Both Claire Hollingsworth, 10, and Emily Waters, 11, say they’ve been cooking since they were preschoolers. Now, those years of experience are about to pay off. The two will appear at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5, on the Food Network’s “Chopped Junior.”
The channel’s kid-sized version of Ted Allen’s “Chopped,” also hosted by Allen, presents competitors aged 9-15 with a basket of mystery ingredients that must be transformed into chef-worthy dishes in just 20 minutes. The show’s casting director discovered the pair through Edible Education, a child-centered cooking school in Midlothian founded by Ann Butler. Both girls attended summer camps and after-school classes there.
“Kids are more willing to try something crazy, and often crazy is exactly what you need to succeed … on a competition like ‘Chopped,’” Allen says on the show’s website. We decided to see what Hollingsworth and Waters thoughts were about the experience.
Style: When you heard about the audition, what did you guys think -- what was your first thought?
Emily Waters: I was really excited about it, but I didn’t really think I would make it that far.
Claire Hollingsworth: I was really excited about it like Emily, but I was just really nervous. I was only nine at the time and I didn’t even know if I would make it to the audition -- I’d had experience before with “Rachel Ray’s [Kids Cook-Off],” and I didn’t make it [on that show].
What did you have to do for the audition?
Emily: I had to do some videos and a Skype interview, and you had to cook something and take pictures of it.
Claire: I did basically the same thing. In the video, I did my best to make it funny.
What came next?
Claire: When I found out I made it on the show I was so excited. I practiced because the thing about “Chopped” is that it’s different from “Rachel Ray.” It’s the hardest challenge out there because it’s timed, one. Two -- it’s a mystery ingredient and three, you don’t get recipes. If you don’t know how to make some basic recipes -- most people know how to -- that would be a big problem.
How do you practice ahead of time for this show?
Claire: When I practiced the entree, I had to think protein, starch, vegetable, garnish, sauce and seasoning. A lot of people get cut because their dish isn’t full or it’s not seasoned. It’s a song that I have in my head -- it’s very catchy and my mom helped me come up with it.
Emily: My parents gave me some ingredients and stuff. I had to make it and we set our oven timer for 20 minutes. And sometimes I went up against my mom or dad. I practiced different things that I might have to do that I don’t usually do.
Claire: My mom turned our kitchen into a “Chopped” kitchen. Like the pantry -- our dining room did not exist anymore. It was covered in food. I tried it in my real pantry but I had trouble because I couldn’t see anything. For the fridge -- it was crazy. I’d never seen it like that before because it was clean and basically empty.
Once you were on the show, what was the scariest part for you guys?
Emily: For me, it was probably leading up to it. I was really nervous before we got there -- but once I got there I was fine.
Claire: The thing that was most nerve-racking for me was when Ted was about to lift the metal tin. [Allen lifts a serving lid placed over a contestant’s dish to reveal who has been eliminated from the competition.] He put his hand on there, and then he let go. He put his hand on there and let go! And finally, when he actually pulled it up, none of us were expecting it. My dad was in the camera room and said, “Just open the dang thingy!”
Emily: It was very, very, very annoying.
And what was the best part?
Emily: Just getting to be there -- the awesome experience that it was. And the cooking -- all of us who were there loved to cook. That was very fun.
Claire: I made a new friend there -- I made my new friend, Emily. I was really happy that she lived in Virginia too [Claire lives in Moseley and Emily lives in Glen Allen] and that we could see each other again.
You can catch the girls’“Chopped Junior” episode, “Cuteness Overload,” on the Food Network on Tuesday, Jan. 5, at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 6, at 3 a.m. and Saturday, Jan. 9, at 4 p.m. More info about the show at FoodNetwork.com.
You can meet Claire Hollingsworth and Emily Waters at the Steward School at 6 p.m. the night the episode premiers. The two will judge a cooking challenge and then watch the show with the audience and participants. Attendees are encouraged to bring canned goods for the Central Virginia Food Bank and the girls will present a donation to Doug Pick, chief executive officer of FeedMore. You can register for the event here.
It's that time of the year: Time to listen to the annual Rap Up, delivered by RVA's Grammy-nominated rapper and songwriter, Skillz. (Thanks for the heads up, Craig Belcher.)
As soapy period drama "Downton Abbey" prepares to exit the airwaves this spring, PBS hopes the Civil War hospital drama “Mercy Street” can follow in the show's footsteps and keep the network a prime-time viewing destination in a television golden age.
Shot in Richmond and Petersburg, this is PBS’s first American-produced drama in more than a decade. The story is set in Union-occupied Alexandria during the Civil War, centering around New England abolitionist Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Southern belle Emma Green (Hannah James) working side-by-side as nurses in a hospital that was recently converted from the Green’s family mansion.
The idea was conceived by Lisa Quijano Wolfinger, whose production company, Lone Wolf Media, has produced Emmy-Award-nominated documentaries on topics as diverse as the Mayflower, the Salem witch trials, and the Age of Discovery. Wolfinger originally developed the project before the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
“I was looking for a way to tell a Civil War story from a fresh vantage point, right before the sesquicentenial of the Civil War and I realized there was a great story about the medical side of the Civil War about the doctors and nurses,” Wolfinger says.
Wolfinger, who co-produced "Mercy Street" with Scott Free Productions, partially based her project on Louisa May Alcott’s short story “Hospital Sketches” that strikes a balance between humor and sediment in recounting her experiences as a volunteer nurse.
Although the series is written by former "E.R." showrunner David Zabel and uses "The Knick’s" Dr. Stanley Burns as its medical consultant, the show’s producers do not see themselves as a competitor to other medical dramas on the air.
“I don't think we're a medical drama,” Zabel says. “[The Knick]'s much more intensively about the medicine and that's one of a lot of the issues that we're touching on.”
The show's expanded ensemble also features Gary Cole (“Office Space”) as family patriarch James Green, Wade Williams (“Prison Break”) as a conniving hospital steward and Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother”) as a surgeon with a conflicted heritage.
Crucial to the story is the setting of Alexandria as the sort of conflict-infused melting pot that comes from being situated along the Union-Confederate border.
In addition to telling the story of nurses and doctors on different sides of the conflict, the show’s expanded ensemble includes three African-American characters at various stages of freedom: L. Scott Caldwell plays a family servant coping with her newfound freedom; McKinley Belcher III plays a hospital laborer with a secret knowledge of medicine, and Shalita Grant (“Bones”) plays a contraband, a slave newly possessed by the Union.
In a recent panel discussion, documentarian Ken Burns commended the producers of "Mercy Street" for having "taken an African-American narrative that is vulcanized and put off to the side, as if they are mere passive bystanders, and not active and self-sacrificing soldiers and these characters are so fully realized.”
While the show is set in Alexandria and is partially sponsored by the city’s member-based tourism organization, Visit Alexandria, traffic considerations sent the production southward. Richmond’s historic Laburnum house and Petersburg’s Center Hill mansion were the two main locations used for the production.
Attracting film productions to Richmond is handled by the Virginia Film Office which doesn’t promote one part of the state over another. Deputy Director Mary Nelson noted that film productions typically prefer areas of the state with a locally-based talent pool of crew and actors, which Richmond has in spades.
“Richmond is authentic -- history happened here and has left behind a kind of truth that cannot be fabricated. In addition to realistic locations, Richmond has historians, museums, re-enactors and craftspeople as well as the talented and experienced pool of artists from the VCU School of the Arts, all of whom are dedicated to interpreting actual events and keeping them alive for future generations,” Nelson said.
Other productions that have recently filmed in Richmond include the Academy Award-nominated “Lincoln,” Meg Ryan’s directorial debut “Ithaca” and the upcoming Daniel Radcliffe film “Imperium.”
Nelson cites the work of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, State Secretary of Commerce Maurice Jones, and the General Assembly in building up Virginia’s reputation as a prime destination. In addition to filming in the state, the production also took time to immerse itself in the historical locations with on-site visits and enlisted Alexandria Black History Museum Director Audrey P. Davis as a historical consultant on set.
For Winstead, the experience allowed her to reconnect with her roots. Although she confesses, “I didn't learn anything more about the Civil War than what kids learn in school,” the North Carolina-born and Utah-raised actress recently discovered through her parents’ genealogical searching that she had Civil War roots. Winstead, whose previous experience in period dramas includes playing Mary Todd Lincoln in “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter”, was drawn to the project on the basis of the script.
“I'd never seen a Civil War story told entirely from the points of views of these types of women,” Winstead says.
For Hannah James, shooting "Mercy Street" was a welcome homecoming. James grew up in rural Virginia near Culpeper before studying acting in England.
“Coming back to my backyard [where I was] raised a little girl on a farm . . . .was a treasure,” says James.
Ultimately, Wolfinger and PBS hope that “Mercy Street” will not just be a historical statement but something in the present.
“Our series deals with some of the same issues we're wrestling with today whether its sexism or racism or polarizing politics,” she says.
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Legislation could help offenders move back into the workforce.
A state senator has proposed a bill to strike the name and location of sex offenders’ employers from the state’s public registry system.
The Virginia State Police department lists employer information alongside offender photos, names, addresses, ages and a description of the offense and the date committed.
The proposed legislation could help sex offenders make a transition back into society, says Christina Mancini, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who studies sex crimes.
Similar to other criminals, housing and employment are two of the biggest indicators of recidivism rates for sex offenders, Mancini says. Employed offenders could feel that they have something to lose if they continue to commit sex crimes.
She also says that keeping employer information from the public could reduce incidences of vigilante justice. Businesses who have hired offenders could also be less stigmatized.
On the other hand, Mancini says that restricting information makes it harder for the public to know about the presence of sex offenders and take precautions they might deem necessary.
Janet Howell, D-Reston, who patroned the legislation known as Senate Bill 11, couldn’t be reached for comment. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that the department doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
In the past five years, other legislators have failed to pass two similar bills. One was in 2010 and the other was in 2012. Not all states choose to list employer information on public sex offender registries.
A search of the state police’s sex offender registry shows that there are 1,003 sex offenders living in Richmond. Virginia was home to 21,591 sex offenders as of June 1, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Throughout the U.S., there were 843,260.
UPDATE: Happy news! Streetcar Cafe is absolutely open for business. To paraphrase Mark Twain: Reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Here's a link to its Facebook page to keep you abreast of all the coffee shop's news.
UPDATE 12-08-2015 2:06 pm: The Streetcar Cafe closed this past Saturday. The Richmond Free Press reports, “The closure of the current coffee shop came after Nehemiah [Community Development Corp.] terminated the month-to-month lease under which Sean and Kirsa Crippen were operating the shop that they had begun with so much promise.”
Nehemiah received $120,000 in city-funded grants and $30,000 in donations to buy and renovate the building. The adjoining bike repair shop remains open, albeit in limited operation.
Derek McDaniels, president of Nehemiah, is looking for another tenant for the space.
05-12-2015: Streetcar Cafe to Bring a Caffeine Kick to North Side
Derek McDaniel, a towering man in a sports jacket and cap, walks down Brookland Park Boulevard on the North Side, greeting each person he passes.
He knows every business owner along this retail strip that he hopes to help revive. Originally a streetcar stop, the area was thriving before it went into a decline in the 1950s and slowly filled with vacant storefronts and small businesses precariously hanging on.
McDaniel wants to change that. Through the nonprofit, Nehemiah Community Development Corp., that he founded with his wife, Cybelle, he plans to renovate commercial buildings and bring in much-needed goods and services to the area. With a $90,000 grant from the city, the group has taken its first step.
“We held a series of community meetings to see what the community wanted — what it needed,” McDaniel says. Overwhelmingly, neighbors said that they wanted a coffee shop — a place that didn’t serve alcohol but was a place to spot friends. Nehemiah purchased 10 E. Brookland Park Blvd. and began renovations.
A bike repair shop will go next to it, although it isn’t the kind of store you’d expect at first glance. Connected by large doors to the coffee shop next door, it’s a place that will provide tools and expertise to help customers fix their own bikes — at a much lower cost than a typical repair shop.
It’s needed, McDaniel says. “Bikes here are used to get from point A to point B. They aren’t used for recreation.”
To get the coffee shop up and running, McDaniel joined forces with Lamplighter Roasting Co., which will provide the coffee and training for the shop’s new baristas. Lamplighter co-owner Jennifer Rawlings says the neighborhood has “garnered this beautiful momentum that cannot be ignored.”
The shop, named the Streetcar Café, will be run by Sean and Kirsa Crippen and will serve sandwiches and pastries in addition to coffee drinks. McDaniel also wants to provide curbside service — you’ll be able to call ahead and have your order brought directly to your car when you pull up in front.
The Streetcar Café is slated to open in June. “The neighborhood needs this,” McDaniel says. “We want to hold poetry readings and have live music and a place for meetings. We want to engage the entire community.”
Singer Natalie Cole, daughter of the legendary jazz singer Nat “King” Cole, has died. The city last saw Cole when she performed at the Richmond Jazz Festival at Maymont in August 2015. She was one of the premiere names on a list of headliners that included New Edition, Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray and Anthony Hamilton.
The Associated Press said that Cole’s publicist, Maureen O’Connor, confirmed that the 65-year-old singer died on Thursday night. She provided no details about how or where Cole died. The singer battled drug problems and hepatitis which forced her to undergo a kidney transplant in 1991.
She followed in her father's footsteps with the 1991 album “Unforgettable .. With Love,” which featured reworked versions of the elder Cole’s well-known songs. The successful album won six Grammys and sold roughly 14 million copies.
Technology gave Cole the gift of joining her father in a duet of “Unforgettable” for the title track. She sang along with her father’s taped version of the classic. He died of lung cancer in 1965.
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Virginia survey sheds light on values of 2,000 people.
Millennials, 82 million strong across the county, don’t like politics much, enjoy urban advantages such as walkability and nearby restaurants, and are more likely to head for Northern Virginia instead of Richmond.
Those are the conclusions of a survey of 2,000 people ages 18 to 36 who were interviewed by the Judy Ford Wason Center at Christopher Newport University last summer. The results were released July 31.
A few more takeaways from the survey:
1. Most (40 percent) identify themselves as political independents, followed by Democrats (37 percent) and Republicans (24 percent).
2. While 60 percent turned out for Barack Obama in 2012, how they vote is a regional matter. Millennials in Northern Virginia tend to go Democratic while those in Richmond and Southwest and Southside Virginia favor Republicans.
3. Part of their general turn-off to politics may date back to the Bill Clinton years, when politics was seen as dirty and people behaved badly.
4. Millennials want accountability but tend not to get involved personally with politics.
5. The survey found that 73 percent are optimistic about their future.
While Torero Tapas Bar & Grill and Cielito Lindo have closed, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, things are looking brighter on the Boulevard. EAT Restaurant Partners’ Boulevard Burger & Brew has published its menu on its Facebook page. It consists mainly of — surprise! — burgers, but they're pretty interesting ones.
The Bow Tie, for example, is a nod to Bow Tie Cinema’s Movieland at Boulevard Square located down the street. It sports fresh mozzarella and basil popcorn pesto with a balsamic reduction on top of its organic beef patty.
The Fatty D, named in honor of its nearby sibling, Fat Dragon, is sprinkled with an Asian rub and topped with cilantro, tomato, pickled ginger, plus a wasabi and KimKim sauce aioli.
Bring it on. I’ll take a side of tater tots and finish with some soft-serve ice cream, please.
Boulevard Burger & Brew’s site will go live Tuesday, Jan. 5 at blvdburgerandbrew.com, and the restaurant will open Thursday, Jan. 7.
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Senate contender accused of assault in traffic stop.
Carl R. Loser, who ran as a Libertarian in the crucial 10th District Senate race in November, is in trouble with the law after a traffic stop.
Loser, 25, has been charged with assaulting a Henrico County police officer after allegedly rolling up his car window on an officer's hand as he was being given a traffic ticket on New Year's Day, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
According to the newspaper, the incident occurred at 9:47 p.m. at the intersection of Havenwood and Lauderdale drives in western Henrico.
Loser says he’s innocent and wants body camera evidence from police.
He ran in a four-way race for the critically important 10th state Senate district, in which Republican Glen Sturtevant narrowly defeated Democrat Dan Gecker. The result kept the Republicans in control of the state Senate. Loser came in last.
It hasn’t been the first time that Loser, a community college paralegal student, has drawn critical attention.
A month before the election, he was accused of threatening his campaign manager’s estranged ex-wife, claiming she could lose her home and child custody rights if she pursued support claims.
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The Ukrop family has been emblematic of the Richmond experience for decades — and continues to be.
On Christmas Day, the Maple & Pine restaurant at Quirk Hotel is filling up quickly. Diners are directed to pink seats along cozy, curved partitions. The airy lobby nearby has 13-foot ceilings that hearken to 1916, when the building at 201 W. Broad St. was a luxury department store.
Once the showcase heart of downtown Richmond, Broad Street has held precious little to suggest its glittering past. For decades, the streets have been deserted on holidays. But with help from one of the city’s best-known families, that’s starting to change.
True to form, the Ukrop family has made Quirk Hotel a crucial element of the city’s efforts to become a thriving arts and tourism destination. Since opening Sept. 18, the boutique hotel has received raves from such media outlets as Travel and Leisure magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
A few days later, Quirk gets a surprise shout-out during a segment on NBC’s “Today” show. “I was in the hotel watching television and had just switched the channel, so I missed it,” says Katie Ukrop, who built and operates Quirk with her husband, Ted. “Then I started getting texts from friends.”
“It’s going great. We’re very pleased,” says Ted Ukrop, the son of James E. “Jim” Ukrop, who with his brother Robert S. “Bobby” Ukrop, is a patriarch of the clan.
Quirk is the latest iteration of a family empire that started in 1937, when Joseph and Jacquelin Ukrop, Ted’s grandparents, opened a tiny, 500-square-foot store in the working-class Manchester section of Richmond.
After years of disciplined labor and treating customers well, the family built Ukrop’s Super Markets into a regional food behemoth with 27 outlets, 5,600 employees and an enviable reputation.
It was a sterling local brand, which made it all the more disappointing to customers when the family sold the chain in 2010 for $140 million to Giant-Carlisle, a division of Dutch food giant Ahold. Most of the stores now are Martin’s, which is among the local market leaders.
At the time, Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group in New York, spoke with Style of the company’s strengths. “Ukrop’s is one of the finest retailers we’ve analyzed anywhere in North America.”
From the rich and solid base of Joseph and Jacquelin’s legacy, the Ukrop descendants have continued their family’s special brand of hard work, innovation, attention to customers, love for community and strict ethical standards based on their Christian faith.
The Ukrops seem to have touched nearly every sector of Richmond, serving in myriad ways for decades. They are the 911 to call if a worthy community initiative needs emergency help. They are at the heart of significant local turning points. They are involved. Still hard-headed business people, they’re constantly setting up new businesses that meet a social sustainability test besides making money.
For their active approach, cultural influence and longevity of work in Richmond, Style Weekly names the Ukrop family as the 30th anniversary Richmonders of the Year.
Ardent philanthropists, the Ukrops are unique because they don’t merely stroke checks like faceless corporate gatekeepers. They get to know the people they’re helping. They jump into the trenches and work hard. Personal involvement is essential, whether it’s helping create the Monument Avenue 10K and Richmond Marathon, sponsoring the Christmas parade for years, championing a new kind of downtown performing arts center, or creating funding for community charities and local startups.
Along the way, the Ukrop name has come to emblemize the Richmond experience as much as ham biscuits, the James River and Gwar.
“The Ukrops have really defined this recent period in Richmond’s history,” says William J. Martin, director for The Valentine, a private museum of city history.
Conservative Richmond long has been criticized as regressive and obsessed with the past, making the Ukrops stand out. Like several of the city’s movers and shakers, the Ukrops are relative newcomers, rather than old-money families that can trace their lineage to colonial times but haven’t stepped up as much recently for the region.
“They didn’t always accept the common definitions,” Martin says of the Ukrops. “They were always pursuing new things, innovation.”
“It’s not simple being a Ukrop,” says Pam Reynolds, a prominent arts and charity patron known for her pageboy haircut, community work and flamboyant fashion. She’s served on numerous local boards with family members and is a close friend of Katie.
“They have given a lot to the community of themselves,” Reynolds says. “You’re out slogging in the mud, but you’re normal. Your kids are normal. They have taken their wealth and have improved the community and the environment in creative ways.”
Joseph Ukrop was born in Henrico County on a farm owned by his family. They were devout Baptists of Slovak descent. He and his wife, Jacquelin, borrowed money and bought a grocery store on Hull Street that was 16 feet wide and 38 feet long. Their clientele were blue-collar workers, including employees of nearby cigarette manufacturing plants. Their first-day take was $23. Joseph was pleased.
The country was still dealing with the Great Depression and making a living was hard. But the Ukrops held on, keeping things modest. They sold no alcohol and closed on Sundays. Joseph occasionally left his store to help farmers with their harvests. They instilled their children with their sense of values.
It took 26 years for the Ukrops to open a second store. By then, son Jim came to work and plotted expansions. His brother Bob joined the store in 1972. Together they fought it out with then-market leader Safeway by ensuring that their products were fresh and of high quality and that customers were treated properly.
Like their parents, they held their religious beliefs firmly. They refused to open Sundays or sell alcohol, although they did sell tobacco products. New ideas came, such as introducing customer loyalty cards. During a spike in gasoline prices in 2008, they gave customers a break by offering cheaper fuel depending on their grocery purchases. They posted signs that said “Let’s Go to Church on Sunday,” although they changed them later to “Worship” to reflect religious diversity.
They paid competitively and kept productive workers on staff into their 80s. They repeatedly made Fortune’s list of the best 100 companies in the country to work for. They started Ukrop’s Food Group to make potato salad and rolls with a Richmond accent and were leaders in buying locally produced vegetables, fruit, meats and fish.
One man in the business was struck by the Ukrops’ unexpected hospitality. In 1997, Tom Leonard, now owner of Tom Leonard’s Farm Fresh in Short Pump, had moved to the Richmond area from Connecticut, where his family ran a chain of food stores. “I met Jim and Bob and I called them up and said I was planning my own grocery store,” Leonard says. “I asked them if I could work at their store for six months. They said they would be delighted.”
Leonard picked up a lot of tips. “They’re tough competitors,” he says. “They don’t roll over because you’re their friend. But off the mat, they are fantastic.”
As with any independent business people, the Ukrops have had their share of bumps. Some problems were emblematic of Richmond’s midcentury population shifts and strained attitudes over what’s culturally acceptable.
As Richmond’s white population streamed out of the city on freshly built expressways to suburban Henrico and Chesterfield counties in the 1950s and ’60s, grocery stores moved with them.
The Ukrops tried to show they weren’t abandoning the city market entirely. In 1992, they arranged for $700,000 in funding to help Jonathan F. “Johnny” Johnson open several inner-city food stores. They helped in other ways too, such as helping workers at Johnson’s Community Pride stores. But in 2004, Johnson shut his business down.
Relations were rougher with the late Ray Boone, founding editor and publisher of the Richmond Free Press. After years of an up-and-down relationship with the Ukrops, Boone claimed that Bobby Ukrop threatened to pull Ukrop’s ads from his newspaper when he disapproved of some content. Boone struck back with editorial jabs and, once, with a biting full-page ad.
The biggest cultural flap was in the mid-’90s, when the Ukrops were offended by national radio jock Howard Stern, whose freewheeling show is filled with his signature sexual explicitity and satire. With it airing locally on modern rock station WVGO, now 106.5 The Beat, Jim and Bobby Ukrop organized a campaign to force Stern off the air. They stopped after drawing national criticism, and the radio station eventually canceled Stern. The censorship attempt was something Jim Ukrop later said he regretted.
Bobby and Jim were named Style’s 10th annual Richmonders of the Year for 1994. They were cited for helping shift attitudes in the business community about the role that such leaders could play in re-energizing downtown. They led by example and made significant strides.
Years later, Jim Ukrop took a chief role ushering in the Richmond Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2009. The public-private project, which became CenterStage, has had its cheerleaders and critics.
A debate unfolded about city priorities. The project’s early days and complex financing often were characterized by a less-than-transparent approach. With its finances and direction yet to stabilize, CenterStage’s eventual legacy is unclear, though a new grant from Dominion Resources is scheduled to re-christen it as the Dominion Arts Center.
But Ukrop was in the mix for something he believed in, and kept pushing forward. His vision and intention seemed focused on creating what he saw as a necessary cultural amenity — and one that would support downtown revitalization.
By the 1980s, the Ukrops’ food business was a major success. It had gone against richer national chains in its home market of Richmond and carried off a distinctive branding. In time, they expanded into Fredericksburg and Charlottesville as well as into a niche store called Joe’s Market, after Joseph. The family set up First Market Bank, a community financial institution that used grocery stores for many of its outlets.
With a central bakery as a base, the company started supplying its own baked goods and, eventually, prepared foods. By the 1990s, Ukrop’s brand products numbered more than 100 and typically included meatloaf, soup and spoon bread.
“It wasn’t duck a l’orange,” an analyst told Supermarket News in 1994. “It was very middle America. They obviously know who their customers are.”
The same sort of canniness set up the Ukrops for their next big play — selling most of their food empire. By the 2000s, it was clear that the Richmond market was getting smothered with higher-end stores and services. Kroger started adding more sophisticated entrees. A Whole Foods opened near affluent Short Pump. Wegmans, perhaps the leader in high-end stores, was scouting the Richmond market. The lower end started seeing more plays as well, such as Wal-Mart and Aldis.
So many stores and expansions worried the family. Last year, Jim Ukrop told Style that analysts would “tell you that Richmond is completely overstored per capita. When someone new comes in, they take a little from everybody else.”
Among another reason to sell was that the grocery business lost $1.4 million in the third quarter of 2009, according to Office of Thrift Supervision filings, as reported by Richmond BizSense.
Royal Ahold of Holland bought the property for $140 million in 2010 through its Giant-Carlisle subsidiary. Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods continued to supply its old stores and started selling through new outlets, such as Kroger. First Market Bank eventually was sold as well.
Today, the move seems prescient because Ahold is merging with Brussels-based Delhaize Group, which owns Food Lion stores — the market leader in Richmond. Future store closings seem inevitable even as new ones move in.
With the grocery chain sold, the family members divvied up their activities around community service and starting new businesses.
Bobby Ukrop served on the board of trustees of his alma mater, the University of Richmond, and continued running the prepared food company. His wife, Jayne, has been active in community service projects. And he also puts attention on community sports activities and boosters such as Sports Backers, which he co-founded.
“Bobby has been on and off of our board for 18 of the past 24 years,” says John Lugbill, executive director of Sports Backers. “And the family has greatly supported us financially.”
Marquee events are the Monument Avenue 10K race and the Richmond Marathon, which draws thousands of runners and double the spectators. Lugbill says other efforts are designed to get people out and exercising, especially children, through such sports as soccer, volleyball and field hockey.
Jim Ukrop has taken a different path. In addition to civic involvement and interest in politics behind the scenes, he worked with veteran local business executives J. Robert “Bob” Mooney and Ted Chandler to launch New Richmond Ventures, which has raised about $88 million for a dozen or so startups.
But rather than throwing money at promising ideas, the venture fund selects only projects that it sees as having a truly new idea that benefits the community.
“We look for companies that we think will solve a problem that’s never been solved before — something maybe medical or that helps the environment,” Jim Ukrop says. “We look for something that will create jobs here in Richmond.”
Examples include DEGi, which finds new ways to recycle chlorine, and Rockin’ Baby, which makes slings to carry infants. With every one purchased, the company gives one to a disadvantaged mom. Another is Plugless, which uses new technologies to recharge electric car batteries wirelessly.
“They just don’t throw money out,” says Rebecca Hough, head of Evatran, which runs Plugless. “You can do well by doing good.”
Jim’s wife, Barbara, joins him in various projects, has been active with Leadership Metro Richmond and has served on the board of the Community Foundation.
The next generation of Ukrops is following their example.
Bobby’s soccer-star son, Rob, has become the most recognized from local face for the sport. After graduating Davidson College in 1993, he became a driving force for the Richmond Kickers when it began that same year. Today he serves as its board president.
Downtown revitalization long has been a focus for the family, which bought properties on West Broad Street with the idea of using historic tax credits to fix them up.
Ten years ago, Ted Ukrop’s wife, Katie, whom he met when they attended college in Indiana, opened a gallery near the site of what is now Quirk Hotel with business partner Kathy Emerson.
That’s about the time Katie and Pam Reynolds became close friends. “When she established her work downtown,” Reynolds says, “it immediately became clear that it had become a place that was fun.”
The gallery became part of the new Quirk Hotel in a budding arts district. Just to the west at Broad and Belvidere is the site of Virginia Commonwealth University’s 43,000-square-foot Institute for Contemporary Art, which is under construction. Across the street is the November Theatre and headquarters for the Virginia Repertory Theatre. Scattered about are art galleries. A few blocks farther east is the 23-story Central National Bank building, which is being renovated into 200 apartments.
“You couldn’t ask for better anchors,” Ted Ukrop says.
Quirk Hotel opened a day before the UCI Road World Championships. Cyclists zipped past on Broad Street while millions of viewers around the world watched on television. Spectators could enjoy the races and then drop by Quirk for a drink or lunch.
“It was just amazing walking onto Broad Street and hearing three or more languages being spoken,” Ted says.
Katie says that the stage for Quirk was set by young millennials, who transformed their section of West Broad Street into an arts area. They did so with little or no support and “were putting their necks out there.”
When Quirk was going up, there were worrying moments but it all came together, she says: “The whole thing has been surreal.”
And it illustrates yet another step in the tale of the Ukrop family.
“Jim showed me that community comes from community,” says Andy Stefanovich, a partner at New Richmond Ventures. The current Ukrop generation “gives us competence, faith and connectability.”S
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The Ukrop Family
The late Joseph and Jacquelin Ukrop, founders of Ukrop’s Super Markets. Their children are James E. “Jim” Ukrop and Robert S. “Bobby” Ukrop.
Jim and Barbara “Bobbie” Ukrop: Jim served as top management at Ukrop’s Super Markets from 1965 to 2008. Co-founder, New Richmond Ventures. Bobbie served with Leadership Metro Richmond and on the board of the College of William and Mary.
Their children are: Ted Ukrop, former manager of Ukrop’s Super Markets and co-founder of Quirk Hotel with his wife, Katie Ukrop, co-founder of the hotel and Quirk Gallery. Scott Ukrop is co-founder and chief executive of Grace Street Additions.
Bobby and Jayne Ukrop: Bobby is brother to Jim. Former top executive at Ukrop’s Super Markets, co founder of Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers and former chairman of Greater Richmond Chamber. President and chief executive of Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods. Jayne has served with various community causes including Heartstrings Music Ministry.
Their children are: Rob Ukrop, a motivational speaker and board president of the Richmond Kickers. Jacquelin Ukrop Aronson, former director of human resources at Ukrop’s. Jeff Ukrop, with First Things First of Greater Richmond, and Nancy Joseph Ukrop Kantner, president of Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods Foundation.
Best-selling author James Patterson has given a $3,000 grant to help Albert Hill Middle School in Richmond expand its library collection.
The writer is donating $1.75 million to more than 450 schools nationwide, and Albert Hill Middle School on Patterson Avenue is one of three in Virginia to receive grants.
Patterson, author of the "Alex Cross" series, is known as a passionate campaigner for books and reading. According to a story in The Richmond Times-Dispatch, "the grants are being administered by the Scholastic Reading Club, which will match every dollar Patterson gives with bonus points. These points allow teachers to buy books and instructional materials for their classrooms."
With its 2015 recipient, Style commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Richmonder of the Year. Starting in 1985, a committee of community leaders joined the publisher and editor in choosing the recipient. The editorial team brought the selection process in-house in 2003, making the choice after considering the area’s newsmakers, significant moments and turning points of the year.
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Writing didn’t come easily to him, as he often noted. “All you have to do is sit down and open a vein.”
Don Dale was a storyteller. Typing with manic speed, he used two fingers on the keyboard to produce flawlessly eloquent material for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and for a television column that ran for years in Style. He didn’t live to see 2016, but his rich, personal stories will live on in his entertaining blog, Cogito (nodelad.blogspot.com), and in the memories of his friends and admirers.
Writing didn’t come easily to him, as he often noted. “All you have to do is sit down and open a vein,” he’d say, grinning. A gifted raconteur, Don told entertaining stories about his service as a medic in the Air Force, his perspective on life as a gay man, and his career as a television news director.
Cheerfully, he recounted his 1982 experience, announcing in a WTVR-TV 6 news scoop that Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. had died in an auto crash. Minutes later, Byrd telephoned Don to say that rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. This event concluded Don’s tenure as news director at the station, and the museum was fortunate to hire him shortly after.
Don was an innovator. Navigating the mysterious MS-DOS system, he was one of VMFA’s first staff to embrace technology, composing on the museum’s first word processor in the ’80s, located several floors from the public affairs suite behind the director’s office. Inspired by a new tool used by television publicists, he innovated the first media-room website for an art museum. He used his broadcast skills to win a national Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America for video news releases, which he wrote and narrated.
Don was a teacher. Nonprofit communications offices are fueled by interns seeking careers in what appears to be a glamorous field. Don would quickly discern students who had potential and work patiently with them to develop their skills. No intern or staff person escaped the precision of his non-negotiable, red editing pen. Sometimes there were tears, but Don was an excellent editor and teacher, and usually right.
Don was gay. Coming out in the late ’60s in Virginia was brave, and undoubtedly complicated. Don always had a personal dignity and a sense of humor. Once, I was instructing some young women in our department about their place in the complex ecosystem of museum hierarchy: “Our department is a powerful branch of royalty at the museum, and you are our princesses.”
To that, Don quipped, “And Suzanne and I are the queens.”
And finally, Don was a smoker, all of his life. There was a time when everyone smoked, everywhere, even during meals. As restrictions accelerated, he complied, marking the hours of his day with outside smoking breaks. Don died Dec. 28, at 73, of an apparent massive heart attack on the way to his fitness class at the Weinstein Jewish Community Center. He was taken from his family and friends too early, but what a way to go.
As successful as music labels like Sun, Chess, Stax and Volt might have been, there’s only one that’s a genre all to its own: Motown.
With its deep roster of talent, rich production and distinctive sound, the Motown Record Corp. was a musical juggernaut in the 1960s, and played an important role in the integration of popular music. From his original Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters in Detroit, founder Berry Gordy Jr. grew his company into a record label that included the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5.
It’s Gordy’s story of founding and running the label that inspired “Motown: the Musical,” coming to the Altria Theater next week. The jukebox musical rehashes a whopping 66 Motown favorites, including four that will be sung by actor Jarran Muse as he portrays soul legend Marvin Gaye.
The musical begins with a 1983 performance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Motown before flashing back to Gordy’s youth. The show then follows Gordy as he forms a record label and records the music acts that made him famous.
“Not only is ‘Motown: the Musical’ the story of how Berry Gordy created the stars that we have grown to love,” explains Muse, “but it’s also the love story between Berry Gordy and Diana Ross.”
Muse says portraying Marvin Gaye is unlike any role he’s ever tackled.
“People are expecting a lot,” says Muse, who has been involved with the musical since 2011. “This man existed, so there’s a lot of research I had to do. Not only that, but the D.C.-Virginia area is where he’s from, so it’s even more of a big deal for me to give this part of the country a great performance.”
In bringing the role to life, Muse says the hardest part is “trying to portray this man without trying to be an impersonator. It’s not like this is a Vegas show act; this is a musical, and I’m an actor,” he says. “Mr. Gordy says he sees Marvin in my eyes, that my natural instincts are correct, so I just have to trust that, and that is hard.”
Muse says the show will please both those who remember Motown’s glory days and younger audiences that know them as oldies.
“For this new generation that may be familiar with the music but not really familiar with the history, they’re going to get a great history lesson, a magic joy ride, and it’s just a feel good musical the same way Motown makes you feel good.”
Muse says his two favorite numbers are the big production number “Dancing in the Street” and “What’s Going On.”
“It’s where the show takes a bit of a shift,” he says of the latter, which was inspired by an act of police brutality. “So many issues that America was going through in the ’60s we’re still facing today.
“That’s a moment where you see that history is repeating itself and we’re still asking the same question: ‘“What’s going on? And how can we change it?’”S
“Motown: The Musical” plays Jan. 5-10 at the Altria Theater, 6 N. Laurel St. For information, visit altriatheater.net or call 1-800-514-3849.
The cast of Quill Theatre’s next show, “Stupid Fucking Bird,” is so good, it’s hard to believe one production can incorporate so much talent.
The show’s director, Jon Kretzu, is based in Portland, Oregon, and so wasn’t quite aware of what he was getting during the casting process. “A lot of people read for these parts but I didn’t know the actors’ reputations,” Kretzu says. “I just picked the best people I saw.”
“Bird” is a very loose retelling of famed Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s 1895 family dramedy “The Seagull,” set in modern times and spun into a crazy meta-theatrical experience. Kretzu says that, while the script is true to the spirit of Chekhov, it takes the basic story into unexpected new directions. “The show requires some incredible character actors,” he explains. “You really need the A team.”
Kretzu certainly got what he needed. In the cast of seven, three actors — Jeff Clevenger, Chandler Hubbard and McLean Jesse — received Richmond Theatre Critics Circle awards this past October for their work during the 2014-’15 season. Audra Honaker and Katie McCall are past award winners. Key roles are filled by Jeremy Morris, a standout in Quill’s recent “Hamlet,” and the near-legendary stage veteran David Bridgewater.
Though “Bird” is a true ensemble piece, much of the action centers on the character of Con, played by Hubbard, the youngest actor in the cast. Hubbard calls being part of such a powerhouse troupe a surreal experience. “I grew up watching some of these actors,” the 2012 University of Virginia graduate says. “I can remember seeing David on stage when I was like 10 years old.”
Growing up in Ashland, Hubbard took classes with the School for the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community for five years and then performed in plays at the Maggie Walker Governor’s School. But he put acting on the back burner while at the university to focus on his studies, earning a degree in English literature and psychology. He landed a 9-to-5 job at a law firm after graduation, but he couldn’t keep the allure of the stage at bay, eventually landing a role in TheatreLab’s “See Jane Quit” in 2013.
Hubbard and Jesse were both in the cast of TheatreLab’s “The Altruists” that received the critics’ best ensemble award this year. In “Bird,” Jesse plays Nina, the object of Hubbard’s character’s affection. “The show is packed with experienced actors and Chandler will claim he is in over his head,” says Jesse, who also came away with the critics’ best actress in a play honors this year. “But his eagerness and dedication will prove otherwise.”
Jesse has the distinction of being the only actor in the cast who was intimately familiar with Chekhov’s work. “Playing Nina in ‘The Seagull’ has been a dream of mine for as long as I have been an actress,” she says. Kretzu, who is a true Chekhov aficionado, is surprised that people are not more familiar with the Russian author, saying that a show like ‘Breaking Bad’ wouldn’t exist without him. “Chekhov basically invented the dramedy,” says the director, who first came to Richmond to direct Quill’s “Lion in Winter” last season. “He wrote plays that made people laugh one moment then cry the next, with dialogue full of nonsequiturs and throw-away lines. It’s like the majority of TV shows these days.”
“Bird” has been particularly popular to produce since winning the Helen Hayes award for best new play in 2013, with productions from Chicago to Los Angeles. But Kretzu will be the first, he thinks, to make the play a true environmental experience. “The whole theater is being remade with multiple stages so that actors are sitting in the audience and audience members are on stage. There will be times when actors ask the audience questions and the show won’t go on until they get an answer,” he says. “It will be completely immersive; I think Chekhov would have loved it.”S
“Stupid Fucking Bird,” produced by Quill Theatre Company, will run at the Richmond Triangle Players’ Theatre at 1300 Altamont Avenue from Jan. 7 to 30. Go to quilltheatre.org for tickets and information.
A revenant is a return. Usually it is associated with coming back from the dead, which is why “the revenant” was an appellation given to Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose remarkable story of wilderness survival after being mauled by a grizzly bear is chronicled by an intense new film by “Birdman” director Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Visually stunning, impressively constructed, “The Revenant” is almost entirely about Glass’ amazing journey back from near death, though Glass’ real-life story is at least as much about his tracking and retribution against the men who left him to die. “The Revenant” tells even this part differently, however, making curious changes to the real story in addition to leaving much out. Glass’ history is enough for two films, and certainly too much for one as ambitious as this, whose achievements are its biggest challenges.
What’s not in question is that “The Revenant” looks amazing. It opens with a bravura battle between the fur trapping company Glass works for and hostile natives, the camera following the action in the freezing outdoors of the American West as if we are there. (Bundle up no matter what temperature it is in the real world. You will feel cold just by looking at the screen.)
DiCaprio’s Glass is a scout who runs afoul of one of the company’s trappers, Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), arguing over strategies for avoiding more natives. When Glass is mauled nearly to death, the company’s boss, (Domhnall Gleeson), inexplicably entrusts Fitzgerald to stay behind with Glass, Glass’ son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) and another volunteer (Brendan Fletcher). They are expected to keep Glass comfortable while he dies and give him a proper burial.
The movie overplays its hand a little by previously revealing Fitzgerald to be a selfish, conniving man, so it comes as little surprise when he turns complete scoundrel and abandons Glass after murdering his boy. Better handled is the way, after the betrayal, Fitzgerald controls Jim Bridger (Fletcher) with a careful mix of wheedling and intimidation. The movie also sets up a nifty confrontation between Glass and Fitzgerald that plays irrespective of the two men’s proximity to each other. Both are completely obstinate, both survivors.
Glass and Fitzgerald have opposing wills, but what else? Iñárritu laces the proceedings with Terrence Malick-like flashbacks of Glass haunted by memories of his dead wife and son. But any insight into his character they provide is purely speculative. Iñárritu seems intent on upping the ante on “Birdman,” but while equally satisfying on technical levels, this is a much more purely visceral experience.
What “The Revenant” does undeniably well is impress, photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki (“Birdman,”“Gravity,”“The Tree of Life”), arguably the world’s greatest working cinematographer. The grizzly attack alone almost makes the film worth seeing. But other noteworthy set pieces include a race down a rapid, freezing river, a cliff leap from horseback, and even comparatively throwaway moments like a friendship kindled between Glass and another survivor over the burning corpse of a buffalo.
Filmed on location in what had to be trying conditions, at least one crew member reportedly told the Hollywood Reporter the shoot was “a living hell.” Given the skill with which studios silence their worker bees, except when they want to drum up publicity, such reports should always be taken with a grain of salt. But even one-location productions shot indoors can be a living hell, so it is impressive to see what Iñárritu and Lubezki accomplished.
The only thing they didn’t get in camera was very deep into the inner lives of their characters. This is the perfect vehicle for “Mad Max” star Hardy, called on yet again, to grunt and avoid all eye contact as shorthand for acting. DiCaprio seems the more wasted of the two, his character ever in agony, like he’s stretching out the plane crash scene in “The Aviator” to feature length.
Glass led a remarkable life beyond the events that provided his nickname and this movie’s title. Little of that is revealed here, but the survival story, constructed with astounding skill, should be enough to drag you to the nearest theater. “The Revenant” was absolutely the best title for this small but insane moment of Glass’ life. The movie doesn’t say all that much, but it is an incredible feat. (R) 156 min. S
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Jan. 7-10
In 2001, the Latin Ballet of Virginia’s artistic director, Ana Ines King, created “The Legend of Poinsettia” based on the Mexican legend of a young girl who embraces the spirit of giving. The company King has overseen since its inception in 1997 celebrates the 16th anniversary of the family-friendly production with performances Thursday-Sunday, Jan. 7-10, at the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen. The portrayal of seasonal Hispanic traditions features celebratory dances and music that has kept audiences coming back for more. Tickets for the timeless tale that transcends cultural barriers are $10-$20. For show times and information about all the Latin Ballet of Virginia’s upcoming productions, visit latinballet.com. artsglenallen.com.
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Jan. 7-10
Showcasing celluloid creations from the growing movie industry in the biblical Holy Land of Israel, the sixth annual Israeli Film Festival takes place Thursday- Sunday, Jan. 7-10, at the Weinstein Jewish Community Center. The festival kicks off on Thursday, Jan. 7, with a screening of “Above and Beyond”, the 2014 documentary about Jewish-American pilots who helped defend the new state of Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, at 7 p.m. Other films featured at the annual showcase include the 2014 drama, “Gett: the Trial of Viviane Amsalem” (Saturday Jan. 9, 7 p.m.), the 2012 crime film directed by David Ondrícek, “In the Shadow” (Sunday Jan. 10, 11 a.m.) and “The Farewell Party” (Sunday Jan. 10, 3 p.m.), the 2014 meditation on euthanasia directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon. For ticket prices and a full schedule, call 285-6500 or visit weinsteinjcc.org.