Downtown Mall — Attraction in Charlottesville

It was my birthday yesterday so we took the train to visit Charlottesville. We were a little disappointed in Charlottesville Historic Downtown Mall. Not much to do in the early part of the day. We are not big shoppers. We like to visit antique shops, breweries and play pinball. But these don't open until way after noon if not later. The antique shop had no hours. The Closed sign was up and then later on the sign said Open but the doors were locked. Would have loved to had shop there. Lots of harmless homeless people taking up residents in the seating in the center. Also there seemed to be only one public restroom hidden in the Shops York Place. If we didn't decide to walk in to cool down, (as it was very humid out) we would have never found it. Frustrated we decided to go to the movies. As soon as we walked in Violet Crown we knew we would be taken care of. The Concierge was approachable, warm and he was easy to talk with. Our phones' power was running low, he suggested using the outlet in the lobby. Thankfully because we pay through this and our train tickets were on our phones. We talked for a bit about where we were from and he was genuinely interested. He suggested visiting the lounge upstairs where we would be more comfortable. We went upstairs pleasantly surprised at the vibe. Very relaxing lounge area. We paid for our theater tickets and then we both ordered a 20 ounce Red Willie Irish Red Ale. We had an hour until the movie started. Our phones were fully charged by the time the film started. Got a refill of beer and a bag of popcorn before settling down in very comfortable and clean seats. Oh also very comfortable and clean restrooms. In our opinion Violet Crown Cinema is the GEM of Charlottesville...

If you're a tourist, here visiting Thomas Jefferson or UVA you will probably love it. "Local" shops and restaurants, romantic brick walkways, chic little bakeries and coffee shops, far more used bookstores than are necessary for a 4 street block stretch (in my opinion). I don't know half of the businesses on the downtown mall stay in business since the rent is outrageous for merchants and storefronts considering most of the businesses are boutiques. If you work on the downtown mall you might not find it as appealing. The downtown mall prides itself on being small and local, and while that's adorable, it's entirely inconvenient to grab a quick bite to eat like Subway or Chipotle during lunch or a even a Starbucks or McDonalds.. none of which you'll find on the downtown mall. The city council (I guess) has decided that it's a good idea to restrict chain/franchise businesses from opening a location on the downtown mall. This makes it very frustrating for those who work on the downtown mall because we don't often have time (or money) to enjoy a nice sit-down lunch each day like the French do, so instead most people I work with either pack their lunch or drive elsewhere with more efficient lunch options. All in all the downtown mall does make for great people watching though. Avoid the hobo's though, because they tend to be aggressive...

Overall a nice small city center with a lot of restaurants and small shops. I would not call it a mall as the term mall suggests that there are real shops with clothes and jewelry etc. If you are looking for a mall or the mall experience DONT come here :) Its more book stores, toys and stuff you don’t look for but you need when you see it.

The biggest issue of the city center are the homeless people, we counted 29 yesterday. It stinks like San Francisco downtown, a mixture of weed and urine paired with a strong smell of vomit. The homeless occupy almost every bench in the center so you can’t sit anywhere, they are in front of the stores and it seems that nobody of the shop owner cares.

The city could be so beautiful if they would remove those and clean up the stinky areas. We didn’t saw any rats but a lot of squirrels.

Others say the restaurants are overpriced, being a travel through the entire US I have to say that the prices are cheap or and more mediocre. Compared with the size of the city and beauty it could be, the prices are okay. We are in 2023 with a heavy inflation, don’t compare...