A year ago this month, my husband and I were on the adventure of a lifetime. We spent two weeks in Italy, where we toured Florence and Venice, hiked Cinque Terre, and sipped and sampled our way through Tuscany. And in the midst of it, I spent an hour on the phone interviewing for what would become my next adventure, a role here at Richmond magazine.
I was reminded of the trip when I read Food Editor Eileen Mellon’s story about raclette, a type of cheese. In Florence, I watched a chef hollow out a wheel of cheese and make sauce right in the middle of it as a mouthwatering tableside spectacle. Starting this month, Eileen reports, Truckle Cheesemongers is serving raclette in similar fashion, the wheel heated until gooey and its melty cheese ladled over bread, potatoes, salami and other nibbles. “It’s buttery, sensual and shareable,” she says. I love that something here at home reminds me of an incredible experience abroad, and also that our city offers such experiences, no passport required.
Actually, a look around the city — and through this issue — proves that Richmond is home to a wide range of amazing opportunities: To name just a few, the Virginia Opera is presenting “Siegfried,” the Folk Festival is back at the riverfront, Cadence Theatre Co.’s first film festival offers a platform for marginalized filmmakers, and haunted happenings for Halloween are afoot across the city. Trade your pumpkin spice latte for unique, locally made coffee drinks, visit a new shop dedicated to needlepoint, learn a little more about Edgar Allan Poe and discover a once-ubiquitous fish that’s failing to thrive despite decades of efforts. Plus, read the first chapter of “Burn” by Alexis Stratton, winner of James River Writers’ and Richmond magazine’s 2023 Best Unpublished Novel contest.
I’m thrilled to share an interview with a woman Oprah Winfrey has called a living legend, the poet and retired Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni. She and several other literary luminaries were in Richmond this month to receive special awards at the Library of Virginia. Visit our website to read about fellow honorees Meg Medina and David and Michelle Baldacci.
Among the other fascinating people we’re featuring this month are Rosie Thorsen, who provides gender-affirming haircuts to kids in crisis; Troy Hancock, the wine director at The Roosevelt in Church Hill; and Chet Parsons, Central Virginia Transportation Authority’s first executive director. And if there’s someone you’d like to see interviewed in our pages, please send your suggestions my way at editor [at] richmag [dot] com.
