Restaurant news: Ripple Ray's comes to Carytown while Roots to open in Chesterfield
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Ripple Ray's opens today in Carytown. Image: Courtesy of a reader
It might be cold AF in RVA (with more cold weather on the way), but water is flowing and drinkable (for now) and new restaurants are open.
- Here are a few you can check out now:
☮️ Ripple Ray's — the Grateful Dead-themed restaurant in the old Town Hall and Weezie's Kitchen space in Carytown — opens Friday at 4pm.
- The restaurant's decor leans hard into the Dead Head theme with colorful (and psychedelic) murals, including backing the stage, where they'll host live music.
- On the menu: Southern-influenced bar staples, like wings, pork belly bites and sliders, per the Times-Dispatch.
- Ripple Ray's will be open every day but Mondays from 4pm-2am with happy hour in effect until 7pm.
🍮 Qahwah House, this Michigan-based Yemeni coffee chain popped up on VCU's campus (at 900 W. Franklin St.) when we weren't looking sometime last month and is fast becoming all the rage.
- On the menu: Yemeni coffee and coffee drinks (hello pistachio latte), regular espresso-based ones and Yemeni pastries like, khaliat nahl (cheese-stuffed honeycomb bread) and sabaya (a flaky, layered pastry).
🌓 Amar Lounge, the second of three planned concepts inside Memi's Egyptian restaurant in the Fan, opens this weekend.
- The second-story cocktail lounge will be open on Fridays and Saturdays serving cocktails and "chill Arab-Afro house music."
🥯 Sunday Bagel will be popping up in the Fan on weekends through February for a two-month residency at Pamplemousse Gallery.
- Bagel lovers can pre-order for Friday pickups or pop in on Saturdays and Sundays at 8am for loose bagels, 11am for bagel sandwiches.
🍚 Roots Natural Kitchen's third Richmond location opened last weekend in Midlothian in the Winterfield Crossing shopping center.
- The Charlottesville-based mid-Atlantic fast-casual chain specializes in grain and salad bowls, each around $12-$13. And it's now open daily for lunch and dinner.
🥗 Speaking of delicious bowl-based chains, Cava is opening its first Glen Allen location on Saturday at 9964 Brook Road. It'll open daily thereafter.
Coming soon:
☕️ Surrounding Counties coffee shop, which closed its Henrico location last month, has lined up a new space in the Village Shopping Center, right on the city-county line.
- The new spot is shooting for a St. Patrick's Day opening, per their Insta.
🌯 Scott's Shawarma is opening a second Richmond location by spring in the former Sincero spot at 404 N. Second St. in Jackson Ward.
And Richmond BizSense was on fire this week with restaurant news, including:
- Yak Yai Thai opening in the old Tio Pablo in Shockoe Bottom in February.
- Emmy Squared Pizza, a Detroit-style pizza joint, is planning to open in the old Burger Bach spot in Short Pump.
- Antonelli's Deli, from the Superstars Pizza folks, is in the works in a former dry cleaners in the Museum District.
- Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, which will open at 15700 Hull Street Road by the fall.