A World Away, Right Here

From lush forests to dive bars and luxe hotels to strip mall sushi joints, Chesapeake is a world of its own in our own backyard.

We’re sad to say that for a while we didn’t really see any reason to go to Chesapeake. Even though every time we have gone, we’ve found terrific little surprises like Carolina Cupcakery (whose mini-cupcakes are pictured below, left), Chesapeake Pizza, and Bean There Cafe–we’ve found it to be more strip malls and suburbs than cultural mecca.

Which is exactly why we decided to have a weekend adventure there. As a part of a greater mission to celebrate this surprising and amazing place we call home, AltDaily has elected to discover each of the seven cities and more.

In Chesapeake, [click links to skip to that page] we started at aloft Hotel, where we stayed for the weekend. Next, we found ourselves at Daikishi Sushi for dinner Friday night, then a drink at Red Bones, a rockabilly show at Winstons, and finally a nightcap at aloft’s W XYZ Bar. Saturday (which we’ll publish as Part 2 next week) was breakfast at Broken Egg Bistro, a long walk through the Chesapeake Arboretum (pictured above), and late lunch at De vine’s (pictured below, right).

Note: During our stay the Portlock Galleries at SoNo were closed to prepare for the current exhibition: Journey to My New Name: From E. Angelina Shaw to E. Angelina Woehr. Otherwise, we would have certainly stopped there.

We hope that our Chesapeake adventure inspires in you a bit of wonder at the world immediately around you. It may not be all it could be, but Hampton Roads is already a gorgeous place, even with the strip malls and suburbs. You’ll see…

–HS

Next >>