Eat It, Virginia!

Cocodrilo opened to much fanfare on Richmond's Grove Avenue in March 2022. The restaurant had a Latin America-inspired menu created by Lemaire alum Chef Brad Slemaker, Shagbark alum Chef Brandon MacConnell, and River City Roll owner Rob Long and a huge open-flame grill Less than a year later, the chefs remain, the grill remains, but Cocodrilo is no more. In its place, the restaurant owners will op...

We made it to the end of another year! Thank you for listening and being a part of our podcast community. We wish you Happy Holidays and much health and happiness in the new year. See you in 2023. love, Scott and Robey See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elle Correll's life sounds a bit like a country song. Born and raised in Franklin, Virginia, she moved away from the small town when the paper mill closed down. Her friend Will also had to move. But apples would bring the friends back together. "I was living in DC. It was a lot of fun, but its time had played out. He was living in Richmond opening the cidery," Elle Correll said. "So when I met him...

It's Thanksgiving week and we are so very thankful to all of you for downloading, listening, and being a part of the Eat It, Virginia community.  We recently took part in a gathering of Richmond-area foodies, we'll call it a Foodie Friendsgiving. In between sips and bites, we had a conversation about where people are eating, which restaurants are consistently great, and what the Richmond food scen...

Angela Petruzzelli is about to open her dream Italian restaurant Sprezza in downtown Richmond.  When she moved to Richmond with her boyfriend in 2020, she recognized restaurants that served Italian food, but the style of Italian food they served was not the kind she preferred. "[Italian] food is not only something I relate so strongly to, but it's something that I felt was missing here. And so the...

Christine Wansleben cut her teeth in the fine dining world of New York City before opening Richmond cooking school Mise En Place in Shockoe Slip. "Danny Meyer was opening two restaurants [in New York City] and I had the opportunity to apply. Then I got accepted and I joined the opening team at Eleven Madison Park ," Wansleben said about her time in New York. "I felt it was something I couldn't pas...

Aline and Dale Reitzer have owned three Richmond restaurants, in three different Richmond neighborhoods, over the course of three decades.  Acacia in Carytown served guests from 1998 thru 2007. In December 2008, the Reitzers opened a new Acacia near the Fan on Cary and Robinson. That location closed just before the pandemic in 2020. "Everyone thought we were geniuses because we closed right before...

Constantine Giavos comes from Richmond restaurant royalty. The son of Katrina and Johnny Giavos, Constantine's grandmother is Stella — yes that Stella — the namesake and inspiration behind his family's most well-known restaurant. Serving as creative director for his family's impressive portfolio of restaurants, it was the re-launch of Stella's that launched Constantine into the family business. "I...

Fat Rabbit bakery owner Ellyn Hopper transitioned from working for others in Richmond to becoming a full-time business owner near the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. "I had been doing wedding cakes along the side of working a full-time baking job for other companies," Hopper, who previously worked at Richmond spots like WPA Bakery and Stella's Market, said. "When the pandemic hit, I was less co...

Deb Freeman is a food podcast superstar. The Norfolk native and current Richmond-area resident hosts "Setting the Table," one of the country's highest-rated food podcasts . In fact, the podcast reached #1 status during its first season earlier this year.  "I was hoping that someone would listen to it. I did not know that people all over the world would listen to it," Freeman told Scott and Robey o...

Mac McCormack probably owns more whisky than anyone you know. The owner of three Richmond-area restaurants that bear his name, the McCormack's locations boast impressively-stocked bars with a wide array of whisky. "I would guess in the 15,000 to 18,000 bottle [range] right now," McCormack answered when asked about his selection across McCormack's Big Whisky Grill at Regency Square, McCormack's Whi...

There's a greenhouse in Goochland growing some of the freshest lettuce in town. Greenswell Growers hopes its hydroponically-grown greens can solve a grocery store concern for some shoppers. "We've all been in the grocery store picked up that package of greens and seen that wet, nasty tray in the bottom of it and put it back on the shelf and said, I'm not eating that," Greenswell Growers president...

Gwen and Brittny Hurt are the mother-daughter team behind Shoe Crazy Wine and Spirits. They started the Richmond-based business after one of the worst weeks of their lives. "I was downsized from a company I spent 17 years in," Gwen shared on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "They said they needed to replace my skills with other skills. I have a degree from a historically black college here in the U.S...

Chef Danny Mena and Beverage Director Lauren Spain recently opened Big Kitchen Hospitality's newest restaurant Conejo in Richmond, Virginia. For Mena, a native of Mexico City, Conejo is a chance for him to show off a side of his hometown he finds under-represented at many Mexican restaurants in the U.S. "Mexico City is very cosmopolitan. It's not the typical idea that a lot of people have of Mexic...

While Kendall Appich might have been working at Capital One in Richmond, her dream job was not with the area's largest employer. "I had that, I wouldn't say midlife crisis, but just like, I'm still young enough in my late 20s. where if I want to try something, now's the time we don't have kids," she said. "I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to create the next great food product." A...

Katie Stuart is a TikTok star. The bar manager of Richmond restaurant Foo Dog, in the Fan, has more than 170,000 followers on the social media app. While she joined TikTok in 2019, she was able to focus more on content creation when she found herself stuck at home during the early days of the pandemic. "The lockdown happened and I didn't have a job anymore," she said. "I was stuck inside with my r...

Elizabeth Redford co-founded Tablespoons Bakery as a way to provide jobs and on-the-job training to adults living with disabilities. "We are a part of a larger nonprofit, the Next Move Program , and what we seek to do each day is to combat the 70% unemployment rate for young adults with developmental disabilities here in Virginia," Redford said.  "Young adults come here, they do training with...

Some of your favorite Richmond restaurants have teamed up and opened in the same spot. Hatch Local , Richmond's first food hall, is now open on Hull Street in Manchester.   Hatch Local consists of seven restaurants: Buttermilk + Honey Sincero The Beet Box Odyssey Fish Fat Kid Sandwiches Royal Pig Bully Burger Hatch Local general manager Annie Holland said the new food hall can help you and yo...

Tanya Cauthen went to school at the University of Virginia to become a rocket scientist. When she left, her focus was on food. It was a path that would eventually lead Cauthen to open Belmont Butchery in Richmond, Virginia, a national television appearance on the Food Network's Chopped, and the East Coast's Meat Queen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While Pinky's might be one of the newest restaurants in Richmond, Virginia, co-owner Steve DeRaffele is no stranger to the Richmond restaurant scene. The New York native, who comes from a family that literally helped define the look of Northeast diners, cut his teeth at restaurants like LUNCH:SUPPER and Brunch (remember the waffle flight, kids?). But when it came to opening a place of his own, Ste...

For 10 years, David Avery's smiling face has greeted coffee drinkers at the Starbucks on Gaskins Road in Henrico County, Virginia. In this episode of Eat It, Virginia, David shares some Starbucks secrets, provides coffee-making tips to help you up your home coffee game, and discusses how TikTok has changed the way Starbucks baristas do their jobs.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Courtney Mailey is the queen bee at Blue Bee Cider . She founded the cidery in downtown Richmond, Virginia a decade ago and has become a champion of Virginia apples. The podcast also features Kel Ward, a member of the Blue Bee Cider production team.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this first Eat It, Virginia episode of 2022, Justin Hershey takes us back to California to discuss his life and journey toward opening Chicano Boy Taco in Stauton and Midlothian, Virginia. Scott and Robey also talk about some of the best wing spots and this week's CiderCon 2020 in Richmond . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thank you for another awesome year. We appreciate your support and feedback. Please go back and listen to one of the 72 interviews we've uploaded since the podcast started in 2019. We look forward to launching a new season in 2022. Send us a message on Instagram if there's someone you'd like us to interview.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Jay Bayer entered the Richmond dining scene as a bartender in the mid-2000s, he started to get very excited about beer, but at that time, the options in Richmond were limited. "I was actually working at Galaxy Diner, fresh out of college. And then left there went to Capitol Ale House," Bayer said about his entrance into Richmond dine. "Beer was my first true love. The thing that I knew in an...