Beaucoup will open in the former Commercial Taphouse space at 111 N. Robinson St. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
A Paris-inspired dive bar with oysters and cocktails aplenty will soon bring life to a former Fan stalwart. Chef and Grisette and Jardin co-owner Donnie Glass is partnering with longtime bar manager Elias “Eli” Adams to debut Beaucoup in the shuttered Commercial Taphouse space at 111 N. Robinson St. by the end of the year.
“We had really talked at length about opening a restaurant together, and this kind of fell into our laps and was too good to say no,” Glass says.
The duo originally met while working at the now shuttered Citizen Burger Bar in Carytown and quickly bonded. When Glass further rooted himself in the Richmond restaurant scene with the debut of Grisette, a French spot in Church Hill, in 2019, Adams joined as bar manager and has been helming the program ever since.
Now, after working together for more than six years, the twosome are ready to take their relationship to the next level.
“At a certain point, you either grow together or you lose that person, you either make an opportunity for them to hit the next stage of their hospitality career or they can go work for someone else or start their own thing,” Glass says.
Glass opted for the growth route. When a fellow chef connected him with Joseph Miller, the owner of Commercial Taphouse, Glass saw an opportunity. Miller was looking to exit the business, and Glass was looking to expand — and he had just the right partner for embarking on this next chapter.
“The situation with Eli is unique; it’s a unique relationship and partnership we have that I don’t share with everyone,” Glass says. “I think it starts with our understanding of one another personally, not even professional. We have shared values in what we appreciate in a work place and appreciate in life.”
And while they can easily agree on where to dine on a night out in Richmond and that operating a restaurant after midnight in their 30s is not in the cards, their alignment extends further.
“We can communicate without speaking. When you work with someone by your side for that long, it’s easy at a certain point,” Glass says.
French for “a lot,” Beaucoup will feature a menu that ebbs and flows depending on what farmers are growing, leaning toward Old World comfort fare.
“From a food concept standpoint, we’re going to be very similar to Grisette and Jardin, where we are fiercely seasonal and militantly local, and what character that takes on within these four walls is still kind of TBD,” Glass says.
Beaucoup aims to complement its sister concepts as a place where guests can drop in for a dozen oysters “priced for the people,” enjoy a few snacky plates and then wash it all down with a pint or a glass of bubbles — unpretentious, casual and a place to visit more than once a week.
“I think, first and foremost, it must remain a neighborhood bar,” says Glass, who also notes that beer, the underlying foundation of the building (it was once owned by The Answer Brewpub’s An Bui and had 20 taps), will not be forgotten.
Reviving some former relationships with oyster farmers from his time at Public Fish and Oyster in Charlottesville, Glass, who also spent years working on Martha’s Vineyard, says diners will undoubtedly spot Virginia selections on the menu. The sommelier in him, who celebrates terroir and its ability to imprint specific regional flavors on the products that originate there, is also excited to showcase a bounty of bivalves.
“I think oysters are interesting enough and a unique enough thing, to where it’s like wine. … It draws a lot of parallels, and I want to be able to share that with people in this place,” he says.
While oyster sticker shock has become the norm, with prices hovering around $3 to $4 per mollusk, Glass says, “This isn’t going to be the kind of place where it’s $3 an oyster no matter what. The working class isn’t going to be left behind. It doesn’t need to be a fancy food that’s dressed up with accompaniments and ices, and that stuff is cool, but that’s not what we’re after.”
No stranger to reviving more seasoned spaces, Glass and crew introduced Jardin in early 2022, turning the bygone beer-soaked college bar Baja Bean Co. and its storied patio into a festive wine hangout, cafe and bottle shop.
“We’re taking an old spot that has been neglected for a really long time,” Glass says of Commercial Taphouse, “and it’s beautiful, a lot like Jardin, the bones of the place are gorgeous. The space just wants someone to care about it.”
Low on space at his other concepts, Glass plans to ditch the pool table and dartboards upstairs in the new building, transforming the square footage into a baking lair and charcuterie camp and allowing a greater focus on Grisette and Jardin’s bread programs, run by sous-chef Dylan Nemetz.
“We wanted it to feel like it connected to the other two restaurants … and to have this in our portfolio, if you will, it scratches a bit of this professional itch of mine to own a bar,” Glass says. “It’s a place for everyone, a place that’s fairly inexpensive and a place that also takes its food and beverage as seriously as Grisette does.”
