Elizabeth Cogar’s new guide to everything Richmond (Image courtesy Elizabeth Cogar)
There are guidebooks written by commercial organizations, and then there are city guides like Elizabeth Cogar’s “Really Richmond” that actually reflect a city’s local culture. Cogar’s book looks at Richmond through local eyes, eschewing national chains to focus on homegrown businesses — art galleries, museums, retail shops, restaurants, breweries and hotels — while also covering sporting events, seasonal festivals, interesting local excursions, neighborhoods and more.
A regular contributor to R•Home magazine, Cogar realized that the last comprehensive guide to Richmond was written over 10 years ago. “So much has happened since then, and I thought I could do my own book and self-publish it,” she says.
Early in her career, Cogar worked with the organization now known as Richmond Region Tourism, spending her days helping tourists find their way around the region. Drawing from that experience for her book, Cogar covers everything a newcomer to Richmond might want or need to know — whether they’re relocating from another city or touring the town for an afternoon. She asked fellow RVA residents to lend their voices to the text, and Cogar worked with the Richmond design firm Composition Studio, artist Chris Milk Hulburt and the creatives at Grid+Love on the production.
One of the benefits of self-publishing, says Cogar, is that it’s easy to update the text. “I recently did an update on the statues on Monument Avenue,” she says. She’ll also post regular updates under the handle @reallyrichmondguide on Instagram.
“Really Richmond: A City Guide” is available locally at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts shop, Libbie Market, Quirk, Chop Suey Books and Verdalina, as well as online at amazon.com.
