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

This week: Two popular restaurants expand their footprint with locations in the West End, while another crosses the river to southside. Plus, details on the closure of a vampire-themed restaurant and a look at six fantastic women shaking things up in Richmond’s dining scene.

December 11, 2014; 11:30 AM • by Trevor Dickerson

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