Read About it: Yn Wine Cafe

Because a lot of the places I write about (on this blog and for magazines) are in Charlotte, friends often come to me for suggestions. I talked to a friend today who was looking for a good place to have her birthday dinner. I recommended a few places. That led me to recall a place I recently wrote about for Charlotte magazine.

Photograph by Adam Whitlow for Charlotte magazine.

Yn opened in Dilworth about a year and a half ago, but I bet if you asked most people they'd say either they've never heard of it or they've never been. It's a small, cozy wine bar that is a great place to hang with a small group of (sophisticated) friends, particularly if they like wine, or an intimate after-dinner spot during a date. Sometimes you don't want to be in the biggest, loudest, and most crowded venue--at least I know I don't.

Click here to read about Yn in the January issue of Charlotte magazine.

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I Wish I'd Gotten a Snuggie for Christmas

I read an article in The Charlotte Observer about three months ago that said Charlotte would experience one of the "coldest and snowiest winters in recent years." This was based on predictions by the chief meteorologist from Accu-Weather. Considering we're just a little more than two weeks into the official winter season and it's pretty much been cold every day since, I'm thinking about moving. Not really, but it would be nice to be one of those rich people who have homes in different parts of the country (or world), which allows them to choose their forecast.

But barring Tiger Woods inviting me to spend some time on his yacht (or in Africa where he's rumored to be), I'll be bundling up like the rest of you. Below is the weather forecast for this weekend.

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Jessica Stroup Is 'Complex' and Grown Up

Okay, I'm a little late on this but Charlotte native Jessica Stroup is featured in the December/January issue of Complex Magazine. I've never seen the 90210 star photographed this edgy. Like her predecessors in the original Beverly Hills, 90210, I'm sure it's a challenge for Stroup, who's 23 years old, to play a high school character on TV but want to be viewed as an adult actress in real life. Photos like this will help you see past Silver, the teen-aged character she plays on the show. Click here for her gallery on Complex.com.


Stroup, coincidentally, is also profiled in the December/January issue of BlackBook Magazine, where she's labeled "The New Pin-Up."

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Fantasia's Reality Show Premieres Jan. 11

I've been posting updates since it was announced last April that Fantasia Barrino was getting a reality TV show on VH1. The series, titled Fantasia For Real, premieres Monday, January 11 at 10 p.m. I think this will be one of the few reality shows that's actually real. Look for it to be more like Keyshia Cole's show (struggles with family life) and less like the Kardashians' (basically scripted shenanigans).


You can also expect to see a lot of Charlotte in the show, since Fantasia's house here is home base. This is how the series is described by VH1:

As the season begins, Fantasia is in the studio recording her hot new track, "Move On Me." And with six people living off her dwindling income, she needs a hit... now! Back at her sprawling North Carolina mansion is the entire Barrino clan. And when Fantasia and her manager, Brian, go on the road to test her new song, Fantasia hopes that her no-nonsense Aunt Bunny will keep the homefront in order. But when her under-employed, over-confident brother, Tiny, gets a brilliant idea to convert the pool house into a recording studio, all heck breaks loose.

See the 30-second clip below. And for more on Fantasia For Real, click here to visit the show's page on VH1.com.

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Steve Smith in Slow-Mo

You know those “If you want the NFL, go to the NFL” commercials that have been running to promote the NFL brand (tickets, TV network, website, apparel)? Well, today during a commercial break during the Cowboys-Eagles game I saw the coolest one yet. It stars Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith, diving for a touchdown catch. But it's the way the clip is captured that makes this so appealing.


The Smith commercial is one of a series of ads that began running at the beginning of the season, featuring football players filmed with a Phantom HD digital video camera. Made by Vision Research, the camera shoots a thousand frames per second and creates high-resolution, slow-motion imagery that is 10 times as slow as any slow-motion video shot by most NFL cameras.

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