I drive down Ivy at least weekly, but it was not until my transformation into a gossip godess that I stopped to think, “Huh. I wonder how that business is doing. Too bad I don’t…
…play guitar.”
Heinz Musitronics at 2171 Ivy has a badass sign for a badass name. And if you visit their badass website, you’ll see that the interior is badass, too. I just have this feeling that the staff is badass. But I’ll never know. I think people who play guitars are awesome, but I’ve met one too many who have no idea how boring they are to listen to at 2am, or how badly they’re playing at that hour, for that matter. Join a band. Anyway. Heinz! What’s the deal yo?
…still play with toys.”
I rarely have little ones to shop for, and Gameboys notwithstanding, I don’t need toys. Well, not children’s toys anyway. Uncle Larry’s Toy Shop at 2125 Ivy has windows filled with toy boxes and a sign with a fun font. I’m guessing it gets business from the St. Anne’s crowd, given how often I see moms and teeny-tiny-model-type daughters order 3.5 oz Wow Cow cups in the after-school hours.
…have any tattoos.”
Nor am I planning to get one. It’s just not my thing. But if I were into it, Capital Tattoo seems to me to be the kind of place I’d look into. They’ve been open for as long as I’ve been here, and they’ve got another location in Richmond– if they sound successful, they must be doing good work. I got an extra hole or two at Acme on the corner, and I think I’m done with those, too. If you got inked or pierced at Capital, tell us about it.
Not in Ivy, but still:
…take long lunches… or exotic lunches.”
I’ve loved Brazilian food elsewhere, so why haven’t I even had it in Charlottesville yet? Copacabana in Shoppers World Court is open for lunch and dinner, with lunch entree prices averaging at about $8 and dinner entrees average at about $15. The menu is long, and I see a lot of fresh seafood, unique salads, orzo pasta, and flavorful cream sauces. Better yet, I see fried bananas. I’m going. Believe me. I’ve just surprised myself that I haven’t made the occasion to go.
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Tagged as: Capital Tattoo, Charlottesville, Copacabana, Heinz Musitronics, Local Business, Music, Questions, Restaurants, Uncle Larry's
I ate once at Copacabana a while back and thought it was great. I don’t remember the dish exactly, but it was some sort of lobster/shrimp pasta thing. Really good and reasonably priced.
The location is a little weird, but don’t let the strip mall setting deter you, the food is pretty darn good.
Uncle Larry’s Toy Shop is BRILLIANT… loads of old wooden toys and a stunning selection of dolls if you have the $$$$.
Think about going here rather than TRUS, not just because it is cool, but Larry is the guy that got stiffed with the mold house back last year, and lost his home to foreclosure in September because of it.
Copacabana is on Ivy?
The folks at Heinz are very nice and helpful for basic drumming needs, but their catalog of drumsticks is severely limited. It’s lame that I have to go all the way to Richmond to buy the (not really all that rare) type of sticks I need.
I can offer a little history on Heinz Musitronics. It was founded by a German fellow named, you guessed it, Heinz. I don’t remember his last name, but the store has been there since at least 1982. (Am I dating myself? If so, I am going to end this relationship immediately.) He and his wife (Thelma? Helga? Gerta?) ran it for many years, more or less by themselves. They both had noticable German accents (Why is that relevant? I don’t know, but I noticed it.) It was a real “Mom and Pop” shop, and they were very pleasant to deal with. I bought a nice guitar and loads of PA equipment from them over the years. They retired and sold the store around, I think, 1995 to a fellow who I never got to know. He was sort of quiet and reserved, and he hired several staff to deal with customers. Then, I believe he sold the store to the current owner(s) several years ago, and they just recently expanded and renovated to double the floor space. There is also space in the basement where, at one time, a variety of guitar instructors had studios. Any and all revisions to this fuzzy history is welcome.
I was tattooed at Capital/ol back when Ben and Jon were working there and it was great. They got run off an the new folks? Not so much. The owner is apparently much more concerned with his RVA shop and his annual conventions. Ben and Jon opened Ben Around Tattoo on W Main in “midtown” (across from the Amtrak parking lot) early in 2007 and it’s definitely THE place in town to get drilled now. My wife and I both got our latest ink there and my brother has come in from out of town twice to get work done by Jon. Both Ben and Jon are tremendous artists (Ben does AMAZING Japanese-style work), great people to talk to and work out a design with, and their new place is a very interesting spot to spend a few hours. They occasionally host art exhibits and the shop is always full of fascinating art by local and national “eclectic” talents.
copacabana is not on ivy, it’s by whole foods.
yea, i don’t know either.
Went to Copacabana a few years ago, and was greatly disappointed. Brazilian restaurants usually serve a variety of meats from spears, and you just keep eating till you can’t eat anymore, but Copacabana just had normal dishes, and they were very bland tasting.
I’ve had work done at Capital Tattoo. Very clean and very professional place. Jon is the shit, especially at doing very realistic images. I gave him the basics of what I wanted, and it certainly wasn’t an easy task (lots of detail for a small area), but he pulled it off spectacularly and did all this great shading to make it look far better than I could have hoped. He really worked some magic. So I would suggest checking Jon out over at Ben Around.
heinz doesn’t have the biggest selection or the best prices in town, but i’ve always found the staff there to be very laid back and nice (both the old staff and the new). not overbearing or hovering like some places (cough cough…guitar center…cough cough). since i know the guys at charlottesville music pretty well, i do most of my shopping there. but i do frequent heinz for my lower-dollar musical needs, or if i don’t feel like fighting 29N traffic to get a new set of strings.
Awesomely and amateurishly, the Cavalier Daily appears to “review” Copacabana on three separate occasions in recent years. How strange.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=13680&pid=920
http://cavalierdaily.student.virginia.edu/CVArticle.asp?ID=22972&pid=1279
http://cavalierdaily.student.virginia.edu/CVArticle.asp?ID=11017&pid=821
Yeah, I wouldn’t know anything about silly things like strings or actual guitars. All I need is air.
No ‘Weekend Preview’ or ‘Conversation Topics for Your Hot Date Tonight’ this weekend? Good thing I’m working, or I wouldn’t know where to go or what to say when I got there.
Here’s my little tidbit: New DJ tonight at OXO. Eric, the guy who normally works the door will be taking a turn behind the dj rig tonight and sharing time with Hot Milk, and I for one am excited. So get there early, and please, dress for the occasion.
I’m just saying…I know the cVillains must be getting a kick out of their new found revenue stream and all, but holy crap, this post REEKS of some major shilling…
Seriously, just what exactly is “badass” about the name, sign, website, or interior of Heinz??? And um, can you really call an interior “badass” without actually visiting the interior in question?
Please cVillains, you’ve made it clear that you love your advertisers:
http://cvillain.com/?p=687
but this is just silly.
did Copacabana pay extra to be included in a post about Ivy businesses?
Just wondering…
Weird Ivy Road stores… What about ‘The Shade Shop’? Is that the opposite of a tanning salon?
They actually paid us one million dollars each and we are now retired on our yachts in the Caribbean…
That’s really interesting, #13/14… I mean, I could see why it would be a valid complaint if this post were on its own, but I’ve been saying nice things about businesses for months. This isn’t at all different from an August post I did entitled “Downtown Businesses I Love to Love.”
http://cvillain.com/?p=186
I really thought Copacabana was in an Ivy center– please excuse me for not knowing my strip mall names! Its address is to its shopping center, not to any identifying road.
the food “on spears” thing is the equivalent of a buffet in brazilian food terms(churrascaria), and popular in the US cause americans… well… love buffets. but normal brazilian food is (GASP!) served on plates and not sticks. copacabana reflects the upscale dining of brazil’s more affluent cities, thus making the dishes a bit unfamiliar to those who eat at the places with spears.
Ha! Well, that’s a good thing. Every time I read the word “spears” just then, I thought of the preggers little sister. Does anyone else hate the word “preggers”?
ugh. last thing I needed to think about was food… on Spears’.
I actually like the word “preggers.” It’s got a cheeky British feel about it . . . kind of like using “diddle” instead of, uhhh, you know. In place of preggers, you could say “Little sis has got a little bread in her oven” . . . or not.
The Spears family should be sterilized. The world has far too many as it is. Also, Lilith I concur the word “preggers” is awful! It should be struck from the English language. I think we should replace it with Jammed (Pregnant–>heavy with child–>loaded–>overloaded=jammed, isn’t my logic just as clear as mud?), “Look she is so Jammed!” “And in the news today, Whore Spears announced she is Jammed.” (Whoooops…sorry about the “personal attack”. Wait, no I’m not.)
I love the concept, Lu Sid, but I like referring to PJs as “jammies” and describing red zin as “jammy,” and they’re such cute applications I worry it will ruin “jam” for me.
The Brit (not that Brit) and Irish slang for preggers is actually “up the pole” which is my personal favorite.
Ooooo…I like it Taliesin!! I don’t believe I will ever actually use the word pregnant again! I’m Irish and hate the word preggers, why would I when I can say, “up the pole”? You have made my day.
“jammed” for pregnant=dumb. It’s offensive, and it sounds gross.
lilith - I read your August post about downtown business you love to love and while that post also seemed a bit close to a straight up shill, at least it sounded like you patronize those places regularily, so it makes more sense to me why you would want to plug them - paid or not, but did you even bother to step foot into any of the Ivy businesses you plugged?
I’m honestly not trying to stir up shit, but I read this post and it just struck me as being shamelessly promotional in nature - either a shill or some kind of attempt to procure additional advertisers for the site.
Anyway…
As someone that does patronize Heinz, I will say that although Steve (the owner), and the other folks that work there are really nice people and all very cool, they suffer from the typically high prices and limited selection you find in smaller music stores.
As an aside, who else misses Tokyo Rose???
Yes but Jammin’ as verb is pretty cool
Where the hell is everyone
I miss tokyo rose in every sense of the word.
we always need more advertisers! shilling, are you flipping out cause lilith didn’t love a business you love?
Shilling, I am not a regular, necessarily:
Artifacts: Two encounters, shortly before posting.
X Lounge: Occasionally.
Druknya: Seldom.
Industry: Seldom.
South Street: Often.
Gravity Lounge: Seldom.
Library: Former regular, but almost not at all in the past two years. (Lots of gift/loaner books + Cracker Barrel.)