Sent in by a birdie..

I’d like to see coverage of the rivalry between Milan and Royal Indian. The owner of the latter was a chef of the former until some kind of dispute sent them separate ways. Now there is a fierce competition — and maybe a hatred — between the two, leading to all kinds of shows of animosity, including very obvious “fake” reviews on charlottesville-dining.com for both. Some of them make veiled but clear references to the other. I tried to make a point about this in a review there, saying that you can’t trust all the comments, but of course it was edited out.

More broadly, this is reminiscent of the Mas affair. Lots of big restaurant fish fighting for their rights in this small Charlottesville pond. Funny stuff.

Few comments after the break…

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A little birdie lets us know…

You probably remember that Milano moved to South Street in place of Verity Blue. The former coffee shop/furniture store space in the Main Street Market had been empty for a while. A lot of restaurant owners checked it out, but apparently the cost of installing a full kitchen was prohibitive.

As it turns out, the owners of Orzo have decided to completely rebuild the space and install their own coffee shop. You can tell that they are doing a major overhaul of the space if you look in the windows. The birdie also explained that the other part of the space was being used for a “yoga shop.” When asked about how this worked, the birdie didn’t know if it was a studio or what.

Anyone have more details?