Much has been said and written since the passing of our friend and local farmer, Richard Bean. Along with his partner, Jean Rinaldi, Richard gave us, all of us, the best he had, never holding back, walking the walk for small, local farm permaculture. This week many chefs and friends will be featuring dishes in commemoration of all Richard did for this foodshed and community. At MAS, one of the first things we bonded over (this time the eggs definitely came first,) was rabbits. So we are running our rabbit and duck liver terrine in several dishes along with pickles, mustard, and our wholesome organic bread. There is a link you can check into to find out more info about the tribute : http://ch...

December means we continue the holiday thanks, feasts, and celebrations of family, faith, food, and yes, fun. At MAS we will be closed xMAS eve and XMAS day, re-opening the day after XMAS. we hope you all enjoy a safe and peaceful holiday.
New Year's Eve will bring our Fabulous Last Supper of 2013, a 12 course degustacion menu paired with Spain's finest wines, apperitivos, and desserts of course. No New Year's Eve is complete at MAS without lots of Cava being poured, and the Rick Olivares Trio playing! come join us, reservation requests to nye@mastapas.com

We will be closed this Thursday in observance of the National holiday. MAS was founded on a simple practice that food, and dining is something best done together, as a shared act of love, kindness, family, fortune, filial duty, and yes, fun. We hope you find all of those and share with those less fortunate through your local foodbank, shelter, and soup kitchen. Feliz

After the usual withering spring and early summer months we're still standing. Despite record heat and drought. The last cooling rains were most welcome and for the tomato and other veggies still not blighted or burnt, we can expect a few more months of local crops. Look for more greens as the heat lets up, peppers and yes tomatoes, stonefruits, squashes.
Watching the industrial food and gmo community explain why their plans to monoculture everything have failed miserably shows the emptiness of their promise to "feed the world". They are so deeply inculcated into our industrial base that without cheap, modified corn many product lines will be limited or even discontinued in favor of ethanol ...

From time to time we make our space available for private functions, recruitment mixers, meet and greets and just good old fashioned celebrations like wedding receptions, anniversaries, and birthdays. Typically Fridays and Saturdays are not used. if you are interested, have a plan for 25 or more people, please feel free to contact us at 434.979.0990 and we can talk.

We are pleased to be offering some nice gran reserva vermouth from spain for more refreshing aperitivos with your tapas seleciones. Perucchi is full of wonderful herbal, aromatic accents, balsamic, ginseng burnt orange and spearmint oil. Come sit on the patio or inside where it's cool, throw some soda and an orange slice in it and relax . . .

Having the pleasure of visiting tuscany and now catalunya i always try to be as innocuously present as possible. That means eating at out of the way and neighborhood spots, talking to chefs, cooks, bakers, and farmers to get a sense of what the anima or soul of the place is. My priviledge each time is that so many people are gracious and patient with my language skittles, and eager to show me why and how they live. As now i am in barcelona in a busy, quirky, artsy and entirely socialistic neighborhood known as gracia, just north of most of the main touristico destinations, but encompassing many of the great ones like the gaudi expressions of casa mila, park guell, and sagrada familia. Ifeel ...

We continue to arc away from the cold and dreary towards the hopeful warmth, new growth and renewal of Spring. This means new babies, sprouting buds, flowers, greens and veggies for foodies. The work at vineyards is just beginning meanwhile inside we consider unleashing the vitality we have been storing up by baking buttered doughs, serving up pickles, preserves and confits, pancettas, smoked salmons, jamones, terrines from last season. Always with a nod to the next, the new, the ascendant we use our traditions and methodologies to place consistent quality and detail first, sustainability too, for what is tradition but the ability to continue at high standards without nostalgia or kitsch, cr...

The onset of sudden spring syndrome we have the bountiful hills and valleys of the blue ridge coming to life, beds are planted, piglets and lambs learning the ropes, and lots of fruit trees are popping. We're looking at what should be (remember it's agriculture not accounting) a memorable season of wild mushrooms, ramps, early fruits like strawberries and raspberries, even our pomegranates are blossoming already! We hope you enjoy the scenery right now, it's unmatched for simple beauty, and go out and support your local farm-to-table restaurants.

I have always contended if you want new ideas you need to harness the power of artists, our most creative thinkers. Community members, along with the civil engineering and architectural practitioners have done just that. The process for a new design for belmont's bridge into downtown cville has been all-hands-on deck affair: with charettes, community meetings, designs galore and ideas aplenty, what will be distilled out of this heady brew of hopes, dreams, and yes, sighs? Well one step will be taken this weekend as ideas from the uva school of architecture's design project will be presented at the music resource center this saturday. Led by recent import iñaki alday, and eduardo arroy...