Food news: Alton Brown, another Sugar Shack, and beer!

This week’s food news includes Alton Brown’s upcoming visit to Richmond, Carytown’s Craft Beer Festival, and Sugar Shack’s newest sibling that’s in the works in Manchester. There are also a few new restaurants to check out across the city–good luck fitting all of that into your eating schedule.

June 5, 2014; 9:04 AM • by Scotti Cutlip

Devron Timberlake, Style Weekly’s food and drink editor, retired after 20 years of editorial about eateries around the city. Her sendoff piece beautifully ties up the evolution RVA has gone through over the years from bland comfort food to the popularity of #rvadine.

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Ian Kelley is at it again! The Sugar Shack owner bought the Lighthouse Diner property in Manchester, hoping to turn it into a North Carolina-style diner. With a quote like, “Sugar Shack is my baby, but I care a lot more about the community revival type stuff,” he won’t have any problem getting our support for spreading sugary happiness in the city.

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Fan Noodle Bar opened this week. Sonny, the owner, is the My Noodle & Bar owner’s brother and his mom owns Mom’s Siam. Since it’s all in the family, we bet this Asian fusion spot tastes just as good.

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Rock Bottom Brewery opened Monday in Short Pump. Headed by brew master Becky Hammond, thirsty customers have 10 brewed-in-house craft beers to have with the awesome menu.

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Les Crepes opened in Stony Point yesterday. The creperie’s menu has something for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner, so you can indulge in your Frenchiness any time of day.

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Alton Brown, chef-cinematographer-author-actor extraordinaire, will stop in Richmond for The Edible Inevitable Tour on November 5th! If you’d like to see him perform his civic duty of making difficult culinary skills look doable while also making us laugh, tickets go on sale tomorrow.

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The Carytown Craft Beer Festival is this weekend! Despite the name, it’ll be held at the Diamond. For $25, you get unlimited sampling, food voucher, and commemorative beer glass to take home.

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Cafe Verde will close for the summer to revamp the menu and think strategy on their next business move. They currently have a GoFundMe account to raise $3,400 so they can come back in the fall and serve the nocturnal downtown bar hoppers once again.

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The Willow Lawn Yapple location closed last month. The Carytown location will remain open while Scott Yu plans to re-brand. On the bright side, milkshakes, smoothies, and Starbucks are within walk-able distance if Willow Lawnians need something chilled.

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Things wouldn’t be right if we didn’t include Karri Peiffer’s upcoming dining news, which mentions bacon a few times!

Photo by: Pabo76