Hosts

These are Virginians who feed and delight us, nourishing body and soul through dining, lodging, spirits, tourism and entertainment. 

Thomas Arrington, Founder, The Richmond Folk Feast, Richmond

Former French chef Thomas Arrington was delighted by the success of the 15th annual Richmond Folk Festival, held along the city’s waterfront in October. Seven years ago, the Performance Foodservice business development director started the annual Richmond Folk Feast, held a couple days before the festival, to help fund the event and also promote RVA’s thriving food scene. The Feast typically sells out within hours, and no wonder. It features scrumptious fare from the city’s best chefs — 23 in 2019 — and 80% of proceeds go to the Folk Festival. “We’ve raised more than $164,000 since 2012 to keep it a free event,” he says. •

Paul Beyer, Founder and executive director, Tom Tom Summit & Festival, Charlottesville

Paul Beyer started Charlottesville’s Tom Tom Summit & Festival in 2012, creating an annual event that is a bit like Austin’s South by Southwest. Similar to the Texas festival, Tom Tom attracts prominent musicians, artists and speakers — including John Cleese and Dan Rather — along with thousands of attendees each April. A Charlottesville native, Beyer studied screenwriting and history, worked for his family’s custom homes business and serves on the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce board. Next year’s summit will focus on a theme of “Civic Innovation for 21st Century Cities,” and the Tom Tom Foundation will also host conferences about town and gown relationships, health and education equity and criminal justice reform. •

Matthew Bousquet, Executive chef, 1799 at The Clifton, Charlottesville

The Michelin-starred 1799 at The Clifton is touted as one of Virginia’s most romantic dining experiences, and chef Matthew Bousquet is serving up food in the newly retooled restaurant that matches the 18th-century ambience, as shown by 1799’s recent Wine Spectator Award for Excellence. The Northern California expat says that he wants to continue to source local ingredients, highlighting the regional cuisine of Virginia’s Piedmont: “These are the types of dishes, flavors and wines served on the estate when it was built for Thomas Jefferson’s daughter and husband, Martha and Thomas Mann Randolph, in 1799.” •

Kimberly Christner, President and CEO, Cornerstone Hospitality, Williamsburg

Boutique hotels are having a moment in Virginia, especially in towns with historic properties. Kimberly Christner and Cornerstone Hospitality are behind several projects, including the Sessions Hotel in downtown Bristol, which is expected to open in January or February, and the Western Front Hotel, which opened last year in Saint Paul in Southwest Virginia. Christner, who has worked in the hotel business since 1993, says these projects and others “capitalize on the economic engine that is Southwest Virginia and the mountains, getting off the beaten trail.” In 2020, Christner has several projects in the works: historic hotels in Danville and South Boston, plus plans outside the state. •

Hal Craddock, Partner, Creative Boutique Hotels, Henrico

Hal Craddock sees hospitality as a tool for community and downtown redevelopment. His latest venture with Creative Boutique Hotels, a partnership with Cornerstone Hospitality, will celebrate the birth of country music in Bristol. The Sessions Hotel, opening early next year, will feature 70 boutique rooms, indoor and outdoor music space and a restaurant in century-old buildings that once housed a grocery store, a candy factory and a mill. Craddock’s also helping renovate the historic John Randolph Hotel in South Boston. He retired in 2015 as a principal with an architectural firm in Lynchburg, where he was honored for his downtown and riverfront projects. •

Frank Estremera, Executive chef, The National Conference Center, Leesburg

Frank Estremera’s career began when he was 11 working in his family’s restaurant in Peru. Now he serves 1,000 meals daily for The National. Estremera immigrated to the U.S. when he was 18 and is known for his culinary experimentation and his initiatives to expand local farm-to-table programs. The same week he began work as The National’s executive chef, he was named heavyweight champion of DISHED 2018, an annual charity cooking contest sponsored by the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce. But many will know him for providing free meals to furloughed federal workers and their families during the government shutdown last January. It made him proud, he says, “that I was able to give back through food.” •

Roben Farzad, Host of public radio’s “Full Disclosure,” Richmond

Roben Farzad is one of those folks who has insatiable curiosity; he wants to learn who works in which building and what they’re up to. An Iranian immigrant whose family arrived in Miami in 1978, Farzad let his curiosity about a shuttered hotel — The Mutiny — develop into his first book, “Hotel Scarface,” a nonfiction work tracing the confluence of cocaine dealers, beautiful women and the “Miami Vice” cast, among others. (He says there is a “good chance” that his book will be adapted into a TV series in 2020.) Farzad is also an accomplished business journalist who hosts the “Full Disclosure” VPM radio show and podcast. Focusing on business, policy, media, tech and culture, the show soon will start airing three times a week. •

Nicholas Jordan, Founder, managing partner, Capitol Bridge Holdings, Arlington

Nicholas Jordan’s advisory and consulting firm offers professional services that range from cybersecurity and data management to independent medical reviews and medical coding. Now he’s branching into a new area: hospitality. His company recently acquired the Delaplane Cellars vineyard in northern Fauquier County. Capitol Bridge is a minority-owned small business with clients including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Jordan previously worked on Wall Street and Capitol Hill and for Deloitte Consulting. In 2012, he launched a holding company with interests in an array of consulting and investment enterprises. •

Kurt Krause, President and CEO, VisitNorfolk, Norfolk

As the new head of Norfolk’s convention and visitor’s bureau, Krause assumes the role of city hospitality director. The Virginia Tech graduate brings a diverse résumé — he’s worked for his alma mater, as well as Marriott International Hotels, and he was part of the federal team that organized the Transportation Security Administration, an assignment that won him the 9/11 Medal for Service. It was while he was with at Gold Key|PHR Hotels and Resorts, overseeing the opening of Norfolk’s The Main hotel, that he fell in love with Norfolk. Ask him and he’ll tell you all about it. •

Gareth Moore, CEO, Virginia Distillery Co., Lovingston

With its focus on traditional distilling mixed with innovative blending and finishing methods, Virginia Distillery Co. has helped to lead Virginia’s craft whiskey renaissance. Credit CEO Moore who, with mother Angela, took over his late father George’s distilling dream in 2013, two years before it opened. VDC’s signature Virginia-Highland Malt Whisky copped the World Whiskies Awards’ prestigious “Best American Single Malt” prize in 2017, prompting the Scotch Whisky Association to sue the company over its use of the phrase, “Highland Whisky.” It was all in a day’s work for Moore, no stranger to the politics of drink as the president of the Virginia Distillery Association, which lobbies the General Assembly on behalf of the industry. •

Kate Pittman, Executive director, ViBe Creative District, Virginia Beach

Kate Pittman’s job is to think outside the boardwalk. As the first executive director of the ViBe Creative District, her role is to promote “a creative industries district” by the oceanfront. She works with 60 members who support the nonprofit’s goal of boosting the local economy through such promotions as First Friday, Second Saturday and other arts-inspired pop-up events. ViBe partnered with music superstar Pharrell Williams’ creative team to plan an Art Walk as part of the Virginia Beach native’s wildly successful Something in the Water festival. “Our nonprofit has been working to revitalize Virginia Beach through the arts for the last four years, and Pharrell’s vision for Something in the Water catapulted us to a new level,” she says. The festival will return next year. Also new in 2020, the district will unveil four large-scale intersection artworks designed by local artists and installed in stone pavers as part of Virginia Beach›s 19th Street infrastructure streetscape project. •

Marcus Silva, President and CEO, Villagio Hospitality Group, Manassas

The Farm Brew LIVE campus takes up 12 acres in Prince William County’s Innovation Park, and founder Marcus Silva has all your entertainment needs covered. “It’s equal parts premium food place, live music venue, beer garden and craft brewery,” he says. 2 Silos, started with Forrest Morgan, serves the suds, the upcoming Black Sheep restaurant — housed in a converted dairy barn and due to open in December — feeds guests, and the featured musical performers are regional favorites. Silva also owns two Clifton restaurants, Trattoria Village and Little Villagio, and is slated in 2020 to launch Villagio Events, a full-service catering company. •