Lola’s, Charleston, WV

The Best Pizza in Town, Any Way You Slice It

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 27, 2010

Generally, when one thinks of pizza, one doesn’t picture sitting down at a restaurant—perhaps with a glass of wine—to eat it. It’s typically a grab-and-go food, a straightforward stomach-filler to share with friends, a simple thing. Travel up Charleston, WV’s beautiful Bridge Road, however, and you’ll find a restaurant that’ll change all that.

Lola’s has reinvented what pizza can be, transforming this basic comestible into the cornerstone of a complete dining …

Laury’s, Charleston, WV

Where Fine Dining is Stationed

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 22, 2010

If you’re looking for fine dining, devoted service, and a storehouse of West Virginia history, then Laury’s restaurant at 350 MacCorkle Ave. SE--across the river from downtown Charleston--will definitely have you on the right “track.”

Located in what used to be a depot for the C&O Railroad, Laury’s is a downtown dining favorite which you won’t find in any travel brochure. Opened in 1979 by former in-house chef of …

The Science Galleries, Charleston, WV

Where Learning Is Made Child's Play

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 21, 2010

Education is an active project. But what’s more important: it’s a fun one. At least, this is what Charleston, WV’s nucleus for art and science—The Clay Center—would have you believe. With hands-on museums that bring learning quite literally to your fingertips—“touching” on everything from ecological forces to sound waves and magnetism—the Clay Center’s Science Galleries not only entertain. They educate.

With four different interactive …

Bluegrass Kitchen, Charleston, WV

An Inspired Culinary Canvas

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 16, 2010

With a fusion of flavors born and bred in the Mountain State, serving health-conscious options as artful as its gallery walls, Bluegrass Kitchen in Charleston, WV gives a whole new meaning to the term “comfort food.”

Located a few blocks away from the capitol dome, Bluegrass Kitchen is a culinary masterpiece that, in every fine-crafted bite, paints its devotion to its home state. Serving eclectic comfort food, Bluegrass Kitchen uses …

Live on the Levee, Charleston, WV

The Best Live Music in the City

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 12, 2010

“Goin’ down to the river, get me a tangled rockin’ chair. . .”

If you’re searching for live music this summer, then head on down to the sloping banks of the Kanawha, where on summer late afternoons, a current of folk and blues laps at the shoreline like smooth-running water, floating through the city like the river itself. Bring a blanket, bring a chair (tangled or otherwise), and let the music bring you the …

Wine and Cheese Shop, Charleston, WV

The Best Wine-Tasting in the City

by Gino J. Orlandi | July 09, 2010

In the middle of Charleston, WV’s most adored local marketplace, there is a shop that continues to taunt customers on a day-to-day basis, posing that much-heckled question: do you want some cheese with that wine?

Located in the heart of Capital Market, Charleston’s Wine and Cheese Shop has been the source of gourmet complements for about ten years. Selling an abundance of vintages …

West Virginia International Film Festival, Charleston, WV

Where Art Is Watched, and Lived

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 29, 2010

Calendars are marked. The reels are rolling. And action:

Twice a year, in the spring and fall, Charleston, WV is stage to a ten-day festival sure to satisfy even the strictest cinemaniacs. The West Virginia International Film Festival, founded in 1985, has been the official film festival of the Mountain State for over two decades, featuring some of the industry’s most acclaimed and culturally diverse domestic …

New River Gorge Fishing, Fayetteville, WV

Some of the Best Bass Fishing in the East

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 27, 2010

If you’re hungry for some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in all of the Eastern U.S., then West Virginia’s New River Gorge is a wriggling bait that you can’t help but bite into.

One glimpse of these rushing whitewaters will have you reeled-in faster than you can say ichthyophagy, leaving you as in love with this natural wonder as every other West Virginian, falling for it hook, line, and …

Haddad Riverfront Park, Charleston, WV

The Best Spot in the City for the Fourth

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 22, 2010

This Fourth of July, if you’re looking for a symphony of fireworks and fun while sauntering the streets of Charleston, Haddad Riverfront Park is the place for you.

Dipping down onto the banks of the Kanawha River, beside barges and boating platoons, Haddad Riverfront Park is the best place to enjoy this American jubilee. Located at 700 Kanawha Boulevard, this downtown dock provides the perfect place to take in the festivities, …

Blenko Glass, Milton, WV

Delicate Artistry, Hometown Design

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 13, 2010

In a place very close to West Virginia’s heart, there is a company that really, truly blows.

Blenko Glass, located on Fairground Road in Milton, WV, has been blowing beautiful glass since 1893. As one of only a few antique glass companies not based in Europe, Blenko Glass blends delicate artistry with hometown love, a fragile treasure of The Mountain State for almost a century.    

Founded by …

Little Creek Country Club, Charleston, WV

The Best Public Golf in the City

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 07, 2010

If you’re looking for a golf outing on your next vacation, then a trip to Charleston, WV is right on course. Home to the Greenbrier's PGA-patroned fairways, to premier courses designed by Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer, and to approximately fifteen resorts and country clubs within two hours of Charleston, when it comes to golf options, the Mountain State is definitely well above par (or, I suppose, below it, …

FestivALL, Charleston, WV

June 18-27 is Time to Paint the Town. Literally.

by Gino J. Orlandi | June 06, 2010

It’s the largest art festival in the state, and if you’re anywhere in the downtown area, you’ll have no choice but to become a part of the living masterpiece.

For ten whole days, the entire city of Charleston transforms into a breathing canvas, a palette of swirling colors and aesthetic celebration. The streets become dance floors. Brick walls become gallery spaces. The riverfront turns into a musical stage, and the sidewalks …

The Greenbrier Resort, White Sulfur Springs, WV

The Best Place for a West Virginia Wedding

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 31, 2010

A national landmark, a mountain getaway, and an award-winning luxury resort, The Greenbrier, located in White Sulfur Springs, WV, marries historic beauty with modern amenities. What better place for a marriage of your own?

Nestled deep in the tuneful hills of West Virginia, only minutes away from the town of Lewisburg, White Sulfur Springs is the perfect atmosphere for a white wedding. With picturesque landscapes painting every inch …

Inta Juice, Charleston, WV

Chucktown's Main Squeeze for Smoothies

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 31, 2010

Summer’s here, and the sticky southern heat has come with it. In Charleston, WV, when temperatures begin to rise and the swelter permeates the air, there is only one thing to do.  It’s time to turn up the Juice.  

Inta Juice, that is. Located at 4002 Maccorkle Avenue SE, and Summers St. downtown, Inta Juice is basically the Elysium of summer smoothie spots. Owned and franchised by …

The Cultural Center, Charleston, WV

Where Past Meets Present

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 23, 2010

West Virginia is a state very close to its history. Down the main streets of Charleston, the city’s past is interwoven with its modern feel. Antiquated diner signs hang alongside medical offices. The South Charleston Burial Mound (a site believed to date back as far as 250 B.C.E.) rises alongside new restaurants and music shops. Its history is everywhere, in every step and every brick. It is no surprise, …

Vandalia Gathering, Charleston, WV

The Living Art of Appalachia

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 19, 2010

This Memorial Day Weekend, dive into the culture of the Appalachians. The 34^th annual Vandalia Gathering, held on the lawns of Charleston, WV’s State Capital Complex and Cultural Center, is a multi-day festival celebrating the music, food, and crafts of Mountain State history. Everything West Virginia, all in one place.

This yearly, anticipated event pays homage to the ethnic …

The Palm Salon & Spa, Charleston, WV

Bringing Bliss Into Your Life

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 14, 2010

We all know how life’s pressures can pile up on us. How the fast-paced hustle of this modern age can keep us locked in front of a computer screen, or rushing from one place to another. Occasionally, it leaves little time for ourselves—time to close our eyes, to breathe, to get lost in quiet oblivion.  The Palm Salon & Spa in Charleston, WV, however, is committed …

Bridge Day, Fayetteville, WV

31st Annual Bridge Day Festival

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 10, 2010

It’s the single largest, extreme-sporting event on the planet. And it takes place in the quiet hills of West Virginia.

With over 80,000 spectators expected to attend, Fayetteville, WV’s Bridge Day is, by far, the most anticipated festival in the state. On October 16, 2010, in one of the oldest places on Earth, people will gather from all over the world in order to commemorate the second-largest single-arch bridge known to …

Famous Dave’s, Charleston, WV

Famous, for Good Reason

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 05, 2010

If you’re in the mood for some hot-summer barbecue while in Charleston, WV, then Famous Dave’s is your place to pig-out. 

Serving award-winning ribs in over 170 locations around the country, Famous Dave’s, at 2509 Mountaineer Blvd. in Charleston’s Southridge Shopping Center, is a fast-growing chain with a hometown feel. These sauce-splattered shacks, founded by Dave Anderson (whose affection for outstanding …

Capital Market, Charleston, WV

The Truest Taste of the City

by Gino J. Orlandi | May 04, 2010

In part an outdoor farmers’ market, in part a gourmet shopping center, Charleston, WV’s Capital Market is, in full, a locally-operated neighborhood marketplace that pours hometown flavor into quality produce. A chocolatier, a grocery, a fine Italian restaurant, a café, a butcher, a wine and cheese shop, and a place to buy samples of local food and state history, Capital Market is the best spot in the city to get a …

West Virginia Power, Charleston, WV

A Ballclub You Can't Help But Love

by Gino J. Orlandi | April 20, 2010

America’s signature sport is back.  So get ready for the wind-up; here comes the pitch:

For the past 92 years, Charleston, WV has been home to an erratic history of minor league baseball. Our current team, the West Virginia Power, Class-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is the product of a long and complicated past. A competitor in over five different conferences over the years, changing hands among …

Mountain Stage, Charleston, WV

Yet Another Set of Hills, Alive with the Sound of Music

by Gino J. Orlandi | April 19, 2010

If you’re in town and love great music, Charleston, WV has the venue for you.

For over twenty-five years, West Virginia’s Mountain Stage has been offering the best seats in the house, week after week, to performances of renowned musicians from all over the world. As part of West Virginia’s Public Broadcasting System, Mountain Stage blends studio-quality recording with the soul and spontaneity of live performance. Each two-hour program—fed via …

Capitol Roasters, Charleston, WV

A Capital Place, Indeed

by Gino J. Orlandi | April 13, 2010

After an early-morning wake-up call or a full-day of outdoor adventure, great coffee becomes (if you're at all like me) a seriously precious commodity. Luckily, Charleston, WV has you covered. Located at 160 Summers Street and Charleston’s Capitol Market (another post for another time), Capitol Roasters is a modern-feeling coffee house with a Chucktown twist. Selling organic roasts and decaffeinated beans 100% natural and chemical-free, this warm café satisfies …

Kanawha State Forest, Charleston, WV

Where Trailing Off Is A Beautiful Thing

by Gino J. Orlandi | April 06, 2010

Spring, at long last, is budding. The rustle of life is returning to West Virginia hillsides, birdsongs bouncing off the bark of trees and flowers spreading calyces in the sun. It’s that time of year when nature beckons you outside, chirping and swishing and all but knocking at your door, a primaveral ruckus that, in Charleston especially, prattles all around you, encompassing the city, as if someone wired the hills with Dolby Surround, and the …

Ellen’s Homemade Ice Cream, Charleston, WV

The Sweetest Dream Come True

by Gino J. Orlandi | April 05, 2010

Ellen’s Homemade Ice Cream in Charleston, WV is the birthplace of the phrase “sweet dreams.” Or at least it should be. Ellen’s is the kind of vocal-cord-cracking ice cream (as I hear, it’s something folks “scream for”) that serious sweet-seekers just dream about. Part parlor, part café, and a whole lot of dream-come-true, Ellen’s Ice Cream is an American original that has been at the heart of Charleston’s desserting for over a decade …

Sacred Heart Basilica and Co-Cathedral, Charleston, WV

At the Heart of Charleston's Catholicism for over a Century

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 31, 2010

The belfry—sandstone gold and burnished green—chimes across the Charleston skyline. The bells sing heaven to the day, snail-coiled tones that wrap upon the air and slide through the cityscape. You’ll see its steeple presiding over the southern streets, a quiet sanctuary that has sung for over a century. Over the years, this cathedral has become a part of the city, an image of Charleston, WV, and it is a wonderful place to visit …

The Greenbrier, White Sulfur Springs, WV

A Premier Resort Since 1778

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 28, 2010

Opened in the late eighteenth century, The Greenbrier, from its national history to its famed serenity, is an attraction steeped in American history and natural beauty, and is a resort of such renown that this post practically writes itself. A state icon and a national landmark, this award-winning five-diamond resort, pressed away in the Allegheny Mountains about two hours from Charleston in White Sulfur Springs, WV, is as much …

The New River Gorge, Fayetteville, WV

Gorge Yourself

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 23, 2010

The Appalachian Mountains, hunched like Civil War veterans over walking canes, hug the foaming riverbanks with old and tender touches. Their stippled hillsides sing with color, rising soft and wise above the antique valley.  They roll together, endless, like wild horses across a blue-pasture sky. The whisper of whitewater sounds like wing-beats beneath you, moth flappings muffled by a passing breeze.  The hissing river snakes onward for miles, winding around each bend, slipping through cracks …

Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center, Charleston, WV

A Sure Thing

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 22, 2010

When one thinks of gambling, it’s my bet that Charleston, WV isn’t high on the list of potential hotspots. Odds are, the mind will jump to Vegas, to Atlantic City, to the casino citadels. Those florescent-lit, bar-heavy, conduct-condoning fantasylands that seem to sell something like sanctioned extravagance. Places where we, as patrons, are meant to lose ourselves in the atmosphere, agencies usurped, left to gawk and gaze at the glitz of whistles and …

Irish Spring Festival, Ireland, WV

Where Spring Is Its Greenest

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 15, 2010

In the early 1800s, a man by the name of Andrew Wilson emigrated from his native Ireland and settled in a small town in the middle of the Appalachians.  When he arrived, Wilson purchased 600 acres of land, started a family, and every spring, would climb to the top of Blarney Rock, 2300 feet above sea level, in order to greet the coming of the vernal season.  He was, reputedly, a good man, …

Sitar of India, Charleston, WV

Where East Meets West

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 14, 2010

Your first step into Sitar of India--met with rich flavors and aromatic puffs from the charcoal tandoor--will be the most memorable step of your life. Located on the corner of Lee and Summers Street in downtown Charleston, WV, Sitar’s North Indian cuisine is, to this multi-citied connoisseur, the best that the eastern U.S. has to offer. On the surface, the restaurant seems like a simple one, with clean white tables and a few …

Sam’s Uptown Cafe, Charleston, WV

The best place for St. Paddy's in Charleston, WV

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 08, 2010

Grab your Guinness and Bomb your Irish Cars, because in less than two weeks, American cities are going green. Literally. With St. Paddy’s Day just around the corner, locals and travelers alike are asking themselves where they’re going to shamrock-out this year, what foaming taps they’ll be tapping into on this day when the mugs get filled, the bars get packed, and everyone, oh everyone gets lucky. (Relax, I’m talking luck-o-the-Irish, here). 

In

Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences, Charleston, WV

An Experience

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 08, 2010

A 240,000 square foot building. An art gallery. A 1,883-seat theater. A dual-floored, interactive science museum. A sixty-one foot domed planetarium.  A center for theater, for musical performances, for giant-screen films and top-name performers. A structure so large it has an address named after it.  Located on 1 Clay Square in Charleston, WV, the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences is one of the most ambitious economic, educational, and cultural …

University of Charleston, Charleston, WV

Putting the "You" in University

by Gino J. Orlandi | March 07, 2010

Founded in 1888, the University of Charleston—for a long time trapped in its own un-acclaimed, academic cocoon—has undergone a larva-to-Lepidoptera (means “butterfly”) metamorphosis over the past twenty years.  When Edwin Welch became president of U.C. in 1989, the university, though rich in reputation and title, was functioning much, he found, like a community college.  The mean student-age was twenty-six-years-old. Enrollment had dropped as low as 490.  The majority of students were …

Embassy Suites, Charleston, WV

Living the Suite Life

by Gino J. Orlandi | February 28, 2010

Imagine being in the heart of a beautiful historical city.  Imagine a lobby, plush with foliage, fresh-scented and open-aired and drizzled with delicate jazz.  Imagine a vast interior, with cozy sitting areas and lounge pianos, and glass elevators silently climbing towards a sprawling, prismatic skylight covering the whole of the hotel.  Imagine full-service; imagine 253 suites; imagine good rates, a top sports grill, and being within walking-distance of all that downtown Charleston has to offer. …

Taylor Books, Charleston, WV

Where Literature and Art Come to Life

by Gino J. Orlandi | February 28, 2010

Take a walk down Charleston, WV’s most beautiful downtown street—past its historic storefronts and hanging greenery, its warm brick walkways pied with the music of cafés and art galleries—and you will feel as though you have just stepped into a story world. As if draped in the romantic flourishes of Gustave Flaubert, or soaked in the magical drippings of Garcia-Marquez, it is a world of dreaming sentences, languid and blossomed and vibrant as …

Blossom Deli, Charleston, WV

A Closed-Faced Sandwich, a Two-Faced Restaurant, and Plenty of Happy-Faced Diners

by Gino J. Orlandi | February 21, 2010

In the world of milkshakes and yard-bringing, nobody (sorry, Kelis) keeps folks coming back like Blossom Deli. “Sandwiched” on 904 Quarrier Street between the red-brick sidewalks and fashion boutiques of downtown Charleston‘s Renaissance Village, the Blossom is more than just a great place for gourmet, it is also a Charleston landmark. Re-opened in 1994 by Culinary-Institute-of-America-trained chef Bill Sohovich, the Blossom offers …

Travel Guide to Charleston, WV

Why You Should Visit Charleston, WV

by Gino J. Orlandi | February 15, 2010

More than its warm weather or famed hospitality, the South—as a tourist destination—is a region of variegated “getaways” from everyday life, a true impressionist painting of vibrant and distinctive culture.  Some cities transport you backward in time, with sidewalks draped in mossy histories and buildings swaddled in ghost tales.  Others teem with musical pasts, where smooth-river tones seem to snake through the air, floating past old architecture and antique storefronts.  Still others are beachfront escapes: some …