We've Moved--- And, Mission Statement:

We've moved this site to: www.charlottesvilleonashoestring.wordpress.com

Our project is to go through the entire Attractions 2011 Restaurant section- and give you feedback via video, photo, and writing.

We live in the University Area, so we're going to start out by targeting the spots that are on the UVA Bus loop (Downtown Mall, West Main St, Corner, and Emmet to Barrack's). Because, as every Cavalier knows, nobody knows how to work a shoestring like a college student.

First years are bus and foot bound, so this is especially to the Wahoo newbie during his/her first semester.

Then we'll branch out, and start serving the off-grounds Cvillians.

Thanks for checking us out!
Anwar and Laura Allen

We Have the New Attractions Books! Buy 'em here!

Shoot us and email @ anwarandlaura@gmail.com with "Order for Attractions Books" in the subject, and we will deliver them to you anywhere within 15 minutes of UVA (preferably in a public location).

They're good from now until the last day of 2011!!

Gotta Go Aqui Es Mexico

Fabio's New York Style Deliciousness!

Whenever we hear anyone say that they just can't get a truly great slice of pizza in Charlottesville, we tell them about Fabio's. It's very popular amongst the locals, and in the world of food, that loyalty speaks loudly!

We won't let anyone say a word about Cville pizza until they've found this hole-in-the-wall, mom-and-pop treasure five minutes off the downtown mall.

One of the owners, Jason, confirmed today that they make their own dough in house, their own marinara, and their own Italian House dressing. All phenomenal.

Below is a picture of their Pizza Roll Calzone (Pepperoni, Mozzarella):




Their Veggie Sub (grilled fresh mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, black olives with a touch of italian dressing and topped with melted provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo):



Onion Rings:



House Tossed Salad (crisp iceberg lettuce, red onions, red cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and tomatoes) served with their awesome Homemade House Italian Dressing:



...And we decided not to put the picture of the vegan eggplant parmigiana hot sub up, because it- without the aesthetic appeal of the bubbly mozzarella- in no way gave the amazing dish justice. If you've gone vegan- GO here and order this! Deep fried with outstanding, fresh marinara sauce on their light, delicious sub rolls. PHENOMENAL! We did not even miss the cheese!

Closest to NYC taste and presentation you will get here in our city. Get yourselves their asap! Very pizza-ri-a-esque atmosphere.

Buon Appetito!

Free Medium Pie with the purchase of another one when you use your Attractions Coupon! You'll be able to get the 2011 edition directly from us next month!

Love Affair with the Omni

Do you remember how Audrey Hepburn's character, Holly, would go to Tiffany's when she had the blues or the mean reds in Breakfast @ Tiffany's? The Omni is my Tiffany's. The palm trees, high ceilings, beautiful fountain, world class service, and phenomenal food inspire memories of Bermuda- all 5 minutes away from our home in the University Area.

What could this beautiful hotel have to do with living it up in Charlottesville on a mere Shoestring, you wonder?

It is the very embodiment of the concept. Like Hepburn with her Cracker Jack ring going into Tiffany's for an engravement, you can take the free trolley from the University and get dropped off directly in front of the hotel. For the same price as an easily forgotten meal on the Corner, you can instead bring that $10 bill here and order any one of the many innovative wonders from their lunch menu in an atmosphere that will relax, inspire, and invigorate you.

We love to end our time on the festive downtown mall in this magnificent, air-conditioned oasis.

Executive Chef, Morgan Oliver, stopped by our table with steaming fresh coffee & a plate of croissants while we sat under the palm trees waiting for the lunch shift to start after our jaunt @ the farmer's market across the street.

Passionate about both food & service, Oliver shared with us his commitment to using 40% local ingredients in his menu- including the Polyface Farm chicken that we ordered on Foccacia bread with sundried tomatoes, caramelized onions, and basil mayonnaise.

I had never had their lump crab cake topped with aoili, perfectly accompanied by the lightest, butteri-est challah bread that I have ever had:



Why any work-wary local would spend their lunch break at any other spot in town is beyond me! My husband faithfully orders their bacon cheeseburger, which is a hard burger to compete with.

There's just something about wiping ketchup from your lips with a starched, white cloth napkin. It can inspire gratitude to replace even the meanest of reds.

Be Well!
~A & L

Note: the Attractions book has a couple of buy one, get one free coupons to this find, so grab a book & go with a companion. Before tip, the two of you will have lunch for $5 each!

Starting in August, you will be able to buy the 2011 directly from our site!

Soul Food at Eppie's

Can you believe it? Eppies provides great food at a great price!! A fun time for the whole family.

Cavalier Diner

Anwar came home late, and asked if I would go watch him eat, since I had just finished dinner. I had two of the best onion rings I've had in CVille, a delicious, hot french fry, a bite of a pickle, several sips of fountain diet pepsi, and a bite of Anwar's bacon cheeseburger. I say- YUM! GO!!! based on these samplings.

Aside from the onion rings, my highest praises go to Christina, who is quite possibly one of the most pleasant, capable, helpful servers we've ever had in Charlottesville. She was discreet, tidy, upbeat, happily chatted through Anwar's extensive questions. "What are your favorite dishes?" "Are you sure this soda isn't flat?" (She ran the fountain for a second, and it came back fizzy and delicious). "How many free refills do I get?" "How much are the desserts?" "What's the thriftiest way to go for an appetizer?" (We are "Charlottesville on a SHOESTRING", after all!) She was efficient, looked to be helpful, was confident, and really invited us into a wonderful, comfortable place to relax and catch up on what happened during the day.



The atmosphere is American diner. Clean, bright, delicious, affordable food. You can get breakfast all day. Pizza, Gyro & Souvlaki, Calzones, etc. Think diner good. I'd like to go back and give the Stromboli a whirl. Nice, fresh date spot. A place to remember when you're flying down 29, hungry, don't plan to spend too much on dinner, and are making the intelligent choice of avoiding fast "food", while supporting a local, family owned spot- and hope to do so without hardly any wait. The $2.10 order of the phenomenal onion rings is a very good way to have a little sampling with the family while they put your dinner together.

Will go back again and again.

Be Well!
-A & L

1403 Emmet Street
6 am - 12 Midnight, Fri & Sat
6 am -10 pm, Sun-Thur
977.1619

We've Got the Millmont Grille Blues

Thankful for the Attractions book for taking us on another adventure, on a considerable shoestring! We won't be going back for dinner, maybe well give the lunch menu a shot, but you know what's best for you!

'Ode to Rise Pizza

In this installment of Charlottesville On Shoestring, Anwar shares his passion with the world. He talks about Rise Pizzaworks, an up and coming pizza restaurant, looking to start a revolution and shake things up in the Charlottesville pizza business.

Check out their full menu and a list of their scrumptious toppings and receive updates through facebook and twitter at www.risepizzaworks.com.

Get Dressed Up For Burgers!

The Charlottesville On a Shoestring Team delves into dining on a dime at three CVille Hot Spots: Miller's, Shebeen, and The Pointe at the Omni!

Be Well!
-A & L

Must Have Book For All CVillians On a Shoestring---

Buy for $25 at CVille Market, and receive $35 worth of CVille Market Coupons: http://www.cvillemarket.com/

We bought it the first time for Father's Day, to inspire more dating with all of the "buy one get one frees", and it became a necessary investment this year. We would not be able to go out to eat, without realizing how much more we're paying than necessary. Every time the tally at CVille Market or Whole Foods came out to $26, we would think of how it could be $21 if we'd have just bought that book. Once you know, you know. You know?

It also forces variety, and we have stumbled upon places that have become part of the Allen Family Folklore: Shebeen, L'Etoile, Omni's Pointe, Aqui Es Mexico, Sticks, and Zasus to name a few. We learn which ones we would go to and happily pay full price, and which ones to stay far away from (Sandwiches at Mona Lisa, for instance, are definitely not worth going for... which you wouldn't think because their pasta is BOMB). And, honestly, being on a shoestring and all, we'd be intimidated to go to otherwise. It stretches us, and... it spices our relationship up- gives us an adventure map to go find treasures with and talk about. We love to eat, and we love to save.

One place to never save, though, is the tip. If we don't want to give them 20% off the original, pre-coupon total, we get take-out. It's not cool to save a dollar or two at a server's expense... especially if we publicly open up our meal in prayer. I mean... we must never forget that we are an ambassadors!

Some tips: We keep it in the front seat of our car. It keeps us from impulsive restauranting at places that don't take coupons, or worse- do, and we left them at home. Another tip: we go through when we get it and rip out all of the stuff we won't use (ie. if you go to Jiffy Lube, pull out Merchant- you won't use both), and put them in an envelope. We then pass the envelope around to other shoe-stringers. We have a "maybe, if we ever leave CVille and happen to be in one of these surrounding towns" envelopes in our glove box too. This keeps the booklet clean so we know what we've got in there without getting all overwhelmed, and forgetting about the free cash. Also, we look at it frequently. We forget what's in there if we don't, and there's nothing more annoying than seeing a coupon the week after we went somewhere. It's good car-chat!

Be Well!
-A & L

Let's Talk Chinese

The Charlottesville on a Shoestring team hit the streets of Charlottesville to see who has the best American Chinese cuisine this side of Monticello.

The video above was made at 1:30 in the morning, inspired by "Hey, let's make a video." "What will we talk about?" "I don't know. Let's just start talking."

We went from World Cup to Politics to Chinese food. And there we pressed Re-Start.

So, since it's rough, let me just write out the points we made:

Best Place to Get Chinese: Peking Chinese Restaurant, 115 4th Street Northeast- ultimate hole in the wall- let's pretend we're in NYC on a date, fresh and greasy Chinese.


Best Place to Go For Inexpensive, Delicious Chinese: Lunch Buffet at Panda Garden, 380 Emmet Street North $6 something each, amazing tofu, very basic- fresh buffet. Very non-intrusive, sweet service.


Smells Like Mothballs and Pushy Server: Dragon Lady, 2119 Ivy Road. Once you get used to it smelling like a grandma's house (not my grandma, but that other-people's-grandma-smell), the 10 minutes-til-served was nice. Portions big. Just not the most comfortable place to go with a coupon, as this guy is a business man, and he sells the extras hard. I don't like to have the presence of an unimpressed server when I'm out.

Best Place to Get Take-Out: Yuan Ho, 117 Maury Avenue $5 lunches, and a huge UVA following, because they've definitely got the niche on General Tso's chicken. American chinese at it's best in this city.

Don't Go Unless You Want To Feel Like A Swine When You're Done: China King Buffet, 1458 Seminole Trail

In conclusion, Panda Garden across from John Paul Jones Arena for lunch is just such a GOOD idea. We whole heartedly suggest this spot.

And, for romantic, I've just been walking on the downtown mall holding my lover's hand, and could go for neon lights in my face while we huddle close with our Chopsticks: Peking.
Really fresh and just that ultimate whole-in-the-wall city feel.

Be Well!
-A & L

...Or the New Blockbuster Kiosks

We stumbled upon the Blockbuster Kiosks at the BP near our house. When the Redbox opened up in the Barrack's Harris Teeter, we knew that it was only a matter of time before this would drag the $5/night rentals at Blockbuster establishment across the street under. Our loyalties switched the second we got the new arrival hit movie for $1, and knew that word would spread.

Perhaps nostalgia, perhaps a hint of guilt, lead to conversations of hoping they would somehow make a come back. How could they with the internet streaming films, Netflix (which got to be stressful and obligatory. We're spur of the moment watchers), and Red Box? And, indeed, they did make a victorious comeback in a strategic fashion that embraced the entrepreneurial spirit that we love, in spite of all of the documentaries we watch.

It just so happens that after tax, their movie somehow comes out to $1.05 instead of $1.06 like redbox. They also had The Blind Side a couple of weeks before Red Box. They intelligently chose locations that were just a tad closer to the university, and unlike the Redbox that we frequent in Harris Teeter, we don't have to actually go inside the store. We often talked about how intelligent HT was in allowing the Red Box, because budgeters like us would pick up sundry items, or get sucked into the deals at the front of the store, as opposed to making two "park and go in" trips in favor of the more economical Kroger. We never would have gone in HT as much as we did this year, and as I just expressed, sometimes spent the savings we had made in their shop.

So, Blockbuster has us going to the BP a little more frequently. Right now, they're handing out a free code for one free movie.

What can I say? We have to choose our loyalties, and ours is currently to cuddling on the couch and watching the checkbook. The $.01 savings does not drive us, but the different film varieties, and different release dates will keep us from pledging to one over the other.

On another note- did you hear that the Biltmore serves sandwiches, burgers and salads for $5 on Wednesdays?! Guess where we're headed next week! We always love an excuse to retreat into the Corner and soak up some of the familiar hoopla that brings us back to our UVA days (Laura-'06, Anwar- '08). Stay tuned for our review!

A Ride to the Red Box

This is a good idea that I've seen many couples indulging in. My wife and I personally like to ride our bikes to Barracks Rd. Shopping Center, and head to either Harris Teeter or the Kroger which is on the other side of the plaza. Whether or not we are riding bikes or driving our car, its always a toss up because Harris Teeter sports expensive prices, but has a gourmet feel to it which is not reproduceable. Kroger is quick, painless and easy on the pocket. I say this, because on your trip to the Redbox, you might end up buying some ice cream to go with that movie for two, or something else which entices your sweeter side.

Redbox has all the hit movies and rivals most video stores and Netflix which are commitments in themselves. Redbox is a dollar per night, and you only have to worry about returning it by 9 pm the next night.

All in all, if you are looking for a cheap date and something that both you and your loved ones can enjoy, the redbox is the place to go.