Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [53]
We tried this in one of our favorite small towns. Technically a city with a population of 45,000 that is swelled by the University of Virginia, Charlottesville nonetheless has small town charm. We strolled down the pedestrian mall one warm winter Sunday, absorbing all the many sights, sounds and smells. T-shirt and jewelry vendors dropped the hard sell for a friendly smile. Bells ring-a-tinged whenever a shopper entered or exited a shop. It was lunchtime and a delicious smell drew us into The Immigrant Soul, a vegetarian lunch-and-dinner spot.
The Downtown Mall is a seven-block pedestrian open-air mall in the historic district, packed with chic boutiques, artsy galleries, antiques shops, coffeehouses, trendy restaurants to down-home cooking. The Blue Ridge Country Store, set up like an old fashioned general store, has its own line of dressings and preserves, fresh baked goods, produce and a great salad bar. Mixed in with shops selling French linens and homemade gourmet ice cream are the more mundane, but necessary vendors: CVS, A&N and Foot Locker. There are several theaters – the Jefferson, Regal and the Paramount. Read & Co., billed as “Purveyors since 1750,” is a wonderland of exotic imported objects: handmade terra cotta pots from Crete, hand-carved antique pillars and furniture inlaid with camel bone, both from India. For the kids, the Virginia Discovery Museum is at one end of the mall; at the other is the Charlottesville Ice Park, offering daily public skating indoors. Just off the mall is Galerie LaParliere where the magical hand-painted furniture, murals and art of French-born Maryvonne LaParliere can be seen. Her client list reads like a Hollywood movie bill, and include Steven Seagal, Priscilla Presley and the Prince of Indonesia, to name a few. We couldn’t afford her beautiful work, but we enjoyed browsing and meeting the effervescent and friendly Frenchwoman. (414 E. Jefferson Street, tel. 434-245-1365, www.laparliere.com)
Our afternoon of tarrying was a success, in part because it broke the mold of past trips to Charlottesville, which had become somewhat routine – dinner at the Buddhist Biker Bar and Grill, music at a club, late-night breakfast at the White Spot. Sprinkle fall walks on the University lawn, slip in an afternoon at the ice rink, or an errant art show or a movie, and a pattern emerges of habitual patronage of a select few spots, albeit a pattern that reflected our priorities: eating, drinking and having fun.
The beauty of Charlottesville is that it can accommodate tastes far more simple, or sophisticated, than our own. Don’t care a hoot for pricey wine lists, but can’t resist an expensive piece of art? Skip the Old Mill Room and browse any number of art galleries on the Downtown Mall. Can’t bear to look at art you can’t afford? Museums, including the startling Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, are free and open to the public. Bothered by crowds? Slip off the mall and onto 2nd Street or Water Street, where older buildings with fresh facades have been retrofitted to house thoroughly modern pursuits of consulting, investing, analyzing, publishing and healing. I find deciphering names of some of these businesses a pursuit all its own.
This is a city defined by history, and by the University of Virginia, with its 22,000-plus undergraduates. It also supports a viable and serious arts community. Live theater, readings, films and holistic pursuits fill the monthly calendar of events. The club scene fits both Rapture, with its turtlenecks and expensive martinis, and the rowdy college kids at any watering hole around The Corner, just outside University gates.
Historically, the name given to a short row of shops and restaurants directly across West Main Street from the University of Virginia, The Corner is barely two-tenths of a mile, but offers foreign cuisine