Gayle’s Market has closed. A month ago, I passed by their store on Spotswood Trail in Penn Laird, just outside of Harrisonburg, and they looked closed. We travelled that way again last Sunday and they are indeed closed. I was crushed. For years, as I drove back and forth from Mossy Creek to fish, I would take advantage of every opportunity to stop in and pick up a couple country ham … [Read more...]

  Buying a cantaloupe or honeydew melon these days is like playing Russian Roulette. You might get a good one and you might not. It’s impossible to know until you slice the thing. My experience is that you’ll get about half that are decent and half that aren’t. I’ve always insisted I’d pay more for a sure thing. Wandering through Sam’s the other day, I came across a rare find. A … [Read more...]

  Our endeavor to track down the best hamburgers in Charlottesville takes us to a relatively new restaurant in town – Cook Out. They opened in 2012 in Charlottesville at the site of the old Long John Silver’s on Emmett Street and the long lines in their drive through lanes is a testament to their excellent food. Cook Out was founded in 1989 by Morris Reaves in Greensboro, NC. The … [Read more...]

  I don’t like to go to Downtown Charlottesville. It’s no longer Historic Charlottesville, it is now Politically Correct Charlottesville. I go only if the Charlottesville Band or a good show is playing at the Paramount.  And it’s too bad, because one of Charlottesville’s best burger restaurants is on the Downtown Mall, and that’s Citizen Burger Bar. We ate there not long ago, and their … [Read more...]

I use a service called Mail Chimp to handle the subscription list to Cville Buzz. The service is responsible for mailing an electronic copy to anyone who subscribes, and unless the subscriber cancels, he or she is supposed to get CvilleBuzz every Friday morning. Supposed to, that is. Sometimes Mail Chimp has a bad hair day and drops a subscriber for no particular  reason. The subscriber then … [Read more...]

    The hamburger is as American as - well - Germany. Hamburg, Germany to be exact.  That’s where the first ground meats are said to have originated. But wait. While the term “hamburger” may have found its origins in Germany, it was America that put the famous dish on the map. At the 1940 World's Fair in St. Louis, the term “hamburger” gained worldwide recognition  when … [Read more...]

  Have you checked car prices recently? The used car business may be hotter than real estate at this point. That’s because car companies cut down on production for rental cars last year and now the inventory is super low. Recently, however, we happened upon a really good deal on a newer van for Nancy B’s House of Lights. The old van, a 2000 model with 145,000 miles, was still trucking … [Read more...]

Boy I miss Anderson’s Seafood. Not so much the last one near Barracks Road, but the fresh seafood from the good old days where the Anderson Family sold seafood beneath their make-shift tents at Hardee’s. Most every Friday after work, I’d pull in, ask Mr. Anderson what was good, he’s show me and I’d buy it. Anderson’s had a direct connection to the watermen in the Chesapeake and we enjoyed many … [Read more...]

  Cliff View Inn is a delightful lodge on the Jackson River, about 5 miles north of Covington. It offers 9 bedrooms and 9 baths, great views of the looming cliffs and is surrounded by an 18-hole golf course. My close group of friends who have been getting together on camping expeditions and trips for 41 years have been staying there, renting the entire inn for the past 15 years or so. … [Read more...]