Food news: cheaper doughnuts, celebrity firkins, and late night cookies

It wouldn’t be a week in Richmond’s food news without fresh news about doughnuts and beer.

March 20, 2014; 8:38 AM • by Ross Catrow

Through some logistical magics, Sugar Shack Coffee has managed to lower the cost of doughnuts at their downtown shop. That means delicious doughnuts now cost exactly the same at both the Lombardy Street and E. Main Street locations. Cheaper doughnuts means more money to spend on doughnuts (that’s how that works, right?).

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Also doughnut related: Goin’ Bananas, the frozen yogurt shop out in the Near West End, will begin selling coffee and doughnuts next month. Richmond BizSense has the details, but this quote pretty much says it all:

“I think doughnuts may be the next cupcake,” Simmons said. “Richmond is a fickle market and if it works in Richmond, it can work anywhere else.”

Of note, Goin’ Bananas will install “automated doughnut-making machines that can make made-to-order-doughnuts.”

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As part of Legend’s 20th Anniversary, each month a local celebrity is invited to the brewery to help make a beer. This month they brought in “Parney” from the Flying Squirrels, and the resulting collaboration will be tapped today. The beer is a real lager and uses Kräusening, a traditional method of carbonating, that adds fresh wort to a nearly finished beer. The wort will reactivate any remaining yeast in the beer, which, along with the dry hop addition, will create some complex flavors.

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Chef MaMusu’s Africanne is opening a second location on the Southside in the old Parkside spot (3514 Forest Hill Avenue). The new spot, opening April 5th, will serve dinner, unlike it’s Main Street counterpart. Check out the downtown menu for an idea of what to expect come April.

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Zagat named Rappahannock’s Chef Dylan Fultineer as one of the 10 Southern Chefs to Watch. I’m calling OFN on that one, because we totally knew that already.

Why he’s one to watch: Fultineer has already garnered a lot of national attention for his work in Richmond, specifically in using the Croxton’s Chesapeake-sourced seafood. “I’m very product-oriented,” Fultineer says of his cooking philosophy. “I love oysters; I love the simplicity of just this amazing product that you don’t have to do a whole lot with. It sort of speaks for itself.”

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Style Weekly’s reporting that Gibson’s Grill, adjacent to The National, is closed and a notice has been posted on the door that “advises that nothing should be removed from the premises.” Yikes, that does not sound good.

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In worlds colliding news, owner Naji Kadi is shuttering Al Dente (formerly The Phoenician) and leasing the space to Elephant Thai. Kadi also is a principle over at my favorite Northside Mexican spot, La Casita.

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Late night cookie delivery shop, Red Eye Cookie Co., began deliveries last night at 6:00 PM…and promptly sold out before 11:00 PM. Get ’em while they’re hot LITERALLY.

Photo by: famfriendsfood