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Interior of Don't Look Back South
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Don't Look Back South is located at 7524 Forest Hill Ave.
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The bar at Don't Look Back South.
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Each Don't Look Back location is home to a quote board.
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Words of inspiration inside Don't Look Back South
South Side Don’t Look Back fans no longer need to cross the river to satisfy their cravings for Chef Nate Gutierrez's taco creations — Don’t Look Back South, located at 7524 Forest Hill Ave., opened its doors on Monday, Nov. 26.
Following a fire at the original Carytown Don’t Look Back in July 2017 that forced the restaurant to close, owner Hamooda Shami turned to Facebook. He conducted a survey and polled the public on where the future taco enclave should be. The people spoke, and Shami and co-owner Gutierrez listened.
Although Don’t Look Back Triple opened in Scott’s Addition in May, Shami and Gutierrez wanted to operate two restaurants to satisfy the high volume of customers from their shuttered Carytown location.
Shami shares that the duo has always liked South Side, and that, while living in Northern Virginia, he would often travel into D.C. to visit restaurants, but traffic and travel times proved to be a hassle.
“South Side could kind of be a similar dynamic,” he explains. “I love Scott’s Addition, but if I lived out here I may not necessarily want to go out there on a random weeknight.”
Don't Look Back South joins a handful of restaurants that have trickled into South Side and the Forest Hill Avenue corridor in recent years including Galley, Galley Go-To, Little Nickel and Laura Lee’s.
“In a lot of ways, I feel like South Side has been kind of ignored by a lot of indie places for a while, and it’s changing,” says Shami. “Scott’s Addition is more the area everybody is talking about … but this area of Richmond has already matured.”
DLB South diners can expect a menu similar to Triple's with some small tweaks. The South Side location boasts its own signature taco, the TVP, a chorizo-style textured vegetable protein that can be served traditional, with cilantro, red onion and lime, or gringo style, with cheese, lettuce, sour cream and salsa.
Nods to the past are scattered around DLB South, with mementos from the original Don’t Look Back along with Shami’s past restaurant endeavors: a bear head from Portrait House hung at the bar, a frame from the Carytown DLB, a familiar decoupage decorating the walls, the beloved quote board, and a Bob Dylan album, a reference to the 1967 documentary about his UK concert tour "Don’t Look Back," also a Belle & Sebastian song from whose lyrics the restaurant’s name is derived.
Shami says DLB South is reminiscent of the original Don’t Look Back, possessing a cozy, casual, neighborhood hangout vibe, while Triple’s space is much larger with a focus on gaming. The plan is to introduce an outdoor patio by the spring.
Don’t Look Back South will be open every day from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
