bashir's taverna

the econ dinner club was at it again this weekend. we haven't met for a while, so charlie and i called an "emergency get together" at bashir's taverna on the downtown mall. number one - i really love when it starts to get warm here and everyone is out on the downtown mall - including the musicians (good or bad). number two - bashir's is a fun place to eat. i think our tables tasted almost everything on the menu. charlie loved the lamb. the moussaka special looked delicious and comforting. the couscous trio served in a tagine looked colorful and delicious. the ham (raved about in the new york times, apparently) was melt-in-your-mouth tasty. not cheap - but the belly-dancing is free!

ten

ten out of ten in my book for ten on the downtown mall. this is some seriously good sushi. some friends of ours wanted to go out one night the other week and were delighted to stumble up the stairs into the high-ceiling'ed, mirror-walled, hip urban decorated restaurant. the seaweed salad - awesome, and the rolls were really really delicious - super-fresh, and light. i'm a big fan.

scarpa - take 2

with rockpaperscissors under new ownership, i've started working at scarpa part-time (very part-time and only on random saturdays that aren't already consumed with wedding appointments or other crazy to-dos). i have to say that the stock amy has right now is so fun! there are so many great sandal options for the warm weather. i bought myself a pair of the kelsi dagger colleen sandals:
and a fabulous lemlem scarf:

the jewelry is killer and i wish i had more parties to go or i actually wore the high heels that i have so i could buy more.

really - there's a lot of good stuff! check it out

rockpaperscissors

the new owners of rockpaperscissors have done a wonderful job with the shop. the new location on the downtown mall is wonderful (and a walk from my office). maybe i'm a a little bit nuts, but walking into the store was so soothing - it really was a breath of fresh air. the walls are a calming blue, the store is so clean and bright, and of course the products are too much fun. i love love love paper goods and the new inventory is lovely!

congrats dani and heather! i can't wait to stop in again soon!

mas tapas

After over a year and a half in Charlottesville, I finally went to Mas. Betsy has been there a couple of times. For those who don't know, Mas is essentially the foodie mecca of Charlottesville (maybe along with C&O), which I think is saying a lot for a town filled with great restaurants. One of the things about Mas is that you can't make reservations. We got there at 6pm on a Friday and got a seat right away, but a little later in the night there was a long line out front. We got a lot of food and most of it lived up to the hype. The thing that impressed me the most was that for all the hype, the food or the service did not seem pretentious. For instance, the chorizo was just that, a plate with three patties of homemade sausage (I probably would only recommend this dish to accompany a cheese plate). Mas is a true tapas place in the sense that its food is certainly Spanish. Seafood, goat cheese, Manchego cheese, cured pork, and other traditional flavors are prevalent on the menu.

Some of our favorite dishes included breaded halibut with grapefruit, Monte Enebro goat cheese with apricot preserves melted over brioche , and lamb chops with a mint mojo sauce.

I am not sure any restaurant is worth an hour wait, but this is a place that I would like to go back to. I feel like we barely touched the menu. Maybe all of the offerings are what get people coming back.

Belmont BBQ

We finally visited Belmont BBQ the other weekend. It was a beautiful day, so we got the food to-go and had a little picnic. The food was great. I got a rib a sandwich. Betsy had a pulled pork sandwich and we shared some french fries. The BBQ is delicious. The style of BBQ is definitely Virginian. The pork sandwich was a little juicy with a thicker sweet sauce. They also have spicier sauce options. The rib sandwich was very "wet." Generally I prefer more of the North Carolina style BBQ (which is an option too), but I really thought the BBQ we had was great. One option I think we'll have to get next time is a this bucket which they put essentially all of their kinds of BBQ in with a side. The french fries were good, but maybe a little too flavorful. In short, this is definitely a place we will be going back too. The best BBQ I have had in a while.