Long known as the “Mile of Style,” Carytown has also steadily gained acclaim as a food destination. A butchery, a brewery and international fare round out a menu that’s able to please the most discerning of appetites. As long as one is armed with a bottomless stomach and an empty cooler, these tantalizing stops comprise a chowhound’s day in the neighborhood.
7 a.m.: Breakfast at Sugar & Twine
2928 W. Cary St., sugartwine.com
Sugar & Twine’s bakers arrive around 5 a.m. to shape earthy buckwheat-blueberry scones, strawberry biscuits bursting with Amy’s Garden organic fruit, tea cakes made from local gluten-free flour milled at Byrd Mill, and savory pastries for their well-stocked case. Aromas of cooked jam and brewing coffee dare anyone to try and go back to bed. As you look over a lacy cortado to the paintings hanging on the wall, the heart painted into the foam of your eye-opening espresso conveys that today is special.
After grabbing a place card to participate in the bakery’s table share program and setting it down on your tabletop, a Richmonder sits down across from you, sipping an Earl Grey tea from an East Clay ceramic mug, one of many area artisan goods available for purchase. You catch up on emails and leisurely read the paper before beginning a full food crawl of Carytown.
Photo by Jay Paul
9 a.m.: Baked goods at Montana Gold Bread Co.
3543 W. Cary St., montanagoldbread.com
Head to the top of Carytown to enjoy a second coffee on the screened patio at Cafe Montana. This 25-year-old bakery added 600 square feet last year, including indoor seating and a Cary Street-facing bread cooling room. They liberally sample — for decades a neon sign with the words “free slices” has lit the block. Steamy cinnamon loaves waft warm, spicy scents onto the city sidewalks, compelling you inside. Owners Rich (above) and Sher Lahvic oversee the bakery’s exhibition kitchen. Watch batches of challah dough come together as you sip. Pick up garlic knots, granola and a few loaves to take home for gifts and lunchbox treats — the bread freezes well. If it were a little later, you’d stay for a cup of soup and a chicken salad sandwich. Both are made in house daily.
10 a.m.: Ingredient shopping at Penzeys Spices
3400 W. Cary St., penzeys.com
Virginia is one of 30 states that has a Penzeys Spices, and like a Yankee Candle shop, you might want to stop in just to take a whiff of the showroom, except smells don’t cloy at Penzeys. The spice stalls wouldn’t appear out of place in an outdoor market — burlap bags on wooden crates seemingly spill over with annatto seeds, freshly ground gumbo file and Tellicherry peppercorns. Score two favorite baking weapons: natural high-fat cocoa powder and Mexican vanilla.
11 a.m.: Lunch at Tulsi Indian Cuisine
3131 W. Cary St., tulsiinrichmond.com
In India, a proper Thali lunch consists of sweet, salty, bitter, sour, astringent and spicy flavors on a single platter surrounded by cardamom-studded rice. At Tulsi, the Thali plates are long metal trays that resemble cafeteria lunch trays, with separate wells for each of three dishes you select, plus spice-laden rice and naan. I’m fond of the veggie Thali: vegetable palak paneer, vegetable korma and eggplant bharta with fluffy plain naan for dipping. The meat and seafood versions are equally delicious. Sharing with friends, order several Thali plates, plus a bread basket of assorted house-made rounds. Tulsi’s tandoori oven cooks lots of naan, kulcha and deep-fried poori to order. Their sweet naan with nuts, raisins, coconut and cherry is outstanding. Slurp a fresh mango lassi from your booth in the picture window facing the Cary Court Shopping Center.
Photo by Jay Paul
1 p.m.: Exploring recipes at Tokyo Market
2820 W. Cary St., facebook.com/pg/tokyomart
Listen to owner Chong Akiba (above) banter with her regulars — “Oh, you’re back in town, I would have called you to let you know it was in stock!” she says to one customer picking up okonomiyaki ingredients. Tokyo Market carries a staggering number of Asian specialty items, including sushi supplies and ramen, as well as okonomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes, seaweed and finely chopped red pickles for the popular cabbage-filled Japanese pancakes. New to okonomiyaki? Ask Akiba for a recipe.
3 p.m.: Afternoon tea at Kokee Tea
3300 W. Cary St., kokeetea.com
Shopping for Eastern ingredients will likely leave you craving bubble tea. Located in a mini Asian food court containing Thirsty Joe’s Draft House (with 50 self-serve taps), Kaze Ramen and Zzaam Fresh Korean Grill, Kokee Tea sits ready to satiate. A franchise popular in Northern Virginia, Kokee Tea brews its milk teas with fresh fruit bases, golden cane sugar and organic cream, but the Richmond outpost is known for the food artistry of its local owner, Lee Serikesuma, with local Instagrammers’ favorite being Serikesuma’s puffle, a bubble waffle stuffed with tapioca pearls. The waffle cones are served warm and filled with ice cream, cookies and a seasonal garnish, such as Peeps or red, white and blue Pocky. As tempting as the puffles are, with more to munch in Carytown, an overnight-brewed Thai iced tea with boba fits the bill before heading back down Cary Street.
Photo by Jay Paul
4 p.m.: Purchasing cuts to go at Belmont Butchery
15 N. Belmont Ave., belmontbutchery.com
Just a block out from Cary Street, discover a meat lover’s paradise at Belmont Butchery. Meat maven Tanya Cauthen, a $10,000 winner of Food Network’s “Chopped” indoor grilling challenge in 2017, opened her neighborhood butcher shop in 2006, long before folks were seeking out her standards — hormone- and antibiotic-free, nose-to-tail cuts.
This light and bright shop carries Virginia and European cheeses, wines, and charcuterie cured by Cauthen and her team. The expert crew helps you build a charcuterie platter of prosciutto, speck, several types of house salame and smoked local head cheese — the stained-glass window of porcine treats. Everything is sliced to order. Have the staff vacuum-seal a Japanese A5-graded Wagyu ribeye for a special dinner at home, after they’ve explained the optimal way to cook this extravagant steak.
(From left) Apryl Anderson, Gotham Peddi, Anne Tomsky and Richard Roberst watch glass blower Ian Scott at work inside The Melt. (Photo by Jay Paul)
5 p.m.: Food experiences at Can Can Brasserie
3120 W. Cary St., cancanbrasserie.com
or The Melt
3027 W. Cary St., facebook.com/themeltrva
Next up, a choose-your-own-adventure happy hour. Francophiles will love the long pewter bar (often mistaken for zinc) that snakes around this Balthazar-inspired, Beaux Art and Art Deco brasserie in the heart of Carytown. Afternoon brings out buskers, and folks queue up for custom floral designs by Christopher Flowers, which arranges and vends from the sidewalk. Can Can’s buzzy outdoor patio brims with carafes of rosé and platters of oysters on the half shell, both on deal.
But if you’re in the mood for something inside with a pool table, choose The Melt. Over cocktails, you notice sparks flying in an adjacent room at the combination cafe and glass-blowing studio. At 5 p.m., it’s a prime time to catch one of the glass artists at work. If you’re lucky, and it’s a weekend, there might be a DJ, glass-making demonstration and trunk show later. Visit them on Facebook for updates.
Photo by Justin Chesney
7 p.m.: Dinner at The Broken Tulip
3129 W. Cary St., thebrokentulip.com
The Broken Tulip is a social eatery run by David Crabtree-Logan and his wife, Sariann Lehrer, both of whom are well-traveled chefs. There’s one seating at 7 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, which often sells out. Of their spontaneous dinner parties — there’s no set menu, and the long, communal tables are shared — Crabtree-Logan says, “You’re coming to our house. There are no white tablecloths, but we take the food very seriously and give the best quality available to us from our local vendors.” Sample spring dishes include asparagus and a poached egg with a cured yolk and burnt green garlic powder or rabbit braised with country ham, Mokum carrots, white beans and arugula pesto.
Besides six-course dinners, the couple supports a Tuesday ramen pop up with Kudzu; a stitch and game night on Wednesdays, with an inexpensive bar menu; and Sunday brunch.
9 p.m.: Dessert at Kilwins
3115 W. Cary St., kilwins.com/richmond
Travelers might recognize the Kilwins name from Charlottesville or Williamsburg, but the Richmond emporium — one of only four in the state — has the most goodies. Owners Valerie and Derek Poh located their shop in the same Carytown storefront that Derek’s family owned and operated as Carey Burke Carpets from 1978 to 2017.
Sample one of 32 flavors of ice cream, marvel at the glossy chocolate-dipped strawberries and apples, sink your teeth into house-made fudge, or drool over the waffle cones singeing on the irons. The store is chockablock with ice cream cakes, dipped marshmallows and gourmet popcorn for gifting.
11 p.m.: Drinks at The Jasper
3113 W. Cary St., jasperbarrva.com
There’s little to denote that the plain black exterior you’re walking into is of interest except the swinging “BAR” sign hanging above The Jasper’s door. Inside, the sparkling cocktail lounge won an ASID award for its designers, Campfire & Co. Copper-colored booths, diminutive cocktail tables, and wooden, mirrored bar shelves conjure up images of Midcentury New York supper clubs. But it’s the drinks that steal the show.
Garden & Gun magazine named Mattias Hägglund and Thomas “T” Leggett (who opened the bar with partner Kevin Liu) two of the South’s top barkeeps in 2018 and The Jasper one of “The South’s Best New Bars.” Order a Negroni on draft or a Quoit Club Punch, the classic Richmond tipple made with Madeira, brandy and rum that was popularized at the late-18th-century Richmond social club of the same name.
Shaun Reeves in the Galaxy Diner kitchen (Photo by Jay Paul)
1 a.m.: Late-night fare at Galaxy Diner
3109 W. Cary St., Facebook
After 20 years, this classic, extra-crispy diner underwent a facelift last summer. Though the floors and AC have been refreshed, the immense, creative menu — and drinks served in alien cups — remain. Under flying saucer lights throwing rainbows of color, stave off the evening alcohol’s effects with a Breakfast Burger, loaded fries and what may be one of the most unusual dishes you’ll ever order, the Knock Me Up Scotty — fried pickles and ranch dressing with hard-boiled egg and a scoop of ice cream on the side. Don’t worry, your tattooed waiter serves without judgement.