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Soul N’ Vinegar Comes to Church Hill and Waffles & Milkshakes Head For Manchester

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These stories originally appeared in GOOD EATS RVA in RVA #33 Summer 2018. You can check out the issue here, or pick it up around Richmond now. 

This summer, Michelle Parrish is hoping to serve busy working families in the Church Hill community more affordable and nutritious options. Her forthcoming grab and go food shop, Soul N’ Vinegar, will open in the former Ruth’s Beauty Shop spot on R Street, selling vegetarian, gluten-free, and other healthy lunch and dinner options, along with beer and wine.

Residents can expect a variety of packaged to-go meals and sides, from octopus salad to pickled veggies, homemade salsa verde, vegetarian curries, and mac and cheese.  

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Vegan falafel bowl with roasted sweet potato, cabbage cucumber slaw, couscous, whipped avocado, and lime

“A lot of the meals will be microwavable, and some will be ready to eat, such as salads and sandwiches,” Parrish said. “It’s right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It’s meant to be for people who don’t necessarily need a place to eat, they just need food.”

Originally from Massachusetts, when Parrish moved to Church Hill a couple of years ago she wasn’t aware of the food deserts that plague certain areas of the city.

“I didn’t know about the other side of Richmond, where people don’t have access to fresh food [and] the majority of the population is living below the poverty level,” she said. “I was like, this doesn’t make any sense. Richmond’s supposed to be this huge food town, but all of the options are in the same category.”

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Living only a couple of blocks away from the shop, she said she felt a calling to it while she was earning her business degree at J Sarge last year. With the urge to revive the shuttered building and offer Church Hill residents affordable fresh food, she enrolled in a free business course through the Office of Minority Business Development.  

After that, she decided to focus all her efforts on getting Soul N’ Vinegar up and running. She took a semester off and applied for funding through LISC and Bon Secours’ SEED grant program, which strives to jumpstart small Church Hill businesses. Parrish was awarded $20,000, which gave her the boost she needed to launch the market.

“Up until that point, everything was a daydream,” she said.

About 80 percent of the food at Soul N’ Vinegar will be vegetarian, keeping costs low to cater to a wide range of people in that community.  

“The goal is to keep as many of the entrees under $10 [as possible],” she said. “There will always be a $5 meal, and I will accept EBT cards so people who use that have access to fresh options. There are a lot of people that are in the area, a lot of older people that have dietary restrictions. I just wanted to have something that was different.”

Prior to leasing her space, Parrish held pop up events at Sub Rosa and catered for local companies, offering boxed lunches and other snacks including deviled eggs, pimento cheese sliders, smoked chicken salad, and honey cake with candied orange. She plans to continue the catering after the market opens.

Parrish said there will seating for six inside, but she will expand with a 15-seat patio after they open sometime this summer.

Editor’s Note: Soul N’ Vinegar has opened since RVA Magazine went to press. 

Brewer’s Waffles & Milkshakes

The owner of Manchester coffee shop Brewer’s Café will open a spot this fall just down the road from his Bainbridge Street location for those with a sweet tooth. 

Leasing two spaces at 1309 and 1311 Hull St., Ajay Brewer will not only serve up waffles, alcoholic milkshakes, and lunch fare at his new place, Brewer’s Waffles & Milkshakes, but also will use one half of the building as an art gallery. 

Plans didn’t get cooking for the shop until a few months ago, but expansion has been churning in Brewer’s mind since last summer.

“I always wanted to have waffles or pancakes in my shop [and] couldn’t,” he said. “We would bring people to make waffles in the shop, but that was just an ongoing thing, it wasn’t that pressing.”

Brewer and his son

The café owner and former stockbroker, who opened his shop about three years ago, has played a significant role in bringing people to the neighborhood, launching the monthly Manchester Manifest on first Fridays and drawing in customers recently with “Wu-Tang Sandwich Week.” The proceeds from this collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan members to create some of their favorite sandwiches went to benefit Richmond Public Schools.

“The whole idea is to create a community right here where we live in Southside. Doing what I can to make this population better. I truly feel like we can change the world, we just have to start with these communities,” Brewer said.

Community was also a big part of the appeal to open Brewer’s Waffles & Milkshakes. “You think about a city environment — a lot of millennials, a lot of folks who want to be out and about,” he explained. “What do they want to be doing? Where do they want to eat at night time?”

Brewer said plans for the new shop came together rather smoothly. “I got a call from the landlord a couple of months ago, he wanted to lease the space. He was like, ‘You can have both spaces if you want it, we just really want to get this café idea out,’” he said.  

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Photo Courtesy of Brewer’s Cafe

James Harris, an investor in Brewer’s Café, was also looking to dive into his next venture. “He was itching to do something else, he has several businesses and all that came to me around the same time so what would we do became the question,” he said.

Brewer said they threw around different ideas for the Hull Street location such as a biscuit restaurant, ice cream shop, even burgers, but ultimately, he knew he wanted to serve the fluffy, golden brown treat.  

The menu is in the beginning stages, but Brewer plans to have savory dishes like chicken & waffles and waffle sandwiches that come with sausage, along with a toppings bar with strawberries and other sweeter options. To satisfy the lunch crowd, the shop will also serve sandwiches and salads, with vegetarian and gluten-free options.

Sodas from Union Hill’s Roaring Pines are also on the menu, as well as alcoholic milkshakes, so whether you’re an early riser or a night owl who likes their midnight munchies, Brewer’s forthcoming spot plans to cater to everyone.

As for the art gallery, the spaces will be connected so patrons can walk between the two, and Brewer hopes to showcase art from near and far.

“Personally, I’m an art lover. I’m not really pretending this is something that interests me,” he said. “This space, obviously I’m going to open up for locals too, but I would hope to attract regional, national, and international artists. I’d love for the art space to be an attraction that brings in talent across the world.” His goal is to host exhibits and other gallery openings once he reaches out to community artists.

Brewer’s Waffles & Milkshakes will open sometime in September, operating from 7 am to 2 am seven days a week.

Fighting Gentrification: A New Tool In Richmond’s Arsenal

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A few years ago Scott’s Addition was a largely forgotten industrial neighborhood only the savviest Richmonders knew to be good for lunch or a milkshake. Since then the countless breweries, lofts, and coworking spaces that have sprouted up transformed Scott’s Addition into the epicenter of the city, Richmond’s hip, forward-thinking vision for itself.

Richmond has seen a version of this story before with Tobacco Row and the Canal Walk; however, the city’s vast supply of vacant former industrial space is a thing of the past. Richmond’s most enticing empty spaces have been filled, and now gentrification is spilling over into affordable—and predominantly black—neighborhoods like Jackson Ward and North Church Hill.

Rising costs and stagnant wages combined with gentrification are fueling the American eviction crisis, an epidemic that has been keenly felt in Richmond and across the Commonwealth.

After a conversation with Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille over how to help combat the problem, Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors, founded the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, named after a local hero who was the first woman to charter a bank in the United States, in 2016.

The program enables prospective homeowners to buy property without paying for the land it sits on; the land remains in the hands of the trust in perpetuity. This means home buyers only need to finance the cost of the house, thus vastly reducing the size of the loan needed and creating access for buyers with less financial power.

Land trusts serve as the solution for one of two problems depending on the market they’re operating in: Gentrification or neighborhood destabilization. “In a few years the only affordable options in Church Hill and the East End may be land trust homes,” worries Nikki D’Adamo-Damery, coordinator for the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust. Along Chesterfield’s North Jeff Davis corridor a land trust could help people into vacant homes and tie them to those communities.

Recent legislation from City Council deemed the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust Richmond’s official “land bank,” giving it the further ability to receive and repurpose vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties. If the city were to forsake auctioning off such blighted properties to private developers and instead give them to the land trust, then Richmond’s newest tool in its affordability arsenal would have a lot more firepower.

The land trust sold their first house last November and is partnering with Habitat for Humanity on three experimental homes in the Randolph neighborhood that would go to families making less than 80% of our area’s average median income. When asked about the land trust’s future D’Adamo-Damery mused, “Whether we have 50 homes, 500 homes or 5,000 homes we can make affordable will depend on the support we have from the city, the public, and the private sector.”

“Les Boulefrogs” Bring A Provençal Pastime to Church Hill

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It’s a beautiful early spring afternoon, and members of Les Boulesfrogs, Church Hill’s only pétanque club, are gathered at Chimborazo Park. Nineteen members and three newcomers, including this reporter, are here to play the bocce-like French game, where teams take turns launching steel boules at a small wooden ball called the cochonnet (“piglet”).

“Pétanque is Provence patois for both feet together,” club president and founder Richard Taranto tells me when I first arrive, walking me through the rules. He’s playing opposite John and Benedict Whitworth, a married couple originally from England and France respectively, who joined the group when Taranto and his wife, Kirsten, founded it in 2005.

John and Benedict Whitworth

As Taranto takes his turn, John and I note some of the differences from bocce: Pétanque is more of a throwing game than a bowling game, the boules in pétanque are smaller, and as I saw upon arriving, nearly half the players here are women, unlike the male-dominated bocce courts of my native New England. “That’s the great thing about pétanque,” he replies. “Anyone can play it. You’ll see men, women, people of all ages. The women are usually better than the men.”

He also points out the lack of physical restrictions, something pétanque shares with bocce. Although she’s not present today, one member, Sheila Luellen, plays from her wheelchair.

On this Saturday, ages range from a 28-year-old to a few people “in their 80s,” said Taranto when I ask him after his turn. Their youngest dues-paying member–dues are $30 per year, split evenly between insurance and equipment purchases–is 20, but currently off at college.

“We haven’t had to use it, but it’s a good idea,” Benedict said about the insurance, noting that this spot in Chimborazo is an active area for families, dog walkers, and others. Near the intersection of East Grace and North 29th streets, the eight courts are adjacent to a popular basketball court and a small play area.

After a bit of reassurance, I’m pulled in to play a game myself, convinced by John, who said it’s a mixture of skill and luck. Players self-organizing as pointers or shooters; the latter try to position their boules near the cochonnet while the former knock their opponents’ boules away. As a rookie who doesn’t really know the difference, I line up with the pointers and join team sorting by throwing a borrowed boule at a cochonnet.

My boule is closest to John’s, so by a stroke of luck, I’m paired up with the British shooter and, in my opinion, pétanque shark.

The reporter, captured by John Whitworth

Amid friendly ribbing from our opponents, we talk strategy and basic rules. I need to land more of my three boules closer to the cochonnet than our opponents do; John on his turn will choose between knocking out their boules or trying to score alongside mine. Rounds end with scoring after all boules are thrown, with a simple system familiar to anyone who’s watched curling. Only the leading team scores in a round, gaining one point per boule closer to the cochonnet than the closest boule of the losing team.

Just as in curling, measuring is part of the game. It’s not always possible to tell by sight alone which boule is closest. “If there is ever a question, we always measure, and we always take the word of the measurer,” John said.

Taranto checking closeness

For a first game, it couldn’t go better. After giving me a do-over on my first round (not normally allowed), we win almost every successive one. Whichever team wins begins the next round by throwing out the cochonnet to establish the target for each team’s six boules.
We win 13 to 2, making for a short game of only eight rounds. Hypothetically, a game can be as short as three and as many as twenty-five rounds. Basking in glory, I head over to the snack table, where members are eating peanuts during a mid-game social break.

Many of the players were exposed to the game overseas, like Mark Rankin, a French teacher at George H. Moody Middle School in Henrico. “I first saw it when I was living in France,” he said, talking about a few years when he taught English overseas. He teaches his students how to play now, too, and some stick with the game outside of the classroom.

For another player, newcomer Todd Van Gordon, the introduction to boules games came while living in Venezuela, where he played bolas criollas. “We played on rough ground there, which makes it very interesting,” he said. This club used to play on rough ground too, said Rankin, on a few of the back alleys, but they built the courts in Chimborazo several years ago in partnership with the city of Richmond. Van Gordon first found Les Boules Frogs by chance, as many do, while walking his dog through Chimborazo park, and then joined after meeting some players at a neighborhood gathering.

That’s essentially the recruitment strategy. Although not here today, Kirsten was my introduction to the club, striking up a friendly conversation with me at the downtown YMCA where I was covering another story and inviting me to come out and play. The couple played in a club up in Northern Virginia before they moved here in 2005 and sought to recreate the experience here partially as a way to meet people and make friends in their new home. By any metric, it was a success; from a blurb in the Church Hill Newsletter that brought out ten neighbors, they’ve grown to a club of some fifty regular members. It’s the only club in the region, and shares some members with the local Alliance Française chapter, but you don’t need to be a francophone to join.

Games are held twice each week on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM and Thursday evening at 6:00 PM. Although they play year-round, they won’t play in the face of rain, snow, and extreme cold, Taranto said, adding, “It’s too cold to play if your tongue freezes to the ball.”

Whether you’re looking for a new hobby or just want to enjoy some of this lovely spring weather, you won’t go wrong with the friendly folks at Les Boulesfrogs of Church Hill.

RVA #29: Brenner Pass opens, a chat with Wild Earth Farms, burgers & more donuts

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Good Eats: This article was featured in RVAMag #29: Summer 2017. You can read all of issue #29 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.

A Taste Of The Alps

The culinary creative minds behind Metzger Bar and Butchery in Church Hill have been toiling away on their latest project, and this time, Richmonders will get a little taste of what the Alpine region has to offer.

Chef Brittanny Anderson, Pastry Chef Olivia Wilson, Brad Hemp, Nathan Conway, and James Kohler will open Brenner Pass in Scott’s Addition, a restaurant with a focus on the cuisine of Switzerland, France, and Italy.

“There’s fondue from Switzerland, a really traditional vibe from the Piedmont of Italy and [the] Chamonix and Haute-Savoie region of France,” said Anderson. “And then we’re taking all those traditional things and updating them with a modern vibe and making them a little more of what the modern diner is looking for.”

Anderson, Hemp and Conway opened Metzger in 2014, which has since carved out its own niche in Richmond’s foodie town with its rustic, seasonal menu of German-inspired fare, wine and cocktails. But the crew didn’t want to stop there, so last year they took a trip to Europe in search of their next inspiration.

“For me… I cooked a lot with Italian chefs and was really looking for an outlet, and a place to explore that cuisine a little bit more so I went to the Alps last year and it was such a beautiful region and great culture,” Anderson said. “The food is really different and fun and I think a lot of people aren’t used to or don’t know much about it so we were excited to bring that to Richmond.”

The restaurant’s namesake is after the well-known mountain pass, which goes through the Alps forming the border between Italy and Austria. Brenner Pass will open for dinner five nights a week, serving up many large, family-style dishes for sharing such as fondue as well as seafood dishes like Arctic char and trout, a veal chop and a whole rabbit dish smothered in a red wine and chocolate sauce.  Entrees will come in around the mid-$20s with a large portion of the menu dedicated to snack options all under $10.

Anderson will be at the helm as chef, Wilson will head up the pastry program at Brenner Pass, Conway will oversee the wine program, and James Kohler, formerly of Saison, will oversee the bar program.

The restaurant and bar, which is located at 3200 Rockbridge St. in Scott’s Addition, has been under construction for over a year and is slated to open in June. The Metzger owners also plan to open a bakery and coffee shop in the space of their restaurant next door called Chairlift, slated to open shortly after Brenner Pass.

*Editor update: Brenner Pass opened June 22 and Chairlift opened at the end of August. 

Longtime Restaurateur Brings A Little “Grace” To Church Hill

Veteran restaurateur Jessica Wilson plans to open Grace, a seasonal, sustainable farmhouse restaurant on Chimborazo in the fall.

Wilson, who currently lives in New York, plans to have a focus on fresh, local produce using a neighboring garden and sourcing from local farms.

“It’s something I wanted almost my entire life,” Wilson said of the venture. “I have old blueprints from when I was younger of putting a restaurant together.”

A dishwasher at 14, Wilson has been in the industry for 25 years living and working in New York City for the last 10 years. She’s opened five restaurants for people in the city and worked in well-known NY eateries such as Prune, Goat Town and most recently Deer Bushwick before leaving last year to pursue her dream.

“That was the first year I didn’t have a full-time job for someone else,” she said.

Wilson checked out spots in Brooklyn and Charleston before deciding to visit Richmond in January.  “I had a friend down here and I just started falling in love with Richmond,” she said.

She started looking at locations and stumbled across a property on Chimborazo Boulevard on a local food blog. “I looked it up and got butterflies, I was like, ‘that’s my place, that’s my restaurant,” Wilson said.

The space was originally a confectionery shop opened by Hiram H. Herbert in the early 1900s and eventually became a grocery store. Wilson will close on the property at the beginning of June and start renovations in the summer. She also plans to live in the space upstairs.

Grace will be a 4,700-square foot restaurant and market with a 40-seat patio and a garden next door to support the restaurant. “There’s nothing really there and I think providing that morning market would be really good for produce,” she said.

The restaurant will focus on old farmhouse techniques such as curing, preserving and pickling according to Wilson, and have a wine cellar. “We’ll do a really good bar program from vegetable based juices for the mixtures, fermentations of different tonics and thinks like that,” she said. “I’m going to do as much in-house as we can.”

In addition to a market and garden, Wilson hopes to offer programs for kids, such as cooking and educational classes once she opens. “I want it to be a place where I can give us as much back to the community, but also be a really good place to eat. Every day of the week,” she said.

Until Grace gets up and running sometime in the fall, eager patrons can get a taste of what Wilson will bring to the table with her east coast pop up dinner series, Gather for Grace, which will launch in June.

Donuts Shackin’ Up In Hanover & Burgers Heading For Chesterfield

Donuts, burgers, and beer. Have any three words ever sounded so magical together?

Richmond’s ever-expanding, ever-delicious doughnut shop Sugar Shack is set to open in Hanover in June on Mechanicsville Turnpike to serve up their famous donuts and coffee.

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Sugar Shack opened its first location on North Lombardy in 2013 and has since expanded with locations in Bon Air on Huguenot Road, Parham Road in Henrico, Alexandria, Arlington, Fredericksburg, two in Florida, Stafford and Virginia Beach. Plans for additional shops in Charlottesville and Washington, D.C. are already underway.

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And it’s managed to stay fairly under the radar, but the folks behind Sugar Shack, Ian Kelley, James Henderson, Michael Goins, plan to open burger joint Luther Burger. The restaurant, which is slated to open the same month as the Hanover sugar shack, will go inside the Bon Air location and serve locally sourced beef, turkey, and veggie burgers. Buns will be hand-rolled using the same dough used to make the donuts. In addition to burgers, Luther Burger will serve waffle fries and carry a rotating selection of beers and seasonal wines.

Editor’s Update: Sugar Shack Donuts & Coffee in Hanover opened Aug. 12 and Luther Burger has not yet opened.  

 Sweet Side Of ‘Saur’

Fermenting may not be the current hipster-foodie trend right now like deconstructed coffee, smoothie bowls or drinking vinegars, but the process is only flavorful, but good for your digestion and overall health. Just ask Grant Collier who spends his days running Wild Earth Farms.

Launched in January of 2016, Wild Earth Farms makes and sells raw, naturally-fermented vegetables in Richmond using produce from Virginia farms.

Stephanie Dennehy Photography

And it’s not plain old canned sauerkraut you get off the shelf at your local grocery store, Collier and his girlfriend Bri McCarthy have come up with some creative recipes such as Garden Spice Kraut (Celery, Garlic, Cumin, and Black Pepper), a Lemon Rosemary Kraut, and “Smokey Sauerruben” (fermented turnips, carrots, and sea salt).

“Everything we do is lacto-fermented,” Collier said. “We partner with these farms and support these local farmers and show people another dimension of healthy food that’s fun, that’s exciting, that really encourages people to cook at home. We’re all so busy, when you have this awesome condiment that’s really good for you in the fridge, you can add it to whatever you’ve been cooking.”

But the two also sell other items such as hot sauce, eggplant spread, chow chow (jalapenos, onions, green tomatoes, and carrots), kimchi, and a Mexi-Cali corn which is made with spicy corn and jalapenos. “It’s a super hit,” said Collier referring to the street corn. “It’s the most healthy, fermented delicious thing for tacos.”

Stephanie Dennehy Photography

Wild Earth Farm’s two hot sauces are sure to please anyone with a need for heat. The “Green Queen” is a smokey, Salsa Verde sauce boasting flavors of garlic, lemon and brown Sugar with green peppers & tomatoes. “Wild Fire” uses orange habaneros and red sweet peppers for a great flavor and balanced heat. Collier’s passion for sustainable agriculture started back when he was a student at James Madison University. “I was involved with environmental advocacy in college and doing farm internships,” he said.

What cemented Collier and his girlfriend’s interest in sustainability and launching their own venture was in the summer of 2015, when the two quit their jobs after college and went on a bike tour of the country. “We spent six months on bicycles and we visited a lot of farms and volunteered through that WWOOF program,” he said. WWOOF, or World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, links volunteers with organic farmers and growers for hands-on learning experiences in exchange for room and board.

Stephanie Dennehy Photography

“We learned more about farms and the challenges of farm businesses so that drew some more interest in how we can make farms more profitable and doing something with their produce,” Collier said.

The two started out on a farm in Mechanicsville, but moved their operation to a kitchen off Horsepen Road near The Answer Brewpub last summer. For now, Wild Earth Farms is getting its produce from Tompkin, Dragonfly Farm, Cumberland, Community Food Collaborative, and Frank Community Farm, but Collier hopes to expand beyond that. “We couldn’t do what we do without the farms and local agriculture,” he said.

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Their line of fermented products is sold at Good Foods Grocery, the monthly Brunch Market in Scott’s Addition, South of the James Farmer’s Market, and Saint Stephens Episcopal Church. Being a budding business, Collier said the focus now is to expand their line of products and customer base within the next year.

“We’re addicted to coming out with new things, it’s really fun. We get such good responses from customers at markets,” Collier said. “I want to be a Richmond brand; I’m not focused on major distribution I want to get known really well here and develop our partnerships with the farms.”

https://www.facebook.com/WildEarthRVA/

 

 

 

Wooden Wand commemorates a year in RVA with ‘Clipper Ship’ album

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James Toth, songwriter and lyricist for Wooden Wand, commemorates his first year as a Richmond resident with his newly released album, Clipper Ship.

Toth and his wife moved to Richmond around July of last year, and coming from Kentucky, the couple was excited to become a part of Richmond’s city life, and experience the music culture the city had to offer.

With Church Hill displayed as the focal point of his album cover art, Toth expresses his connection to Richmond as a new stage in his life and a new venture for Wooden Wand’s music.

“We’re living in Richmond when this record came out,” Toth said. “We may not be living in Richmond when the next record comes out, but it commemorates what I think is a beautiful neighborhood.”

Clipper Ship, which dropped in May on Three Lobed Recordings, follows album covers like Freewheelin’ by Bob Dylan, or Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys. He wanted to capture where he has been, and create a photomontage of his travels as he develops a sense of place within his music.

“It’s a part of a tradition of album covers being in iconic places,” Toth said.

As for Clipper Ship, Toth took a different avenue for his writing style when piecing the songs together. Instead of focusing on the melody and lyrics, he decided to start with the music first, and let the lyrics flow in succession.

“The music my wife and I listen to at home are mainly instrumental, so I was thinking of what it would be like to make a record without the consideration of the song as a vehicle for words,” he said. 

One song that comes to mind is “One Can Only Love.” The song creates a melancholy vibe and drifts the listener into an America found in the backcountry. With a mixture of folky rhythms and parts featuring the dulcimer, Nathan Salsburg and Zak Riles work with Toth to build off of each other as the song comes to completion.

“One can’t just believe, but one can only love,” Toth said. “Love is paramount, and sometimes it’s difficult to believe in things, whether it’s a faith in the hereafter, or a faith in the government, or a faith in people in general.”

Perspective is key, and Toth democratically uses a variety of viewpoints in his culmination of Clipper Ship. Like with “One Can Only Love,” Toth wants the listener to find something to believe in and connect with. With political unrest and the disengagement between parties and people, Toth sends a message of cooperation and care for one’s place and one’s people.

“I like to think that records are little messages in a bottle, and some people get the messages, and some people don’t, but it’s there for people who need it,” he said. 

Check out Wooden Wand’s new album, Clipper Ship, on band camp and look out for James Toth as he makes his way to Richmond July 12th at Strange Matter.

 

Church Hill’s Dear Neighbor offers handmade goods and gifts from local artisans

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Stepping inside the Dear Neighbor boutique in Church Hill feels a bit like entering the foyer of someone’s home, and that’s because that is essentially what you’re doing. Owner Kristy Cotter’s store, which focuses on providing curated and handmade goods for the thoughtful gift-giver, sits just behind her house.

Dear Neighbor first opened in November 2016, after Cotter, an FIT graduate in fashion merchandising, moved from Brooklyn, New York to Richmond. Together with her husband, the art director at the Richmond men’s retailer Ledbury, spent three years looking for the perfect spot for her brick-and-mortar before deciding there was no place like home.

Perhaps as a result of proximity, Dear Neighbor’s shelves are stocked with items that reflect Cotter’s own personality. Wryly humorous cards – maker Tay Ham’s “I’m so excited” card inspired by the “Jessie Spano caffeine pill freakout” of Saved By the Bell fame stood out—sit near locally made woven fans by Le Stuff’s Kirby Baltzegar, pointing to Cotter’s penchant for thoughtfully made products in a range of price points.

The display case by the register is stocked with Cotter’s own jewelry line, Drift / Riot , a brand that marks Cotter’s place in the circle of friends who make up the network of it-retailers in Richmond—including Rosewood Clothing Co., Addison Handmade and Vintage, Need Supply Co. and Na Nin.

As a part of this list, Dear Neighbor joins the ranks of boutiques that have seemingly built their niche in Richmond’s fashion community from the ground up, with a distinctly non-cutthroat approach: pieces from Cotter’s Drift / Riot line—which just came out with a new collection of 70s-inspired back-to-basics pieces—are available in all of the previously listed stores, and Dear Neighbor consistently features pieces from other Richmond makers and retailers.

With the aesthetic of Richmond’s retail landscape still relatively undefined, local retailers like Dear Neighbor find themselves in the unique position of having community growth be synonymous with individual growth. In expanding Richmond’s fashion audience beyond the city’s borders, the ability for these retailers to stick together does much more for their reach than going it alone, and so Cotter reaps nothing but reward for showing genuine love to her contemporaries.

“Everybody knows everybody in Richmond, which I love,” said Cotter. “The maker scene is so supportive, and the retail scene is really supportive too. For example, Kate from Na Nin does a custom candle for us, and I also carry her scents and room sprays. She’s one of our top sellers, and so many people don’t even know that she has a store. So having partnerships like that is a really great way to spread the word.”

In Cotter’s backyard space behind Dear Neighbor, she frequently hosts events that showcase Richmond makers. These events are cross-promotional to the nth degree, opening the space to retailers, cocktail artisans like Belle Isle Craft Spirits and local eateries like Sub Rosa Bakery alike. With the aim of having at least two events per month, Dear Neighbor’s next event is scheduled for May 7, and will feature Studio Two Three as well as several local vendors.

While Dear Neighbor’s push for community support has the effect of encouraging more locals to tap into the market, the impact reaches even further. As Cotter and her contemporaries give a supportive platform to local makers, they simultaneously allow makers from across the country to see that there is a market for their work in Richmond. Today, Dear Neighbor carries the work of makers from Richmond, Colorado, Los Angeles, and the list is only growing.

“I shop seasonably, and I try to gauge the caliber we want the store to be at based on other stores that I like, but it all really comes down to whether something is a right fit for us,” said Cotter. “Really, it’s whatever I like,” from wherever.

By exposing Richmond’s selective buyers to niche sellers and visa-versa, Dear Neighbor sets off a chain reaction that gets everyone involved more excited about their aesthetic choices. It’s not a typical business model, but Dear Neighbor is not exactly a typical gift store.

To learn more about Dear Neighbor and keep up with their events, you can visit their website here and their Facebook here. 2415 Jefferson Ave.

Words by Gabriella Lacombe. Photo credit: Eman El Saied