We are entering a brand new world in America. Post-Prohibition for weed, mushrooms, and so many other herbal medicinals, has opened a lot of doors for entrepreneurs. Beyond the 80,000 vape stores that opened on my block in the last two years, Richmond has integrated a number of new possibilities for retailers and consumers alike, from the dispensary in Carytown to the fact that you can walk around with a joint in your pocket without Johnny Law taking it from you.
A few months ago, a beautifully designed bar opened up across from the RVA Magazine offices called KavaClub. At first glance, I wasn’t sure whether it was a particularly pretty coworking spot, an expensive lotion store/spa, or simply another RVA bar wearing its favorite Summer outfit. Inside, it has perpetual afternoon vibes. The textures, wood grains, color palette, artwork, all convey a warm, sleepy smile aimed at an old friend. That’s a bit out there, and maybe that’s just the kava speaking.
What’s kava, you say? If you don’t have that friend who’s constantly trying to get you to try some new green, bitter, dirtwater, you may have not heard of this truly delightful psychoactive plant tea. If you do have one of those friends, listen to them the next time they ask you to try it. You won’t regret it. You won’t forget it.
As I am not a scientist of any sort, I’ll defer to Wikipedia’s bon mots on the persnickety plant:
“The root of the plant is used to produce a drink with sedative, anesthetic, and euphoriant properties. Its active ingredients are called kavalactones.[7] A 2003 systematic review concluded it had effects for treating short-term anxiety.[8] “
The kava shrub thrives in loose, well-drained soils where plenty of air reaches the roots. It grows naturally where rainfall is plentiful, attaining over 78 inches (2,000 mm) per year.
Kava cannot reproduce sexually. Female flowers are especially rare and do not produce fruit even when hand-pollinated. Its cultivation is entirely by propagation from stem cuttings.[23]
Kavaclub is the product of the efforts of Fred Bryant and his team, led by Erika Cannon. Fred is a tall, substantial man with the most incredible cascade of red curly hair this side of a Pixar movie. He’s, first of all, chill af, engaged, socially-motivated and a sharp businessman. Erika, you have a good chance of already knowing. She’s been tending bar at En Su Boca for quite a while. Petite, big eyes, snarky, and energetic – the kind of personality that seems born in a pub.
Christian Detres: Introduce yourselves.
Fred Bryant: Well, I’m Fred Bryant. I am a co-founder of Kavaclub.
Erika Cannon: Erika Cannon. I’m the General Manager.
CD: How did you get into this Fred?
FB: My first experience with kava was back in 2017. I read an article on ESPN describing Tom Brady’s kava routine. This was peak Tom Brady time. I was like, if it’s good enough for Tom, I’ll try it out too. I’ll get some off Amazon.
EC: He would drink it after games to wind down in the locker room. Some of his Polynesian teammates introduced him to it evidently.
FB: So it arrived from Amazon in a bag. It was incredibly expensive. It came with a protein shaker and a ball of protein powder. And it said just shake for a few minutes. I shook it for a few minutes. It created this viscous mud water that was all kinds of hell no. It wasn’t the proper way to prepare it at all. I was not impressed and I didn’t have any professional goals that made it any more interesting to me. So it kind of fell off my radar.
Five years later, I was down on the Space Coast with a friend of mine who’d moved there. He had recently become sober, so whenever we would go out somewhere we’d go to a kava bar. This now grabbed me as an interesting concept. I liked the vibe. I was aware of the fact that 38% of the population doesn’t drink alcohol and recognized the dearth of third space options for people actively avoiding it.
Aside from that, I really wanted to build a business where I could explore working with artists and realistically provide a livable wage for them. Our goal was to create $60,000 to $75,000 a year full time jobs here. For me business is like ‘if there’s something in the world that you don’t like, business is how you fix it’. I thought that kava was a fascinating product. I started doing the research and realized pretty quickly that supply chain constraints were going to be the primary obstacle to getting it done right.
CD: Why is that?
EC: It’s primarily grown on remote islands. The supply chain is just not well developed. We were talking to the farmer we work with in Fiji and he reminded us that it’s exactly these small islands that get wrecked by typhoons. Kava is harvested after seven years of growth. So if you have a couple bad seasons, there’s not a lot you can do to replace the supply immediately. Massive storms can ruin entire crops.
FB: There have been quality control issues with kava that have largely been solved following what is called the Pacific Kava Development Initiative. Because it’s moved by weight, the incentive is to maximize the use of every part of the stalk. People will use parts of the plant that are not intended for human consumption because it’s usually sold with extraneous, inedible parts still attached.
CD: Oh I hate that. Like when I buy broccoli or asparagus, it’s sold with half of the mass being completely inedible. You have to constantly trim these pieces off. We essentially pay for our own garbage.
FB: Yes, it’s financially frustrating but also has unintended side effects, like headaches, kind of almost toxic effects. If it’s not trimmed properly, or grown with patience and a quality product in mind, you get a bad experience with the product. It’s hard to find compatible grow locations and it takes three to seven years to grow. Because there’s a maturity component from enough broodstock to make it worth harvesting for the farmer. As it ages, the quality improves. We needed to build a relationship with a supplier who really knew what they were doing and could educate us to make sure we were getting high quality product. We focused on developing a relationship with somebody whose operation has been growing kava for generations. We found our guy in Fiji.
CD: Let’s talk about kava and dispel some myths. Or at least ease uncertainties about what you’re getting into when you drink it.
FB: You’d probably find most people haven’t heard of it.
CD: I think the word kava is definitely in the air nowadays, but I’m not sure people know the difference between it, matcha, or any number of newly-popular root and mycelial teas, drinks, and supplement powders. Most people talk about them interchangeably, because they have no idea which one does what. Let’s talk about psychoactive effects. What would someone who’s never tried it, maybe someone trying to convince a friend to join them here, say to accurately describe the experience?.
EC: So I think the adjectives that come up most – correct me if I’m wrong – are blissful, euphoric, sociable, patient, present, engaged, and relaxed.
CD: How many teas can I have comfortably in one visit, without fear of headaches etc? I know you said proper preparation and trimming have a lot to do with that. Even so, is there a limit people should be aware of?
EC: Yeah, people do ask that often. I would tell people to check in with themselves as you would with any medication. Like Xanax or Benzodiazepines, kava relaxes your nervous system. So, just, have a shell [ed: the kava tea is served in a coconut shell, which, in my humble opinion, is rad.] and see how you feel. Take it easy. There’s nothing to rush to. But ultimately, the answer is that there’s not really that threshold. You’ll probably get tired of physically consuming the sheer volume of kava before it affects you in any negative way.
So, very relaxing. And because it’s a natural anxiolytic, it reduces anxiety. I don’t like saying it’s an alcohol alternative because the effects are not super similar. It’s more like smoking weed. It’s very subtle, but very much a nice body high. I have a couple of drinks to loosen up and chat with whoever is sitting next to me at the bar. No impaired judgment or motor skills. It’s much safer.
CD: I just thought of the first-date potential of this place.
EC: We weren’t open this year for it, but like I’ll probably do like a big Valentine’s Day event.
FB: I think of it more like on the opposite end of the spectrum from strong cold brew. So you have a 320 milligram cold brew coffee. And that’ll make you jittery. Get all fired up. Flip it 180 degrees, and you’ve got kava. But it is not a depressant. People often confuse it for having depressing effects. There’s nothing fatigue-inducing about it. It relaxes your parasympathetic nervous systems.
CD: Very cool. Let’s talk about how you went about setting this place up. You were saying you found a good farmer in Fiji to partner with. What was next?
FB: The next step was distribution. How do you handle distribution? We figured the best concept would be a cocktail bar, because there’s a huge unmet demand in the market for alcohol-free spaces. A lot of spaces that cater to sober people are operating at half commitment to that goal. There’s usually also alcohol in these spaces, which is totally cool for some – but still a challenge for a lot of others.
EC: Coffee Shops and other third space alternatives usually close early, leaving the vast majority of social environments swimming in booze. 40% of the population, non-drinkers, is, what, 135 million people? I’m going on my 13th year in the bar industry and I’ve never heard of anything like this before. There is definitely a market. Every bar I worked in had N/A options, usually not more than a couple though. The need is being catered to in a very off-handed way.
CD: Some people don’t need to be in an environment where people are drinking. It can be very triggering. I have a friend that’s going through that right now. Like right now. My sober homies have had a hard time socializing, feeling awkward at bars with their friends, even if they weren’t tempted to drink. Also, on the other side of that, it’s often really annoying to be around tipsy and drunk people at 2am when you’re completely sober.
FB: There’s few ways to meet with friends in an open social environment where alcohol isn’t featured. We serve as an entry point for sober people to introduce their friends to an N/A concept. A chill spot where they can have fun without missing the booze. That’s where a lot of the design focus of Kavaclub comes to bear. We’ve put a lot of attention into the look and feel of the environment here. Intoxication is not purely a substance-based reaction. There’s environmental intoxication. It’s a feeling. It’s a state of mind, right? That’s not purely substance driven. We put a lot of time and energy into creating a vibe here. We work with a really talented brand strategist, Kenly Craighill of Night Swim Studios, and put a lot of effort into designing a comprehensive brand.
EC: We have utilized the appearance of the molecular structure of kava to inform some of the fonts and patterns you see incorporated into the interior design. It’s really dialed in. But the coolest part is that once our brand book was developed, we found local Richmond artists to realize the vision behind the intention.
FB: We could have put a couple $100,000 into some contractors hand, and been done with it right? That’s not where you find greatness. We put a couple $100,000 directly into the Richmond art community instead. We created a bunch of good paying jobs for incredible talents, and we found it’s cheaper than hiring a construction company. It’s incredibly efficient and gives direct benefits to actual artists.
CD: Do you have connections with the local sober organizations?
FB: Yeah, we’ve talked to a bunch of them. Rams in Recovery is one we’ve talked to. We’ve worked a lot with Point 5, the N/A bottle shop in Carytown for many of our mocktails. They’re the people who have taught us about that market.
EC: There are all sorts of these esoteric groups who facilitate recovery, or are sobriety-based, that have found their way in here. We do events with them when we can. We do meetups and stuff like that. We end up engaging with a lot of people in those organizations. Our events come from those relationships.
CD: What kind of events are you running?
FB: Comedy Nights. We have an open mic that we’re kicking off every Sunday, the second half of this month. Yeah, we’ve done dance nights.
EC: We’ve done Brazilian dance nights. We’re doing our third or fourth one here soon. They always pack the room out. Jazz Thursdays…
CD: What’s your philosophy on meeting the market that isn’t sober? Yeah, I say this knowing that because I already like this place but I also love a good whiskey. There’s a Venn diagram where a lot of people like me fit in the middle oval.
EC: We both drink. It’s just a different vibe. It’s a different space, right? There’s different spaces for different moods. So like, what if two less days a week I’m going out and drinking instead, you’re loosening up maybe like you know, just bringing some friends by shooting pool? I’ve done that and honestly, it’s chill.
CD: The youngest adult generation we have right now? They get eyes rolled at them so much for all their nonsense, but on this topic, I admire their ability to just not go overboard. It seems they’ve culturally broken the knotty ties between social acceptance and complete belligerence. Their relationships to booze and drugs seems to be much less a competition. For us olds, debauchery in our youth was a “sexy” (masochistic) race to the bottom. It’s hard to communicate just how much substance abuse has been part of the cultural pedigree in the past without a Gen Z/Alpha looking at you like some try-hard, social lemming. In the 90s – and especially in the IndieSleaze 2000’s – being “wasted” was a look. It was Fashion. It was deeply embedded into the notion of “cool”. I’m not even going to pretend I was a bystander in that either.
FB: That’s a great question. Obviously, one of the first things we had to consider when we started looking at this was the intersection of a non-alcoholic space and public health goals. How do you engage the 60% of the community that drinks? Alcohol drives a lot of plans. People come in here and get that look on their face when they find out we don’t serve alcohol, like somebody shot their dog. Abstinence, or Prohibition – in all its forms – is just not an answer to anything related to public health. That’s pie in the sky thinking that doesn’t translate from policy to reality. It’s proven not to work. So we focus on harm reduction. We are providing an alternative as an option, not a replacement for what a lot of us still enjoy in traditional bars.
EC: We don’t want to just be a spot that ISN’T some other thing. Kava produces its own vibe that stands on its own merit. It’s great to come in before you go out to traditional bars, a pregame of sorts. It’s also just great if you’re having a bad day, are anxious, conflicted, stressed, or depressed. Everyone is more anxious these days. Just look around. People in general are having a hard time with this world. Come by if you’re feeling anxious and relax.
CD: Let’s talk about the space a little bit more. You said you had local artists that come in and execute the design here right? Was this the product of a singular artistic vision?
FB: Tommy Fox, whose painting you’re sitting next to right here, led the design with Eli, Keri Gray, and Caroline Long. They are incredible multi disciplinary artists. They did a lot of the intricate woodwork in here, even this table we’re sitting at. There are more than a few artists represented in the space, but you can say this was a Tommy and Friends installation.
CD: It’s really breezy in here. Super chill.
EC: I like to say it’s like elevated Tiki but not in a cheesy way.
CD: Elevated tiki huh? That fits pretty well. The free pool table definitely helps too. I kinda want to just read a book in a sunbeam here. I could totally take a nap.
Find out more information about KavaClub HERE
All photos by Nick Kime
