It's WINDSday | June 12, 2024

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

See you Tonight at Ynot WINDSday

Whether you work or study at home alone or with others in the office or classroom, you must set the GPS for the Sandler Center at Town Center this evening.

From 5:30-9:00 pm, the best hornsmen and singers this side of the north side, Brasswind, will be waking up the Westin, shaking up Saffron and booming into Bravo for the opening of Ynot Wednesday, dubbed Ynot WINDSday this night only, to remind you of offshore wind’s arrival off the resort city’s coast.

If you bought a ticket in the Ynot Raffle for a trip to Italy to support Habitat for Humanity, you will witness the drawing of the winner at 6 p.m. and hear some good words about kids and wind.

Admission and parking are free, but bring cash or a card for pizza and beer.

Fate Brought the Founders of JRF Ship Repair in Portsmouth Together

Thank goodness Natalia turned around.

The Wilmington, Delaware native was at a bar in Virginia Beach in 2008 and noticed a cute guy across the room. They talked and danced, and she left, moaning to her older sister in the car, “I’m never going to see that guy again.” They drove back, and she handed Juan “Rafa” Famania, a year younger at 17, her phone number. The rest, as they say, is history.

Turns out they both were in Hampton Roads living with their sisters. At the time, Natalia was a hostess at P.F. Chang’s. Rafa had come from Puerto Rico at his mother’s insistence, first finding unfulfilling work as a low-level sandblaster’s helper. But the “trades” spark was lit, as was a love match.

Natalia (with a BA in criminal justice) became a legal assistant. Rafa went to BAE Shipyard as an apprentice, this time focusing on aluminum welding, a highly desirable skill because of its prevalence on Navy cruisers. “Rafa had a real knack for it,” she says.

He became so proficient that the bosses noticed, and at age 24, observing that the shipyard owners were “millionaires,” Rafa conferred with his equally ambitious wife. They decided to strike out on their own.

“We founded JRF Ship Repair in 2015, and I learned how to do all the back-office duties while he was out bidding on contracts at BAE and Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY),” recalls Natalia, then raising their second child (they now have four) while doing the books at their kitchen table.

“I blew them away at BAE, completing my first job in four days that was supposed to take three weeks,” says Rafa. His reputation grew, as did his staff, including one of his former supervisors.

JRF is doing much more than aluminum welding today, which is why the walls in the lobby of its new spacious headquarters on George Washington Highway, adjacent to NNSY, feature more than a dozen naval vessels that they have repaired.

“I still have the bolt from a door on the Normandy; that’s the three-week job we finished in four days.” BAE has named them their “Gold Medalist” in ship repair three times.

“We are also very active in the community,” says Natalia, about their involvement in the Virginia Ship Repair and the Virginia Maritime Associations. “We were asked to sit at the Mayor’s table at the State of the City speech recently and got a shout-out from the podium about how proud Shannon Glover was of our growth.”

Family members, including a brother, brother-in-law, sister, and a handful of cousins, now work for Rafa and Natalia, as charming a married couple as there is in Hampton Roads. This is not technically an immigrant success story because she is from Delaware, and he is from a US territory. But given where the Famanias started and how far they’ve come (thriving business in Portsmouth, home in Smithfield), it sure sounds like one.

Come to Chelsea for Global Wind Day this Saturday

Chelsea, in Norfolk near the Midtown Tunnel, will be offshore wind central on Global Wind Day, Saturday June 15, from 10am - 3pm.

Join the Sierra Club and partners for a community open house at Fairwinds Landing (1222 Olney Road) or fun-filled kids’ activities behind Dogtown (1301 Boissevain Avenue) from 10am - 12pm.

At Noon, take part in a community walk and talk on wind energy along the Elizabeth River Trail, offering a unique view of the monopiles and transition pieces at PMT.

Then celebrate with friends at WINDSday partner, Smartmouth Brewing (1309 Raleigh Avenue) from 1pm - 3pm. There, you can enjoy food trucks and live music.

For more details, click here. www.SierraClub.org

Gary Black and Chef Alvin Williams

are a Perfect Pairing at Cobalt Grille

Alvin Williams and Gary Black, owners of Cobalt Grille

Alvin Williams has quite an eclectic history.

“My parents were native Jamaicans who moved to England where I was raised,” says Williams, who still sports a bit of a British accent. His culinary schooling there, however, was in classic French cooking. With a degree in hand, Alvin worked in five-star hotels in London before deciding to join two sisters in the States. “One was in New York, which was too fast-paced for me, while the other was married to a sailor and stationed here,” says Williams, who fell in love with the beach and then won the green card lottery, enabling him to work in America year-round.

“I faxed resumes to the top ten restaurants in this area,” he recalls, hearing back from La Chambord on Great Neck Road. “To prove myself, I offered to work there for free for two weeks.” Hired, he stayed seven years before opening Cobalt Grille in 2000 with partner Gary Black, an ODU grad with ample experience himself in hospitality, most of it at Coyote Café, a longtime Laskin Road institution. “I think the secret of our success here is the partnership,” says Gary. “Alvin runs the kitchen, I’m the front of the house guy.”

Yes, Williams has English dishes on the menu (Beef Wellington, Fish and Chips), plus Branzino, Filet Napoleon, Shrimp and Scallops Risotto, panko-crusted Portabella Fries (yum), and Fried Green Tomato Caprese (sounds French).

But given that Alvin appreciates that locals love meat and potatoes, Cobalt Grille is hamburger heaven on Tuesday nights (nine creative choices plus a side for just $15).

And in season, Alvin serves veggies from one of ten raised beds behind his home in Alanton. “We grow 58 different kinds of tomatoes alone.”

Cobalt Grille (www.cobaltgrille.com), which boasts an exclusive wine list and hosts a monthly wine dinner, is open for lunch Thursday through Saturday and dinner every night but Sunday. For connoisseurs of continental cuisine, Europe’s and ours, this WINDSday friend comes highly recommended.

Cobalt Grille | 1624 Laskin Road, Unit 730, Virginia Beach, VA 23451 * 757-425-3866

Wind Song For Father's Day, "Father Wind"

By Hunter Hughes

Here's a song you've never heard because it was released in April 2024. It's called "Father Wind" by Khirki, a three-piece rock band from Athens, Greece, that plays a blend of metal, rock, and folk.

The band told the website Distorted Sound that its members share a tremendous passion for sea songs and that Father Wind "is our own little sea shanty, a sailor's prayer, so to speak."