Stan Birch ‘22
News Editor
A Potentially Controversial Opinion on Local Pizza
After months of being conditioned to eat pizza every week in the Law Weekly office, Monday nights during quarantine served as a sharp reminder that I wasn’t getting the greasy fix that initially lured me to join the paper. After realizing I should take matters into my own hands, I started working my way through local pizza places (excluding chains, so my condolences to Mellow Mushroom). My method involved ordering whatever sounded good for the best deal and then eating too much of it. After six different restaurants and eleven different pizzas (split or sampled), I found a clear winner that I kept returning to and will continue to return to regardless of the state of the pandemic: Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. A quiet spot unheard of by many of my colleagues, Dr. Ho’s takes take-out seriously and is worth the short drive.
I recommend the Triple Threat Pizza Combo, where you can pick your choice of salad and specialty pizza. Along with their specialty pie and salad that could fill two meals on their own comes the best bulk version of garlic bread I have had in a long time. That “garlic bread” comes with fantastic house-made ranch dressing and marinara dipping sauces and is named perfectly to describe how you feel after too many slices: Fat and Sassy. As soon as sweater weather is on the horizon, I’m guessing I’ll be placing regular orders again. It’s refreshing that Dr. Ho’s is humble, because they have a lot to brag about.
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Jonathan Peterson ‘23
Guest Writer
The People’s Burger — Citizen Burger Bar
When something you’ve spent $15 on falls to pieces in your hands, that’s usually cause to be upset. But not when it comes to burgers. I rarely use the term “hot mess” endearingly, but in this situation, I can think of no better way to describe Citizen Burger’s titular meal: the Citizen Burger. It’s a hot, beautiful, delicious, and greasy mess. The restaurant itself, however, is anything but a mess. Clean and located directly across from the Paramount Theater on the Downtown Mall, this burger bar boasts hole-in-the-wall-quality burgers with the sleek venue and pleasant outdoor seating of a not-hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The atmosphere is comfortable, friendly, and, if you’re lucky enough, you might even catch some drama and spot someone getting mugged Downtown (based on a true story).
Citizen Burger’s ideology is just as noble as their burgers. Based on the belief that burgers and beer are simple pleasures, tantamount to a basic human right, Citizen Burger strives to bring that experience to all of Charlottesville. Owned by Wahoo Andy McClure ’01, the restaurant sources as many of its ingredients from local farms as possible. Thanks to their philosophy of making simple burgers that stand on their own merits, not the pomp and frills of many a strawman burger, Citizen Burger’s menu is surprisingly low maintenance. It’s easily navigated, and you can trust the signature burgers to get the job done. Their drink list, however, with more than 110 beers and no shortage of cocktails, is a different (although still wonderful) beast altogether.
At the end of the day, Citizen Burger meets the level of quality it promises, although, thanks to my commitment issues, I hesitate to confirm its self-proclaimed status of “BEST BURGER IN CHARLOTTESVILLE.” That being said, if you doubt the claim yourself, Tripadvisor is more than willing to provide its objective and factually correct rankings, on which you will find Citizen Burger sitting pretty at #1.
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