Concerts on the horizon

Toad’s Place has announced an opening date – June 7 – and some summer concerts (with, we’re told, more to be added.)

The concert line-up is diverse: The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ricky Skaggs, smooth jazz guitarist Ken Navarro, and  ska-punk band Reel Big Fish.

They’ve also posted for jobs at the restaurant to be located in the building- Highwater.  For those of you familiar with Charlottesville, it’s to be managed by the co-owner of the Mellow Mushroom- a decent pizza restaurant there.  Let’s hope it’s a decent place to eat, and not just a concert-venue add-on with food as an afterthought.

 

Good things happen when you talk to your neighbors

Among other things, you can get info for your blog, maybe even break news before the corporate media does.

Buttermilk & Molasses reports on conversations he’s had in his neighborhood with several new business owners.

Read his blog for info on “two new restaurants, a flower shop, an ice cream shop and a dog park” coming soon to Northside.  You’ll find all sorts of detailed info about a new restaurant, Kitchen 64 -the chef will be Stella from the old Stella’s in the fan, to open soon on North Boulevard.  The owner also has plans to turn the Nacho Mama’s take-out spot up there into an ice cream shop.

 

Which wine goes best with curry?

An Indian wine/restaurant/hotel company from Mumbai, the Indage Group, plans on opening 5 restaurants and a business headquarters in Virginia.

They will partner with a local restaurant, India Garden & Grill, and “oversee” its management.  I’m unclear whether that partnership counts as one of the 5 restaurants or not.  Also, I wonder if they’ll oversee the cooking as well as the management?  I’ve never eaten there, but most every Indian I’ve met in Richmond tells me there’s no good Indian restaurants here, which, sadly, I’ve found to be true.  Maybe this is about to change?  After all Tim Kaine says the Indage Group will “bring authentic Indian cuisine … to Virginia.”

Among other things, the Indage Group webpage has food/wine pairings for traditional Indian cuisine, as well as Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian curries (click on Wine Brands, then Wine and Food).

Info from Richmond.com (last week even, I just missed it.)

 

Lighthouse Diner Update

Jake Crocker of Prodigy Partners stopped by this blog and posted a YouTube video link in the comments section of an earlier post– but I decided the video needed greater visibility. So here it is, a CBS 6 news clip featuring a tour of the amazingly intact Lighthouse Diner on Hull St. It closed in the 70’s, but the reporter picks up a menu and reads off the prices- $0.40 for a beer!

 

Asian Food Festival Tomorrow(?)

Two weeks ago, Style reported that tomorrow, April 28, a local Richmond restaurant would host an Asian Food Festival.  This week’s Style?  Nothing- it’s not mentioned on the calendar, in the news section, or anywhere else I could find.  No mention in Brick either. I called the host restaurant and got no answer.

Here’s the restaurant’s info:

Heavens And Earth Cafe  6311 Rigsby Road, Richmond, VA 23226 (804) 282-2212

If any of you know anything about the festival, or call and talk to someone, would you leave a comment here?

Here’s the relevant excerpt from Style:

Plan to attend the Asian Food Festival April 28 from noon until 6 p.m. It’s not so much about the food, though there will be plenty of Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese and Cambodian dishes to sample. What’s most important to organizers — the Richmond Vietnamese Association — is that money is raised to help with the medical expenses of Tammy Nguyen, a local child who was badly burned in a house fire and continues to work toward recovery. Spokesman Dao Huynh-Vuong hopes the event will raise more than $50,000.

The festival will be held on the lawn of Heavens and Earth Café, the city’s first Cambodian restaurant, at 6311 Rigsby Road near Horsepen. Two or three tents will have children’s activities and foods. “The Richmond Vietnamese community wants to do something because we’ve been embraced by philanthropy here, and now we want to do this for someone who needs the help,” Huynh-Vuong says. See you there.

 

Another casualty of our addiction to cars

Apparently a new restaurant in Church Hill (25th and M) is being held hostage by our society’s addiction to cars. According to church hill people’s news, Que Pasa- a Cuban, S. American, and Puerto Rican restaurant all rolled into one- is simply awaiting a Certificate of Occupancy before it can open. The holdup? The city requires businesses to have parking. And a shared parking arrangement already in place is, apparently, not good enough. From chpn.net:

As a sit-down restaurant, the business is required to have a certain number of parking spots available. To meet this requirement, Sanchez has arranged to rent parking spots from the city-owned EDI directly across M Street. This was an arrangment agreed to by the Mayor and approved unanimously by the City Council. As the restuarant will only be open evening and weekends, when demand is low at EDI, this should not be a problem.

The newish Commissioner of Buildings for the Department of Community Development, Art Dahlberg (scroll to the 2nd bio)(Dahlbead@ci.richmond.va.us, 646-6624), has apparently decided that this arrangement is illegal, and will not issue the Certificate of Occupancy.

Seriously, does the city want to destroy some historic buildings and pave over the lot to make room for cars?

I have serious issues with a policy that requires parking for every business. I’m not a rabid free-market kind of person, but this is one instance where I think it should be up to the market to decide how much parking a business needs. Isn’t it in the business owner’s interest to figure that out? If she needs more parking, the owner will find it. If not, why is the city requiring it?

I’m sure part of the reason involves not wanting to overwhelm residential neighborhoods with parking problems, but there are so many ways to solve that. Neighborhood parking permits, or time restricted parking would solve that problem.

This particular restaurant is in a dense, walkable, urban neighborhood. It’s on a bus route. And it’s found parking to share with someone else. Let them open. And better yet, kill the parking requirements.

Portland, Oregon did just that to revitalize their warehouse/arts district: the Pearl District. The city built a few parking garages and removed requirements for individual businesses and residential developers to provide parking. They built a streetcar, which is free within the downtown and Pearl Districts. And the neighborhood came to life with more than 50 restaurants, 10+ condo buildings, 30 art galleries, 60 furniture/antique shops, as well as national chain stores like REI & North Face. Richmond should take note. Stop destroying our historic architecture and decreasing density to make space for cars.

And on an activist note, again from chpn.net: “Sanchez is asking that you stop by the restaurant and sign their petition, and to contact Dahlberg and Mayor Wilder (wilderld@ci.richmond.va.us, 646-7970) to register your support for the opening of the restaurant.”

 

Restaurant Quiz

This one’s for you long-time Richmonders.

What do these restaurants have in common (hint- some are still around, some are long gone) :

Home Team Grill (3 locations: West End, Fan, Powhatan)
Garland’s Way (West End)
Goodfellas Restaurant (Shockoe Bottom)
Coyotes (Fan)
Castle Thunder (Shockoe Bottom)
Café Communique (Fan)
Easy Street (Fan)

Click here for the answer.

 

A Cambodian Restaurant, in Richmond?!?

Why haven’t I heard about this before?  Style announces the upcoming Asian Food Festival (April 28) and names the location: “Heavens and Earth Café, the city’s first Cambodian restaurant, at 6311 Rigsby Road near Horsepen.” No review, no mention of how old or new it is, nothing!  What’s going on here?  A google search turned up only one website about the restaurant, and that in Spanish.

Well, this is exciting news.  Any of you checked it out yet?   I need details!

A side note about the Asian Food Festival- the Richmond Vietnamese Association is organizing the event as a benefit for a local child burned in a house fire.  I think it’s great, given the history of the Vietnamese-Cambodian conflict and the tensions that still exist there today, that here in Richmond the Vietnamese Assn. would choose a Cambodian restaurant to host this festival.

 

World Cup coffee closing

VCU’s student paper, the Commonwealth Times, reports that the Fan’s 15-year-old World Cup is being sold. Over the years, it has moved several times, opened new locations, closed new locations, and most recently moved from its longtime home on Robinson to Morris St. between Main and Floyd. Now, apparently, World Cup is giving up the ghost for good. The good news is that it’s new owners will be Southside’s best (in my not-so-humble opinion) coffee shop: Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream, who will keep it as a coffee shop. Not that that area needs as many coffee shops as it has, there’s Common Cup (owned by a church- watch out they proselytize!), Casablanca, Starbucks inside the VCU library, Alpine Bagel & Coffee inside the VCU commons, & Harrison St. Coffee Shop. But World Cup has always been my favorite- largely because of their wonderful patio that opens onto a park.

CT reports that Crossroads is buying World Cup and will reopen it as their 2nd location. Crossroads may actually be my favorite coffee shop in the city, good coffee, decent food, Bev’s ice cream and a pretty good atmosphere. And they have this concoction where they pour espresso and chocolate sauce over ice cream. MMmmmmm. I’m drooling here at work.

**7/11/07 update: Crossroads in the fan is reviewed in Style.

 

Carytown Restaurant Update

Viva Mexico is open! I scanned and posted the menu they gave me. Click here to see the menu. Here’s their description of the restaurant from the front page of the menu:

I eagerly await a review from one of the many Richmond foodie blogs.

Also, it turns out they’re already got another location over on Southside at Hopkins and Chippenham, which got an excellent review from the TD.

In other CT restaurant news, there’s Ben & Jerry’s signs in the old laundromat, and the washers & dryers are gone. No opening date is posted, however. Anyone know if they’re reusing the old building or demolishing it and building something new?