Soup and Sound for the Soul

After last night's excellent adventure, I wanted to keep it close to home tonight, so I opted for neighborhood dining and music for my evening's entertainment. After all, a person's got to do something interesting on a Saturday night.

I went to the Belvidere, knowing it would likely be crowded still so soon after being reviewed and it was. The lovely surprise of it was how many familiar faces were there, including my next door neighbor ( yes, him, but we're politely friendly now: http://icouldgoonandon.blogspot.com/2009/04/oh-it-was-awkward.html ) and his date right up front. Luckily, my stool was free and only one away from Dodie, DJ extraordinaire and my favorite Ipanema bartender. His friend Aaron eventually joined him and we talked "Where the Wild Things Are" and Tom DeLonge, among other interesting tid-bits. The Gallery 5 crew, Bizhan, Amanda and baby Azadeh (fresh off having their picture in the New York Times travel section) spotted me and I joined them for some conversation and baby holding/feeding (new parents really appreciate such). And at the end of the bar was man-about-town Mr. Mader, he of the Richmond Ballet. All in all, an excellent cross-section of interesting rva types and plenty of great conversation for me.

The cold, damp weather made it a perfect night for soup and since I'd yet to try any of theirs, I decided to go for it after hearing that the day's feature was Roasted Red Pepper with Crab. Wise choice because what I got was a most generous serving of crab meat with enough roasted red pepper liquid around it to call it soup. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single bite was chock-full of crab meat. This taste delight is not always on the menu, so if you see it, I'd strongly suggest ordering it...and then savoring it for as long as you can. I recommended it to a nearby bar sitter , but he and his date had just eaten at a wedding reception, so they weren't hungry. I must have been convincing, though, because they got some to go.

The CD release show for Jonathan Vassar and the Speckled Bird was at the Camel, so I snagged a seat in the front row of the rapidly filling room and settled in to enjoy their superb folk Americana song-making. I've probably seen them at least six or seven times by now and they always deliver an outstanding multi-instrument show. There were opening sets from Josh and then Chris (of Speckled Bird), previewing some of their songs to be included on the upcoming full-length CD. That was followed by a couple of songs from the last EP and then a performance of the new EP, "The Fire Next Time," in its entirety. They tried to end it there, but the enthusiastic crowd insisted on an encore. And while Jonathan said they were relieved it was over, I'm not so sure the audience was.

The New York Times travel article on Richmond included both Gallery 5 and the Camel as must-dos. And with good reason; they are quintessential examples of why this town is such a great place to live and play.