You can get about anything you want to eat in Richmond.
Pick a cuisine, and you’re likely to find at least one solid choice. Pick something mainstream like pizza, and you’ll find an amazingly wide variety of choices. Go a bit more exotic, and culinary satisfaction is still possible. Get a hankering for the pride of Turkey – the doner kebab – and there are choices. Plural. The biggest challenge to eating well when you’re eating out these days is settling on a place.
“This has really turned into a good food town,” said Katrina Giavos, who with her husband, Johnny, owns or co-owns Kitchen 64, Gibson’s Grill, Kuba Kuba, the Sidewalk Café and 3 Monkeys. “When I’m not here, I love to eat out – that’s my hobby – and you can eat well in Richmond.”
It hasn’t always been that way. As recently as a decade ago, the city’s dining scene was a tad predictable. A chicken breast marinated in teriyaki sauce was high-cuisine at lunchtime, and deep-fried potato skins and cheese sticks were about as adventuresome as appetizers got.
“For a long time, Richmond was in a rut,” said Johnny Giavos. “It seemed like everyone had the same menu. But that’s not the case anymore.”
Chip Tuck and Andrew Clarke, co-owners for the past six years of the 821 Café on West Cary Street and cooks on the local scene for a decade or more, say they’re impressed with the variety available and with the professionalism on display in many places.
“It used to be, just about anybody could be a cook,” said Clarke, who began his culinary career in 1998. “Now it’s real professionals, and they’ve really taken it up a notch.
“I’m amazed at the places, too,” he said. “Some of these places are really nice.”
The Giavoses keep their focus on fairly simple fare – “I love being creative in the kitchen, but this is a business,” said Johnny. “We’re here to feed the masses.” But even that, they say, has improved tremendously.
“The food is just so much better than it used to be,” Katrina said.
Better quality hasn’t been lost on the dining public. Wayne Mancari, a Chesterfield County pastor and, with his wife, Diane, a food enthusiast known to travel far and wide for a good meal, is happy to eat here. Finally.
“When we moved here from San Francisco 22 years ago, it was a like a wasteland,” he said. “We had to go to D.C. for a really good meal. There was La Petite France, and that was about it. Now, everywhere you go, there seems to be a good restaurant.”
One of the big changes, Tuck said, has been in the growth of options for vegetarians.
When he moved back to Richmond from Atlanta in 2000, “There was Panda Garden, and that was about it,” he said of the options available for non-meat eaters. “Well, Grace Place, too, but not much else.”
Today? Vegetarian options dot menus all across town. And those menus are more diverse than ever. “It’s really a treat,” said Mancari.
Discover Richmond is an annual publication of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, offering a guide to the metro area for newcomers and longtime residents. The 36th issue is published with the Aug. 29, 2010, newspaper.
You can purchase additional copies for $2 at the front counter of The Times-Dispatch, 300 E. Franklin St., Richmond, 23219. Order by mail for $3 each; send check or call 649-6261 with credit card number. Orders for 25 or fewer handled at the front counters; for 26 or more copies (not guaranteed unless ordered in advance), contact Tammy Martin, at 775-2724 or tmartin@timesdispatch.com.
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