It’s that time of year for summer picnics, road trips with friends, backyard shenanigans, and exploring this place we call home. We’ve rounded up three quick recommendations to keep your summer lovin’ at an all-time high this week. Let's get to it...
Lakeside
Love Shack
There’s nothing we love more than recommending a little old place where everyone can get together. That place this week is SB’s Lakeside Love Shack, a funky Lakeside favorite known for its big personality, energetic fanbase, and overall good vibes. Owned by Sarabeth Hagen, this 1,300-square-foot neighborhood watering hole offers a playful menu where you might find items like the Big as a Whale Breakfast and Funfetti French Toast, a smattering of Love Potions, plenty of hangover cures, and even breakfast-to-go bags. There’s also a tiny hidden patio, live music, and a rockin’ happy hour. Best of all, the Lakeside Love Shack is brimming with genuine neighborhood love, where “Lakeside is the best side.”
Bonus tip: After you treat yourself to the Lakeside Love Shack experience, head down the street to Pulp Fiction RVA, a juice-moothie truck known for its exotic and natural blends, that just opened a brick and mortar location in the former Early Bird Biscuit digs at 5411 Lakeside Avenue. Pulp Fiction RVA was inspired by women and focuses on promoting self love.
Grab some friends and pile in, it’s time for a summer movie under the stars at a drive-in theater. Yes, this slice of quintessential Americana still exists and there’s an option only a short drive from RVA. While many drive-ins have closed over the years since their debut in the 1930s, a new crop of theaters have dusted off the concept. Over at the Goochland Drive-In Theater things are going strong thanks to the authentic drive-in environment they’ve created with an updated, sharp digital projection and sound provided via FM signal in your car. Goochland Drive-In typically offers double-features of new and current-release movies for $8.50. You heard that right, that’s two movies for less than the cost of seeing one movie in those fancy pants multiplex cinemas. And what’s a drive-in without a snack bar! We’re talking classic American eats—corn dogs, BBQ, popcorn, candy, and frozen treats. Well-behaved pets on leashes are welcome too. Showtime at dusk!
Celebrate love, unity, and our diverse community at the RVA Reggae Jerk Fest on Brown’s Island this Saturday. Reggae, originating in the tough neighborhoods of Kingston, Jamaica, carries a message of peace and brings people together. And the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated reggae music as an intangible cultural heritage. In RVA, you can celebrate all things Reggae this Saturday while enjoying an impressive Caribbean rum tent experience, Caribbean Jerk Chicken by 10 of the best jerkers around, arts and crafts, and live performances by the likes of Mighty Joshua (pictured), Ever-G, Mystic Vibrations, Emanuell Wildfire Wilson, and more.
