Shortly after hitting the one-year mark, Restaurant Adarra was forced to close its dining room due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Justin Chesney)
In the beginning of March, Iliana White-Padilla went on vacation, a final opportunity to relax before transitioning into the role of restaurateur. An homage to the cuisine and culture of Mexico City, the forthcoming eatery Kahlo’s Taqueria & Tequila is a dream three years in the making and a display of her unwavering dedication.
Upon her return, however, weeks away from opening her restaurant’s doors, the coronavirus was deemed a global pandemic, with Gov. Ralph Northam issuing a stay-at-home order for the commonwealth.
“I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and then this happened,” White-Padilla says. She watched as one of the most devastating crises ever to affect the industry pummeled Richmond’s dining scene.
“It was like a punch in the stomach when we found out this was going on,” she continues. “We have worked so hard to get the place ready and were so excited about opening.”
Newly ordered kitchen equipment, boxes of interior decor ready to adorn the walls and stacks of menus now sit idle inside the Union Hill space. White-Padilla shares that a springtime launch was important, as she envisioned a patio filled with margarita-drinking patrons. Now all that has changed.
The majority of White-Padilla’s staff is family, and her father, the owner of Amigo’s Mexican Restaurant near Willow Lawn, is also feeling the impact. Although it may not be the debut she planned, White-Padilla remains optimistic, still intending to open and offer takeout.
Beyond those on the brink of opening, relatively new owners are also feeling pressure from COVID-19. After weathering the storm of the first year in business, maneuvering through initial hiccups big and small, getting into an operating groove, and building a rapport with staff and regulars, they hit a brick wall.
“The fact is, we are a small restaurant with only a year under our belts,” says Randall Doetzer, chef and co-owner of the nationally and locally acclaimed Restaurant Adarra with his wife, Lyne.
“We were just starting to heavily invest in ourselves — now we are shutting down. This is insane.”
The owners of Charlotte’s Southern Deli and Tapas remain hopeful about reopening in the future. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
Doetzer’s sentiments are echoed by fellow chef-owners Nikki Gregory and Paul Polk. When their downtown spot, Charlotte’s Southern Deli and Tapas, celebrated a year in April, its doors were closed for the anniversary. On Gregory’s birthday two weeks prior, they had to lay off their entire staff after having hired them just a few months earlier due to an increase in business.
“It’s so frustrating — we put all this hard work into [the restaurant], and then literally something out of your hands ruins it,” Gregory says, noting that it felt like Charlotte’s had finally hit its stride. “It’s one thing to close with answers; we just have to close and wait.”
At the beginning of March, the Johnson & Wales graduates noticed that business had begun to slow, and eventually the once-bustling financial district around them became lifeless.
“We have all those windows, and we saw everybody loading their computers and files into their car — it was just like, ‘Wow,’ ” Gregory recalls.
Charlotte’s pivoted to takeout for two weeks, but when the previously popular lunchtime destination only welcomed customers in the single digits, they knew it was time to hit pause.
“We thought, OK, we’ll close, save our money and try again when this bounces back,” Gregory says.
“We were just starting to heavily invest in ourselves — now we are shutting down.” —Randall Doetzer, chef and co-owner of Restaurant Adarra
Commuting between Richmond and New York while maintaining a gig as a traveling chef for a luxury train car, Jessica Wilson says she felt a heightened sense of momentum entering 2020, ready to fully commit herself to her anticipated neighborhood restaurant, Grace.
Now, the chef-owner, who still hopes to launch on the corner of Chimborazo Boulevard and Marshall Street by late summer, says, “I have this feeling of being unsure of a lot of things — nothing feels secure.”
Recently, she ripped up the flooring inside the space and expected electrical and plumbing work to follow.
“It came to a screeching halt — they said they can’t do anything,” Wilson says of the contractors. Over the past two years, as Grace has blossomed from vision to reality, Wilson has hosted pop-ups in order to raise capital and get acquainted with the community, two things that have become increasingly difficult.
The native New Englander plans to continue to complete as much of the work on the building herself as she can, but she’s concerned about access to supplies over the coming months. Despite the unexpected challenges, Wilson's resolve is strong.
“It’s really scary, I just have to take it one day at a time,” she says. “The end goal is still the end goal. It’s been so long and so much effort. You have to imagine that we will get through, and this, too, shall pass. It will change things, but if anything, make the community stronger and people realize restaurants are necessities.”
