It has been a crazy week, but don’t think we could let you starve without a rundown of this weekend’s hottest and sexiest events.  So, here, we, go….

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Popularity: 18% [?]

Another of our famous Mallstars, Tony is owner of the hippest coffee joint on the downtown mall, Cafe Cubano.  I don’t know anyone else in town that takes more pride in drawing a shot of espresso than Tony…be sure to ask for a cortadito (typical Cuban coffee:  lots of sugar, espresso and a drop of milk…it will knock you on your caffeinated feet), and you will see the attention he gives to the tiny succulent shot.  So I thought it would be great to find out more about the man behind the coffee…so here goes!

Starting a life and business in Charlottesville

Where were you before Charlottesville?
I was in Miami in the restaurant business, but when my wife was diagnosed with a serious illness we moved to Alexandria. There I partnered with a restaurant guy in the DC to manage a couple locations and we later sold the business to a South Korean group in 1992. That gave me the chance to move to cville. I started working in Richmond for about a year consulting for a restaurant group and later worked for UVa with a management consulting group.

Why did you come to Charlottesville?
My first wife, who passed away, had a sister that lived here.  For twenty years we traveled to cville about 2-3 times per year.  I was always impressed by the environment.

How did Cafe Cubano come about?
I had an opportunity to meet the brothers from Higher Ground Coffee. I loved their food and coffee and decided to buy it. My goal was to deliver a micro-concept on the downtown mall. I loved the diversity and “city” feeling of the mall. The customer base came from all walks of life. From movers and shakers to UVa professors and students to nerds to entrepreneurs…it reminded me a lot of old-town Alexandria.

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Popularity: 45% [?]

Tuffy wrote last month about the Coca Cola bottling plant giving away its corn syrup barrels for us cVillains to make home-made rain barrels. Marilyn Bartoes of the CCE Charlottesville responds:
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Popularity: 33% [?]

Most of us are obsessed with the downtown mall usually out of convenience. What is off the beaten path? My interest in procuring a new breakfast spot has yielded a diamond in the cville rough: C’ville Coffee. Located at the corner of Harris and McIntire in what seems to be an antique/furniture business park, it serves up more than just coffee.

My curiosity with Cville Coffee began with the Chocolate Chip Honey Bunches I tried at the City/Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago. Something so simple and delicious surely had to come out of a creative kitchen, or at least a business that really cares about its customer experience.

About an Owner

I had lunch with Toan Nguyen, owner of C’ville Coffee soon after our introduction at the City/Farmers Market. We discussed everything from business to politics to the local “green” initiative. He has quite a colorful past, influenced very much by his wife’s career ambitions. She was a high-powered San Francisco lawyer in the 80’s, no doubt slinging together crazy private equity and leveraged buy-out deals in the hay day of financial market abuse (just a thought, not actually confirmed). Confronted with the realization that working for the Firm would not allow for a great family life, she told Toan she wanted to move back to cville where she attended Uva Law.

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Popularity: 79% [?]

Bank of America secret spots  Filled

Block around X-Lounge and Moxie  Can’t park after 9

Main city lot Can’t leave my car there Friday night
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Popularity: 53% [?]

Inspired by parlie’s curmudgeonly diss on the current iPhone buzz, I decided to compile this list of “things that used to be cool in cville but are no longer because too many people do them.” Please, discuss, argue, and add your own 5 cents in the comments! (Why 5 cents instead of just 2? Because we live in Charlottesville. Even our opinions are overpriced!)

So here’s my take on a bunch of things that matter almost as much as my opinion about them! </toungecheek>

#10. Pretending not to care what people think of you - The only thing less painful than being judged by how you look and what you do is being judged for how you don’t look and what you don’t do. Too many folks wearing Birkenstocks? Get yourself some Crocs. That’ll show ‘em. Is everyone listening to that new band on the radio? Go find some “indy” group to proclaim as your FAVORITE. And OMFG people are getting excited about a new product from a popular electronics company? You better not get sucked in, or it will just look like you’re following the crowd! You don’t want to do stuff that other people do, do you?

It’s just too easy to define people by what they ARE. Let’s go out and start judging everybody for what they AREN’T. »Read More

Popularity: 52% [?]

So I embarked on an odyssey last week (does that sound too serious?), to find out about cville’s vegetarian offerings. Given some of the comments on the posts related to this, let me clarify what that means. I was not looking for vegetarian ONLY restaurants, just places that, lets says you took a date to that happened to be vegetarian, he/she would be quite happy. So all of you hippies take a hike, this is not the post for you.

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Popularity: 61% [?]

Dependable Zo.Ca.Lo…what do you have to offer to those meat weary folks? Apparently just one dish, an amazing dish I have never had before in my life. The lone vegetarian warrior on the entrees menu is the “Black Bean and Corn Relleno”. I really didn’t know what to expect, I just read the description: smoked tomato grits, smoked pico, cilantro buttermilk honey”, figured it was cool to eat and ordered. I should warn you, this isn’t some “I am on a diet so I am trying out vegetarian food” type of dish. This thing definitely has healthy quantities of butter and cream…perhaps French cuisine had an affair with a Mexican damsel from the south and many years later Mr. Frenchie comes back to town to find out he has a lost daughter…this is his little chalupita.

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Popularity: 39% [?]

If you are looking for the vegetarian deal of the century, then Eppie’s on the downtown mall is the place to be. Their menu offering is pretty meat heavy except for the side’s section, which allows you the choice of a veggie only platter in 3 or 4 choice combos with a generous piece of corn bread.

I opted for mac n’ cheese, collard greens and coleslaw. For around 6 bucks I received an impressive amount of food that I couldn’t even finish. Everything on the plate was good quality. Not to say there isn’t any room for improvement like making the collard greens in a more modern manner or using a different cheese on the mac n’cheese, but the value per vegetable was really good. They had a wide variety of sides on the menu which I will definitely go back for. For a southern food lunch, it was light and left me happy…happy to know even with western fare this vegetarian craze can be satiated!

I also noted one of the kitchen staff came outside to offer a bowl of water for one of the customers that had their dog with them. I found that to be a terrific gesture. Talk about southern hospitality!

Images most graciously linked from Flikr

Popularity: 34% [?]

I know, a brewery? I would think the same thing…but I go where the wind takes me this week, and everyone seemed to finish the work day at South Street’s famous Tuesday evenings, full of cheap excellent beer and worthy grub. This review will be short and snappy.

I feared South Street would break my vegetarian streak of the week (and it was only Tuesday), but the words “portobello ravioli” called my name from the menu. I didn’t even bother reading the description assuming there was nothing in this meat related. Yes, I was right. The ravioli were giant round circles cooked perfectly and filled with sautéed portobello…they were dam good. The sauce was a crème based cheese sauce topped with parmesan cheese. This dish alone made the evening a success.

I couldn’t find anything else on the menu that appealed to my inner veggie except for the veggie optioned nachos. Did I miss something else on the menu worth noshing on?

Ravioli pic on Flikr

Popularity: 30% [?]