If the first day of the Church Hill Irish Festival is any indication of what the festival season will bring, organizers have cause for optimism. Thousands of people came out yesterday to celebrate their Celtic pride at the event, in its 24th year. The fest continues today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Weezie’s Kitchen, in Carytown across from Cary Court Shopping Center, is a pleasant, inviting place. The staff is friendly, the atmosphere welcoming. On the warm, springlike day we visited, the double doors facing Cary Street were opened wide to beckon the customers and the fresh air. Prices on the lunch menu range from $7 (soup du jour and grilled cheese sandwich) to $10 (crabcake sandwich and steak sandwich). Every sandwich comes with a substantial side dish that’s included in the price.

With all the shopping and eating opportunities crammed into Carytown’s multiple blocks, I’ve done my fair share of traversing its sidewalks in fits of retail and restaurant therapy. 

Residents of Atlanta aren’t accustomed to snowy winters. But now anybody in the area who wants a day of snow play can head to Stone Mountain Park, which has opened its first “Snow Mountain Park,“ with three football fields of snow, a 400-foot hill with 11 tubing runs, and a 30,000-square-foot play area. The snow park opened Dec. 31 and is scheduled to remain open weekends through March 1.

Fewer than half the people who celebrated New Year’s Eve in Carytown pitched in to help pay for it, organizers say. With total attendees estimated by organizers to number at least 25,000, $20,000 to $21,000 was collected through a $2 per-person donation.

The security measures for the Carytown New Year’s Eve party were enough to make one wonder, “Who phoned in the bomb threat?“ How else do you explain the panic-stricken approach to the celebration?

An accidental discovery on a Carytown sidewalk after 36 years and a simple act of kindness to return a lost item to its owner have combined to create a rush of New Year reflections, goodwill and a gift.

Low temperatures didn’t chill Richmond’s biggest New Year’s party, as 2009 got off to a quiet—if cold—start. With well-bundled-up celebrators seemingly as inclined to sip hot coffee as cold beer police reported no major incidents.

A few hundred people, most of them appearing happily sober, populated the sidewalks of Carytown early last night waiting for the big lighted ball to be hoisted above the Byrd Theatre. As many as 20,000 people were expected for Carytown’s third New Year’s Eve party, but the crowd appeared well below that with four hours to go. Some 4,000 attended the first event and last year’s crowd was estimated at 14,000.

Thousands cheered, hugged, kissed, jumped, toasted and screamed as the lit ball climbed to the top of a tower over the Byrd Theatre and fireworks—authorized and otherwise—welcomed in the new year this morning.

Doubling the number of Richmond police for Carytown’s New Year’s Eve party and making an emergency lane down the middle of the street have driven up security expenses.

Doubling the number of Richmond police for Carytown’s New Year’s Eve party and making an emergency lane down the middle of the street have driven up security expenses.

As organizers prepare the glass ball that rises over the Byrd Theatre to ring in 2009, Carytown merchants wonder what the new year will bring.

I walked into Coppola’s Deli in Carytown with the best of intentions: I would order a Mediterranean vegetarian sub, or maybe the eggplant parmigiana sandwich, or maybe . . . Well, so much for good intentions.

Carytown has been named one of South’s best shopping neighborhoods by readers of Southern Living magazine. The neighborhood of about 300 shops, boutiques and restaurants in Richmond came in at No. 9 in an online poll the magazine conducted.