Tag: Jefferson School City Center

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Culture Living

Circling back: Pearl Island’s Caribbean cuisine gets a boost from C’ville Builds

Pearl Island’s renovations will make it easier for customers to dig in to the Caribbean restaurant’s roast pork, chicken with gravy, and curry tofu. “The pandemic has been challenging in many ways, but it has forced us to update our processes and reimagine our business in a more sustainable way,” says co-founder Sober Pierre. Photo by John Robinson

If pigeon peas, plantains, and pikliz jumpstart a craving for you, you’re probably a fan of Pearl Island Foods. The Caribbean-centric food business launched with a booth at Charlottesville City Market in 2014, before moving into the Jefferson School City Center two years later. Sober Pierre, owner and operator of Pearl Island Foods, and Executive Chef Javier Figueroa-Ray operate a small café and catering company, and before the pandemic hit, things were going well.

“The pandemic significantly reduced our catering business, which was the majority of our business,” says Pierre. This meant they had to redirect their efforts toward the café. “The operating constraints required to safely operate amidst COVID-19 has unintentionally forced our café to become a more integral part of our revenue stream.”

The reframing of Pearl Island’s business also required some construction that seemed likely to debilitate the restaurant’s financials. But when the folks at Building Goodness Foundation’s C’ville Builds heard about Pearl Island’s plight, they stepped in.

“We work a lot in the Caribbean in Haiti, and this is the type of food culture we promote, so this circles back because this is the type of project we do internationally,” says Sophie Parson, Building Goodness Foundation’s development and communications manager. “We’re focusing on small businesses and Pearl Island has nine employees. …This is the type of food Pierre and his team are trying to raise cultural awareness of in the community, so it was easy for us to jump on.”

The project will come in two phases, Parson says. The first, which should be completed by the end of the year, will organize the kitchen and storage unit to make it more efficient, since delivery involves storing a large volume of packaging supplies, which take up considerable space.

Pierre says phase two will help to allow food service in the outdoor space at the Jefferson School, with a goal of using this new area to cope with COVID in the present, while keeping the future of the entire building in mind.

“The redesigned outdoor patio is geared more towards post-COVID dining activity,” says Pierre. “However, we are looking forward to creating an outdoor space that is inviting for our customers and for people who haven’t been to Jefferson School City Center, the ‘soul of the city.’ This historically black segregated school is a national landmark that serves as a community center with several nonprofits housed within it. We are happy to serve the community alongside them.”

In addition, Parson says the new area will help extend the outdoor Downtown Mall a bit further. “It makes the Jefferson School that much more attractive, and brings people to the space, so you can, say, drop your kid at the YMCA daycare and have a drink and eat at Pearl Island.”

Categories
Living

Veritas branches out: Wide distribution planned for new brand True Heritage

True Heritage wines use grapes planted on historic estates in Keswick that are collaborating with Veritas on the new project. Photo: Veritas Vineyard & Winery

Afton’s Veritas Vineyard & Winery has announced the launch of a new label, True Heritage. Breaking away from the traditional Virginia winery model (mostly on-site and local sales), True Heritage will focus on wider distribution to both meet and increase demand for the Commonwealth’s reds and whites. The rollout targets retail outlets and restaurants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. But Veritas CEO George Hodson and head winemaker Emily Pelton say the ultimate goal is to reach national and even international markets.

The brand name is a humblebrag
about Virginia’s place in U.S. winemaking history. As the True Heritage website notes, Jamestown settlers planted vines in 1609, and the first American vineyard—with 85 acres under cultivation—sprang up in Williamsburg in 1619, a full 160 years before missionaries put vines in the ground in California.

Today, Virginia bottles a fraction of the wine that industry-leading California does. But critics have noted a marked improvement in the quality of the vintages produced here, and True Heritage aims to capitalize on this. Planted on the historic Keswick estates Castalia and Ben Coolyn, 50 acres of vines currently produce grapes for True Heritage, and 150 more vineyard acres are planned.

United we eat

In October 2017, about 700 people attended the United Way’s first Community Table at the Jefferson School City Center, where they reflected on the violent white supremacist rallies of August 11 and 12. The third Community Table event—part of the city’s Unity Days—is a free event that takes place from 6-9pm on August 8 at IX Art Park. Attendees will gather for guided but casual conversation over a family-style meal by Harvest Moon Catering. “We all know that sharing a meal is one of the best ways to create new relationships,” says Caroline Emerson, United Way vice president for community engagement. “Getting to know each other can lead to greater awareness and understanding.” Register by emailing acommunitytable@unitedwaytja.org. Seating is limited, and attendance is determined by a lottery.

Just peachy

Nothing says summer quite like homemade ice cream, especially when it’s of the peach variety. For the past 35 years, Chiles Peach Orchard has donated peaches to the Crozet Lions Club, which then uses the freshly-picked fruit to make the creamy frozen stuff. Get a taste at the peach orchard from 9am-6pm on August 3, and 10am-6pm on August 4. All sales benefit the Crozet and Western Albemarle community. 1351 Greenwood Rd., 823-1583, chilesfamilyorchards.com.

Categories
News

‘Shocked, humiliated:’ Jefferson School executive director sues tenant for defamation

The Jefferson School has been a Charlottesville landmark since 1926, when it was one of only 10 African American high schools in Virginia. (Photo: Skyclad Aerial)

The executive director of the Jefferson School Foundation is suing one of the building’s resident nonprofit partners for defamation, after the tenant accused her of conducting “unethical fundraising” in a previous job.

Sue Friedman, a former Albemarle School Board chair, was hired in January to handle day-to-day operations of the historical Jefferson School City Center, as well as coordinate fundraising efforts for the nonprofit foundation. The center houses 11 nonprofit partners, including the African American Heritage Center.

But at an April 12 meeting of the resident partners, Common Ground Healing Arts Executive Director Elliott Brown expressed concerns over how Friedman was hired, and questioned why the board of directors “would hire someone who was fired from her last job for exhibiting unethical behavior in fundraising,” according to a complaint filed by Friedman in Albemarle Circuit Court.

In an email sent to Friedman and others two weeks later, which was attached to the court filing, Brown said she should have used the word “left” instead of “fired,” but maintained her claim that Friedman exhibited unethical behavior as president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, a nonprofit that Friedman led for 12 years.

Brown also said in the email she believed a white person must be “overwhelmingly justified” to run the former African American school—a standard she said Friedman didn’t meet.

In response to the criticism, Friedman filed suit, charging that Brown’s statements were defamatory. In the suit, she denies conducting any unethical fundraising practices while at the Alzheimer’s Association, and she wants $1 million, as well as $350,000 for punitive damages (the maximum allowable amount) and the costs of attorneys’ fees.

“Sue Friedman was with the Alzheimer’s Association Central and Western Virginia chapter for 12 years,” a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Association said in a statement. “She chose to leave the organization in December, 2018 to pursue a new opportunity.”

According to sources close to the Jefferson School who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the resident partners asked board chair Martin Burks III to attend their April meeting to discuss Friedman’s hiring process. They say the tenants were put off by Friedman’s demeanor and decisions related to her position, and felt excluded from the decision to bring her aboard.

The board hired Friedman in December after narrowing the search down to six candidates. Sources say some resident partners asked to be part of the hiring process and were told they could be, but the board conducted several interviews without them.

One of the board members at the time was Frank Friedman, Sue Friedman’s husband and the president of Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC is a resident partner of City Center, where it hosts culinary arts and community self-sufficiency programs. Frank recused himself from the interview process and resigned from his position on the board at its first meeting of the year, which occurred in February.

Sue Friedman alleges in the suit that Brown’s comments damaged her reputation among both Charlottesville community members and the resident partners, compromising her “ability to raise funds and serve as the public face” of the Jefferson School.

She also calls Brown’s questions of her ability to serve in her role as a white person “offensive and racist,” and her attorney has demanded a trial by jury.

Neither Friedman responded to C-VILLE’s requests for comment.

“This is the first time in all the years the tenants have been at the Jefferson School that I’ve seen a drastic shift in the momentum of our working together,” one source says. “A lawsuit in the mix has created a pall over the place.”

At the meeting, Brown pushed with direct questions about Friedman, and read from a prepared statement—making the comments that later prompted the lawsuit. Friedman was “shocked, humiliated, and outraged” about Brown’s claims, according to court documents; she then left the meeting and didn’t return.

Brown’s follow-up email two weeks later, now attached to the complaint, was addressed to Friedman, the board, resident partners, and other employees of Common Ground. The message was in response to Friedman’s April meeting notes, also filed with the complaint, of which Brown wrote that “many things [were] off or missing.”

She said in the email that some resident partners were turned away from interviews with prospective candidates for Friedman’s job. In addition, Brown said she initially felt that voicing her concerns in front of Friedman was “inappropriate,” but decided that “if the tables were turned, I would want the respect of being in the room during a discussion like this about me.”

Neither Brown nor Burks responded to requests for comment on this story.

Tom Albro, the lawyer representing Friedman, is also representing Edward Dickinson Tayloe II (a plaintiff in the lawsuit fighting City Council’s vote to remove Confederate statues) in a defamation suit against C-VILLE, news editor Lisa Provence, and UVA assistant professor Jalane Schmidt for this feature story. A copy of that complaint can be found here.