July 2025 Central Virginia Guzzi Lunch Report

[Michael S. Jones]

Greetings, Moto Guzzi friends. We’re having an unusually wet summer, and consequently we’re having lots of humidity. When my Moto Guzzi Convert and I left home at 10am, it was already muggy, though not oppressively hot. It’s about a two-hour ride to Crewe by the scenic route, and that’s the route we chose. From Evington we cut down toward Brookneal and then over through little towns like Pheonix, Charlotte Courthouse, Keysville, and Burkeville to get to Bravo Italian Grill in Crewe. The day warmed up quickly, but it was a really nice ride anyway. Believe it or not, this is the first of my 36 years of motorcycling that I’ve owned a mesh jacket. Today was an excellent day for it.

Seven people aboard four more Guzzis, a Beemer, a Kawasaki, and a VW Jetta joined me for lunch. Holding the lunch toward the eastern side of the state seems to have drawn in a number of people from out east. These were Bob Corefield on his V85tt, John Howard on his V100 Mandello Aviazione Navale, Jack Gallant and Mark Yates on a pair of California EVs, and Joey Klingman on a dressed BMWR1200R. Larry Echols lives right up the road from Crewe; he is recovering from a bit of a motorcycle accident and can’t ride for a while, so he came in a VW Jetta. Those of us from the center of the state were Nate Jones on his trusty Kawasaki Ninja and me on my ancient Moto Guzzi Convert.

Bravo Grill seems larger on the inside than the exterior suggests. It’s a spacious, interesting, and nicely decorated restaurant. The air conditioning was working and the waitress was quick to bring cold drinks. Once our orders were placed, it seemed to take a long time for our food to arrive, but when it did, it was very good. My eggplant parmigiana sub was, honestly, flawless. Nonetheless, I still like the one at Sanzone’s better. Bravo’s is perfect, but it has more eggplant flavor and less marinera sauce flavor than Sanzone’s sub. I suspect that it takes more skill to make a sub with a good eggplant flavor than it does to make one with a strong marinera flavor, but I personally prefer the latter. It’s simply a preference.

It wasn’t only the eggplant that was good: several other people commented that their meals were very good, too. John’s came with an order of very large onion rings that looked great – next time I want to remember to try those. And to top it off, the prices were surprisingly reasonable.

Larry told us about his motorcycle accident. His bike wasn’t damaged much, but he got battered pretty badly. He has one arm in a sling and, although he can drive, he can’t ride. John told us a little about his recent trip to Europe. Bob told us about bikes he’s sold or selling and bikes he’s thinking about buying.

On the way home some of us got rained on a little. I didn’t mind – it wasn’t heavy, and it cooled the air. This certainly has been a wet summer!

Hope to see you next month,

Mike


M. Jones, executive editor, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (www.jsri.ro)
"The heart has its reasons which reason does not know." -Blaise Pascal
"With man, instinct and reason avoid each other with adversity, yet, by repudiating each other they lure each other to reach mutual correction." -Lucian Blaga
"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer." -Immanuel Kant