I quote David Bowie when I say, “Look out you rock and rollers, pretty soon now you’re gonna get a little older.”
Not a fan of that song.
I’d like a round of applause, please, for the following businesses and spaces– for withstanding the test of time in a city that’s painfully self-conscious about inevitable change. Can they last forever?
The Italian Villa
I think I already know the answer to this one. Located on Emmet Street across from the Budget Inn, the Italian Villa is sandwiched between Central Grounds and the athletics facilities (ie JPJ). I’m impressed it’s lasting this long, but I think it’s in the middle of the proposed Arts Gateway development. Speaking of sandwiches, how have I not had their gyro yet? (Be on the lookout for my upcoming round-up!)
ALC Copies
It is impossible to miss: ALC Copies is the loud and proud yellow building at the corner of Emmet and Barrack’s/Preston. All of the businesses in that corner shopping center are something of a mystery to me, but ALC, with its large, often empty parking lot, is quite the anomaly of 29. If there weren’t a Subway, McDonald’s, and Burger King so close, I’d expect it to be one by now. Copy on, ALC!
The 5 tire and automotive service centers on West Main
Or are there 6? C&R, Morris, Team Tires… It’s amazing to me that the Zinc property can be “cursed,” but 5 (or is it 6?) auto body and/or tire suppliers can coexist for years on this one-mile stretch in what is quickly becoming yuppie territory. Well, let’s be honest, yuppies drive cars, and cars break.
The intersection of Cherry and Ridge
Specifically, I am thinking of the northwest corner of this intersection. There’s nothing there. The northeast and southeast corners are residential, and the southwest corner is a park. Why isn’t this lot… anything at all?
The intersection of 10th Street NW and West Main
There is an office space that has been available for rent for some time– I’d love to see a business there and am surprised a developer hasn’t jumped on a space with so much natural light. The parking situation isn’t egregious. Speaking of parking, the lot across from the U-Haul rental on West Main must be making bank, too!
Popularity: 14% [?]
Italian Villa is run by a Greek restauranteur named, I think, Nick, and his family. He has been in the business forever. He used to have a restaurant by the name of Expresso Pizza that was in the space where Sprye’’s bbque is now (1970’s - late 1980’s). I used to order pizza from him when I was a student. Then he moved his operation to the current location and changed the name. Never had one of his gyro’s, but I think a gyro roundup would be bitchin’. I am partial to University Grille’s.
I can give a hearty endorsement to ALC copies. It is a family-run business and the proprietors are good people. When they first started, they were in a warehouse space on East Market. In addition to all of their other copying business, they make personalized calendars for folks who bring in photos and associate the pix with months of the year. I have bought one of these calendars every year for the past 10 or so years. So, I spend a whopping $20/year with them, and they always treat me like their best customer when I come in for my yearly calendar. Sidebar: Capshaw owns the building.
The intersection of Cherry and Ridge that you identify is, perhaps, the largest tract of undeveloped land in the city limits (9 acres?). There is currently a development proposal on the table, but the surrounding neighborhood is wary it.
Make that “wary of it.”
I wonder which towel ruined that bowie song for you.
I just popped in to give props to ALC copies, nicest folks you will ever deal with. And the fact that they’ve survived within spitting distance of soul-sucking vortex that is Kinko’s, I find to be quite amazing.
And speaking of empty spaces (besides the one between my ears), I love the 2.5 acre field bordered by Carlton, Blenheim and the two Monticellos. I panicked when a For Sale sign went up about four years back. The development plan was obnoxious, with retail condos and underground parking (!), but the deal never went down and it was removed from the market by the owner, who also thought the plan was obnoxious. This guy actually refused to sell because of what they wanted to do with the land, and how much people around the area hated the idea. Neighborhood hero! So it is still a great place to sled if it ever snows in VA again. Hell, get enough speed and you might be able to sled all the way to Beer Run.
i’ve never had an italian villa gyro, but their breakfast is great. not if you’re looking for something original or gourmet or anything like that, but if you’re hung over on a saturday or sunday morning and the wait at bluegrass is too long, it’s my go-to place.
Totally off topic, but tm’s were flying that Jenna Bush was at Bang last night. Anyone confirm? I *will* get her up on a table one day.
/end threadjack
Wouldn’t it be pretty obvious to spot her given the Secret Service people everywhere? Do you think she reads this site?
Yes, I do read the site, but I was not at Bang. I was cooking crank with parlie and howling at the eclipse.
b’yo: it’s true! my roommate waited on her! she was there with her darden fiance, plus another couple. there weren’t any obvious secret service agents in the restaurant, but there must have been some hiding somewhere. and unfortunately, nothing interesting happened…besides the fact that she was jenna bush, my roommate called them the most boring table of the night.
I partied with Jenna at a friends house when I lived in Austin. I asked her what it was like having the secret service follow her around everywhere. She said that she’d change her appearence every chance she got in a vain attempt to ditch them, but was rarely sucessful. I admit it was eerie to be hitting the bong with the secret service waiting outside.
thanks for coming over to cook crank with me, smiley. i’ll try not to yell at you today.
Gyro at Bluegrass Grill (313 2nd St SE, Glass Bldg.) is by miles the best in town. Last I heard they still bake their own bread, which apparently makes all the difference.
I have some funny & horrifying Gyro stories. Italian Villa people, back when they had Espresso, ran a constant ad in the DP for jobs. No other restaurant did that. Maybe they have mellowed with age. I don’t know if they are holding that real estate or U.Va. is. By the way, the former College Inn owners, who now have Tip-Top on Pantops, own a fortune in real estate on the Corner. They are good squirrels, like a lot of small restaurant owners around here who bought in a few decades ago. But the gyro is not so good. That is my story:
A religious guy used to eat the gyro or actually I think it was the soulvaki every week at the College Inn, back in the day. He would never eat beef, for it was against his religion. So he ate the delicious lamb dish. Then one day he overhears a casual conversation between the waitron and customer in a neighboring booth. Turns out the College Inn had been serving him their own special *mixture* of beef and lamb all these years. Gargh! (Insert reincarnated relative reference here.)
Speaking of Greek owners of Italian restaurants, go to Fabios NY Pizza (1551 E. High, corner of Willow). There are from Naples. In Italy.
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2008/01/17/FOOD-Dish-0703-B.rtf.aspx
…and do their own baking. No frozen dough!
Great now my Fabios plug is going to get buried by Jenna Bush trivia. Her sister’s the sexy librarian anyway.
If its eat a cow, be a cow, how come there aren’t more cows?
/is not sure what a gyro is… is it that meat on a spindle thing?
@13 - Don’t have a cow, man.
And yes it is.
Yeah, check out the pictures at the White Spot! No, I mean the co-eds hugging the cook. Love those.
@12 colfer: Fabio’s was recommended to me, so I went and had a cheese steak sub. I thought it was so-so, really. Maybe I should try a pizza or a more traditional Italian dish.
Yeah yeah the pizza. The subs are OK, but then again, where else in Cville can you get a decent one? The Belair Exxon style is a different beast, but for a slimy sub, I would take Fabios over Little Johns any day. Just compare the bathrooms.
The best Italian place subs in Virginia and maybe the entire upper south of the United States is in Carytown in Richmond, with another location at Main & Harrison at VCU. Mary Angela’s (3345 W. Cary St.) Do not even stay on I-64 on your way back to Cville and wait to get dinner. Stop in frickin Carytown!
I have no connection with either of these joints, I just like good inexpensive sandwich shops. Fabios is the best around here, and Mary Angela’s is unfrigginbelievable.
+1 on Fabio’s Pizza. i will often bypass Christian’s and Vinny’s (Ruckersville, not the Hollymead crap one) to bring home a Fabio’s pie, it is the bane of my existence that they’re not open on Sundays. Curse them! Also, Fabio himself is a really nice guy who has owned or worked in 42 (!!!) pizza places since he started (from the Cville Eats review). Fresh made dough FTW!
Mary Angela’s in Carytown is pretty good, but it’s kind of far for a sub!
The Italian Villa - I think I spent more time at this place my first year at UVA than I did in my dorm room. They used to sprinkle cinnamin sugar on the toast, no idea if that’s still the case, and the owner kept a machete (sp?) under the counter that houses the cash register.
ALC - good people, and a bunch of professors I know would have reading materials printed there instead of at the Copy Shop on Eliwood, so I think that helps keep them afloat. Side note, the Kinko’s in Barracks is the worst Kinko’s I’ve ever been to EVER in terms of sheer incompetence and general rudeness. I once told off the clerk on behalf of the customer in front of me they managed to screw up his order so badly, and then I took my business elsewhere.
I love C&R Auto, as I can drop of my car and then walk to work vs. wait for some van to drop me off or pick me up. Since they don’t do tires, they send their business to Cville Tire in the Starr Hill parking lot on the other side of the bridge, and they have the best tire prices I’ve seen and were super nice.
I have nothing to say about Cherry.
I really want to see what happens on 10th and W Main, both the old typewriter shop mentioned above, and the blank lot that was buldozed a few years ago and is now just a gravel pit. It’s perfectly situated between downtown and the university, so the right business should do well.
Does anyone know what’s going in the old Under the Roof space?
Time for my NYC/Queens sneer: places like Fabio’s are a dime a dozen in NYC metro area. They’re OK, nothing particularly special. However, they do get points for using real chicken cutlets and decent bread for the chick parm hero (which of course is the proper name for that kind of sandwich), not the pressed meat/squishy sub roll abomination that is often passed off down here as chicken parm.
places like Fabio’s are a dime a dozen in NYC metro area.
Yeah, but when they’re here in Cville, we can eat there without having to, you know, talk to New Yorkers.
</I keed! I keed!>
“places like Fabio’s are a dime a dozen in NYC metro”
That is the highest praise you could post, and bonus for the mysterious technical details. I really have a hard time thinking of decent sandwich shops here in the ‘ville.
Baggby’s has some good sammiches, but they’re lunchtime only. There’s an awesome place over in H’Burg whose name eludes me…
“Yeah, but when they’re here in Cville, we can eat there without having to, you know, talk to New Yorkers”
Yeah, but can youse tawk like a New Yawka? My Bronx cousins would be mortified to learn that every now and then I drop a “y’all”. I hang my friggin head in shame.
I’ve been down here for almost ten years and every time they visit, my family still can’t get over the fact that people say “all y’all.”
i used to say “y’all” when i was waitressing so people would think i was nicer.
best subs ive found= TUBBYS on high st. right near the meade/high split.
I like the Tubby’s biz, but that is not the same thing. Tubby’s is a blonde, Fabio’s is a fiery brunette.
Fabio’s is greasy good. And the gyro at the Villa is a treat, especially late at night. I’d hate to see it close.
take it away has yummy sandwiches
Nobody has mentioned the pancakes at the Italian Villa, so I will describe them: they are light and fluffy, almost airy… and yet, paradoxically, they’re tough enough to hold together and not turn to mush under a heavy syrup load (even without a butter shield).
A paradox, yes. But a tasty one.
Heard Bill Atwood bought Under the Roof. Same guy doing the old Eloise building development that seems at a stand still. Heard plan for Under the Roof space was retail on bottom, “affordable housing” up to 9 stories up, parking underground. Will take tons of $ and lots of time. Good location tho…
Capshaw owns ALC space and Uhaul space. Bet he’s waiting for a big buy out from a big chain or UVA. If I had all the $ in the world I’d buy both those spaces and do something good like a building to house a year round farmers market or a community kitchen.
[…] talk about some of our favorite old-timer places, pray that construction happens quickly on the rumored steakhouse above Escafe. We also pray that […]