RESULTS: VEER’s 2025 Golden Tap Awards
By Jeff Maisey Maker’s Craft Brewery took home the 2025 Golden Tap Award by accumulating the most points in our annual region-wide competition. This marked the 10th anniversary of VEER’s Golden Tap Awards. Gold medals earned three points, silver received two points,...
NEWS: Veer Magazine’s Golden Tap Awards Ceremony
The Golden Taps Awards ceremony will be held Monday, December 1 at 6:00 PM at Big Ugly Brewing Company in Chesapeake. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awards in nearly 40 categories including IPA, Stout, and Pale Ale to breweries in the 757 region. Admission is...
Anita Bradley’s Wearable Art
By Jeff Maisey Artist Anita Bradley has taken her vibrantly colorful abstract paintings in a whole new direction — literally from canvas to the fabric you wear out to dinner. The idea came to her four years ago after a long career in interior design and as a visual...
A Walk in the Woods
By Tom Robotham In the woods…a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. – Ralph Waldo Emerson One of my great fortunes in life is that I grew up in the woods. There’s a...
ESSAY: Future Shock
By Tom Robotham Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about artificial intelligence and its potential impact on society. On one end of the spectrum is the grim scenario of robots taking over and either enslaving the human race or wiping us out altogether. This nightmare has...
Smartmouth To Close Norfolk Location
(Porter Hardy outside the Smartmouth Pilot House in 2017) By Jeff Maisey On the eve of its 13th anniversary weekend, founding owner/president Porter Hardy IV announced Smartmouth Brewing Company would be closing its original location in Norfolk by the end of this...
ESSAY: A Bridge Too Far
By Tom Robotham Seven years ago, I wrote an essay reflecting on a sudden anxiety attack I’d had while driving over the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The attack was wholly unexpected. I’d driven over that bridge countless times, without a thought. This time, I felt as if...
Z Creativity Honors
By Jim Roberts The Zeiders American Dream Theater—better known as “the Z”—is marking its 10th anniversary in 2025. To reflect on the milestone and what the theater has meant to the community, Veer Magazine spoke with founder and namesake Mike Zeiders. Veer Magazine:...
REVIEW: “Bitter Wine, Sweet Melons”
By Montague Gammon III The recently released memoir, “Bitter Wine, Sweet Melons,” very appropriately subtitled “Suffering Loss & Savoring Life,” by my VEER, and formerly “Hampton Roads Magazine,” co-worker Betsy DiJulio, is a series of “largely chronological”...
ESSAY: A Message to My Students
By Tom Robotham As the fall semester approaches, I find myself thinking about what I want to say to my students on the first day of class. Typically, that first meeting is brief. I review the syllabus, talk a bit about the purpose of the course, then let them go....
A Merry Little Christmas Carol
(Actor Beatty Barnes Jr. will reprise the role of Ebenezer Scrooge) By Jerome Langston "I’m a therapist by day, and a theater director by night,” says Maryanne Kiley, very early in our recent phone chat, about her job as director of Virginia Stage Company’s A Merry...
An Enchanting Christmas with Sarah Brightman
By Jim Morrison Sarah Brightman's journey through dance, Broadway, international stardom and selling tens of millions of records began with singing at three with her family in England. So, her winter symphony Christmas tours take her back to that time decades ago....
Smooth Jazz Christmas with Dave Koz & Friends
By Jeff Maisey Smooth jazz saxophonist Dave Koz has made a successful seasonal career hitting the road for the past 27 years in the month leading up to Christmas Eve with his critically acclaimed Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour. When the 28th tour makes a stop...
The Hurrah Players prepare two holiday shows on consecutive weekends
(Santa and the starring cast of Hurrah for the Holidays. Photo by Elena Grace Photography courtesy of Hurrah Players.) By Jim Roberts Hugh Copeland has a simple piece of advice for anyone considering producing back-to-back theatrical performances: “Don’t do it.” Yet...
Nuts for Nutcracker Ballets
Ballet Virginia’s “Nutcracker” performance by professional dancers. By Jeff Maisey If you can’t get enough of the holiday season “Nutcracker” ballet, you’re in for a treat in Hampton Roads with several productions scheduled, each with its own unique...
Get Down with KC and the Sunshine Band
By Jeff Maisey The mid 1970s experienced a new pop culture fad that exploded in big city dance clubs and on the airwaves — disco was all the rage. Men wore extravagant outfits, silky big collar jackets, tight fitting spandex jeans, and unbuttoned shirts to show off...
Laughter Divides Sorrow, Not People, on the Palace Theatre Stage
Tony and Karla Robinson as George and Judy Kimball in Arts Enter Cape Charles' production of Send Me No Flowers. Photo credit: Chris Roll By Sheila Vera “Especially during a time when we’re so divided, we strive to find plays that draw the community together,”...
ART REVIEW: Intersections in Abstract Paintings
James Williams, “On the Other Side of the Bridge No. 3,” Mixed Media on Canvas, 40” x 60" By Betsy DiJulio In our digital world, in which comparisons are often linked with the negative emotions around FOMO, here you are expressly invited to compare. Intentionally...
An Exhibition Celebrating the 150th Birthday of Susan Watkins & Other Lesser Known Women Artists
Susan Watkins (American, 1875–1913), Le Five O’Clock (Tea), ca. 1903, Oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. Edward T. Miles By Jeff Maisey Chances are you’ve never heard of American artist Susan Watkins. You likely had no idea she lived on Duke Street in Norfolk, died at age...
Soweto Gospel Choir Spreads Joy, Peace and Happiness
By Jerome Langston “I’ve been a fan of this music since I was a kid,” says Robert Cross, Executive Director and artistic director of the Virginia Arts Festival, referring to gospel music — which he became immersed in through the local scene of gospel choirs here in...
Samichlaus Tapping at The Bier Garden
Words by Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones So, St. Nicholas’ Day is coming up on Saturday, December 6. How are you going to ring in that holiday? Traditionalists will have the kinder place their shoes or a special boot by the fireplace, to hopefully be filled with...
Beer Buzz in the 757
Razova Beer. Photo credit Kylie Posten. By Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones Here is a smattering of suds-based snippets and stories in the 757 to keep you in-the-know. The Garage Brewery in Chesapeake recently sponsored a collaboration beer in support of the 757...
Vegan Delight Where Cali Meets Colley at the Cantina
By Betsy DiJulio Vegan fare is perhaps not what one would go searching for in a Baja surfer bar in Ghent, but if that surf-hut-meets-urban-storefront happened to be Colley Cantina, that’s exactly what you should seek out. In fact, their website lists “Baja Cuisine and...
Oktoberfest 2025
By Jeff Maisey If beer has a national — make that multi-national — holiday then surely it is Oktoberfest. Celebrations abound, including right here in Hampton Roads. So how did it all begin? Way back on October 12, 1810, King Ludwig I married Princess Terese of...
Nourish Your Soul
By Betsy DiJulio As a longtime foodie, I have a somewhat vast collection of cookbooks. But there are only two that are housed in my kitchen, along with my quintet of recipe file binders: mine and Angela Phillips’. Admittedly, Angela is a close friend and favorite...
A Taste of Honey
By Jeff Maisey The St. George Brewing Company in Hampton has long tapped into the flavor of honey and earned national and statewide acclaim in beer competitions with its multi-award winning Honey Meade Lager, now called Honey Lager. The buzz around honey at the...
That’s Kosher!
(Yogev Kremisi brings much needed dining menu to Ghent.) By Marisa Marsey “Are you Charlie?” Yogev Kremisi gets that question a lot. The trim, swarthy 38-year-old chuckles as he clarifies he’s not. But he is the new proprietor and chef of Charlie’s, the venerable...
A Taste of Joy
Dallas Walton, of Cork & Bull, is among the top chefs whipping up delicacies to benefit Easterseals PORT Health's Culinary Connections. Courtesy photo. By Marisa Marsey Ashley Bruno, looking sharp in a royal blue chef’s apron and puffy white toque (yet...
For Valentine’s, I Present My New Love: “Easy Weeknight Dinners”
By Marisa Marsey Emily Weinstein makes no bones about not being a professionally-trained chef. It’s why the editor in chief of Cooking and Food at The New York Times is so good at her job. Most home cooks aren’t culinary school grads either. Skill levels vary wildly...
Big Ugly Celebrates Big 10
(Peake Lager remains a big favorite amongst Big Ugly Brewery fans) By Jeff Maisey Chesapeake’s first craft brewery will mark its first decade in business with an event being dubbed as Big Ugly Brewing: 10 Year Anniversary Tiki Party. The weather might be chilly...
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