RVANews

Food News: Two restaurants head west, a third heads south, and a fourth expands footprint

Trevor Dickerson — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:30:21 +0000

A new show has rolled into Church Hill. The Dog and Pig Show, to be precise. The 25th Street eatery opened this week. With an eclectic mix of southern, Louisiana Creole, and south central Asian cuisines, the café aims to offer “simple, but seriously good food" with menu items all over the board, including a pulled pork po boy, shrimp and grits, and tomato-habanero soup, among other entrées.

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About 20 employees of the Quaker Steak and Lube franchise in the West End woke up to an unpleasant surprise Monday morning with the news that the West Broad Street restaurant had served its last meal Sunday evening. Out of a job herself, but wanting to step in and do what she could to help her hardworking employees leading up to the holidays, manager Michele Riccio set up a crowdfunding campaign. The GoFundMe account aims to raise $6,000, which Riccio plans to divide evenly between affected coworkers. At press time, the campaign had raised approximately $2,500.

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C Street is expanding outward and upward. The Carytown restaurant, located within a converted former church, is adding a new private event space on the second floor, plus a new 16-person bar. Along with the physical additions, the menu has been expanded as well. New features include vegan and gluten free options, according to co-owner and executive chef Graham Reeves.

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Ardent Craft Ales in Scott's Addition partnered with the Virginia Historical Society on Tuesday night for a sold out event 300 years in the making. Ardent brewers partnered with the VHS to brew a 300-year-old persimmon beer recipe. The recipe was written down in 1739 by 10 or 11-year-old Jane Randolph at Curles Neck Plantation near Richmond, according to Karri Peifer, who has a great recap of the event. Pulled from the museum's archives, the persimmon recipe is one of many on file. The two entities hope to partner on the re-creation of two new historical brews per year from here on out, which is pretty exciting.

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Tarrant's Cafe has expanded westward. Owners of the popular Arts District restaurant renovated the building that housed former restaurants including Julian's and later Grandpa Eddie's, spending a whopping $1 million on a total gut job. The new location, at Three Chopt and Cox Roads in the West End, is described as a hybrid between the original Tarrant's and recently-opened sister restaurant Max's on Broad. Owner Ted Santarella recruited chef Carlos Silva from Bistro 27 to help run the West End location.

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Tarrant's isn't the only restaurant located in the city proper with plans to expand westward. Kuba Kuba this week announced plans to open a second location in the former Flinn's Restaurant (and previous longtime home of Graffiti Grill) on Ridge Road in the West End. Chef Manny Mendez, Johnny Giavos, and long-time Kuba employee Hugo Jordan will assume ownership of the property on January 2nd, according to Style Weekly's Brandon Fox. With a bigger kitchen to work with at the new space, Mendez plans to add new menu items like croquetas and sweet empanadas.

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A third restaurant is headed south. Entrepreneur and chef Patrick Harris is expanding his Boka taco empire to the southside. Harris, who began with a fleet of taco trucks and later opened two restaurants--one near Regency Square Mall and another on Robinson Street in The Fan--will take over a former Mediterranean market at 2557 Sheila Lane to open Boka Grill & Growlers. As the title might suggest, Harris plans to have six to eight taps where customers can fill their own growlers to take home.

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What's better than a night out spent enjoying New Belgium and Foothills beer and the sounds of Bio Ritmo? How about a tacky light tour, too? For just $30, a party bus will depart from The Camel and whisk you around town to check out Richmond's tacky Christmas light displays, make a stop at American Tap Room for libations, and then return you to The Camel to enjoy Bio Ritmo. Best of all, the entire evening benefits local non-profit Sportable. Tickets are going fast--get yours soon!

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Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant opened near the entrance of Short Pump Town Center on Monday. The 10,000-square-foot restaurant offers a large list of the small chain's proprietary wines and a wide range of entreés including Pistachio Crusted Grouper, Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, and Mexican Drunken Shrimp, which general manager Matt Foody told me are some of the most popular dishes in a recent interview. The Short Pump location is the first in town (and Virginia, for that matter).

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The final nail was put in the coffin of a vampire-esque, gothic-themed restaurant and bar near the Jefferson Hotel. The Lair, which was located at 17 West Main Street, has closed. The restaurant served breakfast and lunch, but Richmond.com's Karri Peifer is fairly confident the spot was never approved for an ABC license. As you could imagine, this put the brakes on any monster-like after dark activities, which were to include, among other things, "monster-clad cage dancers." So there's that. The Lair closed approximately a month ago, according to Peifer.

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"In a city where professional kitchens are a man's world, these women are on fire." This statement from Style Weekly's Brandon Fox, who interviewed six noted female chefs mixing it up in kitchens around town, all of whom are from varying and eclectic backgrounds. Profiled are Jen Mindell from Postbellum, Carena Ives of Jamaica House and Carena's Jamaican Grille, Velma Johnson from Mama J's, Brittanny Anderson from Metzger Bar & Butchery, Carly Herring from Buddy's (who plans to revamp the menu at the Richmond staple's new location in the Devil's Triangle in January), and Thuy Bui (niece of Richmond craft beer god An Bui) of the recently-overhauled Commercial Taphouse.

File photo/Trevor Dickerson

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Kuba Kuba and Bygones featured in new Bio Ritmo video

Richard Hayes — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:18:48 +0000

"La Via" is from their upcoming album, "Puerta Del Sur" by Vampisoul Records being released on June 24.

Richmond takes over Artomatic

Dean Christesen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:53:00 +0000

photos and words by Dean Christesen

View the photo slideshow

In a large cement room on the first floor of a 9-story building that seemed to be normally uninhabited, Richmond bands performed today for what became known as RVA Band Day at the 10th annual Artomatic festival in Washington, D.C. It was a 6+ hour display of exceptional Richmond bands, and while people came and went, those who stayed for the entirety really were rewarded.

Os Magrelos went on a little late. Traffic on I95 was the reason, and would be the cause of problems later in the evening, but by 4:45 they had begun. Rooted in Brazilian music tradition, their Carnival energy exerted through modern rhythms had a Tropicalia vibe to it: exciting, different, and with clear influence but no limits.

From Artomatic in D.C.

Their set was marred by poor sound, through no fault of theirs. Bass frequencies clouded up the spectrum of sound, and making out specific pitches was sometimes a challenge. This didn't completely detract from the performance, but unfortunately the risk of playing first in a new space was evident.

Bio Ritmo is a fun, lively, and damn good salsa band. The muddiness issue of Os Magrelos's sound was resolved, but it was replaced with sheer volume. Singer Rei Alvarez leads the band, and timbalero Giustino Riccio controls it much of the time from the back of the stage.

Despite the high ceilings, concrete floors, and problems that the previous bands experienced, Glows in the Dark sounded perfect. Trombonist Reggie Pace gave orders to the sound man to only mic horns and bass, which dramatically clarified the sound. Having just completed a short Northeastern tour, they had some contrasting performing experiences in the past couple days. Reggie Chapman, who traveled with the band recording each performance, mentioned the band's ability to adapt extremely well to a rock band-style sound system at Piano's in New York on Thursday. The same adaptability led them to a great group sound tonight.

Amazing Ghost

Fight the Big Bull and The Great White Jenkins shared the stage, Andy Jenkins jumping from percussion to guitar/vocals and back, Eddie Prendergast and Cameron Ralston swapping basses and percussion depending on the tune. The sum of the two bands has played weddings recently (there is no other explanation for their closer, "Great Balls of Fire"), and their compatibility is a no-brainer: FTBB, which shares almost all rhythm section members with TGWJ, becomes a horn section during the latter's songs. For Big Bull material, Jenkins and Prendergast revert to the side of the stage to play shakers, cowbells, cymbals, and whistles.

The group took command of the room and its sonic tendencies. Like Glows in the Dark's set, the music benefited from perfect clarity. Moments of overwhelming insanity rocked my brain at intense and loud moments, but all for good.

It's hard to imagine an RVA Band Day without ILAD, but technical problems caused by the aforementioned traffic left no other choice. But the overall response of the evening seemed to be positive. The sound man for the day even noted his preference on Twitter: "A crew of musicians from Richmond VA came up to #artomatic & killed it the whole day amazing stuff!!" and "...amazing music coming to #artomatic best day of music on electric stage yet". We think so too, but we're a bit biased.

Thanks, Marlysse, for putting together RVA Band Day at Artomatic, and thanks to Artomatic for doing great things. Twitter is still the RVAjazz #1 method of instant micro-bloggification. I tweeted a bit during the events. Follow @RVAjazz.

RVA Band Day at Artomatic in D.C.

Dean Christesen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0000

For ten years, the Artomatic festival in D.C. has presented visual and performing artists from the District and beyond in free exhibitions over the span of a month. Its 10th anniversary this year is expected to be bigger than any other year. Washington, D.C. events often pass us by here in Richmond. The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, for example, is happening right now in various clubs and on the National Mall, but it is not necessarily the talk of the town in Richmond. So why talk about Artomatic?

Marlysse Simmons, keyboardist for Bio Ritmo and Os Magrelos, is a D.C. native who is now active on the Richmond scene. With ties to Artomatic, it was her idea to book an "RVA Band Day" at the festival, which will take place on Sunday, June 14.

Marlysse: "I actually played one of the very first Artomatics when I lived up there about 10 years ago. It since has grown in to this gigantor operation. I haven't been to this one yet, but someone told me it's like 8 floors of art, and very overwhelming. Bio Ritmo had also played it a few years back and we were looking into playing it again, and it was early enough into the operation where I actually found a stage that was open for the whole day. So the Artomatic folks were cool with making it an RVA band day. Basically I approached bands that I know who have an overlap of players. To make it a real RVA band day we'd need to reserve a couple days and a couple of stages (maybe we can do that next year)."

From 4-10 on the festival's main "electric stage," Richmond bands will be doing their thing in succession for new crowds. Marlysse's samba-rock and Brazilian group Os Magrelos begins at 4, followed by salsa band Bio Ritmo at 5.

At 6, Ilad performs, followed by Glows in the Dark at 7.

Glows' Scott Burton: "I have a friend in D.C. that has gone to Artomatic a few times and assures me that it's real cool and fairly gigantic in size. I'm excited. I think it's gonna be sweet and hopefully something we can expand on in the future."

Amazing Ghost plays at 8. The Great White Jenkins with Fight the Big Bull goes on at 9.

FTBB's Matt White, like the other band leaders Burton and Ilad's Gabe Churray, are rather unsure of what to expect, surrendering responsibility to Marlysse. White refers to RVA Day at the festival as the first "Richmond Revue." With that thought and Marlysse's suggestion of one day making it bigger, a true spotlight on the RVA scene does not seem so far away.

Marlysse on D.C.'s impression of RVA: "I don't know what D.C. thinks about Richmond. I think some folks are hip to it, but I know when I lived up there my whole life I never thought about Richmond having any type of scene, especially a salsa band, so I'm sure we'll make an impression on some folks. I know the Richmond jazz scene kicks D.C.'s butt, because up there more people have the opportunity to play more private things, so there's no time for creative stuff. Probably most of those dudes make more money, but so many of them are miserable cause it's the same shit over and over again. So I think RVA Band day is a great way to show off Richmond stuff and that would be my hope. I know recently at the Black Cat they had a big night of music featuring Chicago bands, so maybe after this, we can try the same thing at a club."

More information on the Artomatic festival can be found at artomatic.org
More information on RVA Band Day at Artomatic can be found at locutormusic.com

Upper East Side Big Band Plays Abbey Road

Dean Christesen — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:41:00 +0000

The Beatles will get the "re-arranged for big band" treatment this Friday at the National on the top of an eclectic bill stacked with local Richmond bands. "Abbey Road" in its entirety is the album being conquered; Samson Trinh's Upper East Side Big Band is the ensemble up for the challenge. "It's been a dream for [me] and Adrian [Duke] to arrange the music of this monumental Beatles album and let alone perform it at a wonderful large concert venue," says Trinh. "Plus we are very honored to share the stage with the legendary Bio Ritmo and on the rise group, the Mills Family Band!"

This is a National Theatre debut for all three bands, and the event will span musical genres from swing to Americana to salsa.

Upper East Side Big Band Personnel - Samson Trinh: conductor, arranger; Adrian Duke: vocals, keyboards, flute, arranger; Allyson Mills: vocals; Rick Rieger: flute, sax; Dave Hood: sax; John Lilley: sax; Richard Wray: sax; Jason Mathias: sax; Rob Quallich: trumpet; Bob Miller: trumpet; Marcus Tenney: trumpet; Taylor Barnett: trumpet; Pete Anderson: trombone; Toby Whitaker: trombone; Stefan Demetradis: bass trombone, tuba, euphonium; Curtis Mills: guitar, vocals; Karl Morse: guitar; Matt Harris: bass; Aaron Thompson: drums.

Friday, May 23, 2008
Upper East Side Big Band with Adrian Duke, Bio Ritmo, Mills Family Band
The National
8:00 pm
$10 Adv. / $13 Door
[where: 708 East Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219]

Tickets:
Box Office = 804-612-1900
Online = www.thenationalva.com