This one’s a doozy.
Is it the time when Coran Capshaw will sell off the restaurant business? Our birdie thinks so…
Is the restaurant group up for grabs? I heard something…
His restaurants include: Blue Light Grill, Enoteca, Mas, Mono Loco, Ten and Three Notch’d. T’would make sense considering the expansion into music mogulhood.
Anyone hear anything more specific?
Popularity: 31% [?]
Tagged as: coran, Food, Gossip, Restaurants, Rumors
Everyone in Wall Street is liquidating their assets, so it would make sense for Mr. Capshaw to follow suit. Top things people are getting rid of are franchises and restaurants.
People you have to remember every dollar you don’t spend is a dollar you DON’T have to earn!
Isn’t it a bit “cart before the horse-ish” to say that it makes sense for CC to sell of the restaurant group because of his “expansion” into music mogulhood? More like an expansion into restaurant mogulhood from an already existing music mogulhood.
If anything, it makes sense to sell off the restaurant group because it’s a costly distraction from the existing music mogulhood.
And that doesn’t even touch on the real estate mogulhood…
He sold off Musictoday so who knows….
Core business, cash-only businesses—bulletproof in recession.
8-dollar popcorn at movie-theaters to float the loser films, 5-dollar lattes at coffeehouses to float the loser atmospheres, weed grown in nelson county sold out of the back of a beat-up old pickup truck to float the emergence into multi-bazillion-dollar music and restaurant mogulhood…dump the music, dump the eateries and return to the old days, old ways.
keep the swimming-pool, hot-tub, and co-ho floozie-parties, though. all work and no play, y’know.
how does selling off musictoday and closing starr hill and satellite ballroom constitute an “expansion” of music mogulhood?
am i missing something? seriously, please explain this to me. i realize he launched a new record label (TBD), but that’s not really much of a stretch beyond the already-established ATO.
@6 Yeah, I didn’t get the music mogulhood comment either. I mean DMB and David Grey and Jem is cool and all, but really?
That is truly a pile of dung, my furry amphibious mammal pal. Are there not mermaids in your fetid pool? Would they too be called “losers” by dint of their unfamiliar locomotion? You have admitted you love the pretentious squires of the coffee houses, let us then hear that celebrity sung out in rings and high keens!
A mature glitzy business is for sale at the right price. Hohum.
to @4 the otter, I meant.
to clarify my original query: i know (along with everyone else here) that coran is a music mogul. but i want someone to explain to me how selling off his restaurant biz is supposed to increase his foothold in the music world. i just don’t see a connection.
also: the jefferson theater. i know. won’t be open for another year. and i really can’t imagine that he’ll be putting on more than 20-30 shows/year there. it’ll probably be a moneymaker, but won’t necessarily expand his “mogulhood”.
perhaps he was sadden by all the negativity his restaurants were getting here. Perhaps he likes the return from owning real estate more than the hassle of making sure your gin martini is dry enough. He could could be gettin’ married and no longer needs his own meet/meat markets. He’s also selling his farm for 12 million - perhaps he going Hollywood.
the bill for the Jefferson renovation is going to be big bucks and I can’t think of another person who could or would make that place a shining jewel again with THEIR own money. It’s going to make the Paramount look like community theater. And I’m going to sit there very soon and see people who might never play in Charlottesville. Old School 9:30 club, anyone?
The bottom line is he doesn’t care what you think about his business. I, for one, have always been impressed how successful he has been in multiple ventures. I don’t love Blue Light but wait till it sits at the entrance to the new Jefferson. He done a lot for cville and anyone who says otherwise is a hater or jealous. Is he no more perfect a person than many of us, he just better at gettin’ it done.
@8,9
you’re right, i spoke too soon.
I’m cranky today because there’s sweet f*ck-all to do here, and nobody’s being fnny online except you.
Blue Light was very kind to me in some dark days, and i’ve loved the staff for quite some time (variously). It seemed when that place first opened like it was to become the ‘next’ Escafe… but then the comm-school and insurance-brokers/research analysts/financial planners and their male secretaries co-opted it. (SS goes back and forth on this track).
Same, though, there’s distaste in me towards that NYC-glam Edie Sedgwick stuff–decadence without intelligence, or sophistication without grace, that he embodies. And his sveltine coterie snuffling up blow and fawning around him tends to push that sort of 70s schtick to what extremes are possible given that they have to take off their stiletto heels at the end of eve (or first thing next morning at his place) to traverse the mudstreets to their belmont or student-slum/JPA-digs. And the tilt (In Bruges: “tiiiiiiiiiilllllltttttttt”) of reverencing appearance over substance, style over meaning, haircuts and sixpacks over books-read or thoughts-uttered, etc. etc etc in their ‘dates’.
No question he’s been of tremendous benefit to this town in:
1) charitable endeavors
2) pushing the music scene forward by driving out indie bands and brining in larger more college and mainstream acts
3) educating several generations of waitresses to an heretofore unparalled level of sluttishness, vacuousness, and provocative dress… the first is i suppose the most instantly beneficial, assuming you drive a beamer no less than four years old.
4) And the explosive expansion in sales of metrosexual personal-care-products to their erstwhile dates is not to be underestimated, if only as an alternative to (who said it, Dr. Johnson?) the ‘not-loving-clean-linen’ of oldtime Miller’s patrons.
Hohum, yes. Not sure who would buy any of those places and keep them as any of those places. Satellite to CVS seems a more likely trajectory. In no time we’ll have THE GAP on the Mall where Zocalo is, and maybe another hair-salon (are we running out of them yet on the Mall?) to replace BlueLight.
Where are the Paint-Your-Own-Pottery places of yesteryear?
@ 12
christ i’m long-winded. i’ll stop doing that.
@ 11
absolutely right has done tons for Cville, taken it to where it is now (a food-court, a soho).
hawes spencer did a ton to fix up the jefferson with HIS own money, but Capshaw will presumably do much more, finish off what former owner started in renovating. oh–and i’m sure it will be ‘tasteful’.
no question to get-it-done. just if any of those guys out there were to succeed, i would have loved for it to have been Gabe Silverman or Oliver Kuettner, who seem to be ‘better people’—that’s very subjective, but they just seem a little less ’slimy’?
can we put rant 12 in the cvillain hall of fame? that was astounding.
For fuck’s sake, who cares about CC. He doesn’t even exist in the world’s most of us inhabit.
@13 you haven’t dealt with Gabe’s partner, Alan have you? Hey I have no personal relationship with Coran and the few times I met him he said about 10 words. So if you saying he”s not super friendly with people fine.
You trollishness about the downtown mall comes a sense with an old world quaintness. The mall is a rare successful downtown mall that is envied by many other cities. It success is based on private inviduals and the city putting down their money and taking their chance. Many places there have failed, more will as well. What does your downtown mall look like?
The renovations done by Spencer were mostly cosmetic and in no way close to the order of magnitude that is being done now. But I agree that Hawes did have courage to buy the Jefferson and make out of it what he did.
And lastly (not just for Otter) it ’s spelled KUTTNER- pronounced coot -ner- We can also agree that he is different from any other developer that you are likely to meet.
@14
sorry, parlie. i’ll try to stop being such an ass here.
@15
mostly seeking to please shenanigans and her small offer-to-press-against bosom, but hate to irk Belmont Yo. Only mention CC as he seemed on-topic for this post.
@16
again, you’re right. ‘Kuettner’ adds to his exoticism, though–KUTTNER is more guttural and less appealing. Don’t you need some of them funny european dots to get COOT out of KUTT?
amazing our Mall succeeds by the current measure—by the current measure. It had perhaps been successful in a different way before, more appropriate to the town/country aesthetic of Cville, and less a Quincy-Market or whatever that area around the Centre Pompidou is called. But lavish commercialism and shoulder-to-shoulder throngs (not ‘thongs’, colfer…) are great. the trickle-down is great. For every 9-dollar cocktail CC sells, Tony-of-Chaps sells a two-dollar ice-cream–and that’s great.
Ever taken fifty bucks down to the Mall and tried to BUY anything other than food or drink? I did on payday, and came back with a 2-dollar used paperback. IS there a store somewhere downtown?
@12 Brilliant, and hits the nail right on the head. That sense of distaste is felt by many, especially those of us preceding his reign here, though few have put it as eloquently.
@11 Capshaw purchased another estate, Tiverton, which is right across the road.
@17 perhaps you could consider cross dressing, lot of woman’s clothes for sale on the mall, linens, paper i can’t afford, running shoes, furniture, clothes at industry, books, art, gifts- silly and expensive, toys, knitting supplies, rugs, CD’s and IRA’s, and movie and concert tickets. I’m sure I left some things out.
I wish I lived here in the pre-CC era, if what otter says is true. perhaps once his reign of glamour is over (if it’s in fact ending) the mall will have a fallow period, but may return to a more diverse scene? Is my naive idealism showing?
19: industry is now a plant store.
The way things stand now, there are false connections being made between the “scene” as it’s been described here, and CC himself. The fawners and poseurs are quite able to make messes of themselves all on their own.
@19
i tried buying a small gift for shenigans, but couldn’t find anything my fiscal staure could embrace as ’small’….
@20
Woolworth’s could be re-substituted for any of the stores that replaced it, and if we brought the ABC store back downtown…
@ General
Do you think we could collectively propose to the Chamber of Commerce a (new) city motto:
“Whitey lives here and you can’t too”
I was flipping through a mildly funny newish airport-book “What White People Like” and every item/concept listed/described is somehow present or suggested by the cultural, infrastructural, social and fiscal realities of the ‘new’ charlottesville. This isn’t bad, forcibly, just ‘funny’.
just for the record, i really did like the rant @12. but i’ll stay and fight about it if i have to.
no i won’t.
@23: Yes, it almost as if Clander lives in Charlottesville. For those that don’t know: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
Those very few of you.
fun little book.
i’ll mail my copy to cVillain office if anyone wants to read it?
Don’t forget the $90.00+ stationary store.
Didn’t realize in the internet age paper was such a precious commodity to rich people.
@27
see earlier posting on Cougars.
they also sell espadrilles–how cool is THAT?
Maybe Kyle will overtake CC for his Charlottesville reign with his newfound fame and revive the vibe around town.
@23 I wonder if your spelling of shenanigans and your new city motto have a subconscious connection but that would be wrong.
What would you have done about the mall? Are you unaware of the African Americans that own property on the downtown mall. If they don’t have black stores are they being racist or Uncle Tom’s. This compliant seems odd. The ABC is a couple blocks away just past feast. If it was on the mall it would help the bars and others that is for sure.
@30
you take me VERY wrong. The motto i was suggesting was in satire. The same complaint as for years of driving locals (black and white) out of downtown, forcing them out of Belmont and Fifeville to be replaced with etc etc etc. It was perhaps in poor taste or humor to phrase it that way, sorry. Lemme try again:
“DINCs live here and you CAN’T too”
{DINC—double-income no children}
I am of course aware of business on the mall owned by, etc., particularly of Duplex, the owner of which has advised and helped nearly EVERY small business on the mall get started.
It does however seem to me that the slant of things downtown is towards affluent whiteys, and that businesses like were more balanced and integrated of clientele (rich-poor, black-white, irish-everybody-the-f*ck-else) are increasingly absent.
but i’m dropping out—too dangerous around here today if y’all start throwing around accusations of racism.
gnight all—lemme know if anyone wants that book.
@31 no way do I think you are racist and was having a bit of fun with you as well. I’m am truly the last person who should make fun of another person’s spelling mistakes
Come, sit , stay awhile, show us other umbrage’s you must have. The otter dung makes for fertile ground
Regardless of your opinion of CC, can anyone else substantiate or elaborate on this rumor. I mean this is HUGE. We’ve already lost Oxo and Boheme, and it feels like everything else is for sale, so if you add on the CC empire, what’s left? Sure, I won’t actually eat at Blue Light (other than oysters), but the fact that they exists keeps the big chains away and the Melting Pot has already officially opened the mall to their ilk.
/I’ll cry the day a TGI Fridays opens on the mall
@33 Shed no tears, Lys. This Ville ain’t big enough for a second TGIF. Or, the Downtown Mall ain’t no Times Square.
True story: The holder to the TGI Franchise wanted to open up in Charlottesville on West Main back in the late 90s. The mother ship made him hold out for a spot somewhere on 29, and he pounced on Hollymead Town Center when given the opportunity. I haven’t talked to him recently, but business apparently is plenty good up there.
@34 however, we do not have a carraba’s (also in the outback family). maybe one will come to the mall & y’all complaining about no good italian restaurants can, uh, keep complaining.
I want a Hooters in the Hardwear Store, suck it Urban Outfitters.
@36 HARDWARE not HARDWEAR
@17: I don’t have any opinions good or bad on CC. I couldn’t really give a shit. And any size gift is fine, thank you.
AGRGHGHHG!!! I just had like 100 new browser windows open when I tried to close this thread.. Run everybody! Viruses!
@37 With Urban Outfitters moving in, one could argue it is a”hardwear store”
/Reaching a bit? I think so.
39: I think it’s just you. or maybe my mac is proving it’s value…
@33 Which rumor? What I would like to know is why it’s ok for people on this site to link CC to illegal activities in their comments, and dropping that info so casually. He may be a local celebrity, but that doesn’t make it right or ok.
If I suddenly started posting that Kyle was a drug dealer, the comment would probably be deleted and my IP address would be banned. I don’t know whether it’s bravado or jealousy or a weird sense of power that comes from having history with people that have gone on to succeed — whatever it is, it’s tacky and out of place.
And please, don’t take this as an opportunity to substantiate anything that’s been said. Just put it to rest.
(psst. 26world told me kyle is a drug dealer)
I understand that you have quite a history in “the scene”, otter, but maybe your impression is outdated? I’ve been lead to believe that CC leads a much less chaotic life these days.
I haven’t heard a thing about a mass sale of any restaurants here. I imagine with all the restaurant and bar industry types on here, someone will hear something if it’s happening.
@43 That’s a spliff Kyle is smoking in the cville piece
whatever~! Coran Capshaw has done A LOT for Charlottesville. Stop being so jealous and show a little respect.
probably right. i am myself outdated.
in no way alleging illegal or morally proscribed activities past or present, but spinning an aura. not responsible for his toadies and hangers-on. all hearsay and gossip inappropriate to a news thread. suggestive of flawed character, when the most salient facets of his no doubt diverse personality and abillity are: benefits to cville and excellence in entrepreneurialism.
feel free to edit or delete my other comments.
for the record, ash lawn opera is putting up half the money for the impressive jefferson theater renovation. really? an opera can have that much money lying around in the 21st century?
Stop being so jealous and show a little respect
Earn it and you’ve got it. Otherwise, please accept my specific and active ambivalence.
Good things for cville (with the incentive of a hefty tax break) right on! Rude and dismissive to me and others, personally? Meh. If I thought people were all out to get something from me because I am daddy redlight bucks, I might act that way, and so I cant fault the dude. But want MY respect? Just for being rich? Fuck that. We’re all people no matter how many zeros in ones hedge funds. Want it, earn it. Dont want it? Fine, but dont demand it.
I think the respect mentioned could be characterized as general respect for others. Not because they’re rich or because they own things, but perhaps in spite of it.
@ 50 Could be, and I agree with that sentiment, but that is not the sentiment expressed in caroline’s post (@46) or she would have not prefaced the sentiment with his ‘generous’ gifts to our community, as those would be irrelevant.
No?
b’yo, what I meant by showing respect for someone was not to bring up person X’s past or hearsay. I was not suggesting it has anything to do with $$.
thank you 26
Then why mention his specific generosity? Is this not the “respect” we should offer all our fellow humans?
He gets extra deference for his loot, dont deny it. He is not the most sociable person, don’t deny it. Your post, albeit unintentionally, describes such. Dont try and go all ghandi after the fact.
dude, have a shot of patron.
You 2 stop fightin’. CC is boring.
what makes you think I haven’t already had several? and like I could afford patron… if i could I would be “doing ALOT for charlottesville”, and as such would have random people clamoring for me to get respect in my absence, rather than the lame ass slander that has come back around to me of late. bitchy ass cville.
the velvet closet is being dismantled. bea arthur is being sent to the recycle bin. the bridges I have not yet burned are looking awfully kindling-esque. placation shall have no purchase in this spiritually skeletal yo that is fighting to emerge. took me 4 decades to learn the name of the game is selfishness, but now that I know, Im playing to win. sucks ass, but better the pain than to remain the same. i guess I’ll see how it plays out, like anyone cares.
/hate the game, baby… and while your at it, hate me too.
b’yo STFU you know I love you. and CC.
Im out, off to take my vile cloud of impending radical necrotic metamorphosis out on a tuesday walk about. We’ll see… yes, we shall see.
/actions speak louder than ascii.
@6 baconfat - there’s no explanation. just another waste of space courtesy of our resident pointless poster.
Go scowly…
I just Leroi Moore is dead, can anyone verify? (Source: Friend of friend at hospital)
holy crap - verification anyone???
dead? I don’t know you Wendy- any other way to check?
Not credible, but we aren’t the only ones discussing it.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=2d45236bbcef3ad3bbeedd69441d523f&p=6072471#post6072471
@64 that’s from the time of the accident- anything else?
No it was posted today at 6:53. Look at the post time.
No, that’s from today. It’s on the wikipedia, too. I don’t want to bug anyone who would know, in case it’s true. If that makes any sense.
@66 Right misread the date
@67 Wikipedia before any other site always worries me. What about the official site
I just got a confirmation from a friend who works for Coran. Still no official word though.
official site says nothing yet
have heard misinformed “news” before - person mi-heard chatter over radio that someone (another local musician, many years ago) dead - turned out someone found “dead (drunk) on floor”
oops - mis-heard
check out official dave site - says LM was readmitted to UVA Sunday night due to complications - Janet Charlton’s Hollywood site says he flew to LA to be with band backstage today against doctor’s recommendations and died at Cedars-Sinai - how frustrating and terribly sad if true
I hate ATVs…. look at Ozzy Osborne who took a similar tumble and was reduced to a slurring, gibberish talking incoherent shaking wreck….. what?…. oh…..he was like that before the accident. My bad.
Sad news. We just learned that the Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who was in an all terrain vehicle accident last month, has died at Cedars Sinai hospital. LeRoi, who has been with the band since it started, was seriously injured in an accident at his ranch in Virginia. He was slowly recovering but suffered lung complications and hasn’t been able to perform. We were told that against doctors advice, he flew to LA to be with the band backstage when they open tonight at the Staples center. The flight may have affected him adversely and he died today.
This is from the site
ok, channel 19 is reporting he was readmitted today to UVA
@75 - what site?
@74 - yep - I feel sinilarly - had a good friend who was paralized after “fun” on ATV at HIS farm
@77 http://janetcharltonshollywood.com/gossip/dave_matthews_band/dave_matthews_bandmember_leroi_moore_has_died_20080819.php#comments
i can’t find it on 19- link please
i’m looking, i’m looking!
What restaurant downtown isn’t for sale? Does anyone know if CC would entertain offers on individual properties, or is he only interested in unloading them (if rumor is even true) as a group? There are far more people or entities capable of doing a deal for one and very few who could even consider buying the lot of them, so this rumor that he wants to unload as a group strikes me as odd. Why not unload the biggest losers while retaining the best people for whatever operations he continues to control? Does he own the real estate involved, and is that up for grabs too? If not, perhaps he’s tired of paying rent and will start afresh in spaces he does own?, and if so maybe he’s sick of seeing a return thats less than he could be getting just renting those spaces out, and doing so without the risk a restaurant involves? God knows Tim and Vincent have probably made far more renting out the old Metropolitain space than they did operating a restaurant there…
oh man i want 81’s handle on my license plate. so bad.
I saw Beyonce at Burger King!
where’s our wednesday & thursday gossip? the suspense is killing me.
[…] tip from a reliable birdie who has some friends in the business: There is some meat to the rumor that Coran Capshaw’s restaurant group, including Blue Light Grill, Enoteca, Mas, Mono Loco, […]