Rock out and dine out at the Music Resource Center tonight, courtesy of the Junior League of Charlottesville. There will be food and a line up of local bands, a tour of the space, and all proceeds will benefit the center. Starts at 5:30pm and goes to 8:30pm. Afterwards, head over to Escafe, Orzo, or X-Lounge, as they’ll be donating a portion of their proceeds to the center.
Tickets are $30. Buy two or more, only $25. Includes food, non-alcoholic, and the music. There will also be a cash bar for beer and wine. You can buy the tickets online.

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If you work for SNL Financial, you probably don’t need us to tell you about The Bean, the small coffee shop tucked in the corner of the company’s building at the end of Market Street. It’s been a private coffee shop of sorts for SNL employees and folks in nearby office buildings. But this is for the rest of you Downtown coffee fools.

In January, 20-year old Tamra Fisher quietly took over the coffee shop from the previous owner, and she’s been serving up Shenandoah Joe’s coffee, sandwiches, bagels, fresh fruit, and mini pizzas ever since. 

“My Dad saw in the paper that it was for sale,” she says. “And so we just jumped right in.”

So far, Fisher says things have been going well. “Haven’t had any complaints yet,” she laughs. Of course, she admits that most of her business comes from SNL, but says that folks from the nearby area have begun to drift over, including a few coffee-loving cops from the station across the street.

Fisher, too, loves a good cup of coffee.

“At first, I was afraid of being around all this coffee,” she says, “but I’m containing myself.”

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The Washington Post is at it again–praising the Charlottesville food scene. Just a week after Post writer Roger Piantadosi facetiously claimed that we had more restaurants per capita than France, and called us “insanely committed foodies,” Post writer Jane Black writes, “the food here is far better than it should be in a place with about 40,000 year-round residents and 20,000 broke college kids” and called Mas “without a doubt my favorite Charlottesville restaurant.” Mas, Bang, Kate Collier of Feast!, Albemarle Baking Company, Ten, and Rev Soup are all included in a nifty slide show.

Black doesn’t miss much in this food tour, and her final words are enough to make us blush.

“Across the board, Charlottesville’s food scene is inventive, diverse and brimming with talent,” Black writes.” It’s enough to give Monticello a run for its money.”

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Then go to the pancake breakfast fundraiser sponsored by the Charlottesville alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. on Saturday, May 10 from 7:30am to 9:30am at Applebee’s Restaurant and Bar at 571 Branchlands Blvd. Donations help support an effort to put more African-American teachers in our schools. Email: mayweekchair@cvilledst.org. Website: http://www.cvilledst.org.


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The windows of Greenberry’s coffee shop are often filled with newspapers sitting on the bar inside, but a jittery customer noticed another kind of paper in the window this past weekend: an ABC notice announcing the coffee shop’s bid for a beer and wine license. For Greenberry’s legions of loyal customers– who can now find Greenberry’s goodies at 15 locations from North Carolina to New Jersey– the news could come as a fright. Is the coffee being left behind in favor of full service food and beverages?

“Not at all,” promises Greenberry’s owner, Sean Simmons, who with his wife, Roxanne, opened the flagship store at Barracks Road 16 years ago and has quietly built a coffee empire– so quietly that the Washington Post failed to mention the business in its recent round-up of Charlottesville coffee shops.

And by Charlottesville’s standards, Greenberry’s is an empire. (more)

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Savour, the new restaurant on Emmet Street in the old Hong Kong Buffet building, will open this month according to chef/owner Ed Nafei. For over a year, Nafaei has been busy renovating the space (as far back as April 2007 he had “soon” written under his handmade sign. See photo left) but now he says he’s ready to “introduce himself to Charlottesville.” A chef and restaurant owner for 34 years, the Egyptian-born Nafei hopes to bring all that experience to the tables at Savour, which has a menu he calls “eclectic.” Read more about Nafei and the opening in this week’s Dish.

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Mark Thompson, Starr Hill Brewing Company’s master brewer and president, tells us that the Crozet brewery’s Dark Starr Stout won the Silver Medal in the Dry Irish Stout category at the 2008 World Beer Cup, held this year at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego on April 19. Considering that there were nearly 3000 entries from 646 breweries in 58 countries, that’s no small feat.

According to Thompson, the Dark Starr is a “light bodied stout that has the flavor and aroma of coffee and unsweetened chocolate.” This is the same stout that has wowed judges at the Great American Beer Festival, reports Thompson, where it won two gold, a silver, and a bronze medal.

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As I paid my $196 bill for the family of five to eat our four-course fondue meal Sunday night at the Melting Pot, my mind raced back to our last novelty meal, a month-ago trip to the Flaming Wok for some teppan yaki, e.g. Benihana. Check out that flaming onion volcano.

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The annual police fund-raiser, Cops and Lobsters, is happening today during lunch and dinner at the Red Lobster on Emmet Street. Local law enforcers will be your servers and tips go toward the Special Olympics and the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Word to the wise: don’t stiff these guys.

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There’s a new wine-lovers institution in town, and it’s located on Second Street SE a few steps south of the Downtown Mall and next door to Bang. The Wine Guild of Charlottesville is a new wine-buying co-operative with hopes for eventually creating a temperature-controlled storage facility (i.e. a wine cellar) as well as something like a private club for wine aficianados. We caught two of the principals, Will Richey and Chad Zakaib (shown here), setting up their regular Wednesday afternoon barbecue yesterday.

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