Small Bites: Tex-Mex

Now serving TexMex and Turkish

By Will Ham living@c-ville.com

Tacos in the sky

As the season turns, the Downtown Mall is also seeing some turnover, starting with Champion Hospitality Group’s just-opened culinary venture, Passiflora, which offers Tex-Mex and Baja Mediterranean cuisine. While we are still mourning the loss of Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, it’s good to see new openings on the mall. “We put our hearts and soul into this restaurant, and we are excited to share it with Charlottesville,” says General Manager Elizabeth Hood.

Expect to find small plates for around $10, local brews, and plenty of vegetarian options. CHG hopes to finish renovations on the rooftop open-air bar in time to catch the last warm nights of the year: “You can absolutely expect to see live bands as part of the experience,” says Hood. Passiflora is open Thursday through Tuesday, and accepts reservations and walk-ins.

Nod to Nosh and hello wraps

Another transition took place on the outer rim of the Downtown Mall—Modern Nosh closed its doors in September. Known for kosher fare and loaded sandwiches, Modern Nosh was established with a mission to give back to the community. Over two years, the restaurant donated hundreds of pounds of bread and benefited non-profit organizations like The Women’s Initiative and the Companion Animal Fund.

“We are so sad to be leaving,” says owner Stephanie Levin. “With the large number of business people not coming back to work downtown, the loss of tourists, and the lack of outside seating, we just couldn’t find a way.” Levin hopes to reinvent Modern Nosh along with its vision of supporting the community sometime next year.

EZE AMOS

The latest addtion to the Downtown Mall’s dining scene is Champion Hospitality Group’s Passiflora, offering a refined combo of Tex-Mex and Baja Mediterranean cuisines. “Numerous people have asked me to open a food truck—maybe so,” she says. “If I find a commercial kitchen, perhaps I will stick to catering.”

Otto Turkish Street Food is slated to open in the space on November 1, introducing yet more authentic flavors to Charlottesville. Owners Ali Sevindi and Haldun Turgay worked at The Clifton together for five years before officially partnering up. Now, they are excited to serve fast-casual fare like döner kebabs (seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone that cooks slowly on a rotisserie) and homemade sauces at the corner of Southwest Second and Water streets. Specializing in wraps and bowls, Otto Turkish will have two rotisseries to choose from; one chicken and one a mix of beef and lamb.

Jughead’s a regular

Dairy Market’s food-and-beverage hall is quickly filling its 18 stalls, adding two more merchants this month. Moo Thru, a favorite ice cream stop for D.C. commuters, is expanding to a fourth location in the heart of Charlottesville. The family-operated creamery behind Moo Thru will supply dairy products to market vendors, including The Milkman’s Bar, the cocktail joint from Ten Course Hospitality. Milkman’s promises to be a ’50s-inspired soda-pop shop straight out of Archie comics—but with a lot more of the hard stuff.

FRIDAY 10/16

BITING HUMOR

If you’ve been binge-watching TV over the last eight months (and really, who hasn’t?), you probably have a “Fleabag” story. Phoebe WallerBridge’s clever, outrageous, sex comedy-drama had everyone talking about their own relatable experiences when it jumped from an award-winning one-woman play in London to an Emmy-sweeping Amazon Prime series in 2019. See the original stage show starring Waller-Bridge in National Theatre Live in HD’s rebroadcast. $11-15, 3 and 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333. theparamount.net.

21 Eat up!

SWEET! C’ville Picnic sets a stylish place for two SHARP! The Happy Cook’s knife class steps up your skills STEAMY! A new restaurant offers an authentic OBX boil FALL 2020

Taste is everything.

Try this Hudson Henry Granola over yogurt (with a drizzle of honey!).

Eat local!The Wool Factory’s pastry chef, Rachel De Jong, on her new gig—and her return to C’ville @cville_culture facebook.com/cville.weekly20+ LOCALLY made staples you should ALWAYS have on hand (starting with BREAKFAST!)LG’s Elixir may just be the home remedy we need this season on stands now!

Look again

Sanjay Suchak finds new views of the Old Dominion

By Erika Howsare arts@c-ville.com

In a year defined by wild new perspectives—on health, on risk, on human separation and connectedness— images have played a central role. Photos of people in crowds or isolation are newly fraught, and as we gather virtually, the visual appearance of other humans on-screen has become a startling, imperfect social lifeline. Sanjay Suchak’s photography show at the Crozet Artisan Depot isn’t limited to images from this year, but the way it cultivates space for alternate perspectives feels very apropos for 2020.

Take, for example, his shots of the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond—an object that stands for so much pain and, graffitied or not, is usually pictured from below. Indeed, it was designed to loom over the viewer, expressing white supremacy and dominance in its presentation of the Confederate general as a towering figure upheld by a permanent-seeming pedestal.

That permanence is less assured these days, even though the statue for the moment stands. Suchak’s take on the monument turns the usual perspective upside down, using a drone camera to position the viewer directly above the statue.

Not only does this offer poetic justice (now who’s being looked down at?), it reminds us that the statue is an object, not a person, and that its power derives from nothing more substantial than convention. Lee and his horse become just frozen metal, their position suddenly awkward,

Photographer Sanjay Suchak gained new perspectives in his work after adding a drone to his toolkit. His exhibition “From Richmond to the Blue Ridge: New Takes on “Familiar Landscapes” runs through October 31 at the Crozet Artisan Depot.

their antique patina belied by the lively quilt of spray-painted color that artist-protesters spontaneously created all around the statue’s base.

Suchak is UVA’s senior photographer and works independently for clients like National Geographic, but he’s exceedingly modest about his presentation of these images at the Depot. “I never really considered the fine art space,” he says. “These are just beautiful photos of the region.” True, there