Calling all elves: Don’t be a cotton-headed ninny-muggins—treat yo’ elf to the Brew & Buddy Run followed by a screening of the holiday classic Elf. The three-mile run includes brewery breaks before heading to the theater for a journey through the candy cane forest, sea of swirly-twirly gumdrops, and the Lincoln Tunnel.
Sunday 12/19. $5-25, 4:30pm run, 6pm movie. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Sadly, the largest and most famous Oktoberfest celebration, held annually in Munich, Germany, has been canceled this year due to COVID-19. Oktoberfest traditionally begins in mid- September and continues into October. Of course, autumn isn’t canceled, and as it arrives in Virginia, local breweries and beer drinkers can look forward to the release of beers appropriate for the season.
In Germany, the term Oktoberfestbier is legally defined with strict regulations about ingredients, brewing methods, alcohol levels, etc. In the United States, breweries have a bit more leeway, but beers that are specifically for Oktoberfest fall primarily into two categories: festbier or märzen. Märzen is the darker, fuller-bodied style many identify as the beer of fall, and was once the beer served in Germany for Oktoberfest. However, recently there’s been a move away from this style to the lighter-bodied festbier style. Festbier, a pale lager with low alcohol content, is more refreshing, making it easier to drink, and easier to drink more of.
Whether your personal preference is for a lighter- or a fuller-bodied style, local breweries have you covered.
The Festie Oktoberfest Lager from Starr Hill Brewery is available only during the months of September and October. It’s traditional in style with a low alcohol level of 4.8 percent ABV (alcohol by volume), and a pale golden color that is accompanied by a malty, biscuit nose and a light yeasty bread palate with just a hint of Hallertau hops. Interestingly, the beer is labeled “märzen-style” but falls squarely in the festbier category. It’s also available as part of the brewery’s Fall Tour variety pack that includes Starr Hill’s Grateful Pale Ale, Reviver Red IPA, and Last Leaf Maple IPA too.
Devils Backbone also has a festbier, the O’Fest Lager. It comes in slightly heavier at 5.9 percent ABV. It’s golden in color with a bit more fullness on the palate. A light nose of cracker and lemon peel leads to malty and toasted bread flavors, with a drying finish and slightly lingering hop bitterness. Very classic in style, this will appeal to those who find other festbiers a bit too light.
The 13.Five Oktoberfest Lagerbier from Blue Mountain Brewery takes its name from German regulatory laws requiring beers served at Oktoberfest to have an original specific gravity of 13.5° Plato. This number is related to the final alcohol level, which is 6 percent ABV in this case. The beer is medium amber in color, with a nose that is malty and bready, with hints of toasted sesame. On the palate, it is rich with lots of biscuit and cracker and well-balanced hop character. This märzen-style brew is a clear nod to tradition and is a good example of what many expect of Oktoberfest beer.
Just released, the Märzen Oktoberfest- style Amber Lager from Random Row Brewing Co. comes in at 5.8 percent ABV and brings malty, yeasty flavors with hints of rye bread. There is a touch of citrus- flavor hops on the slightly drying finish. Very pleasant and easy drinking, it’s available on tap and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans.
Three Notch’d Brewing Company’s limited release Oktoberfest beer is cleverly named Hansel and Kettle Imperial Oktoberfest. Available in 16-ounce. cans, this is a full-bodied märzen-style beer with higher alcohol (8 percent ABV), a dark caramel color, and a weighty palate. The sweet biscuit nose leads to flavors of toast and dark caramel and a long finish that has just a hint of bitterness. Very enjoyable for those looking for a fuller style märzen.
Champion Brewing is really getting into Oktoberfest this year with the release of four German-style beers: a festbier (5.5 percent ABV), a märzen (also 5.5 percent ABV), a kölsch (5 percent ABV), and Lagerboi (a zwickelpils, which is an unfiltered pilsner-style beer that is becoming more popular with American beer drinkers and comes in at 4.8 percent ABV). Hunter Smith, president of Champion, shared that he is excited to also feature the festbier and märzen on tap at his Brasserie Saison restaurant.
One of the newest breweries in town, Selvedge Brewing at The Wool Factory, is also offering a traditionally German style for the fall. Corduroy is a bock, typically darker in color and a little higher in alcohol than beers made for Oktoberfest. At 7 percent ABV, it’s a deep amber brew that’s still smooth on the palate. The nose is reminiscent of rising bread dough. Full flavors combine malty, yeasty, and roasted nuttiness with a slight sweetness. The overall impression suggests warm, toasted brioche, and it’s a perfect beer for chilly autumn days.
Lastly, for some the fall season would not be complete without flavors of pumpkin or maple. While the explosion of pumpkin beers that was seen a few years ago has seemed to subside, Rockfish Brewing Co. offers a seasonal pumpkin ale for those who are looking. The previously mentioned Last Leaf Maple IPA from Starr Hill will entice those who love maple syrup with a flavor that isn’t overly sweet, but reminds them of freshly made pancakes on a Saturday morning.
Whatever your fancy, local breweries are offering a variety of beers to tempt your palate this autumn. Even if you can’t travel to Germany, it’s still possible to celebrate Oktoberfest and good beer here in Virginia.
After nearly an hour of discussion, and midway through a meeting that lasted until 2:30am, City Council voted July 20 to move forward with the Flint Hill housing development, a set of new homes to be constructed in Fry’s Spring.
Last year, council rejected an initial proposal for the project, but Southern Development has since made substantial changes to its plan. It now wants to build 37 single-family homes and two eight-unit condominium buildings, dumping its original plan for 50 townhouses.
The developers have also boosted the number of affordable units, from 10 percent to at least 15 percent. The units will be affordable for 30 years, and priced to house residents from 25 to 60 percent of area median income.
With a density of six units per acre, there will be some room left for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units, such as a basement apartment or guest house. And there will be almost five acres of green space along Moores Creek, including trails and places to gather.
Last month, the Charlottesville Planning Commission unanimously endorsed the revamped plans.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville has partnered with Southern Development, and will build 30 percent of the units. Because the average area median income for Habitat families is 32 percent, Habitat’s president, Dan Rosensweig, said that Flint Hill would be “really good” for them, and for the city.
“It’s the kind of neighborhood our families have told us they’d like to live in,” he added. “This isn’t an answer to all affordable housing issues…[but] we’re really excited to be part of this project.”
Multiple people voiced their support for the development during public comment, including a current Habitat homeowner.
While Mayor Nikuyah Walker had several concerns, including when families would be able to move into the affordable units, she admitted the project was “better than anything” she’s seen regarding affordable housing since she’s been on council.
Two ordinances and a resolution for the development will be put on the consent agenda for council’s next meeting on August 3, and the project will move forward from there.
__________________
Quote of the week
“As you consider defunding the police, my message to you is to fund diversity in crisis responders…[The public mental health system] has just as much systemic bias issues as law enforcement.”
—Black mental health advocate Myra Anderson, speaking to City Council.
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Military grade
On Monday, City Council voted to ban the Charlottesville Police Department from obtaining weapons from the military and participating in military training. But ahead of the meeting, Planning Commission member Rory Stolzenberg pointed out a variety of loopholes in the resolution—military equipment could still be purchased from private sellers, and the resolution doesn’t address the military-style equipment already in CPD’s arsenal. Stolzenberg, along with other public speakers, urged council to pull the policy from the consent agenda and strengthen it, but council passed the resolution anyway. “Just because it’s not pulled tonight, doesn’t mean we’re not going to work on this,” said Vice-Mayor Sena Magill.
Beer and spirits
Three Notch’d Brewing Company is the latest local business to strip Confederate imagery from its brand. For years, the Charlottesville-based brewers have been selling The Ghost APA, which is named for John S. Mosby, a Charlottesville native and Confederate officer nicknamed the Gray Ghost. The beer will now be called Ghost of the James, a reference to the reserve fleet of U.S. military boats currently stored on the river. The packaging has shifted from gray to blue.
Freitas tries again
Last week, Nick Freitas won the Republican primary to challenge freshman U.S. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger for Virginia’s competitive 10th District seat. Freitas lost to far-right statue defender Corey Stewart in the 2018 Republican U.S. Senate primary, and won his current seat in the House of Delegates through a write-in campaign, after failing to file paperwork to get himself on the ballot. He nearly made the same mistake this year, but the Virginia Board of Elections extended the deadline for filing, a move the Democratic Party has contested.
Much of the local uproar about the import tariffs levied by the Trump Administration last year appears to have died down, though concerns remain.
The U.S. government placed a duty of 30 percent on imported solar panels in January 2018, and several months later added a 25 percent tax on steel and a 10 percent tax on aluminum shipped from most countries around the world. Effective in September of last year, the Trump White House released a list of approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports subject to additional tariffs of 10 percent. The tariffs increased to 25 percent on January 1.
Reacting specifically to the taxes on metals and solar panels, a number of C’ville business owners sounded the alarm in early to mid-2018. Craft beer producers said they were concerned about packaging prices and equipment for expansion projects, and two solar panel companies with a Charlottesville presence were prepared to take a hit on component prices.
“We were very hopeful that the tariff would not be imposed, but we have been preparing for this since May [2017],” Sigora Solar CEO Logan Landry told local news outlets last January.
But Sigora marketing manager Madeleine Ray now says the 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels has not affected business. In fact, the company has seen greater growth rates in the last year than it ever has before, Ray says. The preparations Sigora put in place for a tariff that could have been as high as 50 percent—reducing operating costs and stockpiling panels and equipment—coupled with steadily growing domestic sales, insulated the company from adverse tax effects.
“We have not seen a slowdown in business whatsoever,” Ray says. “We used our buying power to weather the tariffs. There were some small price changes, but they were not enough to pass on to our customers. We have not raised prices.”
Home construction and improvement companies saw immediate effects from the tariffs, but the worst may be behind them, according to Builders FirstSource’s Stuart Walton, a Charlottesville-based outside salesperson for the national construction materials supplier.
Walton says metal framing costs “went absolutely crazy” from February to June 2018. Some suppliers hiked prices by 40 percent, and a number of metal shipments sat at port while companies waited on the fallout from the proposed tariffs.
“[Prices have] come back down, but I don’t think all the way to the level it was,” Walton says. “I have been doing this for five or so years, and it was probably at the lowest point it had ever been. The industry itself is realigning, so I don’t know how much of that is based on the tariffs.”
Local breweries took the tariff spotlight last September, when Senator Mark Warner visited Random Row Brewing Co. to discuss how the import duties might affect artisanal ale production. At the time, Warner suggested a trade war with U.S. allies was the wrong approach to other countries dumping cheap steel and aluminum in the domestic market.
Snowing in Space, a C’ville nitro coffee business, also expressed concerns about the tariffs. Co-founder and COO Damian Warshall, who did not respond to recent emails and phone calls, said in July last year the steel tariffs could affect his company’s ability to purchase steel brewing tanks for expansion. Warshall also expressed concern about rising aluminum costs, as Snowing in Space distributes coffee in cans. “Customers right now are paying about $3.49 for a 12-ounce can,” Warshall told the local NBC affiliate. “It will end up being maybe 12 to 15 cents more per can for the customer.”
Three Notch’d Brewing Company also distributes most of its product in cans, and brewmaster Dave Warwick says the brewery’s latest invoice from overseas can supplier Ardagh Group showed a 9 percent jump in price. “That’s the only increase we’ve seen in several years and the largest by far we’ve ever seen,” Warwick says. “We let the market dictate what we charge for our canned beer, so for now, we may be taking the hit. At some point, though, somebody is going to make the first move and you’ll see the price of canned beer increase.”
Warwick cautions he can’t say for certain the price hike is a result of last year’s aluminum tariffs. Representatives of Ardagh did not respond to emails asking about the increase.
Random Row owner Kevin McElroy shared Warner’s concerns about taxing metals from countries worldwide. “For a brewery our size, it’s more about the future of steel and aluminum costs and how it’s going to affect our plans to grow the business,” McElroy told Warner and members of the Brewer’s Association last September.
McElroy says he’s been looking into his options for expansion since last fall, and the Trump tariffs have “changed the way we are looking at how to expand.” For example, he may be more inclined to purchase used equipment. “Prices have gone up a little bit on new equipment,” McElroy says. “It hasn’t been quite as big as some people thought it would be, but [the tariffs are] still relatively new, and the fear is it can get worse.”
A handful of local businesses elected not to comment on the tariffs—a representative of King Family Vineyards in Crozet says the winery has nothing to add, and Margo Pollak of Greenwood-based Pollak Vineyards says the small winemaker makes only a few seasonal purchases from overseas. “I don’t have an obvious sense of the impact,” she says.
Joey Conover of Latitude 38 likewise says buying from domestic sources and making few capital purchases over the last calendar year has protected her firm from the spikes suppliers like Builders FirstSource might have passed on. But Walton says that has not been the case for all his buyers.
“As far as our customers are concerned, it created a huge problem,” he says. “They might have quoted jobs—take one of those buildings on West Main—and those things are locked into a price nine months before they break ground. By the time they are framing, they’re locked into a price, and we can’t eat it. I don’t know if people went belly up because of it, but a lot of people were impacted.”
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.
Lee Graves is not a foodie—he says so himself on the fourth page of his recently released book Virginia Beer: A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft’s Golden Age. But he is uniquely qualified to tell the rich story of Virginia craft beer.
Graves was a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the mid-’90s when an idea came up in an editorial meeting. We’re starting to see some small breweries open up, the editors thought. Why not start a beer column?
“I raised my hand, and all of a sudden I was writing a weekly column,” Graves says.
Graves was in the right place at the right time—his writing was syndicated by Chicago-based Tribune Media and appeared in newspapers across the country from 1996 to 2002—and he had a front-row seat to watch the first wave of modern craft breweries roll through Virginia and beyond.
If you’ve no clue what that “first wave” might be, Graves will enlighten you in Virginia Beer, one part suds market breakdown, two parts beer history, and three parts brewery travel planner.
“I don’t necessarily want it to be a guidebook,” Graves says. “But if you’re going to Roanoke, I hope the book will be valuable. There’s also some background on the process and pairings for the beer novice. I want it to be accessible.”
Virginia Beer comes on the heels of Graves’ city-focused Charlottesville Beer: Brewing in Jefferson’s Shadow and Richmond Beer: A History of Brewing in the River City. And while the new tome draws on the first two, Graves says he’s included plenty of new material for his repeat readers.
“It puts Charlottesville in a broader context,” he says. “The thing is, the city has a special place in craft beer history.”
Around the time Graves launched his Times-Dispatch column and Richmond’s Legend Brewing Company was gearing up for a decades-long run as Virginia’s craft beer standard-bearer, Charlottesville quietly launched some breweries of its own. The state’s first brewpub, Blue Ridge Brewing Company, opened in 1987 and later folded. But South Street Brewery has been going strong since 1998, and Starr Hill opened its trailblazing doors in ’99.
“The area began making its mark in the modern surge of craft brewing well ahead of the rest of the Commonwealth,” Graves writes in Virginia Beer. “Charlottesville routinely finds itself on lists of top places to live; why not promote it as one of the top places to find craft beer?”
South Street and Starr Hill are among those selected for the C’ville area, as are Three Notch’d Brewing Company, Champion Brewing Company, Random Row Brewing Co., Reason Beer, Blue Mountain Brewery and Barrel House, Wild Wolf Brewing Company, and Devils Backbone Brewing Company.
Graves says in the preface to Virginia Beer he followed no scientific method for selecting the breweries profiled, a point he reiterated in a phone interview. But there was reasoning behind the selections.
“I wanted to make sure I included some of the high-profile breweries and ones that have won medals,” he says. “But I also wanted to include breweries that might be out of the way that people might miss if they’re not careful.”
Readers are treated to local lore about Taylor and Mandi Smack, who met at Goose Island in Chicago before working together at South Street and later opening Blue Mountain; the booming early 2010s that brought us Three Notch’d and Champion; the marketing strategy that was the Brew Ridge Trail; and the meteoric rise and big-beer-buyout at Devils Backbone. “It’s breweries that have helped make Virginia a thriving beer culture,” Graves says.
Graves also wants his C’ville readers to find reasons to explore beyond the city limits. He profiles Waynesboro’s Basic City Beer Company, where South Street alum Jacque Landry is now head brewer; imperial stout specialist Brothers Craft Brewing in Harrisonburg; and Richmond’s hipster magnet, The Answer Brewpub.
The balance of the book offers plenty of interesting nuggets readers won’t find elsewhere, Graves says. There’s the University of Virginia student who had a profound impact on the homebrewing industry and Colorado’s craft scene, the role of slaves in hop history, the Virginia senate bill that changed everything for brewpubs, and Graves’ thoughts about where the industry goes from here.
“Yes the industry is maturing and the growth rate has slowed,” Graves says. “There will definitely be some sorting out.” But Virginia should bear less of that, with less breweries per capita.
And, oh yeah, he clears up all that “wave” stuff.
Pastry chef Earl Vallery is new to Charlottesville, and there are a few things you should know about him. 1) He loves bread. “I think it’s the most amazing food. I could eat it every day of my life,” says Vallery, who went to culinary school for bread-baking before turning to pastry (he helped launch Whisk bakery in Richmond). 2) His brand-new Bowerbird Bakeshop will sell matcha mint chocolate chip cookies (“if a Thin Mint and a chocolate chip cookie had a baby…” Vallery says) and double-chocolate vortex cookies (a naturally gluten-free meringue-based cookie that’s crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside) at the City Market holiday market. 3) Vallery loves a good French macaron, and 4) He’ll make macs for your holiday party. Vallery has a smorgasbord of interesting macaron flavors lined up, too, like Thai coffee (Italian buttercream filling flavored with coffee, condensed milk and cardamom); another with Earl Grey-infused chocolate ganache; and a classic pink-shelled vanilla macaron with rainbow sprinkles. Get at him at bowerbirdbakeshop@gmail.com for wholesale order info.
Pucker up
Charlottesville’s beer scene will get funkier this Friday, November 24, with the opening of Three Notch’d Brewing Co.’s sour house at 946 Grady Ave.
Most Americans are familiar with beers made from a very specific kind of yeast, says Three Notch’d founding brewer Dave Warwick—a yeast with a clean finish and a soft, fruity flavor. But other yeasts, such as wild yeasts, can add a funky flavor to brews. It’s fun for brewers to play with different yeasts and flavors, but it can be difficult to brew sours, Warwick says, because the yeasts required for sours are airborne and if not contained to a single room, can “go wild, so to speak, and infect” cleaner beers with that funky, sour taste.
Warwick says that for opening weekend, the sour house (which has been in the works for about a year) will have about a dozen sour beers on tap, including the Galaxy Table Beer, a low-alcohol, crisp, easy-drinking sour that gets its tropical fruit flavor from the Australian-grown galaxy hop, and Eat A Peach, a sour brewed with lapsang souchong smoked black tea, fermented on top of peach puree and aged in oak barrels.
Sours are “wonderful, wonderful, beautiful beers,” says Warwick, adding that they go well with many fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Fans of dry, red wines high in tannins might be surprised at how familiar the flavor profiles will taste, he says.
Cherry on top
A couple months ago, a C-VILLE reader said Cocoa & Spice’s triple chocolate chunk brownie was the best thing she’d eaten in Charlottesville all year (and she doesn’t even like chocolate). Get one of your own for $6—warmed up and smothered in two toppings of your choice, such as salted caramel sauce and toasted coconut—on Saturday, November 25, during the chocolate shop’s brownie pop-up fundraiser at the City Market’s holiday market from 8am to noon, and again from 3 to 6pm at Cocoa & Spice’s retail location at 506 Stewart St. One dollar from every brownie sold will benefit the Charlottesville Derby Dames.
Bottoms up, y’all. It’s Virginia Spirits Month here in the commonwealth, sponsored by the Virginia Distillers Association and meant to spotlight Virginia-made spirits. Many local bartenders do so all year ’round, but there are a few special cocktails this month that are worth sidling up to the bar for.
Junction’s Alec Spidalieri is shaking things up with the Rum Communion, the Stablemate, the Chai Tai and the Other Woman. The Rum Communion is “an upscale, seasonal daiquiri for fall,” says Spidalieri, and is made with Charlottesville’s own Vitae Spirits golden rum. Spidalieri washes each bottle of golden rum with one pound of brown butter—he whisks the rum and butter together, then freezes the mixture overnight, skims off the butter, strains and rebottles the rum—then combines the butter-washed rum with a cordial made from grilled pineapple and fresh lime juice, aggressively shaken, strained and served up.
“It’s a rich but balanced cocktail that packs a lot of flavor with butter and caramel notes,” says Spidalieri.
The Chai Tai’s components, dark chai spice rum from Culpeper’s Belmont Farm’s Kopper Kettle combined with Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, lime and orgeat (“a sort of floral almond milk syrup,” Spidalieri explains), give this take on a classic mai tai “a new dimension of spice character that makes it perfect for late summer/early fall,” says Spidalieri.
Over at The Alley Light, in addition to the popular Rose Hill Ruby with Vitae Spirits platinum rum, Micah LeMon’s making a Virginia Alexander, made with Bowman Brothers bourbon, Vitae Spirits golden rum, P.Boo’s salted rum caramel (which LeMon makes himself), cream, egg white and black salt, and the Ugly Stick, concocted with Copper Fox rye, Virginia black birch (another LeMon creation), smoked maple, Zucca and black walnut bitters. LeMon says he’s also hitting a lot of folks with the Ugly Stick, perhaps due in no small part to the Copper Fox rye, made in Sperryville, which LeMon says “is an anomalous and interesting distillate” that tastes more Scotch-y than most whiskeys because of its high barley content.
Tavola, Whiskey Jar, Rapture and The Local are participating in Virginia Spirits Month, too, as are Charlottesville ABC stores, where you can taste some local spirits during in-store events.
Charlottesville’s super into bowls, with spots like Roots Natural Kitchen, Chopt, Poke Sushi Bowl and The Salad Maker, which all rolled into town over the last couple of years. Now we have two more: Citizen Bowl and b.good.
Citizen Bowl is open from 11am-3pm Monday through Friday in the Penny Heart private event space on the Downtown Mall (it’s the spot previously occupied by Eleven Months Presents: Sorry It’s Over and, before that, Yearbook Taco). Citizen Bowl offers eight different specialty bowls, all of which are gluten-free, such as the Fall Harvest (quinoa, power greens, beets, sweet potato, toasted pumpkin seeds, apple, chevre, balsamic) and the #umami (brown rice, power greens, local mushrooms, toasted sesame seeds, jalapeno, cilantro, edamame, arctic char, cilantro lime dressing), and make-your-own custom bowls.
Our bowls runneth over as casual farm-to-fork chain b.good is scheduled to open this week in the north wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center, between Pink Palm and Penelope, with an array of grains and greens salads. The menu also promises burgers—beef, turkey, veggie—and chicken sandwiches made a few different ways, such as the Cousin Oliver (lettuce, tomato, onions, homemade pickles) or the El Guapo (bacon, homemade jalapeno slaw, jalapeno ranch), plus sides like sweet potato fries, avocado toast and eggplant meatballs, as well as smoothies, milkshakes and kids’ meals.
A few local food-and-drink spots are contributing to relief efforts for the damage caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which together killed more than 150 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean.
For an entire week in late August/early September, Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint, which has 10 locations throughout the southern United States, including one on Second Street SE off the Downtown Mall, donated 100 percent of its profits—totaling $34,236.61—to the American Red Cross to assist with Harvey relief.
This past weekend, Shenandoah Joe and Three Notch’d Brewing Company combined efforts to gather supplies for those affected. They’d hoped to fill a 48-foot trailer to send down to the people in southern Florida whose lives were “turned upside down” by Hurricane Irma, says Shenandoah Joe owner Dave Fafara. Although they collected quite a bit, including boxes of nonperishable canned and boxed food, clothes, diapers, cleaning supplies and more than 100 cases of water, plus $600 in cash donated by City Market vendors on Saturday, they didn’t get enough to fill a trailer on their own, so they’re combining with a similar Greene County effort to send a truck of supplies down this week. Someone even donated a car seat, says Fafara, adding that “it was good to see the community do something for people they don’t know.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
If you’ve made the trip down I-64 recently to check out an REI garage sale or pop in at the General Assembly, you may have noticed a familiar sign or two in the area. Restaurants and breweries that are native to Charlottesville continue to appear all around our eastward neighboring city—and while we love any excuse to remind the world of our uniqueness, it’s important to remember that sharing is caring, right?
Champion Brewing Company owner Hunter Smith is one of the most recent Charlottesville business owners to set his sights on Virginia’s capital, and the downtown Richmond location quietly opened in February. It’s hard to imagine our fair city without the beloved Shower Beer or Missile IPA, and for Smith it only made sense to introduce the brewery, the concept and the beers to a larger and, according to Smith, different market.
“In the Richmond beer scene we see a very savvy customer who’s always into the newest thing,” Smith says. “Charlottesville seems to really take favorites as far as beers they love, staple beers that they want to keep. There are staples in Richmond, but it’s all about what’s new and what’s next.”
Three Notch’d Brewing Company CEO and founder George Kastendike agrees.
“The beer culture there is extremely innovative, with some of the most educated consumers in the country on craft beer,” says Kastendike. “With the greater demographics of Richmond being larger than Charlottesville, it was challenging. In order to do it in an authentic way, we needed to put some real thought into the concept.”
Much like Champion’s Richmond location, the newest Three Notch’d at RVA Collab House will always have its classics like the Minute Man IPA on tap. But it’s a different neighborhood, a different city and a different market, and the team’s mission all along has been to make each taproom consistent in culture and experience while embracing the surrounding community.
“What they’re looking for is a cultural experience,” says Kastendike of both Charlottesville and Richmond beer consumers. “That’s one of inclusion, a place where there’s freedom to express yourself. People are looking for innovative beer styles, definitely beers they can’t get in some of the other locations, and I think if you err toward that characteristic of experimentation, it offers some depth to the taproom and individuality to it.”
And craft beer isn’t the only piece of Charlottesville to make its way to the River City. Should you find yourself hankering for a meal reminiscent of home while you’re in Richmond, keep an eye out for Citizen Burger Bar, Marco and Luca, Zzaam!, Continental Divide and Christian’s Pizza.