Ask Axios: When are Tio Pablo and TJ's reopening?

This week, we have a pair of questions from readers on restaurants that have been closed for a bit.

Question: "Tio Pablo has been 'temporarily closed' since early summer. Can you do some investigating and find out what the deal is? " asks reader Gabby T.

Answer: The Shockoe Bottom taco joint has been suffering from the same staffing challenges as most Richmond restaurants, the owners tell Axios.

They're trying to staff up now to reopen this spring — and the restaurant's Instagram looks like they're ramping up that effort.

• In the meantime, it is available for private parties and they pull staff from their nearby restaurant LuLu's to make that work.

Question: Will TJ's restaurant in the Jefferson Hotel ever reopen, asks Judy G.

Answer: "We appreciate the interest, but no decisions have been made," Jennifer Crisp, the hotel's spokesperson, tells Axios.

Crisp declined to elaborate, but the casual, often cheaper downstairs cousin of Lemaire has been closed since at least the pandemic. But if we had to guess, those previously mentioned staffing challenges are a big factor.

The restaurant industry lost around 2.2 million jobs during the pandemic as former workers found careers in other fields.