I was talking with someone from one of the 5th District campaigns (i.e. Goode or Perriello) and they offered to do an online questionnaire for cVillain readers. Here’s what we will do. Let us know in the comments what questions you want asked. If you like someone else’s question, put a @4 where 4 corresponds to the comment number to let us know you like it.
We’ll pick the best/most liked 10 and submit the same questiosn to each campaign, give them a week to respond and publish the answers on the site.
Here is the video of the advertisement that Perriello has been trying to get the local television stations to remove because it is “libel.” According to the Perriello campaign’s attorney (in a letter sent to TV stations):
We do not expect you [TV Station] to act as a censor, prejudging all advertisements that are offered to you, but we do expect that when you are confronted with clear proof that a particular advertisement is false, you will refuse to run the advertisement in question. You owe your viewers that much
I think cville becomes even better when it can introduce me to something I have never even heard of…this week it is Spicy Senegalese Peanut Tofu soup at Revolutionary Soup. Thor touched briefly on how this is one of his favorite soup’s in his Week o’ Charlottesville Lunches series, and after trying it, I think it deserves its own soup bowl sized spotlight. It sounded very appetizing from the menu on the wall, but I was worried it would be some knock-off of a Thai-style peanut dipping sauce (satay sauce) turned into a soup. What I received was as non-Thai as it gets, and a my belly loved every bite of the small size cup I got (mistake #23093 in my book, order at LEAST the medium).
Nicola’s Veggies is this tiny door in the wall veggie restaurant located on 110 2nd St. NW (the north side of 2nd street on the Downtown Mall). When I say “door in the wall”, I literally mean it. Nicola’s interior space must not occupy more than 35 square feet. You order through a screen window next to the door, and someone inside, most likely a nice woman named Kimberly will scramble away making your lunch a hopefully green experience. And she really does scramble, but it must be ridiculously hard working in that tiny space, so if it takes 5 min to build you a great salad, please don’t give her any crap.
Their size does not detract from the food quality.It is owned by the same owners as Marco and Luca. I have had the exquisite pleasure of ordering lunch from them since they opened, and every time its delicious. Now I have to warn you, if you don’t like vegetables, like really hate them, then you might not like this. Nicola’s offers you a veggie overload.
25 People Have Been Laid Off at The Daily Progress.
Media General, the Daily Progress’ parent company decided to move printing operations to Richmond to save on printing costs. The employees who used to work for the printing press no longer have jobs, but they will get severance packages.
As part of a larger effort to help local businesses and consumers make decisions about local food, 40,000 copies of the downloadable guide have been printed and distributed.
Through this effort, the group hopes to:
Strengthen the local food and farm economy in the Shenandoah Valley area,
Connect institutional food buyers to nearby farms and processors,
Foster a growing relationship among consumers, grocers, meat processors, restaurant owners, dining service staff, farmers, local government, and economic development officials, and
Assist local independent food and farm businesses better communicate their positive impacts on the local economy.
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.
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.
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!
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?
