Ipanema is gone. You probably saw it on Reddit, sandwiched between a blurry photo of a pothole and a debate about whether the city’s latest apartment complex looks more like a dentist’s office or a minimum-security prison.
The regulars lamented. The former regulars nodded knowingly. A few people squinted and asked, Wait, that place was still open?
An Underground That’s Now Just Under
Once upon a time, Ipanema was the kind of place that made Richmond feel like a city where something was happening, even if you weren’t entirely sure what. A basement bar, tucked away under Grace Street, where everyone looked vaguely familiar but no one could quite remember each other’s names. The drinks were cheap, the vegetarian food was good enough to make carnivores rethink their life choices, and it was perfectly positioned in the heart of what used to be an indie nightlife circuit.
Strange Matter. Cous Cous. Ipanema. A perfect little Bermuda Triangle of dimly lit rooms, sweaty band tees, and conversations about a zine you’d never read or a band you were supposed to pretend you knew. Throw in Empire and The Nile on the other end of Grace Street, and you had a whole ecosystem.
Then, as always, things changed.
The Usual Story
It started with a sale. The original owner, Kendra Feather, moved on, and Ipanema became one of those places that was technically still there, but not there there. The menu got smaller. The service got slower. One unfortunate soul noticed the fruit flies and decided they had finally seen enough.
No dramatic implosion, no scandal. Just a slow fade-out, the kind where you don’t realize a place is gone until you walk by one day and see the lights off.
And now, the doors are closed for good.
Richmond Shrugs
If you’ve been paying attention, this shouldn’t surprise you. Strange Matter? Gone. Cous Cous? A memory. The Richmond that existed in the spaces between those places—that Richmond—is disappearing.
New places will open. They always do. The cocktails will be $15, the décor will lean industrial chic, and the playlists will be carefully curated to feel effortless. It’ll be fine.
But places like Ipanema weren’t about being fine. They were about being just a little too dark, a little too cramped, a little too weird. The kind of place where you sat too close to someone and ended up in a two-hour conversation you never planned on having. The kind of place where, for a moment, Richmond felt like something special.
And now, it’s gone.
Photo by Jody Adams
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