In case you haven’t heard already, there are two restaurant weeks coming to town. One is the semi-annual tradition put on by The Hook 1/21-27, at cvilleyum.com, while the other is a new event this year by vmvbrands at charlottesvillerestaurantweek.com, arriving one week after The Hook’s, from 1/28-2/3. Calling itself the “official” 2013 restaurant week, this new contender clearly beat The Hook to the punch, bringing restaurants on board with great speed and agility. And it did so using The Hook’s own tactics – similar pricing, charity beneficiary, one week later. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. That’s what the great
Cuisine Cage Matches
For years, Christian’s has been the undisputed champ of the by-the-slice division. With four stores in the Charlottesville area and a following so rabid that there is at least one vanity license plate around town that features the name of a signature slice,* Christian’s is Charlottesville’s own Italian Stallion.
In the last few years, however, a new contender entered the ring, threatening to topple the aging giant. Its name was Vita Nova – “New Life” – and with its youthful energy and ravenous appetite, not to mention a manager who had previously… Read More
Let’s get ready to [have a stomach] rumble! Even if you’re not normally a French toast person, which I wasn’t until recently, this French toast is going to kick your derriere and leave you sucking your thumb in the gutter. This French toast is going to smash your face and send you to the dentist. Okay, so French toast doesn’t have the muscle to do all that, but it has all the cunning and sneak-attack deadliness of French Savate boxing, and cinnamon to boot. Don’t come crying to… Read More
The saturated fat heavyweights of Charlottesville’s burger scene have to be Riverside Lunch and Five Guys. A fight promoter here and there has tried to throw Boylan Heights, Cheeseburger in Paradise, and sometimes even Red Robin into the ring, but those wealthy froof burgers, delicious though they may be, can’t help but succumb to the relentless body slam assault of Riverside and 5G.
In one corner is Riverside Lunch, a long-standing favorite among Charlottesvillians. In some ways it is both the defending champ and the underdog, having been here much longer than Five Guys and… Read More
In the Charlottesville donut ring there are two main contenders. In one corner is the gluttonous heavyweight champ, Spudnuts, a Charlottesville stalwart for over 40 years and one link in a chain stretching back to the original Spudnuts shop in Salt Lake City circa 1946.
In the other corner is the flyweight Carpe Donut cart, a recent arrival, aged only two years.
At first glance, there is no question that the heavyweight will make smoosh out of the newcomer. It’s bigger, has a much larger selection, enjoys a loyal clientele, and compels a post-Jeffersonian C-ville mythos rivaled only by Riverside Lunch and Staples Barbershop… Read More
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