Marisa Marsey

Virginia Beach

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Articles

The 2024 Coastal Virginia Culinary Awards

Nov 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Leona Baker |Judy Cowling |Marisa Marsey |Melissa Stewart

Coastal Virginia Magazine will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025. While plenty of remarkable things have happened in our region in the last two and a half decades, one thing that hasn’t changed is our passion for celebrating and sharing Coastal Virginia culture—including its cuisine.
S.A. Cosby, Noir’s New Literary Lion

Jul 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey

Don’t let the snide “bless their hearts” and body parts littering Tidewater fool you. New York Times best-selling author Shawn (S.A.) Cosby loves Virginia. “It’s a big part of my writing,” says the Mathews County native. “But for a long time, the story of Virginia was told by one set of voices.”Add to them his, reverberating in unflinching, award-amassing crime novels that nimbly seed gruesome fictitious violence amidst real-life evils like racism, homophobia and misogyny.
To Die For Tomatoes at the Beach

May 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey

By Marisa MarseyDon and Connie Weis’ garden is far from garden-variety. It sits theatrically atop a 10-foot berm, a consequence of their Virginia Beach backyard bordering a shopping center. There are two ponds, four staircases and paved walking trails with nearby Cara Cara, blood orange and sour cherry trees. “I’m from Pittsburgh,” says Connie. “You can’t get a fresh sour cherry around here.”But the nitty-gritty of their 800-square-foot organic oasis is tomatoes.
Nosh News: Focaccia, A Treehouse and More

May 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey

By Marisa MarseyAmale Tre: A Lot of Love in a Little SpaceIt’s nearly impossible to unearth a culture that doesn’t prize family and food, but Italians elevate the pairing to an operatic scale. Even in just 300 square feet. Case in point: Amale Tre Focacceria & Deli (pictured above) in Downtown Norfolk’s Selden Market. Step into this postage stamp-sized spot and it’s as if you’ve been airdropped into Italy.
The Food Issue: Blanca Food + Wine

Mar 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey

Few chefs can get as up close with their clientele as Courtney White McQuarrie at Blanca, her disarming, idiomatic Riverview restaurant reminiscent of a rustic dining room at a petite auberge you might happen upon while driving through the French countryside. Her kitchen-bar seats 15, a sizable chunk of the total house, so she chats with diners while preparing their Brillat-Savarin cheese course, savory squash tart or risotto al lamb Bolognese. “It’s a joy to see people eat,” she says.
The Food Issue: Luce and Luce Secondo

Mar 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey

Antonio “Tony” Caruana is an avowed traditionalist. The son of a chef, he believes in the near-extinct kitchen brigade system and apprenticeships, understanding a recipe’s origin and reasons. This doesn’t chain him to the old ways, just that he knows and respects the rules. Then, and only then, does he not exactly break them, but shapes and sculpts them, like an artist, putting his stamp on transformed classics. “Well, maybe I’m not an artist,” he says with trademark forthrightness.
Cookin’ Up Somethin’ with Syd Meers

Mar 1, 2024 | coastalvirginiamag.com | Marisa Marsey |Eric Wallace

By Eric WallaceImagine standing with a dozen others in one of the state’s most celebrated restaurants, huddled around one of the South’s most celebrated chefs, sipping wine as he points out the superlative marbling of a fresh 30-pound ham and gives it a slap. “Now, round here, these farmers slaughter at about 200 pounds, which means their pigs are only about six months old,” says 2016 James Beard Foundation Best Chef semifinalist Sydney Meers in a sassy Mississippi drawl.