The Washington Post has a story today on Charlottesville coffee bars, and writer Roger Piantadosi confirms what we’ve known for some time:

“Charlottesville today has more restaurants per capita than any city in Virginia, or possibly France, and is home to the kind of insanely committed foodies who post photos on their blogs of (I’m not kidding) handwritten estimates of opening dates that the owners have taped to the doors of restaurants that are still under construction. And who then discuss it online for days.”

Whoa! France? We’re not sure if local foodies should slap themselves on the back or seek counseling.

Sadly, Piantadosi’s “coffee bar tour” covers only four places, The Mudhouse, Cafe Cubano, Shenandoah Joe, and C’Ville Coffee. There is a photo of La Taza accompanying the piece, but no mention of it in the story. (Update 4:20pm: Doh! As “Zooey” noticed, there is a hard to see link to a selection of other places, including Milano, La Taza, The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, Fox Park Cafe, and Starbucks.) Here are a few snippets from the Post story:

The Mudhouse: “….young people with really interesting hair or pierced what-have-yous, plus at least seven laptops and a table of tweedy professor-looking guys…arguably the most diverse clientele and one of the best locations of all of C’ville’s coffee bars.”

Cafe Cubano: “…definitively cool, inasmuch as a clearly non-hip guy like me always feels more as if I’m missing something amid the deco decor at Cafe Cubano than at, say, Mudhouse.”

Shenandoah Joe: “What distinguishes it from the others — besides the fact that more than half of the enormous, high-ceilinged space is an active, humming roastery with at least 30 types of beans stacked on shelves and counters — is that the baristas know everything about the beans that made the coffee they’re making into your personal drink and are happy to discuss any part of the process with you.”

C’Ville Coffee: “I wrote my last book here,” says Heather Hummel, sitting in the sunniest corner of the adult room with her laptop and coffee. “I think a lot of writers like to work here.”