Hot Spot Charlottesville: The Tavern

The Tavern

1140 Emmet Street North, Charlottesville, VA

Lightning fast service, Southern charm, great values, and delicious comfort food - find it all at Charlottesville's The Tavern, "where students, townspeople, and tourists meet."  But if you happen to go in the summer and eliminate the students from the equation, the lines are much shorter.  The menu is huge and is full of amazing classics, like biscuits and gravy and corn cakes and new favorites like lemon poppy seed or bacon pancakes.  Our waitress was delightful and I've literally never received faster service.  Our first items came within two minutes, no exaggeration, and everyone had all their food within five minutes.

I ordered a cheese and bacon omelet with a side of biscuits and gravy.  The biscuits were so fluffy, buttery and delicious they would be amazing on their own, but slathering them in pork sausage gravy doesn't hurt either.  The omelet had whole slices of bacon in it, not just crumbles.  Pam ordered strawberry pancakes and they came with a generous portion of real fruit and whipped cream.  Four of us ate to our hearts' content for just over $37.  Jake got the pancake of the month which was corn cakes with blueberries and they were amazing.  The atmosphere is warm and the ceiling is UVA blue and orange.  There is no beating it. 

We glanced at the lunch menu too, which offers a selection of "kosher style" sandwiches.  Apparently The Tavern's interpretation of "kosher style" is: exactly the opposite of kosher.  Almost all the sandwiches offered meat and cheese combos.  Well Toto, we're certainly not in New York City anymore.  

Virginia is for Lifepartners

We are now in North Carolina, a short four hour drive through torrential downpours.  But I got to spend 36 hours in Charlottesville with my best friend/lifepartner Pam (whose own blog you can check out at spicykoury.blogspot.com).  I met her bunny, Ranger, whose nickname is "Bunny."  I petted him and he was the softest thing I'd ever touched, but he was not that friendly.  He pretty much spent the whole time eating paper and looking scared, as is illustrated below.

I also helped Pam put together her new 6th grade History classroom.  I helped her put together a bulletin board and hang her posters and I got a new appreciation for how much work even the seemingly easy aspects of teaching can be.  We learned that we are not very good at cutting in straight lines.

Pam hosted a murder mystery party in the evening where we all tested out pretty horrible accents (British, Russian and Swedish, many of which started sounding Irish or Indian at one point or another).  We mostly just drank mojitos and ate lots of snacks, including gourmet popcorn from Scotty's in flavors like "loaded potato" and "cornfetti," which might be better described as fruit loops.  In the end it turns out I was the murderer.

Today we went to brunch at The Tavern and hit the road.  The Tavern was fabulous and I'll be writing more about that later.  On our ride to North Carolina we passed by a lot of farms and a lot of election lawn signs, the best of which is below.

 

7 States, 12 Hours

We made it!  We drove from Boston, along the entire coast of Connecticut, through the hellish traffic of the Bronx, along the entire coast of New Joisey, through Delaware and Maryland and into Virginia.  And now I'm here to enjoy one of my favorite homes away from home, Charlottesville!  So far I have been flabbergasted at the price of gas ($3.39!), tickled by "y'all," and enjoyed mocking the Republican debaters.

Stay tuned for more updates on my 36 hours in this wonderful University town!