New Realm Wins VA Craft Beer Cup, 757 Breweries Score Numerous Medals
Hampton Roads breweries scored multiple awards and Virginia Beach's New Realm Brewing won the overall Virginia Craft Beer Cup, when the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild held its 8th annual Virginia Craft Beer Awards Monday evening at Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. In...
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Takin’ It to the Streets
(LUCE owner/chef Antonio Caruana is all smiles thanks to outdoor seating) By Jeff Maisey On an early June evening my girlfriend and I were seated at a table for two within a detached outdoor cafe section on the corner of Tazewell and Granby Street in downtown Norfolk....
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Portsmouth Amphitheater Concerts to Relocate
(Lionel Richie will perform now at ODU's Ted Constant Center on July 10) All announced concerts for the 2019 season in Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion will be held in other locations. The change of venues is a result of structural concerns with the Portsmouth...
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Hampton Arts Announces 2019-20 Season
(PICTURED: Ginger Minj will star in the the musical "Xanadu" November 2 at the American Theatre in Hampton) BY JEFF MAISEY Last evening, Hampton Arts announced its 2019-20 season during a VIP ceremony at the American Theatre. Now in its 32nd season, the programming...
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What Remains
By Tom Robotham A church is there to teach you to pay attention, and to awaken the poetry in your soul. ~ Margaret Visser, The Geometry of Love. On the afternoon of April 15, I received a call from Jeff Maisey, the publisher of this magazine. When I...
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Pridefest 2019 Events
(Crystal Waters to perform at Pride Fest in Town Point Park on Saturday, June 22) By Michael Hamar Typically my columns on Hampton Road Pride’s PrideFest events have been published the same month in which the events have taken place. The downside has been...
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Boathouse Live!: A Memoriam
(Restaurant guru Sean Pepe recently closed The Boathouse Live, Newport News' best live music venue) By Craig Wynne, Guest Writer This morning, I woke up to a Facebook posting from Gary. This posting, taken from the Hampton Daily Press, read “Newport...
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COMMENTARY: The Man Who Gained and Lost An Empire
By Tench Phillips, Naro Cinema “The 21st century will be a сentury either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind.” – Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union We old-timers at the Naro...
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French Military Eager to Share Rugby Culture with Local Citizens
By Jeff Maisey As part of this year’s Norfolk NATO Festival, a friendly rugby match between the Norfolk Blues and the fearsome XV du Pacfique French Army Rugby Team will be played Sunday, April 28 at ODU’s Powhatan Field beginning at 6 PM. Admission is free and open...
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Play Ball
By Tom Robotham For the past year or so, my life has been marked by a series of unsettling disruptions. It all started last spring when my 15-year-old car, which I loved, finally bit the dust. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big a deal. But it turned...
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Gaelic Storm To Hit Virginia Beach
By Ron Wray If you’ve seen the iconic movie “Titanic,” you’ve experienced Gaelic Storm, the veteran Irish-American band coming to Elevation 27 in Virginia Beach at 8 p.m. on June 22. Gaelic Storm was the Irish working-class steerage band playing on the...
Norah Jones Begins Again with Singles
By Jim Morrison Norah Jones got to know Sharon Van Etten as a Brooklyn neighbor so when the folk rocker asked her to sing together at a May show, Jones expected "something quieter," a stripped-down acoustic tune. Not exactly. When Jones joined Van Etten on...
Fans Share Favorite Styx Songs
By Jeff Maisey Styx, a mainstay of classic rock formatted radio with an imaginative discography that includes its self-titled debut from 1972, “The Grand Illusion” (1977), “Pieces of Eight” (1978) and “The Mission” (2017), will perform June 20 at Union Bank...
REVIEW: Captain Fantastic’s “Rocketman” is Highly Entertaining
By Jeff Maisey I went to see “Rocketman” during its opening weekend. I make a point of reading nothing about the movie in advance as I wanted to have an open mind going in, though admittedly last year’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was looming in the back of my...
MUSIC: Headhunters Fiery as Kentucky Bourbon
By Ron Wray The Kentucky Headhunters are bringing their unique blend of hard rock, southern soul, blues, and country to Elevation 27 in Virginia Beach at 8 p.m., Friday, June 7. Hot as asphalt on a Kentucky night in July, these Grammy-winning rock icons still burn...
PREVIEW: Collaboration is Everything for I’m With Her
By Jim Morrison The members of I'm With Her sing and write together as naturally as if they've been friends for decades. While they've known each other for a long time, it wasn't until a moment of serendipity five years ago that they combined their ambitious...
ART REVIEW: Giolitti’s Abstract World Comes to Light
By Betsy DiJulio On a recent weeknight, a veritable spring still life stretched across one end of Sheila Giolitti’s table in her sun-drenched dining room: the most bodacious salad of crisp and colorful vegetables imaginable, fresh hunks of corn on the cob glistening...
VSC Closes 40th Season with Whimsical Matilda
By Jerome Langston Reaching the final production in the landmark 40th season of Virginia Stage Company feels akin to completing a particularly taxing marathon. And if that’s how I’m feeling about it, as just someone who writes extensively about this...
Take 5 (or 8) with Vicki Lawrence
By Jeff Maisey Comedian/actress/recording artist Vicki Lawrence, best known for her role as Mama on CBS’s “The Carol Burnette Show” (1967-78), will bring her “two-woman” act to Ferguson Center on June 9. (NOTE:The Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show...
PREVIEW: In Love with Little Shop of Horrors
By Jim Roberts Brendan Hoyle vividly remembers seeing “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Swift Creek Mill Theatre outside Richmond when he was only 6 years old. “It was the musical that made me fall in love with theater,” he said. “The show is this great...
Reverend Spirits
By Jim Roberts One thing Karl Dornemann’s restaurants have always had in common: whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey. “The first time I had it, I fell in love with it,” he said. “At least Scotch-wise.” By way of explanation—and only half-joking—he added: “I don’t...
Dining à la (shopping) Cart at Wegmans & IKEA
(Take a break from shopping at Wegman’s Burger Bar. Photo courtesy of Wegmans) By Marisa Marsey Have you heard about the Swedish meatballs at IKEA? They’re delicious. If only you didn’t have to put them together yourself. Ba-dum-CHING! I’m joking, of course. You don’t...
Reverend Spirits
By Jim Roberts One thing Karl Dornemann’s restaurants have always had in common: whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey. “The first time I had it, I fell in love with it,” he said. “At least Scotch-wise.” By way of explanation—and only half-joking—he added: “I don’t know...
Tamarind: Taking it to the (Vegan) Streets
By Betsy DiJulio I cannot think of another food establishment that I have patronized three times in a month, not counting my daily stop at Starbucks for a venti Green Tea Soy Frappuccino, no Classic Syrup, no Whip. That is, except Tamarind. And it may have...
Beer Conversation with Phil Smith
By Jeff Maisey Some of the best, free-flowing conversations can be had over a beer — or any cocktail, glass of wine and dinner. I have always found this to be true, and especially when traveling. Recently, I gave Brick Anchor Brew House owner Phil Smith a...
Vegans Can Clean-Up at Sloppy Seconds
By Betsy DiJulio I don’t know that, given the meaning of the slang phrase “sloppy seconds”—which conjures up nothing appetizing—I would have necessarily chosen it as the name of my restaurant. But, alas, that’s the name and I will go back for Thoughtless Thirds. ...
Penang Town: One Restaurant, Many Flavors
By Marisa Marsey If you can travel to only one European country, pick Switzerland. With French overtones in the West, Italian in the South, and German and Austrian in the North and East, it’s a veritable continental quilt. Likewise, if you can visit only one Asian...
German Wunderbar Hefe to Debut at Norfolk NATO Festival
By Jeff Maisey A traditional German hefeweizen beer will make its debut on Saturday, April 27 in Town Point Park as part of the Norfolk NATO Festival’s International Village. Wunderbar represents the third consecutive year Norfolk NATO Festival’s Board of Directors...
Monday Morning QB-ing Saturday Morning IPA
By Jeff Maisey For just over one week in late February, Norfolk-based Smartmouth Brewing Company’s limited release Saturday Morning IPA with marshmallows was the most famous beer in America. Talk about going viral: national media outlets always looking for bizarre...
Virginia Craft Beer Rising in London
By Jeff Maisey Several independent craft breweries from Virginia traveled across the pond in late February to test the waters and taste buds on consumers and pub owners during the Craft Beer Rising event at the Old Truman Brewery London, England. Craft Beer Rising is...
