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Located in Manchester, Hatch Local is the city's first food hall.
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Hatch Local's courtyard
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(From left) Hatch Local General Manager Annie Holland and Lynx Ventures Director of Retail Strategy and Operations Joya Calrton
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In addition to The Beet Box juice bar, Hatch Local is home to a coffee bar that will open at 8 a.m. on days the food hall is open.
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Odyssey Fish is led by Hatch Local Chef-in-residence Lee Gregory of Southbound and Alewife.
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Fat Kid Sandwiches serves towering triple-decker clubs and meaty Italians with gluten-free and vegan options available.
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Hatch Local is split between two buildings.
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Hatch Local features a full bar with beer, wine and a cocktail menu devised by Beth Dixon of Salt & Acid consulting.
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Spouses Mike Lindsey and Kimberly Love-Lindsey will debut two neighboring concepts in the food hall — Buttermilk and Honey (pictured here) and Bully Burger.
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Adam Stull and Vanna Hem are the owners of Royal Pig, which serves Cambodian fare.
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A seating area inside Hatch Local
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More indoor seating
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The Hatch Local storefront for Sincero, serving Mexican food
After much anticipation, the wait is finally over. Richmond’s burgeoning food and beverage scene will enter a new era when it welcomes the city’s first food hall this week. On Wednesday, March 23, Lynx Ventures will debut Hatch Local, featuring seven diverse food vendors in addition to a cafe, cocktail bar and outdoor courtyard. Located in Manchester, Hatch Local is the anchor of the mixed-use community The Current at 400 Hull St.
The cast of characters inside is a blend of businesses at varying stages in their careers. For some, such as chef-in-residence and Alewife owner Lee Gregory, the seafood spinoff Odyssey Fish is a chance to test the waters with a fast-casual concept. For husband and wife Mike Lindsey and Kimberly Love-Lindsey, this marks an extension of their ever-growing dining empire, introducing a new location of Buttermilk & Honey — a fried chicken concept also operating in Short Pump — along with their latest venture, Bully Burger.
“I’m a big believer in the high tide rises all ships, so this place is really about giving people the opportunity to test-drive their ideas and experiment, because there is definitely the market to support them,” says Joya Carlton, director of retail strategy and operations for Lynx Ventures.
For Alex Bobadilla and Karen Negvesky of Sincero, whose tacos sold out within hours during their first pop-up at The Veil Brewing Co. in 2018, opening this stall at Hatch Local is rewarding, and a sign of their maturation in the industry. Having gained a faithful following over the past four years, the Brenner Pass and Metzger Bar & Butchery alumni are ready for the next step.
“My life is definitely about to change,” Bobadilla says with a laugh. “It feels like a new chapter. I think we’ve done a lot of things right to get to this point, and it’s always just been about other people coming and hanging out with us and eating food … and I think that will translate here."
No longer living the nomadic lifestyle inherent with pop-ups, Bobadilla says he will have to navigate unknown territory of ordering food for an almost 12-hour day and leading operations in the kitchen.
“Just a new level and new step of managing people,” he says. “It feels great, we’re very grateful, and it’s very humbling that we’ve done it for this long as a pop-up and it’s finally happening.”
The full lineup at the food hall includes Sincero as well as Fat Kid Sandwiches, from husband-and-wife duo Liz Clifford and Jon Martin, serving towering sammies; a second wellness, juice and smoothie bar location for The Beet Box from owners Antione “Roc” Meredith and Ashley Lewis; Cambodian fare at Royal Pig from industry veterans Vanna Hem and Adam Stull; the patty-forward concept Bully Burger; Buttermilk and Honey; and Odyssey Fish.
Gregory’s menu for Odyssey presents a playful mix of forward-thinking, chef-driven dishes, but with accessibility in mind, featuring bites such as catfish on a stick, served with Buffalo sauce and buttermilk ranch. Diners can also find shrimp toast with green apple, pickled carrot and Old Bay aioli; a beet salad; a crispy pork rice bowl with cucumber, house-made kimchi and nori aioli, and more.
A courtyard area with tables runs between the Hatch Local businesses. Best known for crafting cocktails at restaurants including the shuttered Pasture, in addition to Perch and L’Opossum, seasoned spirit master Beth Dixon of beverage consulting business Salt & Acid designed the bar menu for Hatch Local. There are a handful of cocktails on tap, including The Richmond Metro, with jasmine-infused Blue Ridge vodka, Belle Isle Blood Orange moonshine, cranberry juice, lime cordial, citric acid and club soda, and The Bullyvard, with rye whiskey and black tea from local purveyor Roots infused with sweet vermouth and cappelletti. A mixed-use permit allows Hatch Local patrons to travel freely between both sides of the food hall and the outside area with a boozy beverage in hand.
Other Hatch Local features include a private dining room that seats 25 and can be rented for special events or meetings, along with a small market area stocked with local goods and an area for dessert purveyors to pop up and sell treats, with The Sweetest Thing kicking things off.
The coffee bar will serve Afterglow Coffee — from a recently launched coffee cooperative formed by Lamplighter Coffee Roasters alumni — as well as tea from Roots. Inside, there is a dedicated area for to-go orders, and when placing orders online, patrons will have the flexibility of being able to mix and match dishes and drinks from various businesses.
Just as the opening of Hatch Local is a milestone in the journeys of its resident businesses, the food hall's debut is a step forward for the Richmond dining scene.
“We’ll see how people use the space; this is such a new concept, and the business model we’ve worked towards is using our collective bargaining power and power as a group when we collaborate to run a really streamlined efficient business,” says Carlton, former executive chef at New York’s pioneering vegetarian restaurant The Butcher’s Daughter, as well as co-founder of Brooklyn Brine and a longtime food consultant.
Unlike most food halls, at Hatch Local vendors do not pay rent; instead they pay a percentage of sales and are not locked into a lease. Carlton says this allows fluidity with businesses and presents opportunities for them to explore the best ways to be successful. Since the initial announcement of food hall vendors, pasta-centric concept Oro is no longer part of the lineup, and Hatch Kitchen co-founder and President Austin Green has parted ways with the company.
As for more food halls from Lynx Ventures in the future? “I’m very, very hopeful and excited to see what other spaces we can take over in the area, because I think this model has so much potential and there’s a lot of strength in this idea that we can share resources,” Carlton says. “We’re definitely going to try and open more and already looking at some other spaces. That’s one thing I really love about Richmond: Everyone is so supportive and genuinely pumped. … This is exciting for all of us.”
Hatch Local will kick off a grand-opening event on March 23 at 8 a.m. with Afterglow Coffee, Roots and The Beet Box. Hatch Local will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
