Crozet's community blog
From a reader:
This Saturday and Sunday (13 & 14) morning 600 to 700 bicyclist will be riding through Crozet to raise funds for the MS Society. On Saturday, they will be heading toward Whitehall and on Sunday, they will be heading toward Greenwood. All rides start at Miller School. The rides are 25, 50, and 75 miles each day.
Expect some delays but remember that these cyclist are raising money for the MS victims in our area.
Better yet, come out and join us in this wonderful effort.
Thanks to Nelson County Life for the heads-up.
It’s been a busy week already for the folks at Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton. They have been in the process of offloading a new tank that will double their draft and bottled beer distribution in stores and restaurants. “We just recently got to the momentous mark of having our draft and bottled beer in over 100 restaurants and stores across Virginia. This new tank is going to help us double that within a year,†Mandi Smack, co-owner of BMB tells us.
I have made no secret about my appreciation for this beer; friends from around the state and country are jealous that this brewery is only 12 minutes from Downtown Crozet (and my house)!
It should be fun, particularly because the proceeds benefit the fight against cancer.:
Join us on June 13, 2009 for the Fifth Annual Pink Ribbon Polo Classic at King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Virginia.
The purpose of the event is to raise awareness and funds to benefit breast cancer care and research in our community.Enjoy the world’s most exciting sport – at one of the most beautiful spots in Virginia. Come and see who takes home the Cup when Team King takes on Team Flow.
Schedule of Events:
* Match is on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at King Family Vineyards featuring Team Flow vs. Team King.
* Gates open at 10 a.m. with pre-game festivities and the Boutique Shops.
* 11 a.m. The Winery & Tasting Room open for tastings and sales. Enjoy the Segway demonstration on the field.
* 12:30 p.m. Stick and Ball Warm-Up
* 1:00 p.m. Match Begins
* All proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society to assist in the fight against breast cancer.
This seems to be exactly what Downtown Crozet does not need:
Asked to share five percent of the proceeds, Wilson decided instead to move the food pick-up point to nearby Old Trail Village which— while it may not be able to offer giant shade trees— won’t charge the Community-Supported Agriculture entity a fee.
Downtown Crozet needs to encourage more community activities in the Downtown area rather than encourage them to look elsewhere. Surely there’s more to this?
More at the Old Trail Village blog:
Beginning this Saturday, June 13th, Horse and Buggy Produce will offer farm-stand produce to subscribers and area residents from 8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. every Saturday at the Old Trail Village Center. Horse and Buggy Produce, a provider of local produce and other farm goods, has long offered subscription-based shares to Albemarle residents. They are expanding their operation to include farm stand options, allowing all area residents and visitors to purchase fresh items from Mennonite farms in the Valley of Virginia from pick-up locations such as this.
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Trailside Coffee
That Old Trail Village can open the Town Center in this economy, it’s a testament to the development (despite being six months behind schedule). The stores there are going to be a great addition to Crozet.
Transcription:
Jim Duncan: It’s a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in Crozet Virginia. I’m watching the cars drive by and all the necks are craning in anticipation of Trailside Coffee opening up. I’m sitting here with Marcia McGee, owner operator of Trailside Coffee. Hey Marcia!
Marcia McGee: Hi. Thanks for coming out.
Jim Duncan: Tell us why you started it.
Marcia McGee: Why I started it was because at the time there were no coffee shops out here and I live and grew up out here and wanted coffee. That’s why I started to deliver coffee to Crozet! It’s just taken me a little bit longer than anticipated.
Jim Duncan: What do you expect the shop to look like? What do you hope the vibe is of the shop and what are your goals?
Marcia McGee: The vibe of the shop, Trailside Coffee, I like hiking and I want to take this and bring it inside or make it a seamless transition. I want it to be very comfortable. There is going to be a fireplace and wood and natural colors and just a place for people to hang out and talk and drink coffee, tea, smoothies, whatever brings them here just to hang out.
Jim Duncan: Are you going to have a full menu?
Marcia McGee: I say that yes we are. We’ll have Pannini’s made to order bring it out to your table kind of deal, but we’ll have sandwiches and different stuff made up for you and can heat them up – Pannini’s and soups and salads and stuff like that, muffins, and croissants and bakery items and cookies.
Jim Duncan: Are you excited?
Marcia McGee: Yes! Very excited! I’m a little reserved because I’ve been excited for so long. We’re close, we’re very close. It’s just that we’ve been close for a long time.
Jim Duncan: What are you looking forward to the most?
Marcia McGee: To coming to work everyday. It’s kind of what I want to do. It’s a social environment hopefully delivering people a cup of liquid sunshine everyday, getting to talk to them, and live, work and play all in one space. You know? I get to bike to work. I get to work out right down there. I get to see my friends and family and have it all happen in one spot.
Jim Duncan: I’m still hanging on that liquid sunshine.
Marcia McGee: [laughs]
Jim Duncan: How are you going to achieve that? Tell us about the process of the coffee and what you’ve learned about how to make a good cup of coffee.
Marcia McGee: Well you know it starts with the beans. Some of the beans we’re bringing in are of the highest quality so that process is a painstaking one that they all go through and then it’s delivered to us. It’s going to be about training people. I achieved my level one Barista certification; there are three. Colleen is ready to take the test and hopefully all of our Barista’s will be certified, if not a large percentage of them. Training will be a major focus and then it’s just teaching people about coffee and finding out what they like, having cuppings, showing the different types of coffee’s and everything that it has to offer. We’re going to broaden everything they thought the knew about coffee and just blow them away.
Jim Duncan: What’s the feedback from people then as you talk to them about Trailside Coffee opening up, besides the anticipation and the excitement, what are they looking forward to?
Marcia McGee: I think they’re looking for a community place. I think they’re looking forward to learning about coffee. That’s actually one of the things that’s been surprising is teaching people or just talking about that. People didn’t know how many hand-picked beans are in one cup of coffee or their latte’. I’ve had a major response to that. I already have people who want to come to the monthly cuppings. They’re just looking forward to having a place close. Right now they have to drive into town. They want to sit here because a lot of people live around here. I’m kind of blessed because we’re in Old Trail neighborhood. I think they want to walk and get the newspaper and enjoy a cup of coffee in the mornings and not have to drive somewhere else to achieve that.
Jim Duncan: I can’t imagine why anyone would want to sit out here on this patio!
Marcia McGee: [laughs] Yeah, and have a nice beverage.
Jim Duncan: It’s just so hideous out here with all these mountains and greenery.
Marcia McGee: It is, yeah!
Jim Duncan: It’s just beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
Marcia McGee: Soon we’ll have ice cream, ice coffee, hot coffee, smoothies, tea, homemade lemonades and gingerales and all sorts of stuff.
Jim Duncan: Are you going to have alcohol or music?
Marcia McGee: Music, yes, especially we’re going to do things outside. We have the fields to kind of cross around. So definitely music. I’m set up for it. Wine. I have a place for wine and beer. The thought was to do that and I still may, but I’m kind of just taking it one step at a time right now.
Jim Duncan: Do you want to actually open first?
Marcia McGee: Yes. I want to open first and be good at a couple things and be really good at a couple things rather than just OK at a lot of different things, so that is something that I’m prepared to add onto the menu, right now we’re not. But now we have with the wine bar coming behind us I’m not sure that we’ll need to.
Jim Duncan: Right.
Marcia McGee: Again, it’s kind of focused on a few things. I didn’t think there was going to be anyone serving wine or beer here before so that’s why I was prepared and I am prepared. I have the space to do it so we’ll see. We’ll see.
Jim Duncan: Cool. Anything else you want to add to the future customers of Trailside Coffee?
Marcia McGee: Just come out, give us a try, come hang out, experience the place and let us know. We want to be the community coffee shop, so I don’t have a model of something we’ve been before. We’re certainly not a franchise, so all I can say is let us know what you think and what you want and honest feedback so we can be that. That would be it.
Jim Duncan: Cool. Marcia thanks so much for your time.
Marcia McGee: Thanks Jim.
Come Talk with County Staff about the Crozet Master Plan!
Wednesday, June 3 at the Crozet Library.
Drop in anytime between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.
* Do you want to learn more about the current Crozet Master Plan?
* Were you unable to attend the May 27 Master Plan Refresher at Crozet United Methodist Church?
* Do you have questions about the Master Plan after attending the May 27 Refresher?
For more information, please contact Britton Miller at 434-972-4176 or [email protected].
All ages and knowledge levels welcome!
Don’t forget about the Crozet Community Survey.
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The Mudhouse, coming soon to The Square in Crozet, aims to become Crozet’s “meeting place.” Many are familiar with the Mudhouse – the original location on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall and their “branch” locations in the Markets around town.
We are about to join the ranks of areas around Charlottesville boasting our own Mudhouse. Humbly boasting heart pine floors which were reclaimed from an old mill in Rome, Georgia that warm up the space, eventually there will be live music in this great historic building with “great bones” and a “great flow.”
From Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers, The Story of Success,
What Wolf began to realize was that the secret of Roseto wasn’t diet or exercise or genes or location. It had to be Roseto itself. As Bruhn and Wolf walked around the town, they figured out why. They looked at how the Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. They learned about the extended family clans that underlay the town’s social structure. …
Living a long life, the conventional wisdom at the time said, depended to a great extent on who we were — that is, our genes. it depended on the decisions we made — on what we chose to eat, and how much we chose to exercise, and how effectively we were treated by the medical system. No one was used to thinking about health in terms of community.
That’s not a bad goal for a local coffee shop to have.
It will be a place to see neighbors and to experience “fluid social interaction, meet family, friends, colleagues” … and to enjoy a good cup of coffee. Or a snack. Or some live music.
The Daily Progress noted the coming coffee boom … and it’s about to start.
Every place needs spaces to help define what they are and John wants this Mudhouse space to be this place – the community place for Crozet. Personally, I am really looking forward to it.
Update 28 May 2009: A reader asked via email whether the Mudhouse would be smoke-free. John affirms that they have always been and always will be smoke free.
Part II of the Crozet coffee boom coming Tuesday.
Transcription:
Hi this is Jim Duncan and we’re here in the Mudhouse in Crozet. When I pulled up this morning on my bike I noticed you had the Outliers pages from Malcolm Gladwell’s book all on the outside of the Mudhouse and I’ll take a shot of that in just a minute. But I’m curious John, why did you put that out there?
John Lawrence: We put it out there because when I was first reading it, the point of the chapter is that the community that the people live in directly relates to the health, the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of the people there and the connections that they make with each other. So that’s how we see Crozet and it just seemed like the perfect thing. That’s our hope for this coffee house and what it can mean to Crozet.
Jim Duncan: Cool! Thanks very much!
John Lawrence: Sure.