Richmond restaurant news: Legend changes and a furniture store/Nordic restaurant
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
It was a busy end of year for #rvadine, so let's just dive in — with some big-deal news.
🍺 Legend Brewing Company, the oldest brewery in the state, closed its in-house Manchester restaurant at the end of the year. It's now officially a brewery only, complete with shorter, taproom hours and a small food menu, served in addition to its 20 or so brews.
- The restaurant-to-brewery shift was effective Jan. 2, the start of its 40th year in business. Legend's new hours are Monday through Thursday, 3-9pm with extended hours on the weekend.
Legend's opening food menu includes chicken wings, Bavarian pretzels and sausage, the Times-Dispatch reported.
- To execute the shift, Legend laid off an undisclosed number of staffers.
Worth noting: Legend opened in 1994, when state law dictated that breweries had to sell food in order to sell their beer on premises.
- For decades, Legend was one of only a handful of craft breweries in Virginia, until a 2012 law change allowed on-premise beer sales and led to an explosion of newcomers.
🐟 Filing this one under things I didn't know existed but am now extremely excited for: A Roanoke-based furniture maker with a showroom/in-house Nordic and Scandinavian-inspired restaurant there is bringing its fantastic concept to Richmond, per BizSense.
- Txtur, the furniture part, and Stock Café & Bar, the Nordic restaurant and cocktail part, are in the works in a former train depot at 604 Hull St. in Manchester and should open by summer. Peek a sample menu here.
🍽 Meanwhile, down the road, Manchester's Table closed at the end of service on Friday after five years in business.
- The restaurant cited the end of its lease for the closure.
🎂 Shyndigz Market, the much–anticipated dine-in bakery/gift, plant and coffee shop from the Shyndigz folks, is now open at 1912 W. Cary St.
- The new spot is open Tuesday-Sunday, 9am-9:30pm.
🎤 Finally, you might be wondering if Mike Lindsey and he and his wife's Lindsey Food Group — Richmond's biggest restaurant owners — announced or opened any new ventures over the break, and the answer is yes, of course they did. One of each.
- The couple announced plans to open The Foundation, a nightlife and live entertainment spot serving cocktails and small plates in the former Sandman Casino Bar at 401 E. Grace St.
The new restaurant will host nightly shows, including live jazz, blues and comedy, and should open by early February, according to the Times-Dispatch.
The Foundation will be the group's third on that block, joining Lillie Pearl and Buttermilk + Honey, and fifth in the broader downtown area.
- Meanwhile, just around the corner, the group's planned private event spot, RedBird Social, looks to be officially open for business and actively booking parties at 100 N. Sixth St., in the former Crown Room and Greenleaf's Pool Room