The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our January 2025 issue.
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Adarra owners Randall and Lyne Doetzer
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Adarra is open Thursday through Monday at 501 S. Pine St. in Oregon Hill.
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Bar seating at Adarra
When spouses Randall and Lyne Doetzer first opened their restaurant, Adarra, in Jackson Ward on Valentine’s Day in 2019, they made some concessions.
Despite the limitations of the space, such as the lack of a walk-in freezer, the tenured duo managed to crank out plates of seasonal, unfussy Basque-inspired delicacies, curate one of the most expansive biodynamic wine selections in the city, and garner regional and national acclaim.
But a desire for more, a feeling of “What if?” lingered. Never losing sight of what they wanted to be, they remained patient.
A few years into operations, they learned the building that had housed one of Richmond’s most iconic, garlic-tinged Italian hideaways for nearly three decades was back on the market after a development deal fell through. In the summer of 2022, the pair purchased the inconspicuous former site of Mamma Zu, at 501 S. Pine St. in Oregon Hill. The power move gave the Doetzers something they had been working toward their entire careers: ownership of their own building and, in turn, control of their restaurant’s future.
“This was the path forward that makes the most sense,” Randall says. “It was super important for us to find a building that looked like what we had before, a huge goal to have it feel the same. A lot comes down to having the same staff and the same vibe. A lot of things will be very familiar but much more put together. We’re real big romantics of, just the old-school way of restaurants, really. We want to bring the same uniqueness back to the corner.”
This month, the Doetzers reintroduced their magnum opus in its forever home, a deeply personal project 2 1/2 years in the making. The tiny window on the side of the building now offers a peek into a very different space.
The restaurant’s details reflect a series of lessons learned over many years in the business. Thoughtful touches include a filtered water station for staff out of sight of diners; a soundproof office for a silent escape; an ample dish pit with its own thermostat and speaker controls; and a fully shockproof, temperature-, light- and humidity-controlled room that can preserve the roughly 3,000 bottles of organic and low-intervention wines the level-two sommeliers have amassed over the years. And yes, a massive walk-in.
Of his team, Randall says, “To give adults incentive to be at work and to do a good job, you have to be able to give them the right things and be able to give them the space to do it.”
Every decision was precisely considered, from the distance between tables to the paging system and the imported stone in the bathroom, coincidentally hailing from the Basque Country of Spain. While checking these boxes led to a long, costly and near-complete overhaul of the building, the Doetzers see it as the only way.
“With our professional lives, basically our whole lives, we’ve been beholden to a landlord,” Randall says. “We just never had the ability to stretch out, to be able to get new things, to be able to have the storage that we need to do [what we do]. It’s just giving ourselves more back end and fixing all the problems that we’ve always had.”
Aiding in their vision was 86-year-old designer and artist Ronnie Renmark of Renmark Designs, who also worked on the original Adarra and does everything by hand. Essentially leaving only the shell of the restaurant, with the help of Kettlewell Construction they have given the building a total renovation while managing to preserve the structure and exude a timeless look.
The Doetzers inside the newly renovated and relocated Adarra
Inside, the ambitious new Adarra feels transcendent. The dining room is opulent but not over the top, regal yet refined and captivating but not showy. There are pops of handcarved hardwood, impeccably soft leathers, stunning marble and, gracing the walls, glowing, gold-framed, beautifully detailed watercolors.
The menu is steered by an eye-catching custom adjustable wood-fired cooking system sourced from Atlanta’s Grills by Demant.
“This is one of the things that we wanted to do, run the whole entire service off of this,” Randall says of the kitchen setup.
In the back of the house, he is joined by longtime Adarra chef Nick Hancock, with whom he has worked for nearly 15 years since meeting at Julep’s New Southern Cuisine.
“Our staff is the only reason this works at all; they understand the weight that comes with opening here,” Randall says.
Despite employing a vested, veteran crew, including bar manager Danny McDermott, the Doetzers know this will be a learning experience and that the dishes emerging from the kitchen will develop over time.
“The evolution is going to be the interesting part of it, because what we do in the beginning with this is probably going to be very different than what we do in a month, in two months, in six months, in a year,” Randall says.
Small plates in these opening days include razor clams with butter, lemon and toast; beet salad with black and blue cheese (from FireFly Farms in Maryland), hazelnut, and dill; and octopus salad with pickled kohlrabi and fennel bulb. Featured mains include pork belly with beans and cabbage and a 27-ounce pork chop, both sourced from the Shenandoah Valley’s Autumn Olive Farms, as well as lamb loin from Meadows Pride Farm in Highland County, served with leeks and jus. Other initial offerings include rockfish with Swiss chard and gigante beans; whole-fish preparations such as black bass with charred scallion butter and pompano with roasted garlic vinaigrette; and for dessert, the light yet decadent Basque cheesecake.
As for wines, there is no list for bottles; instead, the Rolodex of selections is safely stored in the mind of Adarra’s wine maven, Lyne. Simply share a budget and preference, and she’ll take care of the rest.
Speaking to an overall decline in quality and excitement in the field, as well as a dire need for a more appealing and sustainable industry for both employees and customers, Randall says, “Just having this extra seating capacity, this walkable neighborhood, everything [makes] it a more adult experience for everyone.”
He adds that while they can’t change the cost of goods, they can try to ensure that the choice to dine with Adarra is worth it.
“We’re putting it all out there. We have to make some incentive for people to go out,” he says. “I think that’s really at the heart of this whole place: Everybody here legitimately gives a f---. Restaurants need to be a certain thing, a certain feel when you go in there; you need to be taken care of and not have to worry about s---. It’s our job to make sure that the value is there, and that’s everything that we try and do; that’s everything that we have to do. What we always ask people to do is just kind of trust the process.”
Adarra 2.0 presents a direct and deliberate message from its team: Give it your all or don’t even bother.
“This is the loudest voice that we have as we come into the most iconic spot in the city, come in [and] do the most ridiculous job, with the most ridiculous, over-the-top s---, all the most ridiculous, over-the-top people,” Randall says. “You know, do you want to come play the game or not? Why open anything if you’re not going to f------ do anything any better than before?”
Adarra is open Thursday through Monday from 5 to 10 p.m., and tables are available by reservation only, with walk-in service available at the bar.
