Charlottesville, Virginia is the home of one of my favorite places--The Downtown Mall. The Mall was created when they put brick over the original main street (at least the eastern end) and turned it into a pedestrian area only, leaving up the original storefronts. In one particularly delicious case, they left the lettering and marble front of the Keller and George jewelers up. (It's now a bookstore.) So on days like today it's a great place to kill a few hours and get a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, or maybe something to eat.
And now there's a place you can do all three if you want. It's called Enoteca, and I just visited it for the first time on Thursday. It specializes in Italian wines--reds, whites, sweet, and sparkling--along with different types of bruschetta, panini, and a lot of really cool desserts (like fairly inexpensive tiramisu).
The only danger is if you live anywhere in Charlottesville, you'll probably get addicted to it and end up blowing your paychecks trying all the wines they've got, especially the white wines. For someone like me, it's a constant frustration to go to a wine store and look under the white wines in the "Italy" section, only to find a surfeit of Pinot Grigio. There are so many other grapes grown in Italy--Malvasia, Trebbiano, Verdicchio--and yet you rarely see those, either as varietals or proprietary blends.
And now you can! You can enjoy a glass of wine for between eight and ten dollars, which may seem steep but is (somewhat more) reasonable when you consider that you'll get a glass of wine at local wineries for about six dollars or so.
Plus--what could be wrong with a place that serves wine, coffee, AND beer?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment