Having dinner at Mas the other night, a large photograph/poster hanging on the wall next to the register caught my eye. And by caught my eye, I mean I was poked. I had to double-take to make sure it wasn’t the lighting, and upon closer inspection (from 20 feet away), I became sure of what I saw. Could it be this is Mas’ tongue in cheek response to Lilith declaring they are not getting laid?
Ruven Afanador is a famous photographer of celebrities and models. Recently, he has focussed on photographing one of the world’s craziest athletes: matadors! Yes, they dress in skin tight outfits, making sure their bulge is ever-so prominent, and then jump into the ring with a raging bull. The object of the game is to pretend you know how to control a bull and kill it. Despite a world where people have tried and failed to control dangerous animals, matadors continue to play their game of chance. Ruven manages to capture this machismo in all of its grandeur.
His work is actually quite good. While this kind of photograph should raise a few eyebrows in the good ol’ south, Mas hangs it proud and to the right. So what they lack for in customer service, Mas makes up for in modern bulbous photography. If things continue the way they are at Mas, we will surely find more of these bold photographs plastered on all of its walls. After all, what better way to distract customers from mean waitresses than with art that seems to pop out at you? Things are getting spicy at Mas, and its not the chorizo.
PS: I am tired of people pronouncing Mas like Moss. It is pronounced “más“, which is a Spanish word for all of you educated folk, not some British derivation.
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Tagged as: Art, Charlottesville, Mas
I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that that particular photograph has been ‘hanging’ in there since they opened; I know because my sweetie has often commented not wanting to eat smoked tomatoes while staring at an enormous [amorous?] package but I really like the sort of bullish in-your-face sensuality of it.
kate moss is so pretty in her pre heroin days
I, too, believe that photo has always been there.
Moreover, I’ve never heard anyone call it “Moss”. What kinds of fools you rollin’ with?
I was there the first day they were opened, and so was senor gigante. After a while, they took to putting bows and oddly shaped paper cut-outs over it. It was always cool to see how the bulge was concealed from night to night. Then again, I am glad its back to its unabashed natural state. I cannot imagine anyone seriously being disturbed by such a benign image, It’s not like its a Mapplethorpe exhibit or anything. I suppose some males with, um, size issues could be preturbed to distraction, but then again the Moss parking lot lines are too small to fit a monster truck or hummer anyway. Heh.
Everyone I’ve known who’s worked there pronounces it “Moss”. It’s named after ToMAS, the owner.
I pronounce Moss: mawsssss. Emphasis on the s’s. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
I pronounce Mas: maaahssss. Emphasis on the a’s and s’s. Can’t think of a sentence, but how you would say the beginning of Maserati.
Is that how everyone else pronounces these words? I’ve only ever heard restaurant name pronounced like Maserati.
And yea, since day 1 the service at Mas has sucked.
does anyone else think this cocoNUT person is a preening jackass?
dijonbray, Mas is named after Tomas? The owner? 1. The current owners whomever they may be are not the original owners, a couple I believe who opened it and got it going before selling out to the Capshaw. 2. When it opened Tomas was still working at South Street, and moved to Mas after the Capshaw purchase I believe, but perhaps before. Maybe they named it after someone who would cook there after they sold it?
evenstar, I agree completely.
I think Mas has good service.
Pronunciation aside, I’m always amused that the T-shirts read “Mas,” literally “But.” The word they seem to want is the accented “Más,” meaning “More.”
I like to imagine that T-shirts say, “But…you probably don’t want to eat here, since we don’t know our antiquated conjunctions from our papas bravas.”
(that theT-shirts say, that is. goddamned lack of a preview function.)
Timm-ay: I was wrong! It was orginally started by a couple and Tomas. The couple sold their share to Coran Capshaw, but it’s still Tomas’ “baby”; and it’s not named after him. I’m a shit-head. It’s still “moss”, though dammit.
The service there was awful for a long time. Some friends of mine, after waiting 45 min. to an hour for food that should have taken 5 or 10 min. were told by a surly waitress “this isn’t a drive through window” who then stormed off. That was back in the early days, I’ve had better experiences there of late, and they’ve always employed some of the ‘easiest on the eyes’ waitresses in town, so I’m sure I’ll be back before long.
So cocoNUT has posted recently about the snootiness of a Zocalo bartender for wanting to ask questions when he/she returned a drink he/she had never ordered before because it didn’t taste the way he/she imagined it might (OH the nerve!) and now a post about the ‘new’ picture at Mas thats hung there (pun intended) for what.. six or seven years? Perhaps he/she should get out a little more and experience some of C-ville before commenting on it? What next cocNUT? Are you going to enlighten us all to the fact that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t married to Weezie and didn’t run a chain of dry cleaners, even if he did live on ‘the east side’? Or maybe you’ll steer us to the trendy new bar on the mall, Millers?
it was originally owned by tomas and kirby. kirby sold his 49 percent to coran. coran has consistantly tried to buy out tomas, with no luck. thank god.
“mas” does not refer to tomas rahal’s name. it means “more”. it is actually called mas tapas– “more tapas”
the picture has been there form the beggining. tomas is quite fond of telling eole it is him. back when he was a ballerina.
he really WAS a ballerina, too.
haha no way he was a ballerina..
tomas did perform ballet
just confirm the ballet bit. thats a fact, jack.
wow i would love pictures of that
timm-ay you obviously miss the humour of this site. The only instance of “new” on this thread is in your comment. Are you a bartender by any chance?
You’re not really one to comment on someone missing the humor of the site, coconut, when nothing you have ever posted is funny.
fight fight fight
Whose going to win, cocoNUT the Thai foodie who can’t be bothered to drive to Thai Siam, a relatively-speaking poster newbie who still thinks a South Park reference is hilLARious or the usually even tempered Ethan who wouldn’t be caught dead in white pants after labor day.
I challenge you be more intracvillain referential - that’s how I throw down!
Thanks for the compliment Ethan, I didn’t know all of you thought cocoNUT represented cVillain, Thor you have been overthrown!
Lys: curious as to my South Park comments, are you referring to the right poster?
I was refering to timm-ay in that specific snarky-ism.
cocoNOT,
“the only instance of ‘new’ on this thread is in your comment”. granted, you don’t say “Mas has a new bullfighter picture on the wall” instead you say: “Could it be this is Mas’ tongue in cheek response to Lilith declaring they are not getting laid?” Does this not IMPLY the same thing? then you finish with: “If things continue the way they are at Mas, we will surely find more of these bold photographs plastered on all of its walls. *** Things are getting spicy at Mas, and its not the chorizo.” Does this not imply that you see this photo as the possible beginning of a trend, and not ancient history? As far as that photo is concerned, things got spicy at Mas like 7 years ago, get your head out of your ass.
timmay we have special time warping powers, so time is meaningless on cvillain
Implying it was a three way race to the finish - oh forget it, I’ve never successfully instigated a fight!
How do you know I’m a mew poster Lys? I posted under 4 diferent names just yesterday (thank you for you compliment by the way, since I’m also hipster-doofus)(a seinfeld reference which I still find a little funny) What is this “South Park” that you speak of? Is it down near Scottsville? As for starting a fight, I cant believe you done this
p.s. while I don’t know that proprietary rights to a particular username exist, when I wanted to post as “pretend thor” and “pretend lilith” I did so as ‘Th0r’ (thats a zero, not cap. o) and ‘illith’ which any and all are welcome to use as rhetorical tools. Speaking of rhetorical tools… no new posts from cocoNut?
Tiny tim,
I completely understand how an article with such a title and picture can make you feel insecure about your own machismo.
Lucky for you cvillain is here to give that little man inside of you a voice, so sing it loud and high pitched cause we are all listening!
cocoNUT, timm-ay here, so pretend you’re hearing this in my high-pitched squeal of a voice, if that’s the best response you can muster, I suggest you look around your house for an object that approximates our matador friend’s manhood in both size and shape (maybe a large carrot? or cucumber… an eggplant would do nicely) lube it up with a little ky, then jam it like wilco where the sun don’t shine. You’re bound to get more satisfaction that way. Do I sound french? Do you think I’m considering surrendering to your overwhelming intellectual firepower (sarcastically, in case you couldn’t tell)? I’m german, and I’ve got the 88’s, so bring on your mindless elan and your out of range 75’s and we’ll see what happens.