Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Cast Anchor at Jeffrey Beers’ New Waterside District in Norfolk, Virginia

By

Waterside District
Photo by Max Touhey
A Titanic on land, Jeffrey Beers International’s newest hospitality design project, Waterside District, brings 55,000-square-feet of dining and drinks to the waterfront in Norfolk, Virginia.

Seven distinct restaurants and bars are strung together with a similar theme of maritime odes, including seashell-white dining furniture, blackened steel, and exposed structural elements that evoke the gritty glory of this area’s former shipyard aesthetic. You can even find a sailboat hanging from the rafters. Sailors and pirates alike are welcome.

Recommended Videos

These highly intentional design elements have come to be a calling card for Jeffrey Beers and the firm’s other projects, which include Brooklyn’s newest Gotham at The Ashland. This time, the layout invites us to cast anchor for the day at Waterside District and coast into evening, becoming entranced by the wide range of fare and the marriage with architectural charms.

A few of the concepts include Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse, which evokes a dark pirate ship feel (flames included); the crisp Harbor Club (can you say, views); the light and airy Blue Moon Tap House; fresh seafood from Stripers Waterside; the PBR Coors Banquet Bar; the Blue Moon Taphouse; and — wait for it — a Fudgery featuring handmade, traditional sweets. The craft beers are also inspired by the city of Norfolk, which is home to a longstanding Naval base, several warship museums, and leagues of other seafaring history.

Waterside District not only reminds us how hungry we are, but of the potential for hospitality architecture to evoke a feeling in its visitors and a common ground for connection. For instance, the Waterside District garage space hosts family movie nights (catch Hocus Pocus on October 24), so bring your chair for the promenade, grab a beer, and enjoy the East Coast fall.

Created for The Cordish Companies, who recently enlisted Jeffrey Beers for their Atlanta sports bar complex, Live! At the Battery, Waterside is similarly social but embodies the spirit of a very different setting. Nautical knots and a view that washes in the salty air creates a home away from home.

Topics
Jahla Seppanen
Jahla Seppanen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Born and raised off-the-grid in New Mexico, Jahla Seppanen is currently a sports, fitness, spirits, and culture writer in…
Gather (most of) a pour-over coffee system for $116 at Amazon
The Hario V60 Ceramic Coffee Dripper on a white background.

Have you been looking for coffee maker deals and thinking you’d prefer to create your own full pour-over system? Right now, Amazon has the deals for you, with great discounts on a coffee dripper and an electric gooseneck kettle. We’ll take a look at how each works separately, but you can combine them to make most of a full pour-over system. All you need to do is add some filters and you can start making some great blends, like the Cafe Grumpy festive coffee that’s available right now. If you still need to learn what pour-over coffee is, we can help you with that too. Here’s a look at the deals involved.
Hario V60 Ceramic Coffee Dripper -- $27 $30 12% off

If you’re learning all about how to make pour over coffee, you know how vital a coffee dripper is. The Hario V60 Ceramic Coffee Dripper is specially designed to produce an evenly brewed cup of coffee. It’s made from durable Japanese ceramic so it retains heat to ensure a balanced temperature throughout the brewing cycle. It has a minimalist look with a single large hole, which improves pour flow and provides you plenty of choice: Pour quickly for a light flavor or more slowly for a rich and deep taste. If you’ve been studying the differences between pour over and drip coffee, you’ll soon see what a world of difference a good coffee dripper makes.

Read more
Can you make great coffee in a single serve? Klatch Coffee’s answer
Is there a better option than K-Cups?
Crazy Goat coffee

While K-Cups can be appealing to coffee drinkers who value convenience at home or in the office, they're not the right choice for everyone. Although it's a fast and easy way to prepare a single cup of coffee, there are a few downsides to the system — namely that K-cup pods can be difficult to recycle (and while refillable pods exist, that depends on the user choosing that option, which isn't always a given considering quick and convenient are two of the main appeals of the system). We interviewed Klatch Coffee's expert roaster, Heather Perry, to learn more about the specialty roaster's approach to single-serve coffee.
Klatch Coffee's single-serve coffee alternatives

Klatch Coffee's single-serving Bruvi pods make it easy to enjoy high-quality, specialty coffee wherever you are. The brand has partnered with a few select providers who share their vision, one of which is Bruvi.
"Bruvi is an improved pod coffee system with a couple of unique features," Perry said. "First is taste and quality; the proprietary brewing system brews to the same high standards as specialty coffee roasters like Klatch Coffee, including adjusting the brewing parameters to match our brewing recipe. That’s why premium coffee from roasters like Klatch is offered on the Bruvi platform. Second, Bruvi’s B-Pods are enzyme-infused and designed to be tossed in the trash, making them guilt-free. B-Pods degrade faster in the landfill without leaving microplastics behind."
It’s also worth noting that for coffee drinkers who only want a single cup at a time, single-serve brewing can be more efficient on resources like water, coffee, and energy. Pre-portioned coffee doesn’t spill, and machines only heat the water needed for a single cup. There’s no waste from discarding leftover coffee from a large pot.

Read more
Canadian whisky deserves a spot in your home bar (and these are our favorites)
Canada is home to countless, memorable whiskies
A bottle of whiskey with two glasses of whiskey

If you're a fan of whiskey and you haven't branched out into Canadian whisky (unlike the US, Ireland, and Mexico, Canada omits the 'e' in whiskey), you're missing out on some special expressions. Whether you enjoy blended whisky, spicy rye, or other types of whisky, Canada has something for every palate.

Sure, Crown Royal and Canadian Club might be the most well-known names, but many more noteworthy whiskies from our friendly neighbors to the north are absolutely worth adding to your home bar cart.
Our favorite Canadian whiskies

Read more