Each year, we round up Richmond’s best dining and entertainment options, share insights into the local business and health care landscapes, gather in-depth information on education, and compile extensive guides to all aspects of city life. The resulting issue is both a Sourcebook, offering fresh finds and a trove of favorites for current residents, and a Newcomers’ Guide, helping recent arrivals settle into the region.
In 2026, two beloved local landmarks are celebrating big birthdays, several museums are marking America’s sesquicentennial with exhibitions, and the long-awaited new baseball stadium is scheduled to open this spring. We tell you where to nosh at night, how to find local makers and when to shop area farmers markets. Look for new medical tech, wellness trends, education updates and neighborhood guides, too.
As we researched the issue’s stories, it became clear that Richmond’s past informs its present in ways that can be hard to understand as a newcomer. We chose this year’s theme, Watershed Moments, with new residents in mind, and each section includes a story or timeline explaining some of those key moments for the region.
This isn’t a mere history lesson — Richmond’s role in the slave trade and Civil War are well known, and the names of many area locations are a daily connection to Indigenous peoples.
Instead, we’re offering context. For example, neighborhoods’ individual characters make more sense when you learn that wide swaths of the city, including Forest Hill, Westhampton, the entire North Side and Church Hill, were standalone suburbs, some as recently as 50 years ago.
And one reason there’s no parking near the new amphitheater is that the annual Richmond Folk Festival pioneered riverfront entertainment 20 years ago; no one minded the inconvenience one weekend a year. The explanation helps that situation (and others like it) make sense, even if we’re all still excited about the planned parking deck.
Looking back, it’s easy to identify a moment in the city’s medical history with widespread repercussions or the chef who trained a generation of restaurant owners. It’s more challenging to pinpoint current events that one day may be seen as forks in the road. Toward that end, we examine the possible local impact of the college enrollment cliff — worrisome given higher education’s stake in regional real estate and the job market — as well as RVA’s newcomers themselves, our share of the national migration toward places with great food, entertainment, recreation and overall quality of life.
