For 17 years, Rhett Craddock has been serving his Charlottesville patrons the finest in seafood, soups, steaks, raw oysters and sandwiches at his cozy restaurant at 2335 Seminole Trail in Riverside Center. Hopefully, he will continue to serve the same great foods with the same great service for the next 17 years and more, but it won’t be at the Riverside Center, which has morphed into a … [Read more...]

  Last week, Nancy and I were watching TV and a commercial came on depicting a big slice of pizza, oozing cheese and goodness. It brought back memories of Anna’s Pizza on Maury Avenue, not far from Scott Stadium. We had not eaten there in years and wondered if it was even still open. It is, and last Sunday night, we made a special trip across town to see if it was as good as we … [Read more...]

  My old fishing and hunting buddy, Ed Dent, was the first to tell me how good the chicken was at Payton’s Grocery in Stanardsville. Ed worked at Swift Air Delivery at the time, a mile or so from the small Citgo/Grocery/Deli and made near daily lunchtime trips to get his chicken fix. “I’m addicted,” Ed said. “It’s the best fried chicken you’ve ever tasted.” The next time I passed … [Read more...]

Lumpkin’s Family Restaurant. It’s where the folks in Scottsville gather. Downhome cooking, friendly service and the best breakfast this side of Tip Top in Charlottesville. If you’ve ever passed through the little river city of Scottsville, you’ve seen that huge rooster out in Lumpkin’s parking lot. Inside, the food is superb. Years ago, I fished in some bass tournaments and we often found … [Read more...]

When we were in Hawaii for our 50thanniversary, Nancy and I decided to splurge and eat our last meal on the islands at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It was magnificent. Last week in Dallas at the Lighting Show, we ate there again with the same results – absolutely delicious. Dallas has three Ruth’s Chris locations and I think there are 150 or so in the US. Ruth’s Chris is a great success story in … [Read more...]

Face it. Eating out at Sam’s Club may not offer the best in ambience, and it’s self- serve, but the food there is pretty good. Their hot dogs are big, fat Nathan’s franks. The condiments leave a little to be desired, but the dogs are wonderful and cheap as dirt. Their salads and the ice cream are also good, and if you order a slice of pizza, they give you two. I guess Sam’s figures the longer they … [Read more...]

Years ago, there was a Bojangles’ restaurant in Charlottesville beside Hardy’s at the corner of Rio and 29 North. My eldest daughter, Angelin, practically camped out in their Drive-Thru lane. She was addicted to their biscuits. For some reason, that store didn’t survive and closed a few years later. About a year ago, Bojangles’ opened another restaurant across from Forest Lakes, and it seems to be … [Read more...]

I know of a great place to eat breakfast, maybe the best breakfast you’ve ever eaten. Trouble is, you have to go to Waikiki Beach to eat there. But there are worse things, right? When Nancy and I went on our Hawaiian Cruise last March, our daughter Laura insisted that we eat breakfast at a place called Eggs ‘n Things. They had a breakfast bar set up in our hotel, but on the strength of Laura’s … [Read more...]

In my opinion, there are only a handful of restaurants in all of Virginia that makes barbeque worth stopping by for. I guess I’m a little spoiled, though, raised on North Carolina barbeque. Once you eat that – basically slow cooked pork with vinegar and pepper – the stuff they call BBQ in Virginia is just not up to par. It’s edible, but that’s it. One of the select few restaurants in the … [Read more...]

For my recent birthday, my wife Nancy gave me a gift certificate to the Clifton Inn Restaurant. It was more like a “down payment” to what I now consider the finest restaurant in Charlottesville. Clifton is a little pricey, but you only turn 39 once, right? Nancy had been there once before, but this was my first experience. We sat at the Chef’s Table, basically in the kitchen, observing every … [Read more...]