To pen blockbuster novels at a steady pace, a writer needs a routine. For John Grisham, that routine involves letting his creativity flow onto the page during mornings on his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia, where his family relocated from Mississippi in 1994. Most afternoons bring him to his business office just off Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, where he inevitably patronizes a couple of the eateries, coffeehouses, and shops that make the eight-block pedestrian district such a vibrant part of civic life. “I love downtown,” Grisham says. “I really love to eat lunch here, which is why I know all the restaurants.”
The Mall (as locals refer to it) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this July, and given Charlottesville’s growth since 1976, no doubt even some residents don’t know its origin story. The idea was something of a Hail Mary, really, an effort to revive a downtown in long decline. Approved by the city council in 1974 and designed by nationally renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, the project radically remade the business hub of East Main Street to eliminate the actual street (and cars) and replace it with a strollable, brick-paved promenade.
It wasn’t exactly an overnight success. Many still recall that as late as the early ’90s, the only downtown draws at night were a couple of restaurants and live jazz at Miller’s, where a budding bandleader named Dave Matthews tended bar. The tide turned over the course of that decade as more dining destinations, music venues, and galleries joined surviving old-guard businesses, culminating in the reopening of a Depression-era theater in 2004 and construction of a concert pavilion in 2005.
These days, the Mall thrums with downtown office workers taking breaks on shaded restaurant patios during the day, and transitions to a lively social and entertainment destination at night. And in summer, the weekly Fridays After Five free concert series is pretty much the place to see, be seen, and sip a frosty beer.
On a recent, somewhat quieter afternoon, we caught up with Grisham at Tillman’s Cheese and Wine, then took a stroll under the Mall’s tall willow oaks so he could offer a tour of his other favorite spots.
SHOPPING
It won’t come as a shock that one of Grisham’s favorite places is New Dominion Bookshop, located on the Mall (and pre-Mall) since 1926 and ranking as Virginia’s oldest independent bookseller. “It’s kind of a hangout,” Grisham says. (Tip: It’s also the only bookstore anywhere from which you can order autographed copies of Grisham’s latest releases.) Another true survivor, Tuel Jewelers, opened in 1945 as a railroad watch repair shop and still restores timepieces, jewelry, and silver. Proprietor Mary Loose DeViney keeps the vibe decidedly old-school, but passersby might notice a tweak this summer—she’s swapped the large clock in the front window for a circa-1976, Bicentennial-themed model in honor of the Mall’s fiftieth.
Established in 1890 and relocated downtown in 1917, the undisputed oldest business on the Mall is Timberlake’s Drug Store. (Tip: Even if you don’t need to fill a prescription or buy shampoo, the old-fashioned soda fountain tucked in the back serves the best milkshake in town.) Demonstrating the breadth of Mall merchants, Consignment House Gallery specializes in mid-century-modern decor curated for devotees of stylish design, Rock Paper Scissors meets all your stationery needs, and C’ville Arts carries handmade works by more than fifty Virginia artists and craftspeople.
FOOD
“My routine is to call friends in the morning to see if they want to meet up for lunch on the Mall before I go to my office,” Grisham says. That meet-up is so regular that he acknowledges there’s a back booth at the upscale, Southern-leaning Hamilton’s known as “the Grisham table.” (Tip: The craveable pimento cheese hushpuppies are available at lunch only.) Another favorite is the Nook, a breakfast-and-lunch diner that opened in 1951 and makes choosing between a crab-cake sandwich and a “brunch burger” with bacon and fried egg difficult.
For coffee between calls at his office, Grisham ducks into Petite MarieBette just off the Mall on Water Street, a European-style bakery home to the Prezzant, a pretzel-croissant hybrid that’s as amazing as it sounds. A recent wedding anniversary took Grisham and wife Renee to dinner at Fleurie, where chef Jose De Brito creates seasonal French fare Grisham calls “so good it’s almost embarrassing.” That term also applies to the sheer number of dining options on the Mall, with just a few more notables including the Whiskey Jar, Café Frank, Vu Noodles, Christian’s Pizza, and for a sweet treat that’s also a 1950s nostalgia trip, Chaps Ice Cream.
ENTERTAINMENT
Though Grisham is on the Mall most days, he’s no stranger to its after-dark offerings. Foremost in fair-weather months is the aforementioned Ting Pavilion, a 3,500-seat outdoor venue with a grass-lawn border and a fabric roof stretched into a shape some wags compare to a lobster trap. “We’ve gone to a bunch of concerts here—Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Sarah McLachlan,” Grisham says. “It’s a great place to see a show.” It’s now hard to imagine how close the 1930s Paramount Theater came to the wrecking ball, given its full calendar of concerts, classic movies, children’s events, and most welcome this summer, free big-screen broadcasts of key World Cup matches. Local and touring bands also perform at the Jefferson and its more intimate counterpart, the Southern. And if you haven’t taken in a Thursday late-night performance by jazz trumpeter John D’earth at Miller’s, you can’t really say you’ve done the Mall.
The fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall takes place on July 3, with free ice cream and entertainment, a lantern parade, and a light show.
Steve Russell is a Garden & Gun contributing editor who also has written for Men’s Journal, Life, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, he resided in New Orleans and New York City before settling down in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s far enough south that biscuits are an expected component of a good breakfast.
