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Ginny Sower and Justin Cropper, owners of Wishbone Food Shop at 2 N. Sixth St.
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Wishbone is open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch.
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Wishbone Food Shop also offers coffee service.
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The space is separated in two with a walk-up counter and dining room area.
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A chalkboard lists daily offerings.
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The name of the business is a nod to when Cropper and longtime pal Nate Gutierrez of Don’t Look Back would save the wishbones when picking chickens.
If you tally up Ginny Sower and Justin Cropper’s restaurant resumes, it’s a vast and varied catalog of beloved Richmond food and beverage establishments.
There’s the post-culinary school stint Cropper held at Lemaire, which eventually led to post-shift bike rides to Kuba Kuba, where Sower served him nightcaps. Speaking of late libations, Sower also worked at 3rd Street Diner, Bandito’s and Lulu’s, while Cropper dabbled at Don’t Look Back, followed by Rappahannock and Union Market.
Now, after decades in the industry, the duo have settled on a spot to call their own. Located at 2 N. Sixth St., downtown cafe Wishbone Food Shop is now open, serving breakfast and lunch.
“I’ve helped open a lot of restaurants for a lot of different people, and after doing it and doing it and doing it, it kind of created this opportunity to do it for ourselves,” Cropper says. “I know how to cook, I know how to order [supplies], I feel confident, and I want to do something small, neighborhood, walkable.”
Sowers, a Richmond native, says that when Cropper moved back to the city from California in 2012, she messaged him to give her a ring. “He called me 20 minutes later, and then we talked and we were on the phone for a few hours, and we’ve been hanging out ever since,” she says with a smile.
Wishbone exudes a pop-in, pop-out sort of feel, offering diners the opportunity to make a quick stop or stay a while. “The space is already kind of divided in half, so it works,” says Cropper, who can recall coming into the space as a customer in the ’90s when it was Cafe Ole. (Cafe Ole closed in 2021.)
One side features a walk-up counter, chalkboard menus and a row of bar seating, while the other presents a cozy den dotted with an assortment of tables, the walls decorated with antique and vintage Richmond relics such as a John Marshall High School diploma, a postcard destined for Delaware that didn’t quite make it and a framed picture from a former Grace Street bar called Andy’s, where Sower’s dad used to work.
The menu at Wishbone is influenced by everything from Spanish and Italian fare to Mexican and South American cuisine. In the a.m., offerings (ranging from $5-$13) include classics such as a breakfast burrito; a fried egg sandwich; a morning sampler with eggs, meat and toast dubbed the 6th Street Breakfast; and a chorizo hash. Diners can also find an egg and kimchi sandwich with avocado on ciabatta; Bombolini smoked salmon, whipped ricotta, cucumber and red onion served on a Cupertino’s bagel; chile oil fried eggs with braised greens, yogurt and peanuts; and the Virginny sandwich, with cream cheese, housemade orange marmalade and country ham on an everything bagel.
For the lunch crowd, salads and sandwiches ($11-$14) await — a roast beef sub with poblano peppers, onions, harissa mayo and white cheddar on sourdough; a tuna melt with pickled celery and dill-caper mayo; Italian beef with braised chuck, provolone, giardiniera and pepperoncini on a sesame roll; and chopped, Caesar or farro-pasta salads.
Vegetarian options include a tempeh banh mi with marinated tempeh, mirin-cilantro tofu spread, pickled carrots and chiles, cucumbers, kimchi aioli, radish and basil on a baguette; toasted tomato, marinated figs, taleggio cheese and pesto mayo on sourdough; and a bulgogi tofu burger with tamari, gochuguru- and ginger-marinated tofu with Duke’s mayo and quick pickle slices on brioche.
Located in the ground floor of the former Eskimo Pie building, with 10 floors of offices above and condos and corporate buildings all around, the owners hope to draw from the bustle of the downtown scene.
“I feel like this area really needs this, an easy roll-in, roll-out [place where you] can get breakfast or lunch, and we’re going to be doing espresso and coffee,” Cropper says.
The couple’s hope is to eventually evolve into a market as well, stocked with wine and beer, prepared foods, small groceries and Cropper’s lineup of sauces, which includes a charred Fresno pepper variety with burnt orange and rosemary dubbed Red Dawn, green hatch chile with poblanos and a habanero-guava blend, along with steak and Worcestershire sauces.
By referring to themselves as a food shop, the hope is that the name will allow them the flexibility to go with the flow and see how guests respond.
“As far as opening a restaurant, I don’t know if we ever thought about it; [it’s] always been a cool idea, but with how this has all happened, it’s kind of fallen into place. For me right now, it’s not super scary. I’m like, ‘We can do this.’”
Wishbone Food Shop is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving breakfast from 7 to 10:30 a.m. and lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
