Food News: Fire, Flour, and Fork; beer, biscuits, and booze; and a veteran restaurant critic unmasked

This week: Two donut shops, a Fan restaurant, and a brewery forge westward; a biscuit bakery opens in Northside; and a local cafe eyes VCU for their fifth location. Plus, the RTD’s veteran restaurant critic is finally revealed after a decade long career of reviewing restaurants and dodging cameras.

July 17, 2014; 11:11 AM • by Trevor Dickerson

Two of Richmond’s doughnut darlings are coming to the West End, according to one official announcement and one all-but-official Twitter posting. Country Style Donuts, an East End favorite for just under 50 years, is opening second location in the West Tower shopping center. Down the road, Sugar Shack continues to tease Twitter followers with clues about its location, presumably coming to West Broad Village, next to ACAC.

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Tickets went on sale this week for Fire, Flour & Fork, a four day culinary event (and a foodie’s dream come true) which aims to show off the best that Richmond’s food scene has to offer. The weekend event, put on by Real Richmond Tours and the Virginia Tourism corporation, takes place this fall, October 30th through November 2nd. Visit the Fire, Flour & Fork website to learn more and purchase tickets to attend and see the weekend’s dining events, demonstrations, talks, food producers, cookbook authors, visiting chefs with Virginia ties, filmmakers, poets, playwrights, culinary historians, craft spirit makers, tableware designers, and more.

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Nile Ethiopian Restaurant, which recently closed, lives on at Portrait House in Carytown–at least in menu form. Portrait House debuted their new menu this past week, which essentially features a paired down version of the former restaurant’s offerings.

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A New York luncheonette-style restaurant is now open near Regency Square Mall. The aptly-named Regency Family Restaurant specializes in breakfast but also serves lunch. Owners also have plans to offer dinner service in the future.

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Speaking of Regency Square, the struggling mall could get a shot in the arm from a Fan restauranteur. William “Mac” McCormack, proprietor of the popular McCormack’s Whisky Grill on Robinson Street, has signed a lease to take over the space formerly occupied by Texas de Brazil, which moved to Short Pump Town Center last year. McCormack’s Big Whisky Grill, as Mac will call it, will hold 600 guests and feature private event space as well.

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Hardywood Park Craft Brewery is making like Lewis and Clark and forging westward to expand their beer empire. The local brewery announced new distribution deals with Virginia Eagle Distributing and P. A. Short Distributing, which will soon bring some of Richmond’s most well-known craft beer to the Charlottesville and Roanoke Valley regions.

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Closer to home, the National Beer Expo continues through this Sunday, with craft beer and food events all over town–too many to even mention, in fact. Tickets are still available to upcoming events. Head on over to the event website to check out the lineup and snag some tickets while you still can.

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The Urban Farmhouse Market and Cafe announced plans to open their fifth location, this one on the VCU campus at 800 West Broad Street. Owner Kathleen Richardson has rapidly expanded her concept, which opened its first location in Shockoe Slip in 2010. Another Urban Farmhouse location is currently under construction in Scott’s Addition and is scheduled to open by the end of the summer.

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Move over doughnuts, the biscuits are coming! Early Bird Biscuit Co. & Bakery quietly opened its doors in Northside last Friday at 5411 Lakeside Avenue. Owner Tim Laxton’s bakery not only serves up his family’s own biscuit recipe, but also offers homemade gravy and jams, pastries, cobblers, cakes, and pies. As this is his first venture, he’s willing to experiment with his offerings, as he told Richmond Magazine in a recent interview. “I’m trying to use local things where I can — whatever I can find in season at the market, whatever’s fresh, whatever people want. If people tell me they want something, I’ll try to make it. If it tastes good to me I’ll make it.”

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Dana Craig, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s veteran restaurant critic, has finally been unmasked. Richmond.com editor Karri Peifer sat down with Craig to talk about how the Richmond restaurant scene has evolved over the decade she’s been a critic, and how she managed to remain anonymous in the age of social media. “Everyone thought I was a 300-pound, obese, grouchy man,” she told Peifer in a video interview.

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Finally, what’s a great restaurant without the booze? Richmond.com has the rundown on the top 10 liquors (determined by sales figures) purchased by Metro Richmond restauranteurs, according to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Rounding out the top three spots are Jack Daniel’s, Hennessy, and Jim Beam. The top three brands alone earned ABC stores a whopping $8.44 million in revenue during the fiscal year that ended on June 30th.

Photo: Early Bird Biscuit Co.