A decent crowd at X last night for the cancer benefit. While I was a bit unsure about the whole “all tips go to the charity” concept, my fears were assuaged once there. The staff was ‘compensated’ 18% on the total sales by X. Good man, JF! I’m assuming Mike has a similar agreement with the staff at Rapture for Monday.
Smallish, though stylish, crowd at Kiki (Jeannie made cookies!), and a private function was rocking R2 (managed to sneak my way in for a second when the gate-keeper was occupied - never found out the function but it looked very “Greek” - lots of Hoo’types in the usual Hoo’niforms (lots of khakis and floral print dresses)).
Oh yeah, the “reviews”.
Home sick today (no, Lilith, it’s a bronchial thing; not the “Irish Flu” resulting from my crawl last night!), and needed something to fill my brain and my belly, so I wandered down the mall. First stop, brain food.
Blue Whale Books
This place has been here at least as long as I have. Parked in between the vortex of “suck” (Miller’s) and Meatloaf Mecca (Bizou), I’ve passed this place countless times in the past dozen years. I never went in until recently - I read far too much to be dropping money at a place advertising “Rare” and “First Edition” books. Big mistake. Blue Whale has an extensive selection of cheap paperbacks. Granted, you have to pass the wonderfully neat “high end” book section first (which, for a book whore like me is like, well, analogies fail me - it’s effen tough, mmkay?). Walked out with two books which set me back an entire $3. Brain food covered, next stop belly food.
The Flat
Wandering back up the mall, I tried to decide what I wanted for lunch. Fats and Carbs were having a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckle fight in my brain as I waffled between Five Guys and Atomic. Carbs gained the upper hand and I turned off the mall past Blue Light and began my way down to Atomic. Fats, however, made an impressive, late fight recovery and pushed me past Atomic and ordered me to have a Ham, Brie and Apple crepe from The Flat. I know this place has been reviewed here before, but food like this is worth mentioning often. I don’t know how to describe how good this was and, unlike some folks experience, I didn’t have to wait long (5 minutes) for my food. I don’t want to think about how many calories I ingested (these things are nearly as large at Atomic’s burritos), but I’m sick, so it doesn’t count, right?
-gary
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Tagged as: Cafe, Charlottesville, Dessert, Downtown Mall, Local Business, Restaurants, Reviews
Hoo’niforms
Outstanding! You need to trademark that now. I will start using it immediately and give you total credit.
Gary - were you the only one waiting? I think there is a pretty good concensus that this place is too slow.
Hoo’nifroms is now official vocab on this site. Haha.. I was thinking we should do a vocab section. Everyone think they could help on that one?
Ah, yeah, I was the only one in line (a few people were there already eating). So, yup, my 5 minutes would’ve been in addition to a 5 minute block for each person waiting ahead of me.
So, eat there, but not if you’re in a hurry (unless there’s nobody else there).
-gary (owner and inventor of “Hoo’niform”. All rights reserved.)
Scott at Blue Whale really knows his stuff and loves nothing better than talking books to those interested. He used to have a really cool sectiion of Irish books in there (very random) but they’ve been gone a while.
Yeah I was the one rocking the kids in their Hoo’niforms last night at R2. Weird bunch not the typical greek crowd from the college. They showed up on time and not the usual hour late. And rolled out pretty quick as well. I think it was due to the fact that their buzz was wearing off and they couldn’t pony up the cash to buy a few drinks from the bar.
Agreed on both counts. It’s a joy to browse through Blue Whale, but for some reason, I don’t do it nearly enough.
I’ve heard mixed reviews about The Flat’s sandwich crepes, but having had only their dessert offerings, I can say without hesitation that The Flat is a wonderful dessert venue, especially if you’re with a special someone and don’t mind a small wait.
They had a raspberry and lemon curd special about a month ago… I smile just thinking about it.
The wait is the price you pay for a fresh crepe, (i didn’t watch last time I ate so I am assuming they are still made to order) i just wish they could introduce a little salt and pepper into the ingredients prior to assembly. hell throw some fresh herbs/seasonings into it as well. simple=good but plain=not great
Hey btb, thanks for joining the conversation! I’m not too experienced with crepes elsewhere– is that really done? I thought tradition called for the basics. Also, I recommend Jarlsberg. Little salt, little sweet.
Just finally had one of their crepes for the first time. Delicious (and I haven’t even dived into the gloriousness that is nutella crepes…drool). If you see someone who is growing exponentially fatter each day, that would be me and the crepes in my belly.