As Told Over a Carnival of Wine & Food

June 12, 2018 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Richmond Brunch Review

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a popup dinner at Tarrant’s West. The dinner was centered around Mollydooker wine, a famous Australian brand known for an irreverent shake, and Little Saint, the newest restaurant in the RVA Hospitality group. (“New” may be a loose term now that we’re approaching the end of Little Saint’s first year.) Without even having to write it, you know the evening was filled with lots of reds, the Mollydooker shake, and the best of culinary fares.

RVA Hospitality is the restaurant group that includes (obviously) Tarrant’s West and Little Saint, but also their siblings, Tarrant’s Café and Max’s on Broad. I’ve gotten to know RVA Hospitality’s owner, Frances Santarella, very well since RVA Hospitality has been such a strong supporter of Richmond Brunch Weekend for three years. When Frances asked me to come to this pop up, I couldn’t say no. This also offered me a chance to see the recently reopened sunroom at Tarrant’s West fit with hanging plants and streaming sunlight—all aesthetics that I love and Instagram! This is even perfect for when it’s hot to sit outside, but you want to feel like you’re outside (with a fan blowing above you).

Wine, Wings, and Eviction

June 22, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Humor, Cazey's Column

When I asked my friend Meredith to accompany me to my friend's wedding, I knew it'd be fun, but I also felt bad since Meredith lived two hours further away from the wedding than I did. So when she said her only request in all this was that we get "sticky nugs" at Billy Jack's, I had to agree. The wedding was taking place in our college town of Harrisonburg, VA, and Billy Jack's was the locals wings shack.

We Uber'd to the wedding, but soon learned that was not a feasible exit strategy (see previous blog post), so we took a shuttle back to the wedding hotel. I call it the wedding hotel because that's where the bride, groom, and all the guests were supposed to be staying, but when I booked us a room there, Meredith freaked out the price and insisted we could find a cheaper hotel. Which we did. But that meant we took a shuttle back to a hotel we weren't staying at.

Meredith announced to the two other passengers in the shuttle, "Cazey, I'm just going to run into the lobby and use the bathroom and then we can head downtown. Is that okay?"

The Wine Trilogy: 3 Years of the Virginia Wine Expo

Richmond Convention Center

April 29, 2016 by Sara Woznicki in Humor, Leisure, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara

Without question, one of the best days of the year is the Virginia Wine Expo. Ever since moving to Richmond, it's been a Christmas-like tradition every February. I say Christmas-like because the Wine Expo is basically a holiday for wino's like me. You pay about $50 for six hours of endless and limitless tastings from dozens of local wines.

Now that we've been going for three years, it's interesting to take a retrospective look back on how times have changed from the first gander around the Richmond Convention center to the most recent. In reality, In reality, not that much has changed: there's still a ton of good wine to drink, it's the same time every year at the same place and more-or-less I go with the same people. The only real, but very noticeable, difference is really just me. Me and my maturity.

Painting with Ketchup

December 23, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Paint Nites, if you don’t know, are events held at local restaurants and bars where a painter walks you through replicating some painting to the best of your ability while you sip on a cocktail. You sign up based on which painting you want to replicate. I recommend enrolling via Groupon vs. the actual Paint Nite site ($25 vs. $45, respectively).

I went to art school for a whole year in fifth grade. I don’t paint on any regular basis, but I do have creative bones in my body. There’s this one 3-D painting I created three years ago that I used to hang over my fireplace in my apartment until my mom visited and asked why I had it on display.

When West Egg Meets East Egg: Dating Outside Your Bracket

April 22, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's

Peasant meets prince

They met through friends. They didn't really get to know each other before they hooked up. Sometime afterward, they began to get to know one another through texting and maybe hanging out before hooking up again. At some point, she realized he was rich. Ungodly rich. As in, he had ancestors. And when you can mention your ancestors, then your privilege is rooted deeper than the skyscrapers and McMansions that encase privilege.

He made comments like, “People just don’t get it here.” Here being this place where people have student loans and didn't necessarily get a new car when they turned 16.

Moms on Facebook

January 05, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Social Media, Tweets and Mascara

I am friends with several of my friends' parents on Facebook. For the most part they are good for a like on a status or a happy birthday on my timeline, but occasionally things get more complicated.

The mom who walks backwards. For the launch of ATOB, Sara and I made a Facebook event where I invited pretty much everyone (okay, I didn’t invite the people who I secretly write about). One of our guests was my friend’s mom. She first apologized she wouldn't be able to make the event; she would in Thailand. I tried to clear up the confusion that it wasn't an event that required physical presence. This is how she responded:

Why I Should Stop Using Dating Apps

November 17, 2014 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Dating, Life In Your 20's, Social Media

By Cazey Williams As I've discussed in a previous blog, I am on several dating apps - but I don't do anything on them. Sure, I match with people and have the occasional discourse, but I have no intention of asking anyone out barring extraordinary circumstances like I don't have homework that week. (Maybe over winter break then?)

Since I recognize this in myself, I have told myself to stop matching with people because it gives false hope to the ladies - but then I don't stop because what else do I do while eating lunch out of Tupperware? Yet I never thought it was to my detriment until last weekend.

The scene: Happy hour at a classy museum. My friend invited me along with several of her friends. I meet "Lisa" who's nice and all that, but as unmemorable as her dating profile because I don't recognize her.

A cider in, I ask Lisa what she does. She squints her eyes when she responds: She's in pre-something school, but she wants to be a doctor, a specific kind of doctor - and it hits me, I've had this conversation before. Ten days ago. With the same exact person.

"I think I need a glass of wine," I announce.

In line to order, I check my recent Bagel Meets Coffee chats, and yup, there she is. Hey, Lisa.

FML. FML. FML.

Now acutely aware that Lisa is my failed-to-launch dating app match - and I'm pretty sure she's known it the whole time - I spend the rest of the evening gulping from my wineglass and SnapChatting/texting my best friends. Meanwhile, Lisa talks with my friend about some guy she had just gone on a date with. A phone is passed around with a picture of the guy.

I glance at the screen and pass it like a hot potato. I mean, it really wasn't that awkward. Maybe she didn't realize (oh, but she did). But this was a great example of why I should stop futilely swiping right on people and even engaging in conversation.

Lisa decided to leave before dinner. She waved goodbye to the group. We made no eye contact, but I ad-libbed, "Nice to meet you."

My friend turned to me. "You're flushed."

"Oh, you know . . . the wine."