Flour Power: Coastal Virginia’s Best Bakeries Part I
There’s a certain fondness of baked goods that extends far beyond the palate or penchant for gluten. It’s the special occasion cake your family has been buying from the same beloved bakery year after year. It’s the first bite of that light-as-a-feather pastry that provides comfort after a bad day. It’s the sacred family recipe [...]
Flour Power: Coastal Virginia’s Best Bakeries Part II
We've whipped up a list of some of our favorite Coastal Virginia bakeries in Flour Power Part I and Part II as well as beloved bakeries with great gluten-free options. Confectionery + Café Café Stella Stella and Mariusz Pomianek create the quintessential neighborhood lair at their bohemian Ghent coffeehouse, daily roasting beans and baking [...]
Bakeries with Great Gluten-Free Options
People are making the gluten-free choice for many reasons: Celiac disease, gluten sensitivity and intolerance, IBS and a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions with presumed or known associations with the consumption of gluten. Others believe eliminating gluten, a family of proteins, from their diets is a generally healthier choice, while some are just curious [...]
A Final Farewell to Stove
Meers with his dish featured on the cover of Coastal Virginia Dish Magazine in 2013. Photo by Jim Pile Sydney Meers, talented chef-owner of Stove Restaurant in Port Norfolk, hung up his apron on May 11. “I’ve done this for 45 years,” says Meers. “I’m tired.” With four of his own restaurants—the beloved Dumbwaiter in two successive Norfolk locations, [...]
10 New Kitchen Features at the Coastal Virginia Magazine Idea House
Things are heating up at the 2018 Coastal Virginia Magazine Idea House. The York Lane Cottage, situated on a spectacular deep water setting in Virginia Beach’s Bay Colony neighborhood, features 4,500 square feet of living space and more than 6,000 square feet of “under roof” space, which includes porches and verandas. The vibe of this [...]
Daily Disposables are the Latest Trend in Contact Lenses
With the increased affordability and availability of LASIK eye surgery, it’s interesting that contact lenses are still the most popular option when it comes to eye wear because of convenience and cost. This is especially important for young people who are looking for a glasses-free solution but are not old enough for laser correction surgery. [...]
Locals Create MEGACAKE Art Installation for Burning Man
The artistic vibrancy of Coastal Virginia will be celebrated in the form of MEGACAKE, a 50-foot-tall wooden birthday cake, at Burning Man 2019 from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2, 2019. This long-running festival, which transforms Nevada’s Black Rock Desert into Black Rock City, is a temporary metropolis devoted to art and community. The 70,000 denizens of [...]
The Vanguard: Virginia’s First Brewpub and Distillery
Serendipity. That’s how The Vanguard Brewpub & Distillery Owner Randy Thomas describes a series of events that almost begged him to create and operate the first brewpub in Virginia that also houses a distillery owned by the same group. In 2015, the City of Hampton put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) in hopes of [...]
What It’s Like to Adopt a Baby
It’s a typical Tuesday evening in the Waldens’ home in Norfolk. Husband and wife Zach and Kearsten prepare dinner together while their 8-month-old son, Maverick, delivers some enthusiastic coos and cackles to his favorite TV show, “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” Through a simple glimpse into their lives, one would never know the journey that the couple [...]
CoVa Best Of Party 2018
Coastal Virginia Magazine’s annual Best Of Party was held on Thursday, July 26 at Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center in Downtown Norfolk. Guests donned hula skirts, island-inspired floral shirts and leis for a Hawaiian-themed luau celebrating the magazine’s Best Of Readers’ Choice Awards and CoVaBIZ BOB (Best of Business) Awards. The luau featured music from Colonial [...]
My Best Friend’s Cupcakes Bakes Gourmet Cupcakes for Dogs
Their gourmet cupcakes are decoratively drizzled with swirled toppings and parade flavors of homemade apple cinnamon, sweet potato pie and carob cranberry. They’re all-natural, wholesome, gluten-free—and not even made for humans. Tails will wag as these treats curated for canines are well worth the bark, as My Best Friend’s Cupcakes bakes desserts for dogs with [...]
Non-Surgical Ways to Achieve Skin-Tightening Results
To fully understand your options when it comes to skin-tightening procedures, it’s important to know a couple of definitions. “Non-surgical” procedures are those that do not involve actually cutting into the skin, as one might experience when having a facelift to rejuvenate their looks. “Minimally invasive”procedures, on the other hand, are those that do not [...]
5 Juice Cleanses to Try for an End-of-Summer Detox
For most of us, overindulging in good food and good times is simply a part of summer. The warm weather entices us with backyard barbecues and beachy cocktails, often placing our bathing suit-ready diet on hold. While August marks the end of summer vacation, it also prompts a health revival, encouraging us to get our [...]
A Summer Day Trip to Knotts Island
Growing up in Virginia Beach, Pungo was a mainstay during the summer months. Its spattering of farmer’s markets and sprawling Sandbridge Beach served as tranquil getaways from the tourist-ridden beaches at the Oceanfront. In early August, however, a spontaneous day trip revealed to me that Virginia Beach’s countryside serenity doesn’t end in Pungo, but extends [...]
6 Must-Haves for Backyard Barbecues
Labor Day is just around the corner, which means barbecue planning is in full swing. Leaving the meal prep and guest list to you, we’ve offered six simple decorating tips that are sure to make your next backyard bash one to remember. Photo by Hello May 1. A Barrow of Beer Patio coolers can [...]
Tarnished Truth and the Hunt Room Combine Bourbon, Cocktails and Cuisine
Photography by David Uhrin Owing its name to the alleged malfeasance from the Cavalier Hotel’s morally deplorable guests, Tarnished Truth lionizes the lore of the opulent hotel while enlivening Virginia’s heritage of distilling refined bourbon and other craft spirits. The first of its kind as a distillery integrated into a U.S. hotel, Tarnished Truth made [...]
Adventure Awaits in Virginia’s Shenandoah County
It all started with a couple of curious boys. Two Neff brothers slipped into Shenandoah Caverns in 1884 after playing in a sinkhole. Decades later, the caverns opened for public tours in 1922. Today, you can start your visit easily with an elevator ride. "And when you come back out," says tour guide Jessica Sager, [...]
Restaurants with Stylish Restrooms
Today’s restaurant owners spend thousands of dollars creating unique, enticing establishments that reflect their food philosophies. Everyone knows that we “eat with our eyes,” so that means that the food needs to look appetizing, if not artful, on the plate. But it also means that the spaces in which we enjoy that food need to [...]
The Dry House Set to Open Blowout Salon in Virginia Beach
As a military spouse, Georgia Huber has spent years traveling the U.S. with her husband, making temporary homes in Virginia and South Carolina, among other states. One constant in the Hubers’ lives, however, is their blissful getaways to Nashville, Tenn. where the couple passes time exploring Music City and catching up with family. One of [...]
Diver Down: A Scuba Lesson at Lynnhaven Dive Center
I’ve braved waves on a surfboard and have set sail on the bay by boat, but I’ve yet to take my aquatic undertakings underwater with scuba diving—that is until my visit to Lynnhaven Dive Center and its thatched roof off Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach. I’m here for an introductory dive lesson at the [...]
Right Side: Qualifications for Presidency
Here’s a thought experiment: try to come up with a job where a lack of experience is a plus. Electric fence tester comes to mind. In most jobs and ventures, we value experience as a qualification above most others. It’s the first bullet point on most resumes. You might not have had the best grades or [...]
Left Side: Qualifications for Presidency
The Constitution of the United States spells out only two requirements for anyone wishing to become president: the person must be a “natural-born citizen” and must be at least 35 years old. It is to the credit of the document’s authors that they didn’t list more. By keeping the requirements to a bare minimum, they [...]
New Book Shines a Light on the Mysterious Colonial Parkway Murders
America's narrowest national park, the Colonial Parkway, connects the southern edge of Jamestown to Yorktown via a winding 23-mile route that cuts through Williamsburg. Taking a daytime cruise along this scenic thoroughfare—which was originally constructed to simulate the kind of idyllic path traveled by early Americans—can be peaceful, serene, even therapeutic. But when the sun [...]
