This year we didn't book soon enough to get a B&B close to Charlottesville that will take our dogs--geriatric and subdued though they be--so we wound up staying a little farther out in Staunton, VA. I'd read a bit about the town and was willing to give it a shot but a little disappointed that I wouldn't be haunting the town of TJ and Edgar Allen Poe.
Honestly, TJ can wait. Staunton was a gorgeous surprise. We stayed at a typically adorable and peaceful bed and breakfast, this time the Inn at Old Virginia just across the train tracks outside town. While the breakfast didn't knock us over, it was at least served in reasonable portions so we didn't have to go back to the room and lie down for an hour before having the energy to go out sightseeing. The inn was hosting a wedding that weekend, so it was gussied up in its wedding finery, and we even had a great view from our room of the wedding on the lawn.
One of the great things about Staunton was the cheap eats. The first night we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Baja Bean, located downtown, where the heavy Victorian architecture belies the atmosphere of the hip and artsy galleries, shops, and bookstores that reside there. The Bean was refreshingly inexpensive ($36 for two, with appetizer, two main courses, and two margaritas, generous tip extra). The ingredients were fresh and the menu original. What really stood out were the margaritas, which were made with fresh fruit juice and lime and leave me still craving margaritas two weeks later.
I wouldn't recommend going directly to The Split Banana next door. You have to give yourself time to recover from the fajitas and margaritas before you ask your body to take on the gelato, made fresh on the spot, right in front of your eyes. Once you're hungry again, try a couple of scoops of the Banana's fresh ice cream, gelato, or sorbet. Me, I'm a gelato fan, and theirs was heavenly. And if you're feeling bad about calories, a white board prominently displays calories, fat, and sugar content of all their products. (I need constant reminders that gelato is actually less fattening than ice cream. How could a scoop of this stuff be no worse for you than a Weight Watchers brownie sundae?)
But one of the best surprises in Staunton was, for me, the Blackfriars Playhouse. This small wooden O is a replica of Shakespeare's one-time theatrical home in London, complete with butt-torturing wooden benches and a musician's gallery. Here, as in Shakespeare's day, actors in the repertory company play popular music before the show and during intermission--but it's our poplular music, not Shakespeare's. There's something eminently hilarious about actors in Elizabethan garb playing Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" or the Gin Blossoms' "Hey, Jealousy" on acoustic instruments. It makes me long for an entertainment venue that features electrified bands playing between the acts of a modern play, bringing theatre back to the masses, where it once belonged.
Nevertheless, the show at the Blackfriars had plenty to offer to the families on their summer vacation. On tap the night we went was a silly but entertaining production of Measure for Measure (as though that play could be anything but silly) that played to the groundlings and reminded me that Shakespeare really shouldn't have written his own plots. Nothing wrong with that--it was a great night, the cast was fresh and lively, and there was even a bar set up on the stage itself before the play and during intermission.
Later this summer, they're putting on Titus Andronicus. It's worth the expense of a trip back to see how they tackle Shakespeare's most sensationalist play of all. Blood! Incest! Cannibalism! Gelato! Margaritas! I have to go.
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