Soul Taco has transformed its Shockoe Bottom location into a market. (Photo courtesy Soul Taco)
Pivot. It’s the word of the moment amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, particularly in the dining industry, and it’s loaded with the rueful quality of those buzzwords born of desperation, weighed down with an implied question: How will any given restaurant survive this crisis? The truth is, chefs don’t want to be pivoting like football players on a crowded infield; they want to be doing what they do best, running a restaurant and, well, cooking.
But pivot they must, and, if anything, the coronavirus has revealed the indelible quality of the entrepreneurial spirit. Small-business owners are resilient and quick on their feet, and as the food service industry finds itself stymied, Richmond restaurateurs are showing just how resourceful they can be.
The Broken Tulip
Since closing their doors in mid-March, Broken Tulip owners David Crabtree-Logan and Sariann Lehrer have kept busy curating and preparing weekly offerings of intriguing wines and house-made small-batch goodies such as duck egg pasta, posole and sticky toffee pudding. At the beginning of April, the duo introduced $35 provisions boxes, stocked with a thoughtful combination of staple items and fresh produce from farms including Whippoorwill, Agriberry, North Coast Robot, Bear Bottom and Tomten. The boxes and a la carte options, which are available for curbside pickup or delivery through Broken Tulip’s web store, sell out quickly, and all delivery fees go directly to their staff. —Stephanie Ganz
Dutch & Co.
If you’ve ever wondered about the artful mastery behind Dutch & Co.’s Perfect Egg, the recipe may soon be revealed. Owners Michelle Shriver and Caleb Shriver are currently working on introducing a series of videos paired with “Blue Apron-style meals” for customers to prepare at home. In addition to the current hot-and-ready takeout menu and cocktails to go, the Church Hill restaurant has begun to sell house-made spicy capicola and bacon, packaged sausage, pickled items, D&C hot sauce, side dishes such as potato salad, and smoked fish dips. “We want to be able to give people a product that’s similar to going to the grocery store but still carries a little bit of what makes Dutch & Co. Dutch & Co.,” explains Shriver, who says they are operating like this is the new normal. “I don’t want to be a place that has no face anymore; I want to keep the personality in our business of some sort and keep contact, obviously not physical, with customers.” Beginning next week, guests can preorder fish that is sourced from purveyor Reliant Fish Co. On Saturdays, the Shrivers host Back Door Dogs — an hourlong pop-up featuring innovative spins on hot dogs. —Eileen Mellon
Good Foods Grocery
Good Foods Grocery owner Donnie Caffery is using his 35-year-old Bon Air neighborhood market as a means of assisting farmers and vendors as they discover new ways to reach their customers. Longtime grower Amy Hicks of Amy’s Organic Garden plans to host a preorder plant pickup on the sidewalk in front of the store on Saturday, April 25, and Tuesday, April 28. Beginning in early May, Amy’s Garden will deliver preordered produce to Good Foods on Thursday afternoons and use the independent grocer as a second pickup location for its CSA members. Caffery says the program will continue as long as the need is there. “It is clear a strong local food system is the best way to support our citizens in times of crisis, where long hauling may be disrupted and mega meat processors close,” he adds. Those interested in the program, which is open to local farmers and vendors who grow or produce what they sell, should contact Beth Ferguson at Good Foods Grocery. —EM
The HofGarden
Bobby Kruger, owner of music venue and rooftop bar The HofGarden, doesn’t like to refer to the market he set up for furloughed staff inside his business as a pivot. “It’s more survival for our staff and effort on our end to try to do what little we could to limit exposure and flatten the curve,” he says. While the market is currently on pause, Kruger's forthcoming winery and event space Brambly Park is not. Tucked away on 2 acres on Belleville Street in Scott’s Addition, the venture is weeks away from completion, Kruger says, and his goal is to use its social distancing-friendly square footage to establish an expanded version of The HofGarden market that will be open to the public. He says he hopes it will eventually grow into a full-fledged farmers market. “We’re trying to get people groceries and limit exposure,“ Kruger says. “Something we’re hoping to do with the new [space] is [offer products from] more local producers and local farms; they are also suffering.” —EM
Porked
Grisette Chef Donnie Glass and former JM Stock Provisions butcher-owner James Lum first struck up a friendship when the two worked together in Charlottesville. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the two, now neighbors in Church Hill, have teamed up to conceive Porked, a $60 hog share, a nose-to-tail endeavor providing customers with “a chef’s choice of fresh cuts, sausage and charcuterie” following the formula “something quick, something slow, something smoked and something to go,” a nursery rhyme gone deliciously porcine. Porked sources, as Grisette did, directly from Autumn Olive Farms because, Glass explains, “The Trainum family raise the highest quality pig money can buy, and picking up a hog or two every other week [is] great for them as well.” —SG
Sharktooth Seafood
The waters of the Northern Neck run through chef Brittanny Anderson’s blood. Her family has been crabbing and fishing in Westmoreland County for several generations. So when the restaurants of which Anderson is a co-owner — Brenner Pass, Metzger Bar & Butchery, and Chairlift — were forced to close their dining rooms, Anderson asked her uncle Larry Thrift about selling the crabs he caught to customers in Richmond. “It started as a funny idea, but the response has been overwhelming,” says Anderson, who travels to the peninsula weekly to retrieve enough blue crabs for orders for full and half bushels, placed via Instagram. “We are looking forward to growing the products we can sell to include soft shells and maybe rockfish,” Anderson adds. —SG
Soul Taco
When owners Trey Owens, Nar Hovnanian and Ari Augenbaum took a trip to Restaurant Depot pre-lockdown and spotted massive boxes of TP, a lightbulb went off. “We thought, we still have access to this, and others do not, and we were also buying in bulk,” Hovnanian says. Their less-than-a-year-old Shockoe Bottom location has turned mini market, now offering everything from fresh produce to plates, CBD products from Richmond-based Gilliam’s Farm and tees designed by Hamilton Glass with proceeds benefiting staff. Thirsty? Each week Soul Taco debuts a cocktail kit complete with local booze, ingredients, tools and directions. Diners can also find Augenbaum on Instagram hosting live cooking demos paired with prepurchased dinner kits available on their website. First up: Soft-shell crabs with jicama salad and Cajun remoulade. P.S.: Restaurant workers craving tacos can head there for discounted tacos and margaritas. —EM
