I’ve gone to the bar at C&O on weekday nights, late, several times in the past few months. I’m sorry to rat out the secret hideaway, but a cloud of mystery (and smoke) has taken hold of the bar…
Who are these attractive people?
The men wear faded plaid shirts over undershirts that look like they were retrieved from dressers in their childhood bedrooms. (Or else they found them in a Bleecker Street vintage store and paid $100 and often wish they’d kept their pubescent church group tee shirts for adult subversive wear.) Their jeans look like they took no less than 15 minutes to squeeze on, with shimmying and hopping and stuffing and zipping and all. Their hair is disheveled and long-ish. They cut it themselves. (Or else they pay $50 for it.) They smoke Reds. They look cool. The women wear gauzy dresses over their wormy legs and sit with their chins resting on their palms, elbows on the table. They drink and smoke what the men do, and they, too, look cool. Are they dating? (Or else they reject dating with all traditional gender-based social practices, discussing Freud while night languishes into sunny summer days.)
What do they do?
Are they bassists for the neo-emo bands that open for soon-to-be-sold-out emo bands that have videos on MTV? Do they airbrush supermodels in between their own supermodeling shoots? Do they sew stuff? They have the “starving artist” thing going on, but they’re at the bar of one of Charlottesville’s oldest and finest eating establishments, where adults who do not “stick it to the man” often eat. They look like they’re starving, but they have money. And they’re still sticking it to him.
Why C&O?
Is it the perfect mustard vinaigrette on the salad that comes with comforting late night food? (No, even salad has too many calories for those jeans and chin rests.) Is it the appeal of a dark, intimate bar space with chairs that can’t be moved without hitting more chairs? (No, it’s really hard to move.) Is it the beer selection? (.) Is it the smoking allowance? (Then why not Blue Light?)
Tell!
Note to C&O: keep it up, I love the place, your food has been wonderful for as long as I’ve been there.
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Tagged as: Bars, Charlottesville, Cocktails, Downtown Mall, French Food, Rants, Raves, Restaurants, Restaurants/Bars, Singles Scene
They sure are missing a lot of great local music at Orbit every Wednesday!
Thus ends my beleaguered search for the perfect Charlottesville microcosm…
Do people really still discuss Freud?
Count me out of that conversation.
Because Barry and Elaine rule.
Maybe the C&O imports them from somewhere.
Anyone with time to kill and a burning interest to hear about the history of C&O, Sandy McAdams was a recent guest on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now.
Never been to C&O, and after this article, I have no burning desire to go. Sure, I like to people-watch like anyone else, but I prefer to watch people just doing their daily thing, not folks who are essentially performing. I used to perform for a living, and I don’t do it anymore because (among many reasons) I can’t abide the hype. I’m happy to sit in a smoke-free area, enjoy my martini, and watch the world go round. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a life-participant, but I have no respect for those whose only addition to the quality of the world is their sunken cheeks and pretense at poverty. Nouveau Bohemian has been done already, people.
Freud. Yeah. I am 100% certain that crew is more likely to be discussing Superfriends.