Memi's Egyptian cuisine now open, plus more new Richmond eats
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Memi's sampler spread platter, its Macarona Bechamel and Koshari. Image: Courtesy of Memi's
New restaurants are up and running in RVA to help get us through these cold winter days. Check it out.
🧆 Memi's, the first of three planned Egyptian-focused concepts in the Barrio space, is now open in the Fan District.
- On the menu: Mediterranean-influenced dishes common in Egypt, like hummus, baba ganoush, hawawshi (a crispy pita stuffed with ground beef, $14) and mulukhiyah (a popular Egyptian soup, $8), plus shawarma and falafel sandwiches ($13-$15) and entrees like stuffed whole fish ($22) and lamb shank ($24).
- The full-service restaurant from restaurateur Ramy Yacoub opened last week and is now open daily for dinner and drinks beginning at 3pm.
- A second-story cocktail lounge and coffee shop in the rear of the building will open in the coming weeks.
☕️ Roastology is back, baby, after a nearly yearlong absence for the coffee shop's move from the Fan to Scott's Addition.
- The micro-roaster is running a soft opening this week in its new spot, 3015 W. Clay St., from 8-noon through Saturday. Regular hours (7:30am-2pm) start Monday.
🍕 BrickFire, a restaurant serving pasta and brick oven-fired pizza, opens Friday at 11am in the former Maya spot on Grace and Fifth.
- On the menu: Butternut squash risotto, wood-oven fired meatballs, and plenty of pizzas, including a burrata one with basil and pine nuts ($13-$21). Open Monday-Saturday, 11am-10pm.
🙏 Meanwhile, Sub Rosa — Richmond's beloved, award-winning bakery — will likely be closed for multiple months after a building fire on Nov. 24, the Church Hill spot wrote in an Instagram post.
- The three-time James Beard outstanding baker semifinalists shared on social that the bakery raised more than $50,000 through a GoFundMe to help support their rebuild.
- Sibling co-owners Evin and Evrim Dogu wrote that the money will first go to support the staffers and tenants affected by the fire.
🔜 Coming soon: Roots Natural Kitchen's third Richmond-area spot in the Winterfield Crossing shopping center in Midlothian will open Jan. 11.
- Local restaurateur Garland Taylor closed Sloop John B at Regency to make way for a second location of his American fare Short Pump restaurant, Twin Hickory Tavern. It should open this month.
- The owner of Noorani Kabab House is opening an Indian restaurant, The Biryani Corner, in Rocketts Landing, in the old Bombay Company/Urban Farmhouse spot, BizSense reports. It's slated to open next week.
Closings: 🫗 ICYMI, 21 Spoons restaurant in Midlothian and Surrounding Counties coffee shop in Henrico are set to close at the end of service Dec. 22.
- Each had a four-year run.