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Art , Business , Featured 05:00 am August 01st 2008

‘Eyes of the world’ focus on West Main

by Lisa Provence

Les Yeux du Monde finds gallery space in former bridal shop.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

When last we checked in with Les Yeux du Monde, the art gallery was vacating its tony digs in the Terraces at First and Water streets, and needed a new location for the rest of the year. Owner Lyn Warren has found her new spot: 500 West Main, conveniently located between Zinc Bistro and the ABC store.

“I love the fact it has parking behind,” enthuses Warren. “It has a lot of track lights, beautiful ash floors, a lot of windows, and a patio in front.”

The downside? “It will have to be more of a destination than a walk by,” acknowledges Warren in a phone call from Davidson, North Carolina, where she’s helping pack up husband Russ Warren’s art. “It’s going to be conducive to the new direction I’m taking– specialized consulting rather than random retail,” she explains.

Artists Dean Dass, Lydia Gasman, John McCarthy, Russ Warren, Ellen Hathaway and Peyton Hurt will gather for the August 15 grand opening. In September, (more)

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Business , Community , Featured , Outdoors 03:22 pm May 22nd 2008

Barracks Road canopy spared– for now

by Lindsay Barnes

Weeks after merchants and shoppers expressed outrage over the plan to replace Barracks Road Shopping Center’s 10-foot-wide canopy from Talbots to Panera Bread with a series of trendier, four-foot-wide awnings and pergolas, owner Federal Realty Investment Trust has abandoned the plan, at least for the present.

“We were all very agitated,” says Steve Metz, who runs Lynn Goldman Studio in the shopping center. “I collected almost 400 signatures of people who didn’t want it, and we made it very clear to [Federal].”

Still, Metz says he’s not going to put away his clipboard just yet: he fears he hasn’t seen the last of the effort to jettison the canopy that shields shoppers from rain and heat in favor of a less weather-practical option.

“Two years ago, Federal told us it was ‘off the table,’” says Metz. “At the most recent meeting on May 13, they told us they didn’t mean it was off the table permanently and that there’s no such thing as never.”

Not only would Federal never say “never,” but Metz says (more)

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Asides

Salmonella fears shut The Tavern
The place where “students, tourists, and townspeople” meet, The Tavern, a venerable breakfast joint on Emmet Street, has voluntarily shut down temporarily amid an investigation by the Health Department after at least a dozen people were sickened by what appears to be salmonella, NBC29 reports. (3)

Snap o' the day: Fast times on the Corner

A peek inside the new burger joint, scheduled to open early fall. PHOTO BY MARISSA D’ORAZIO
The chic-but-unnamed new burger-joint/music-venue replacing Orbit Billiards on the Corner proudly touts a Fast Times at Ridgemont High still painting. Owners Andrew Watson, JR Hadley, and John Adamson (of Toad’s Place in Richmond) let the Hook know that the bottom floor will be a non-smoking restaurant, and the top floor will have a bar and proudly showcase musicians with room for up to 200 audience members. Maybe our CVS-induced Charlottesville music void is about to get filled. (3)

Kluge shuts down Bennigan's, Steak & Ale
Just 13 days after the John Kluge-owned Ponderosa Steakhouse auctioned off all of the assets at its Charlottesville location, Kluge’s company Metromedia confirms today that it has shut down all of the company’s corporate-owned Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale restaurants. Metromedia has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy for both of the chains. According to the Chicago Tribune, the move is a sudden one, as Bennigan’s managers all received phone calls at midnight last night to shutter the restaurants immediately. Kluge was the richest man in the world in the late 1980s according to Forbes, and lived in the Charlottesville area until 2001, when he moved to Palm Beach, Florida and donated his Albemarle County estate to the University of Virginia. # (3)

Willie, CSN sell out Pavilion
The economy may be flagging, gas and food prices might be rising, and the Paramount Theater might have recently upped the ante in the grab for the baby-boomer concert dollar with their new fall lineup, but music fans are still plunking down the big bucks to go to the Charlottesville Pavilion. In his weekly playlist e-mail, 106.1 The Corner’s Brad Savage reports that Willie Nelson’s gig tonight (cheapest ticket: $31.50) and Crosby Stills Nash’s show Thursday night (cheapest ticket: $44) are sold out. # (0)

Kaine in 'serious' V-P talks
Despite an earlier protest to the contrary, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who played host to Barack Obama in Charlottesville last year, is in “serious” vice-presidential talks with the presumptive Democratic presidential contender, according to the Washington Post. (0)

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‘Eyes of the world’ focus on West Main

Barracks Road canopy spared– for now

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