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...]

Charlottesville, Virginia, home of CvilleBuzz, had around 225 restaurants at last count. That’s a lot of choices, but if I had special guests coming to town, price was no object and I wanted to make sure they dined at one of Charlottesville’s very finest restaurants, I would take them to the Ivy Inn. Over the years, my wife Nancy and I have had many enjoyable meals at The Inn (mostly … [Read more...]

Great Italian food in Covington? Absolutely. Coming into town on East Madison Street is a restaurant with a large parking lot called Cucci’s Pizzeria. The place serves generous portions of authentic Italian cuisine at reasonable prices. It’s a top-notch place to stop for a bite, whether for lunch or dinner. Nancy and I found ourselves heading home from a stay at Cliff View Inn one evening and … [Read more...]

Anytime you see a line at a restaurant, you figure there’s something worthwhile inside. And when there is always a line, you know this is a great place to eat. A little over halfway to Lynchburg on Rt. 29 heading south is a town called Colleen. I suppose it’s a town since they have a sign on the highway, but as best I can tell, Colleen consists of a big Exxon Station and a smaller establishment, … [Read more...]

  Talk about a diamond in the rough. One of the great restaurants in Virginia has a very strange name and is located in an even stranger place. It is the Cat and Owl Steak and Seafood Restaurant in Covington. Well, not really Covington, but close enough. It’s actually in Low Moor, between Covington and Clifton Forge, but this place serves serious food. I stumbled on this … [Read more...]