About 5PM on August 4 we went to dinner at Carmello’s in the Staples or old Dart Drug Shopping Center. We hadn’t dined in that Italian Restaurant since July of 1997, the last time my husband’s parents came to visit us at nearby Commonwealth Drive. The restaurant was a bit fancier than it was before. It no longer served pizza for one thing. But it was in the exact same location. A waiter named Mike waited on us. He said the next time we came back he wouldn’t serve the chickpeas in the salad. He noticed that our son didn’t eat them. Of course we didn’t tell him we were leaving tomorrow. Our visit was just a nostalgia stop. Our last night in town we were going to dine at either the Aberdeen Barn or Carmello’s and we chose Carmello’s because it was less expensive. A lot in Charlottesville had changed, but at least Carmello’s was still there even though the nearby Deli and Pizza Hut were no longer there.
