The Charlottesville 29

“Oh dear, bidding war,” the email said.

In hindsight, the subtext should have clearer, as if to say: “People really think they might outbid me in this auction?”

The email came early in the bidding for Duner’s offering in The 2019 Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions. The auction item was spectacular — a Holiday Party for 50 — and drew immediate interest as soon as it went public. In the first 24 hours, rapid back-and-forth bidding drove the leading bid all the way to $2,600, when I received an email from one of the prior bidders, raising the bid another $900: “Oh dear, bidding war,” Alice Tor wrote. “I bid $3,500.”

It remained at $3,500 until the near end, when a late entry jumped in with a $4,000 bid. Back and forth the bidding went. $4,500. Then $5,000. Then $5,500. When Tor bid $6,000, her rival finally conceded.

Yes, the Holiday Party for 50 is an extraordinary auction item, but it turns out that there was something else driving Tor to win it.

She is the widow of Duner himself.

Alice’s late husband Duner Tor launched Duner’s restaurant in 1983, in what was then a vacant building in Ivy, where Duner’s still sits. He operated the restaurant for five years, before selling it in 1988 to an employee, Bob Caldwell, who has owned and operated it ever since. While Tor credits Caldwell for building the restaurant into what it is today, it was Duner, she says, who had the initial vision. And, that made the idea of a Christmas party there so compelling.

“I had been thinking of having a Christmas party this year, and this just seemed like the perfect fit,” said Tor. After her husband passed away in 2012, Tor says, Duner’s remained a place where she could go and never feel uncomfortable, even if by herself. “I go to Duner’s a lot,” Tor said. “I thought that my connection to Duner’s would make it a meaningful place for my friends and family to attend a Christmas party.”

Addendum: June 27, 2025

Bidding in the Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions was done by email. No bidder knew against whom they were bidding. When Alice Tor went back and forth with another bidder, she didn’t know who it was. When the other bidder went back and forth with Alice, he didn’t know he was bidding against Duner’s widow herself. Who was that other bidder?

Jim Ryan. The UVa President said he hoped to use the party to entertain UVa staff and other supporters. Alas, the widow of Duner was not to be denied. Nevertheless, Ryan’s generosity yielded a winning bid much higher than it would have reached otherwise. The UVa President had no idea he was bidding against Duner’s widow, and she had no idea she was bidding against the UVa president. And yet, together, their generosity drove the bid so high that it provided more than 24,000 meals for the area’s hungry. By Ryan and Tor, the community was blessed.