyard size, in part to protect the sculpted mountain views. Ask the couple what’s next for their vast acreage, and Elizabeth Smith muses over morels, explaining that their plan is not to exceed the 5,000-case capacity of their current wine operation, but instead explore more ways to farm sustainably. The owners and winemaker are in sync.
“With the freedom the Smiths give me, I’m going full tilt,” says Blanchon, enjoying a glass of his own blended red wine with dinner. “We started [the new approach] about three years ago. Now our first spray was only teas and decoction with nettle leaf and horsetail grass to start. I also use chamomile, oak bark tea, and milfoil grass later in the season.” (Decoction is essentially a reduction by boiling of the elixir he describes.)
“We try to respect the environment, our little environment around here—we are the only vineyard but we have animals, the lake, so we try to really reduce the heavy spray,” he says.
Goats are Blanchon’s latest addition to the farm. They’re like natural lawn mowers that tidy up—and, um, fertilize—the 135 acres that aren’t covered with vines. He’s also talked with the owners of some neighboring cows about taking over the herd when they retire next year. “Why not butcher and sell them here—maybe sell grass-fed beef to the wine-club members?” he asks.
“The thing I hate is having a recipe, dong the exact same thing I did last year,” says Blanchon, pouring more red for himself and a guest. “The weather is always different, the grapes come in different. As a winemaker, I love the adaptations you have to make.
“I have the chance to be in charge of a small area,” he says. “What can I do—even if nobody knows, but for me, what can I do—to have a beneficial impact? When I leave, or when I retire, I’ll know I’ve done whatever I could to make this place environmentally friendly. And I really believe it affects the quality of the wine.”
An Italian immigrant, Gabriele Rausse is one of Central Virginia’s most prominent and influential winemakers. Photo: Ashley Twiggs
Wine without borders
Damien Blanchon, a native of France, is one of many immigrants now working in area wineries, bringing not only diversity to the industry, but also skills, practices, and knowledge that improve the quality of the commonwealth’s wines. We raise a glass to the men and women who give our local wine its multicultural flavor.—N.B.
Gabriele Rausse, Italy, owner, Gabriele Rausse Winery and Director of Gardens and Grounds, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Fernando Franco, El Salvador, viticulturist, Barboursville Vineyards, Barboursville
Luca Paschina, Italy, general manager and winemaker, Barboursville Vineyards
Andy Bilenkij, Australia, winemaker, Pollak Vineyards, Greenwood
Francoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch, Belgium, vineyard manager
and co-owner, and Julian
Moiseiwitsch, Northern Ireland, co-owner, Revalation Vineyards, Madison
Jorge Raposo, Portugal, owner and winemaker, Brent Manor Vineyards, Faber
Stephen Barnard, South Africa, winemaker, Keswick Vineyards, Keswick
Julien Durantie, France, winemaker, DuCard Vineyards, Etlan
Matthieu Finot, France, winemaker, King Family Vineyards, Crozet
Claude Thibaut, France, winemaker, Thibaut-Janisson, produced and bottled at Veritas Vineyards, Afton
Charlottesville-born Champion Brewing opened a Richmond location in 2017. Photo: Ash Daniel
Is love in the air? It appears so–at least between the cities of Richmond and Charlottesville, as witnessed by the number of businesses that have decided to open locations in both cities. Charlottesville, with its beautiful setting and college town vibe, has long made lists of best places to live and work. And in the past few years, Richmond has experienced a renaissance of sorts, with praise seemingly pouring in weekly for its long-underrated, still burgeoning arts, dining, and entrepreneurial scene. So it’s not surprising that a mutual admiration society has developed between the two cities.
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and Sugar Shack donuts, both born in the River City, added Charlottesville locations on West Main Street–Hardywood in February 2017 and Sugar Shack in June 2018 (bringing with it sister business Luther Burger not long after).
Also coming to Charlottesville in early 2020: Quirk Hotel, which first debuted in Richmond in 2015. Why are they interested in C’ville? “First and foremost, the numbers indicate that Charlottesville is a stronger hospitality market than Richmond,” says Quirk Hotel co-owner Ted Ukrop. “Second, UVA is a major and sustainable economic and cultural engine. Having said that, there are also plenty of innovative companies, organizations, and people that align with Quirk’s brand.” The proximity to Hooville–just an hour away–also made a second Quirk location appealing, Ukrop adds.
Meanwhile, Richmond has already experienced an influx of Charlottesville-based businesses, like Roots Natural Kitchen (opened July 2018 in the VCU area), Three Notch’d Brewing Company (opened in 2016 in Scott’s Addition as the RVA Collab House), and Citizen Burger Bar (also opened in 2016, in Carytown). The city’s developing reputation as a supportive, destination craft beer scene was a big draw for Hunter Smith, who founded Champion Brewing in Charlottesville and opened a Richmond location in January 2017 on Grace Street downtown.
“The two cities and their respective governments operate quite differently, which was informative from a business perspective, and has helped me to evaluate additional locations,” says Smith. “I appreciate [chef] Jason Alley from Pasture and Comfort for introducing me to the beautiful former bank space we’re now lucky enough to occupy.”
Up next? Starr Hill Brewery, which is opening Starr Hill Beer Hall & Rooftop in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition this summer. Also coming soon: Common House, the “contemporary social club” that opened in C’ville in 2017, will make the RVA’s Arts District its home sometime in 2019. You’ll be able to find the newest Common House at 305 W. Broad St., just steps away from the original Quirk Hotel.
“Richmond feels like it’s in the midst of a cultural revolution that we are anxious to participate in,” says Common House co-founder Derek Sieg. “The food is world-class, the art scene is electric, and the energy in the entrepreneur community rivals that of any city its size.” While Sieg says his team has been looking at other creative markets in the Southeast in anticipation of growth, the proximity to Charlottesville helped clinch the second location.
“We have a lot of Richmond-based members who use Common House as a landing spot when they’re in Charlottesville, and vice versa, so we see this cross-pollination firsthand and look forward to being a fruit of that pollination ourselves,” he says.
TSA agents are being required to work without pay at CHO and at airports around the country.
file photo
Almost one month into the federal government shutdown, Charlottesville hasn’t been hit as hard as Northern Virginia, where thousands of government workers are trying to figure out how to pay their mortgages and buy groceries. But there are more than 200 people here being asked to work without a paycheck, and approximately 4,100 households in the city and county that could see their food stamps run out if the shutdown continues to March 1.
One of the area’s larger employers, the spy center, aka the National Ground Intelligence Center up off U.S. 29 north, is part of the Department of Defense, and its 1,250 staffers won’t be missing a paycheck.
Things are not so rosy for the 40 or so TSA employees at the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport, who are being asked to work without pay. Their salaries range from $25,000 to $38K, according to the TSA website.
“We have been very lucky with the dedicated staff,” says CHO deputy director Jason Burch. “They are showing up. It’s got to be tough.”
Local companies and citizens have been providing sandwiches and pizza for the strapped security agents, says Burch. “Our TSA lines aren’t any longer,” he adds.
There are approximately 10 air traffic controllers—CHO spokesperson Stewart Key says she’s not allowed to say how many—who work for a company contracted by the FAA. Key says the controllers are not affected by the shutdown,.
Over at Shenandoah National Park, around 200 employees are employed this time of year, says Susan Sherman with the Shenandoah National Park Trust. The phone number for the Humpback Rocks Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway was out of service, and no one answered the phone at the parkway’s headquarters in Asheville.
On January 6, the Department of Interior instructed national parks to tap into recreation fees to clean bathrooms and haul trash—a move some say could be illegal. Volunteers and nonprofit advocacy organizations like the Shenandoah National Park Trust are pitching in.
The trust has picked up two contracts to clean bathrooms at Old Rag and White Oak Canyon, says Sherman, and is sending gift baskets with snacks “to fuel park colleagues who are working without pay.”
Sherman worries about the long-term effects of the shutdown: damage to natural resources, the gap in scientific research and monitoring, the bear population getting used to easy pickings at overflowing trash cans, and the morale of park service employees.
“It’s not uncommon for married couples to both be employed by the park,” she says. “They’re public servants who have devoted their lives to working there, and they’re being told they’re nonessential. That’s inexcusable, in my opinion.”
Also in the shutdown’s crosshairs are families that depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—formerly known as food stamps—which is funded through the USDA, another “nonessential” agency. On January 17, Virginia SNAP recipients received their benefits for February because the USDA is funded through January.
Around 2,000 households in Charlottesville and another 2,100 in Albemarle receive SNAP benefits. Sue Moffett with the city’s Department of Social Services worries about recipients managing money received three weeks early that’s supposed to last through the end of February.
She says anecdotally, she’s seeing new requests for food stamps and for other assistance, such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. “I have knowledge of people affected by the federal furlough,” she says.
Michael McKee is CEO of Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which serves 25 counties in western and central Virginia, including hard-hit Loudoun and Frederick counties, where he estimates around 15,000 furloughed federal employees live.
The food bank serves 106,000 people through its network of food pantries and soup kitchens—on average 14,000 in Charlottesville and Albemarle—and about two-thirds of those receive food stamps. “SNAP provides 12 times as much food as America’s food banks,” he says.
If those benefits aren’t restored by March 1, “We can never begin to make up for what we would lose with SNAP,” says McKee. “We could be completely overwhelmed and unable to meet the needs of our neighbors.”
UVA has myriad ties to federal funding, but because many federal agencies have already been funded for fiscal year 2019, “the impact on UVA right now is isolated and limited,” says spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn. “UVA is monitoring the situation closely and preparing for potential effects if the shutdown continues past this month.”
Thanks to DoD funding, the JAG School at UVA’s School of Law is in operation, according to an officer there.
At the Federal Executive Institute on Emmet Street, people answering the phone refused to say whether the facility is open, and referred calls to the Office of Personnel Management. The OPM confirms the government leadership training center is open, although it’s unclear what essential service it provides.
Meanwhile, the shutdown is even thwarting local breweries that want to introduce new brews. Says Champion Brewery’s Hunter Smith. “We have to get all our labels approved by the Tax and Trade Bureau,” which normally takes two weeks when it’s open. He’d planned to introduce as many as six new beers this year, and had to stop production on one.
So far shuttered government agencies haven’t affected the real estate market, says Nest Realty’s Jim Duncan, but that could change if the closures continue.
“Right now the biggest effect is on the psychology of the consumer,” he says. “It’s hard to quantify fear.”
***
When the government doesn’t take care of its own
A number of businesses and individuals are trying to help out the public servants who are furloughed or working without a paycheck. Great Harvest has taken sandwiches to CHO to feed beleaguered TSA agents, and is offering free sandwiches, salads, and bread to unpaid federal workers.
To help paycheck-less government workers forget about their travails, a couple of movie theaters are offering free flicks. At Alamo, that’s on Monday through Thursday, and Violet Crown is hosting free matinees on those days.
And the home of Founding Father James Madison. Montpelier, is offering free tours to feds and their families, who may be able to catch Madison rolling in his grave.
Correction January 18: Susan Sherman said around 200 employees are at Shenandoah National Park this time of year. She is not privy to how many are nonessential.
JM Stock Provisions tops its buttermilk-and-lard biscuit with tasso ham and a drizzle of honey and hot sauce. Photo by Tom McGovern
By Sam Padgett
Considering our broad food and drink world, it’s difficult to imagine a single dish that could represent the city’s local food scene. Charlottesville, on account of its geography and demographics, has a more dynamic selection of foods compared to the seafood-obsessed southeastern part of the state and metropolitan areas of Northern Virginia. However, difficult as it might be to identify the dish of the city, a panel of four judges assembled by the Tom Tom Founders Festival made the executive decision that it is the humble ham biscuit.
Leni Sorensen, a culinary historian and the writer behind the Indigo House blog, sees ham biscuits as an inevitability of living in Charlottesville. Sorensen moved here later in life, and the ubiquity of ham biscuits made an impression on her. “They’re everywhere,” she says. “They’re a part of every cocktail party, every museum opening, every kind of festive occasion. I personally know people who would not dream of having a party without ham biscuits.”
Besides its abundance, Sorensen sees the ham biscuit as something that cuts across all spectrums of dining, from gourmet to everyday. Locally, the adaptability of the ham biscuit is extraordinarily clear.
Specialty foods store Feast! has a 2-inch li’l cutie of a slider-style ham biscuit made with local sweet potato biscuits, local ham and a dollop of Virginia spicy plum chutney.
Timberlake Drugs makes its traditional version with a fluffy white biscuit and ham, and there’s the option to add egg and cheese, too.
JM Stock Provisions tops a buttermilk-and-lard biscuit with tasso (spicy, smoky, Louisiana-style ham) and a drizzle of both honey and hot sauce.
The Ivy Inn uses Kite’s Country ham, a sugar-cured ham from Madison County, served with hickory syrup mustard.
The Whiskey Jar also uses Kite’s ham and offers the option of adding egg and cheese.
Ace Biscuit & Barbecue, Fox’s Cafe, Tip Top Restaurant, Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, Bluegrass Grill & Bakery and plenty of other spots that we don’t have room to name here have ’em, too.
What’s your favorite local version of the ham biscuit? Tell us at eatdrink@c-ville.com.
Is this the best IPA ever?
Luddites might want to steer clear of Champion Brewing Company’s new ML IPA, which debuted last week during the Tom Tom Founders Festival. In conjunction with local startup Metis Machine Learning (the “ML” in the name), Champion’s newest beverage was designed via computer. Using machine learning algorithms, information about the nation’s top 10 best-selling IPAs, as well as Charlottesville’s 10 worst-selling IPAs, was fed into a program that output the desired parameters for the theoretical best IPA.
While there are plenty of variables that make up the taste of the beer, they analyzed the beers’ IBUs (International Bittering Unit, a measure of bitterness), SRM (Standard Reference Method, a color system brewers use to determine finished beer and malt color) and alcohol content.
The results for each variable were 60, 6 and 6, respectively, possibly stoking more fear of a machine uprising.
Michael Prichard, founder and CEO of Metis Machine, wants to quash those fears. “All we really wanted to do was arm the brewer with some information they could work with,” he says. “It’s still a craft; we don’t want people to think we’re trying to replace the brewer.”
Hunter Smith, president and head brewer at Champion, confirms: “At the end of the day, all I was given was some parameters. After that, it was brewing as usual.”
Prichard and Smith met at a machine learning talk about a year ago, and they decided to collaborate; it seemed appropriate to have the ML IPA ready to serve during the innovation-focused Tom Tom Festival.
The ML IPA, which could stay on the menu after Tom Tom if the demand is there, is, according to Smith, a “spot-on typical IPA.”
Market Street Wine opens
Back in February, we reported that Market Street Wineshop owner Robert Harllee had decided to retire and sell his shop at 311 E. Market St. to two longtime employees, Siân Richards and Thadd McQuade. Market Street Wineshop 2.0—now called Market Street Wine—will open this weekend, with an open house from 1 to 4pm on Saturday, April 21.—Erin O’Hare
It’s the time of year C-VILLE editorial staffers dread most: landing on the final names for our Power Issue, followed by the inevitable complaints that the list contains a bunch of white men. Sure, there are powerful women and people of color in
Charlottesville. But when it comes down to it, it’s still mostly white men who hold the reins—and a lot of them are developers. The good news: that’s changing. (And we welcome feedback about who we missed, sent to editor@c-ville.com.)
If you’re looking for a different take on power, skip over to our Arts section, where local creative-industry leaders share their most powerful moments (grab some Kleenex!) on page 46.
1. Robert E. Lee statue
More than 150 years after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he continues to be a divisive figure—or at least his statue is. The sculpture has roiled Charlottesville since a March 2016 call (see No. 2 Wes Bellamy and Kristin Szakos) to remove the monument from the eponymously named park.
As a result, in the past year we’ve seen out-of-control City Council meetings, a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, a City Council vote to remove the statue, a lawsuit and injunction to prevent the removal and the renaming of
the park to Emancipation.
The issue has turned Charlottesville into a national flashpoint and drawn Virginia
Flaggers, guv hopeful and former Trump campaign state chair Corey Stewart, and Richard Spencer’s tiki-torch-carrying white nationalists. Coming up next: the Loyal White Knights of the KKK July 8 rally and Jason Kessler’s “Unite the Right” March August 12.
You, General Lee, are Charlottesville’s most powerful symbol for evoking America’s unresolved conflict over its national shame of slavery and the racial inequity still present in the 21st century.
Spawn of the Lee statue
Jason Kessler
Before the statue debate—and election of Donald Trump—Charlottesville was blissfully unaware of its own, homegrown whites-righter Jason Kessler, who unearthed Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s offensive tweets from before he took office and launched an unsuccessful petition drive to remove Bellamy from office, calling him a “black supremacist.” Since then, Kessler has slugged a man, filed a false complaint against his victim and aligned himself with almost every white nationalist group in the country, while denying he’s a white nationalist. The blogger formed Unity and Security in America and plans a “march on Charlottesville.” Most recently, we were treated to video of him getting punched while naming cereals in an initiation into the matching-polo-shirt-wearing Proud Boys.
SURJ
The impetus for the local Showing Up for Racial Justice was the seemingly unrelenting shootings of black men by police—and white people wanting to do something about it. But the Lee statue issue has brought SURJ into its own militant niche. Pam and Joe Starsia, who say they can’t speak for the collective, are its most well-known faces. The group showed up at Lee Park with a bullhorn to shout down GOP gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, interrupted U.S. Representative Tom Garrett’s town hall and surrounded Kessler at outdoor café appearances on the Downtown Mall, shouting, “Nazi go home!” and “Fuck white supremacy!”—perhaps unintentionally making some people actually feel sorry for Kessler.
2.City Council
Not all councilors are equally powerful, but together—or in alliances—they’ve kept the city fixated on issues other than the ones citizens normally care about: keeping traffic moving and good schools.
Mayor Mike Signer. Photo by Eze Amos
Mike Signer
Mayor Signer took office in January 2016 in what is widely seen as a step to higher office. He immediately riled citizens by changing the public comment procedure at City Council meetings. A judge determined part of the new rules were unconstitutional, but some council regulars say the meetings do move along much better—at least when they’re not out of control with irate citizens expressing their feelings on the Lee statue. Signer called a public rally, sans permit, to proclaim Charlottesville the capital of the resistance. And despite his vote against removing the statue, he’s not shied away from denouncing the white nationalists drawn to Charlottesville like bears to honey.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. Photo by Eze Amos
Wes Bellamy
Most politicians would be undone by the trove of racist, misogynistic and homophobic tweets Bellamy made before he was elected to City Council. As it was, they cost him his job as an Albemarle County teacher (a post from which he resigned after being placed on administrative leave) and a position on the Virginia Board of Education. But he fell on the sword, apologized and acknowledged the “disrespectful and, quite frankly, ignorant” comments he posted on Twitter. Perhaps it helped that Bellamy, at age 30, is a black male leader, has real accomplishments and has dedicated himself to helping young African-Americans. Despite his missteps, he is the voice for a sizable portion of Charlottesville’s population.
City Councilor Kristen Szakos. Photo by Elli Williams
Kristin Szakos
Szakos raised the topic of removing the city’s Confederate monuments several years before she teamed up with Bellamy, and she was soundly harassed for her trouble. When she ran for office, she called for town halls in the community and bringing council to the people, and she’s always demonstrated a concern for those who can’t afford to live in the world-class city they call home. She announced in January she won’t be seeking a third term in the fall.
City Councilor Kathy Galvin. Photo by Christian Hommel
Kathy Galvin
Galvin, an architect, envisions a strategic investment area south of the Downtown Mall, and her job will be to convince residents it’s a good deal for them. Council’s moderate voice, she, along with Signer, were the two votes against removing the Lee statue.
City Councilor Bob Fenwick. Photo by Chiara Canzi
Bob Fenwick
Even before losing the Democratic nomination June 13 with a dismal 20 percent of the vote, Fenwick was always the odd man out on council. His moment in the sun came earlier this year when he abstained from a split vote on removing the Lee statue, lobbied for pet causes among his fellow councilors and then cast his vote in the “aye” side, joining Bellamy and Szakos. That vote did not yield the groundswell of support he might have imagined from the black community. And although he leaves council at the end of the year as a one-termer, there are those who have appreciated Fenwick’s refusal to join in lockstep with the rest of council, and his willingness to call out its penchant for hiring consultants without taking action.
Coran Capshaw. Photo by Ashley Twiggs
3. Coran Capshaw
Every year we try to figure out how to do the power list without including Capshaw. But with his fingers in pies like Red Light Management (Dave Matthews, Sam Hunt); venues (the Pavilion, Jefferson, Southern and, most recently, the Brooklyn Bowl); Starr Hill Presents concert promotion and festivals such as Bonnaroo; merchandise—earlier this year, he reacquired Musictoday, which he founded in 2000; restaurants (Mas, Five Guys, Mono Loco, Ten) and of course development, with Riverbend Management, we have to acknowledge this guy’s a mogul. There’s just no escaping it.
In local real estate alone, Capshaw is a major force. Here are just a few Riverbend projects: City Walk, 5th Street Station, C&O Row, the rehabbed Coca-Cola building on Preston and Brookhill.
True, he fell from No. 7 to 11 on this year’s Billboard Power 100, but in Charlottesville, his influence is undiminished. And now he’s getting awards for his philanthropy, including Billboard’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2011, and this year, Nashville’s City of Hope medical center’s Spirit of Life Award.
UVA’s Rotunda. Photo by Karen Blaha
4. UVA
In January, UVA President Teresa Sullivan announced her summer 2018 retirement, and directed the Board of Visitors to begin the search for a new leader to rule Thomas Jefferson’s roost, the top employer in Virginia with its state-of-the-art medical center, a near-Ivy League education system and a couple of research parks teeming with innovative spirit.
Charlottesville native venture capitalist James B. Murray Jr., a former Columbia Capital partner of Senator Mark Warner, was elected vice rector of the Board of Visitors, and will take the rector-in-waiting position July 1, when Frank M. “Rusty” Connor III begins a two-year term as rector.
And lest we forget, the UVA Foundation recently purchased the university a $9 million 2015 Cessna Citation XLS—an eight-seat, multi-engine jet—to haul around its highest rollers.
Jaffray Woodriff. Photo by Eze Amos
5. Jaffray Woodriff
As the founder of Quantitative Investment Management, a futures contract and stock trading firm with experience in plataforma trading, Woodriff has landed at No. 28 on Forbes’ list of the 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers in the nation, with total earnings of $90 million. His troupe of about 35 employees manage approximately $3.5 billion in assets through a data science approach to investing.
Woodriff, an angel investor who has funded more than 30 local startups, made headlines this year when he bought the Downtown Mall’s beloved ice skating rink and announced plans to turn Main Street Arena into the Charlottesville Technology Center, which, according to a press release, “will foster talented developers and energized entrepreneurs by creating office space conducive of collaboration, mentorship and the scalability of startups.”
Demolition of the ice rink is scheduled for 2018, so there’s time yet to lace up your skates before you trade them in for a thinking cap.
Keith Woodard. Photo by Amy Jackson
6. Keith Woodard
Some might argue that Woodard’s power stems from the unrelenting complaints of people who are towed from his two downtown parking lots. But it’s the real estate those lots sit on—and more. The owner of Woodard Properties has rentals for all needs, whether residential or commercial. The latter includes part of a Downtown Mall block and McIntire Plaza. He was already rich enough to invest in a Tesla, but Woodard is about to embark on the biggest project of his life—the $50 million West2nd, the former and future site of City Market. Ground will break any time now, and by 2019, the L-shaped, 10-story building with 65 condos, office and retail space (including a restaurant and bakery/café) and a plaza will dominate Water Street.
Will Richey. Photo by Amy Jackson
7. Will Richey
When you talk about Charlottesville’s ever-growing restaurant scene, one name that seems to be on everyone’s tongue is Will Richey. The restaurateur-turned-farmer (his Red Row Farm supplies much of the produce in the summer for the two Revolutionary Soup locations) owns a fair chunk of where you eat and drink in this town: Rev Soup, The Bebedero, The Whiskey Jar, The Alley Light, The Pie Chest and the newest addition, Brasserie Saison, which he opened in March with Hunter Smith (owner of Champion Brewery, which is also on the expansion train, see. No. 9). Richey’s restaurant empire seems to know no bounds, and we’re excited to see what else he’ll add to his plate—and ours—in the coming years.
Rosa Atkins. Photo by Eze Amos
8. Rosa Atkins/Pam Moran
The superintendents for city and county schools have a long list of achievements to their names, with each division winning a number of awards under their tenures.
This month, Atkins—the city school system’s leader since 2006—was named to the State Council of Higher Education, but she’s perhaps most notably the School Superintendents Association’s 2017 runner-up for national female superintendent of the year.
Pam Moran. Photo by Amy Jackson
Moran, who has ruled county schools since 2005, held a similar title in late 2015, when the Virginia Association of School Superintendents named her State Superintendent of the Year, which placed her in the running for the American Association of School Administrators’ National Superintendent of the Year award, for which she was one of four finalists. This year, she requested the School Board continue to fund enrollment increases for at-risk students, making closing learning opportunity gaps a high priority.
Hunter Smith. Photo by Amy Jackson
9. Local beer
Throw a rock in this area and you’ll hit a brewery. For one thing, the Brew Ridge Trail is continually dotted with more stops. And new breweries in the city just keep popping up: Reason Brewery, founded by Charlottesville natives and set to open next month on Route 29 near Costco, is the latest. Other local additions include Random Row Brewery, which opened last fall on Preston Avenue, and Hardywood, based out of Richmond, which opened a pilot brewery and taproom on West Main Street in April.
And local breweries are not just opening but they’re expanding: Three Notch’d and Champion both opened Richmond satellite locations within the last year (that marks Three Notch’d’s third location, with another in Harrisonburg). And what pairs better with good drinks than good eats? Champion is adding food to its Charlottesville menu, and its brewers are enjoying a Belgian-focused playground at the joint restaurant venture Brasserie Saison.
Another sure sign that craft beer is thriving is the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild’s annual beer competition, the Virginia Craft Beer Cup Awards, which is the largest state competition of its kind; this year, 356 beers in 24 categories were entered. And Charlottesville is the new home of the organization’s annual beer showcase, the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, which is moving from Devils Backbone Brewing Company to the IX Art Park in August. Host of the event, featuring more than 100 Virginia breweries, will be Three Notch’d Brewing Company, which is expanding its brewing operations from Grady Avenue into a space at IX, set to open in 2018.
Amy Laufer. Publicity photo
10. Amy Laufer
With 46 percent of the vote in this month’s City Council Democratic primary and nearly $20,000 in donations, Laufer also had a lengthy list of endorsements, including governor hopeful Tom Perriello and former 5th District congressman L.F. Payne.
Laufer, a current school board member and former chair and vice chair of the board, is also the founder of Virginia’s List, a PAC that supports Democratic women running for state office. If she takes a seat on City Council, keep an eye out for the progress she makes on her top issues: workforce development, affordable housing and the environment.
Khizr Khan. Photo by Eze Amos
11. Khizr Khan
Khan launched the city into the international spotlight when he, accompanied by his wife, Ghazala, took the stage on the final day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and harshly criticized several of then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policies, including his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
“Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future,” Khan said. “Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of the law.’”
Khan could be seen shaking a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution at the camera—his face splayed across every major news network for days thereafter. At the convention, he discussed the death of his son, Humayun, a UVA graduate and former U.S. Army captain during the Iraq War, who died in an explosion in Baqubah, Iraq.
Khan also spoke before hundreds at Mayor Mike Signer’s January rally to declare Charlottesville a “capital of the resistance,” and Khan and his wife recently announced a Bicentennial Scholarship in memory of their son, which will award $10,000 annually to a student enrolled in ROTC or majoring in a field that studies the U.S. Constitution.
John Dewberry. Photo by Eze Amos
12. John Dewberry
Even though he doesn’t live around here, he’s from around here, if you stretch here to include Waynesboro. Dewberry continues to hold downtown hostage with the Landmark Hotel, although we have seen some movement since he was on last year’s power list. After buying the property in 2012, he said he’d get to work on the Landmark, the city’s most prominent eyesore since 2009, once he finished his luxury hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. That took a few years longer than anticipated—these things always do—but earlier this year Dewberry wrangled some tax incentives from City Council, which has threatened to condemn the structure, and on June 20, the Board of Architectural Review took a look at his new and improved plans. One of these days, Dewberry promises, Charlottesville will have a five-star hotel on the Downtown Mall.
13. Andrea Douglas
The Ph.D. in art history, who formerly worked at what’s now UVA’s Fralin Museum of Art, always seemed like the only real choice to head the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and since it opened in 2012, she’s made it an integral part of the community. The heritage center is far from self-sustaining, but a $950,000 city grant, a fundraising campaign and Douglas’ steely determination keep the historic school—and its place in the city’s history—firmly in the heart of Charlottesville. And Douglas can get a seat at Bizou anytime she wants—she’s married to co-owner Vincent Derquenne.
Paul Beyer. Photo by Ryan Jones
14. Paul Beyer
Innovation wunderkind Beyer ups the stakes on his Tom Tom Founders Festival every year. The event began six years ago as a music-only festival, but has morphed into a twice-a-year celebration of creativity and entrepreneurism. The fall is dedicated to locals who have founded successful businesses/organizations, while the week-long spring event continues to draw some of the world’s biggest names in the fields of technology, art, music and more. This year’s spring fest, which added a featured Hometown Summit that drew hundreds of civic leaders and innovators from around the country to share their successes and brainstorm solutions to struggles, was the biggest yet: 44,925 program attendees, 334 speakers and 110 events.
Lynn Easton and Dean Porter Andrews. Photo by Jen Fariello
15. Easton Porter Group
We know them as local leaders in the weddings and hospitality industry (Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards is often the site of well-to-do weddings, with some totaling in
the $200,000s, we hear), but now the Easton Porter Group has its sights set on a much bigger portfolio: Its goal is to secure 15 luxury properties in high-end destinations in the next 10 years. In 2016, the group, owned by husband-and-wife team Dean Porter Andrews and Lynn Easton, landed on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the nation.
Their latest project is to our north, with the renovation of the Blackthorne Inn outside of Washington, D.C., in Upperville, Virginia. The historic hunt-country estate, which is being transformed into a boutique inn featuring luxury-rustic accommodations, fine dining and wine, is projected to open in spring 2018.
The Easton Porter Group’s other businesses include Red Pump Kitchen on the Downtown Mall, as well as Cannon Green restaurant and the Zero George Hotel Restaurant + Bar in Charleston, South Carolina.
16. EPIC
Equity and Progress in Charlottesville made a poignant debut earlier this year, shortly after the death of former vice-mayor Holly Edwards, who was one of the founders of the group dedicated to involving those who usually aren’t part of the political process. It includes a few Democrats no longer satisfied with the party’s stranglehold on City Council, like former mayor Dave Norris and former councilor Dede Smith. The group has drawn a lot of interest in the post-Trump-election activist era, but its first two endorsements in the June 13 primary, Fenwick and commonwealth’s attorney candidate Jeff Fogel, did not fare well. The group still holds high hopes for Nikuyah Walker as an independent City Council candidate, and despite the primary setback, says Norris, “We may not have won this election, but we certainly influenced the debate.”
Dr. Neal Kassell. Courtesy photo
17. Dr. Neal Kassell
UVA’s Focused Ultrasound Center, the flagship center of its kind in the U.S., has had a banner year. The use of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound technology to treat tremors has moved from the research stage to becoming more commercialized for patient treatment. And we can thank Kassell, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, for placing our city in the neurological pioneering sphere.
Two months ago, the Clinical Research Forum named the center’s use of focused sound waves to treat essential tremor (the most common movement disorder) instead of requiring invasive incisions, as one of the top 10 clinical research achievements of 2016. And it can’t hurt to have someone as well-known as John Grisham in your corner. He wrote The Tumor, and the foundation, which works as a trusted third party between donors, doctors and research, distributed 800,000 copies.
Kassell is the author of more than 500 scientific papers and book chapters, and his research has been supported by more than $30 million in National Institutes of Health grants. In April 2016, he was named to the Blue Ribbon Panel of former vice president Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
18. Jody Kielbasa
Since Kielbasa came to town in 2009, he has continued to steer the Virginia Film Festival toward an ever-expanding arts presence in not only our community, but statewide as well. Last year’s festival featured more than 120 films and attracted big-name stars, including director Werner Herzog and Virginia’s own Shirley MacLaine. And Kielbasa expanded his own presence locally, as he was appointed UVA’s second vice provost for the arts in 2013, which places him squarely in the university’s arts fundraising initiatives. Last year there was talk of a group of arts sector powerhouses forming to lobby the city in an official capacity to gain more funding for local arts initiatives—no surprise that Kielbasa was among those mentioned.
In images from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, African-Americans in their Sunday best peacefully protested, and when violence occurred, it came from police or from virulent racists.
Those are not the optics of today’s demonstrations.
Instead, protesters knock cell phones out of people’s hands, blast them with bullhorns, block filming with hands or hats and link arms to prevent passage—and that was just at the May 14 vigil in Lee Park after the Richard Spencer white nationalist crew was there the night before.
And a video circulating from May 20 shows right-wing blogger Jason Kessler with three other people sitting at a restaurant table on the Downtown Mall, surrounded by a dozen or so people shouting, “Nazis go home” and ordering them to leave.
“You don’t get to dictate who comes in or out,” said a police officer responding to the scene.
“White supremacists should not be allowed to move quietly in public spaces,” says Pam Starsia with Showing Up for Racial Justice, which has been active in confronting Confederate memorial supporters and the alt-right—although Starsia says she’s speaking only for herself, not for SURJ.
In sharp contrast to the 1920s, when members of the Ku Klux Klan met secretly in the dark wearing white hoods, yet passed by day in polite society, she says, the strategy now is to disrupt and “to loudly call out white supremacists in public spaces.”
And yet some local activists’ tactics straddle the line between free speech and criminal behavior.
“It’s very disturbing,” says Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman. The heated rhetoric leads “to an atmosphere of antagonism,” which leads to escalation. “We should all discourage behavior that stops short of criminal offenses.”
In his more than 30 years as a prosecutor, Chapman has seen a number of protests. The difference in the current crop is “the intensity and the physical confrontation accompanying it,” he says, as well as the participation of people from outside the community.
UVA professor and activist Jalane Schmidt explains the trajectory of protest tactics since the 1950s, when Martin Luther King Jr. organized a movement of “respectability politics” and was influenced by Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau’s nonviolent resistance.
That changed in the 1960s and ’70s with the Black Panthers, who wore military garb and “eschewed respectability politics,” she says. “The tactics always change with time.”
She says, “The 21st century descendants of the Klan are the alt-right. They should not be allowed to circulate anonymously in polite society.”
A May 24 press release from the anonymous Cville Solidarity suggested a laundry list of ways to resist white supremacy. “Refuse to employ, work with, serve or shop with Nazis. Refuse to sit next to them at a bar or restaurant. Refuse to let them sit peacefully in a public space,” it said.
“There’s a harassment and intimidation campaign being led by Joe and Pam Starsia,” Kessler says. Joe Starsia was in the video of the mall shouters, and activist Veronica Fitzhugh can be seen yelling in Kessler’s face, “Fucking go home. Get up and go home.”
Earlier that night, Kessler said he went to Champion Brewery and was refused service. “They violated my civil rights,” he says.
Can businesses deny service to those whose politics or philosophy they don’t like?
“Beliefs and philosophies are protected constitutionally against actions by government,” John Jeffries, former dean of UVA’s law school, writes in an email. “Private parties are free to act against unwelcome beliefs and philosophies, unless there is a statute against such discrimination.”
For Champion owner Hunter Smith, Kessler’s civil rights “didn’t cross my mind for a minute,” he says. “He assaulted someone who works for the business. It was a safety issue.”
Jay Taylor, the man whom Kessler punched on the mall January 22, frequents the brewery and does work there, says Smith.
However, in the face of demands that service be denied, Miller’s is taking a different tack after some white nationalists came there for beers following the tiki-torch assembly at Lee Park. Miller’s Scottie Kaylor calls for courtesy on Facebook and writes: “Our policy is simple: if any person or group, on either side of the political spectrum, displays an overt hatred or disrespect for others at Miller’s, they will be asked to leave.”
Arrests from protests are mounting. After the February 11 Lee Park rally that brought gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart to town to protest City Council’s vote to remove the Robert E. Lee statue, Kessler filed charges against Sara Tansey for snatching his phone. She was charged with destruction of property and Tansey filed an assault charge against Joe Draego, claiming he grabbed her arm when he retrieved Kessler’s phone.
At the May 14 candlelight demonstration at Lee Park, Jordan McNeish was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly spitting on Kessler, Charles Best was charged with felony assault for hitting an officer in the head with a thrown cell phone, and Kessler was charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to leave the park and inciting with a bullhorn, say police.
“Police said I wouldn’t leave the park,” says Kessler. Protesters “wouldn’t let me leave. They were blocking me. They encircled me so that I was trapped.”
“Jason Kessler barged into a peaceful space that had been created by people of color with every intention of inciting a confrontation,” says Pam Starsia. “He was the aggressor.”
In video and photographs from the May 14 event, a young man filming is encircled by people who are asking why he was filming, blocking his camera and, he says on the video, knocking his cell phone out of his hand.
Blocking people filming is a tactic that comes from a practice called “doxxing,” says Starsia, in which leftist activists are filmed and their images are put online to “encourage harassment.”
“It’s a mob tactic used online by the left and the right,” says Kessler.
Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead compares current protests to ’60s sit-ins, where demonstrators “didn’t stop someone from free speech,” he says.
“The more I read about it, these people don’t want free speech,” he says. “You can’t block other people’s right to move on public property. These people need to grow up and respect other people’s rights.”
Is it free speech or assault?
What’s legal and what’s not in the resistance? We checked with Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman.
Slapping away a person’s cell phone: “Unwanted touching in an angry, rude or vengeful manner can constitute assault in Virginia,” says Chapman.
Invading one’s personal space: While there’s no law against trespassing in personal space, close contact and yelling in someone’s face could be disorderly conduct, says Chapman, escalating into allegations of being jostled. See unwanted touching above.
Using a bullhorn in someone’s face: Could violate the noise ordinance, and doing it aggressively in someone’s face in a way that interferes with her free speech potentially could be disorderly conduct.
Linking arms to prevent passage: If it’s restricting someone’s freedom and not letting them go, it could be abduction, says Chapman.
Brasseries Saison, which specializes in Belgian cuisine and beers, opened in February on the Downtown Mall. Photo by Eze Amos
The idea of a restaurant and brewery on the Downtown Mall that specializes in Belgian cuisine and beers would have been completely absurd as few as five years ago. Today, with the mainstream dominance of craft beer culture in Charlottesville, it is practically a no-brainer. Charlottesvillians discuss new beers the way farmers talk about the weather.
Brasserie Saison was the brainchild of Hunter Smith, owner of Champion Brewing, and Will Richey, owner of The Whiskey Jar, The Alley Light and other downtown hot spots. Saison refers to the signature style of beer traditionally brewed on farms in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. Smith worked closely with Joshua Lawson Skinner, a brewer at Champion, to create a house saison that could represent the restaurant and brewery.
“It’s in the name, representing the region we wanted to focus on,” Smith says. “That’s our flagship and has been the most popular since we opened. We knew that we needed to knock that one out of the park. …The first [experimental] batch we were like, that’s kind of it. So it was almost a little bit stifling when you get it right the first time. I was looking forward to a couple of months of messing around with it!”
A first sip of the house saison reveals a smooth and aromatic beer, reminiscent of Belgium’s iconic Saison Dupont that has come to define the style among American brewers.
The saison is also used in cooking the house-style steamed mussels along with bacon, garlic and chilies.
Since the birth of the American craft beer movement in the early 1980s, Belgian beers have held a special place in the hearts of serious American beer-lovers. Within the confines of a country less than a third the size of Virginia, Belgium developed a wide range of unique beer styles using malts and yeasts that weren’t used anywhere else in the world. Think of it as the Galapagos of the beer universe. It was difficult to obtain those Belgian beers before craft beer became mainstream, and on the rare occasions when Belgian ales were available in the U.S. they had often suffered badly from long trips on container ships where they were exposed to extreme temperatures.
The allure of the exotic and unobtainable Belgian beers tempted many beer-lovers on this side of the Atlantic to try their hand at brewing their own. For decades, it was the only way to drink the stuff. Belgian beers became an unofficial litmus test among homebrewers, microbrewers and beer insiders. Anyone can make an acceptable IPA. If you can make a convincing Belgian saison or dubbel, you’re probably a highly skilled brewer.
Brasserie Saison’s dry-hopped version of the house saison and Belgian IPA both depart from the traditional Belgian beer style. Photo by Eze Amos
Being asked to develop an entire menu of Belgian styles would be a dream come true for many American brewers.
“Yeah, it definitely is a dream assignment,” Skinner says. “I’ve been really passionate about Belgian beers even before I was a homebrewer. I have an idea in my mind of how they should be. It’s been a lot of fun to design and execute it and see it come to fruition.
“I’m really proud of the dubbel,” he says.“…A lot of [dubbels] tend to become banana ester bombs or syrupy sweet. So we set out to make this one dry and not too estery or too phenolic. …A lot of that is fermentation temperature and the strain of Belgian yeast that you use.”
The dubbel was indeed a dry example of the style. There were subtle notes of caramel and a hint of butterscotch in the finish.
Among the beers that Skinner developed with Smith for Brasserie Saison, there are two that depart from a traditional approach.
One is a dry-hopped version of the house saison, which is everything that the standard version is but taken up an octave with a stronger nose, and pronounced notes of citrus and pine on the palate.
Dry-hopping, which originated in England, refers to the process of adding hops to the fermenting beer rather than during the earlier boiling process. American homebrewers picked up on the technique and experimented with it in every style of beer and variety of hops imaginable. Belgian brewers noticed what the Americans were doing and recently began copying the method and applying it to their own styles. Now, Skinner and Smith have borrowed it back in their dry-hopped saison.
Brasserie Saison’s second departure from tradition is its Belgian IPA. It is doubtful that any brewery in Belgium is making an IPA, but this is probably what it would taste like.
It has a clear, sharp flavor with the body of a saison and the hops of a thoughtful, restrained Pacific Northwest-style IPA.
I handed the glass to my photographer, Eze Amos. His eyes lit up as he drank it.
“Oh God, I love beer!” he said.
The Belgian IPA has a slight bubblegum taste that pops in for just a fraction of a second, then it disappears. A full marriage of American and Belgian styles.
I went back to a taste of the dubbel as Amos applied himself to the IPA in earnest.
“This might be the best IPA I have ever had,” Amos declared.
Mike and Lori Fitzgerald took over Spudnuts from Lori’s father in 2005. Now the family, with son G. Michael, is closing the beloved potato donut shop after 47 years. Photo by Eze Amos
For years, Mike Fitzgerald has arrived at the Spudnut Shop at 309 Avon St. between 1 and 1:30am to get started on the day ahead. He’ll have a cup of coffee, check on the equipment and begin to make the first batch of potato flour donuts—he’ll mix the dough and let it rise, then roll it out, cut the donuts and fry them before glazing. If everything goes smoothly, it takes about three hours to make a single batch.
By the time Spudnuts opens at 6am, the first batch of donuts is ready and warm, and Mike’s wife, Lori, is at the counter, ready to nestle donuts into boxes for large orders, or to serve regulars their usual glazed donut—“the king of ’em all,” Lori says—and a cup of coffee.
The Fitzgeralds have run Spudnuts since 2005, after Lori’s father—Richard Wingfield, who opened the shop in 1969—passed away. Lori’s worked at the shop her entire life, and Mike started helping out shortly after he and Lori met, around 20 years ago. “He didn’t know how lucky he was—getting a wife and a donut shop,” Lori says, laughing.
So it was only after many, many months of careful consideration that the Fitzgeralds have decided to close their beloved Spudnuts at the end of December.
“Sometimes you feel like it’s time to do something else,” Lori says. “If you’ve been in a business [for this long], to carry on something that you take great care of is a lot of work. It keeps you awake for many hours.”
The couple says closing was a difficult decision to make, particularly because the business is doing well and they don’t feel overrun by other donut shops that have opened in town over the past few years. A while ago, they cut back Spudnuts’ hours, just to see how it went, how it felt.
Eventually, closing seemed like the right thing to do. Mike had wanted to spend more time with his father after closing the shop, but his father passed away last August.
The Fitzgeralds have thought a lot about what they’ll do next, and while they don’t have any definite plans (except for adopting a more regular sleep schedule), one thing is certain: The business is not for sale at this time.
“It’s as much a loss for us as it is for Charlottesville,” Lori says. The Fitzgeralds’ son, G. Michael, grew up at Spudnuts—Lori remembers him sitting in a high chair, eating his lunch with regulars and bouncing between the tables in his walker, a coconut donut in hand. G. Michael, now a senior in high school, began working the register and making change when he was a kid and says he loved sitting on a ladder in the back room to get a bird’s-eye view of donut-making every morning before school.
“We’ve had more fun than heartache,” Lori says. Every morning, a group of 70-to-80-year-old locals sit together with their donuts and coffee at the table furthest from the door, talking. Lori says she’ll miss serving up a bit of sweetness to them first thing in the morning.
“My father used to say, ‘Brighten the corner where you are,’” Lori says. “Hopefully that’s what set us apart for all these years.”
A new saison
Restaurateur Wilson Richey thinks there’s a lot of great beer being brewed in and around Charlottesville. And while there’s plenty of good beer, he says there’s not a lot of high-quality, beer-inspired food being made to pair with it. Pizza and wings just don’t cut it, he says.
“Everyone loves beer, so why not present a cuisine that’s just as interesting and has a very long history?” Richey says about the inspiration for his newest restaurant, Brasserie Saison, set to open this February on the Downtown Mall in the former Jean Theory spot.
Brasserie Saison, a collaboration between Richey and Champion Brewing Co. owner Hunter Smith, will offer Benelux cuisine (food of the Low Countries: Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, with some Polish, Austrian and German influence) and exclusive specialty beers brewed on-site by Smith and the Champion team.
Richey, the man behind Revolutionary Soup, The Whiskey Jar, The Pie Chest, The Alley Light and The Bebedero, says the Brasserie Saison kitchen and brewing operations will go hand in hand; the menus will be planned far in advance to give brewers the time to brew complementary beers.
Tyler Teass, most recently executive sous chef at D.C.’s Rose’s Luxury restaurant, will lead the kitchen. Before landing in D.C., Teass worked as sous chef at the Clifton Inn and at L’etoile.
The Brasserie Saison menu will change with some regularity, but Richey says it’ll be heavy on vegetable-based and vegetarian dishes, like marinated beets and grilled endive, with a focus on local produce and proteins. They’ll also have smoked meat, duck sausage, carbonnade (beef braised in strong ale and served with egg noodles) and a mussels dish that Richey says is “not a precious little bit, but a big bowl with French fries and sauces.”
The beers will be “really unlike other beers we’ve done at Champion,” Smith says, such as lambics, saisons and Belgian wheat beers, brewed and kegged in a space underneath the restaurant, then hooked up to a draft system in the upstairs bar. All the beer brewed at Brasserie Saison will be sold there—nowhere else. They’ll probably fill growlers, Smith says, but they’ll likely cost more than normal, because of the specialty beer.
Leah Peeks, beverage and events director for The Whiskey Jar, will have the same role at the Brasserie, running the bar program that, in addition to beer, will include cocktails and a wine list; she’ll bring over Reid Dougherty from The Whiskey Jar to manage day-to-day bar operations.
Brasserie Saison will seat 45 diners inside and another 30 on the patio. It’ll be open daily from 11am to 2:30pm for lunch and from 5 to 10pm for dinner, with late-night hours on the weekends.
Richey says they’ll have specials on both the food and bar menus—such as a curated list of Richey and Smith’s favorite bottled Belgian and Dutch beers—to keep customers intrigued.
