Food Writing on the Bathroom Wall
Not that the world exactly craves another blog, but we’ve always wanted to collaborate on one to chronicle our food experiences. A few years ago, we, Will + Rachel, relocated from Washington, DC to Charlottesville, Virginia. It took longer than expected to recalibrate, being so hardwired for city life, but eventually we fell in with the slower-and-lower pace of life and developed a deep-layered appreciation for the food culture here. We’ve been immediately surrounded by people whose hands are perpetually filthy with the craft of growing and making great food and drink. Right below the surface we can sense the buzz, growing into a pulse. It’s the heartbeat of a food movement that we are now witness to and inspired by.
Our backstory echoes a trend so clichéd it’s almost annoying: ad agency executive leaves illustrious career in the big city, moves to small town in the country to mix it up with farmers and artisans for a living. After blazing an impressive trail for nearly a decade at Ogilvy + Mather, Rachel took a detour that married her professional experience with her passion for food and wine and accepted a head of marketing gig at Early Mountain Vineyards in Virginia wine country. Suddenly those late-night, boozy, pipe-dream conversations about one day shaking up life, bailing on the grind of DC and Will making real time to pursue his love for writing crystalized. We wasted no time and went all in, selling our DC home and pulling the trigger on a farmhouse off a winding rural spoke of Highway 20 in Albemarle County where Will quickly set up shop in the barn.
A primary theme of the move, we told ourselves, would be the concept of ‘living intentionally’. Back in DC where the dust never settled, life was mostly a ragtag operation: a series of knee-jerk reactions, many lessons learned from mistakes and the inescapable feeling that we were merely piecing life together month to month. Fledgling optimists, we clung to the ridiculous hope that just around the corner was the promised land where we’d finally get our shit together, dedicate time to creative aspirations and get after the business of self-fulfillment.
It turns out a change of scenery does not automatically inspire a creative avalanche. The blog didn't happen overnight, as romantically planned, but eventually we got around to scoring a URL then spent many months exploring the town until we soaked up enough to join the conversation, reflect, rinse and repeat.
To bolster the platform with credibility and additional perspective, we've roped in our two charming, smart, cultured friends – Anika + Patt. After too many dinner parties to count, flooded with rivers of truth serum, it became perfectly clear that this duo lives and breathes Charlottesville's food culture. Their opinions and reflections are accessible, bright-eyed, and incredibly articulate.
Together we’ll spread the word on the scene like graffiti on a bathroom stall - raw, punch-in-the-mouth stuff, sexual innuendo, gossip, smut, praise and declarations of love. Some of it might border on irreverent. What we guarantee though is heavy research. Shit, the size of this town almost guarantees it. Unlike larger cities, there is a finite limit to the places one can go. Eventually, we've had no choice but to develop an opinion and relationships with chefs and front of house around town. That’s another thing - some of these cats we’ll be dropping dimes on will be good acquaintances or friends. We’ll come clean about that in every instance. We’ll cut it up and write it down and somehow find our groove in this food town.
See you out there.