Eat It, Virginia!

Joye B. Moore's smile is infectious. But behind the sixth-generation baker's big grin and loud laugh, there is pain. Before moving to Virginia, Moore grew up in North Carolina and Texas where she lived with an abusive stepparent and a mother with severe mental health challenges. "My mother was undiagnosed with mental illness, that the family, just due to cultural reasons was not aware of," she said. "So at some point, we ended up living with my second great-grandmother." It was there, in her grandparents' gardens and kitchens, where Moore learned about the importance of good food and family. "I know they are proud of us. We are walking talking manifestations of all of their prayers heard," she said. Moore is talking about what she and her family have been able to do with Joyebells.  Moore and her family started making pies after she lost her job at a nonprofit in 2019. Moore started by selling just five pies a week at the Dairy Bar in Scott’s Addition, to making 10 pies a week for that restaurant. She then ju

Torchy's Tacos will open its second Richmond-area restaurant in February. The new location, in the recently-built Carytown Exchange shopping center, is not far from where the Austin, Texas-based taco chain's CEO and founder came into this world. "I was born at Richmond Memorial Hospital," Torchy's Tacos boss Mike Rypka told Scott and Robey on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "We lived off of Monument Avenue. My mom and dad used to work for the Richmond newspaper. They were both journalists. My dad was a photographer. My mom was a journalist." While the family moved to Northern Virginia about five years later, Rypka said he had "crazy memories" of his time in Richmond. Fortunately for Torchy's fans, Rypka found his way into the kitchen where a variety of experiences led him to start a taco truck in Texas. After a few years, Rypka's idea grew from a truck to a single restaurant to now more than 100 Torchy's Tacos across the U.S. The Short Pump location opened in January and a Midlothian location will join the Cary

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 open Bar West. "We were proud of the food we were putting out and I think that the reviews for the cuisine at Cocodrilo speak for themselves and none of that changes. The culinary staff is not changing at all," Long said on the most recent Eat It, Virginia podcast. So why the drastic change less than a year after opening? The team behind Bar West (the restaurant space formerly known as Cocodrilo) shares their story with Scott and Robey on this week's Eat It, Virginia!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 RobeySee 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, the cidery was under construction here in Scott's Addition. I was like, okay, you're really good at like the founder, CEO thing. But you could use some help on the PR, marketing, and the telling people about it side. Enter Elle." The friends were dating when they launched the cidery in 2016. They got married about a year later. "It is super fun and it is also very stressful. We work all the time," she said about working with her husband. "But it is fun because you get to learn about your partner so much more than you would if you just saw them in the evenings because you see how they are at work and their strengths

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 scene is currently missing. We covered a lot of other topics too!  If you like this format, please let us know! You're about to hear a bunch of voices in this podcast, so here's a list of names and Instagram handles to help you keep track of who's who:  Robey Martin -- Call Me Robey Scott Wise --  Scott_Wise James L. Ford III -- Just Something I Ate Srija Kothakonda The VA Foodies Saakshi Gunda The VA Foodies Nick Barahona - Nick’s Food Review Sara Riso -- RVAFoodsandStuffs Kici Cofield -- Well Read and Fed Elaine  -- Miss Elaine Neous  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 minute I moved to Richmond, I knew immediately that I could bring what I grew up eating here," Petruzzelli said. "Obviously I say this with so much respect for the Italian food that already exists here, but I think that Richmond was missing authentic Italian food, Italian food that you would find in Italy, Italian food that I grew up eating that my Nonna used to make." Petruzzelli's family is from Southern coastal Italy where seafood rules. "We love linguine alle vongole (linguine with clams). We do a lot of cozze which are muscles. A lot of octopus, a lot of sea urchin," she said. 'It's an acquired taste, but when

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 pass up. One to work for a Danny Meyer establishment. And to work in a restaurant where everything is top of the line and there's anticipation." After years in the city, Wansleben was looking for a slower, more family-friendly pace of life and a friend recommended Richmond. "We moved here in 2001. So in 2000, we started checking out the food scene, I started subscribing to Richmond Magazine, checking out the top caterers because we figured that it had a decent enough food scene at the time that we could both come down and get jobs." Wansleben landed a steady catering gig with Tuffy Stone at A Sharper Palate. "He was grea

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 the pandemic, which was purely by luck," chef Dale Reitzer, who has been honored with multiple James Beard Award nominations, said. "But now we're picking probably the worst time to construct a restaurant. So I think it's come back to even the playing field out." The Reitzers are in the construction phase of a new Acacia restaurant, this time at Libbie Mill. They hope to have Acacia midtown open by the end of the year.  But Acacia isn't the couple's only claim to food fame.  Aline Reitzer started Richmond Restaurant Week as a way to raise awareness about the city's restaurants and raise money for the food bank. "I g

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 started with the relaunch of Stella's in 2011. That's when I really got involved," Giavos, who studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York said. "Continental was the second one. It kind of steamrolled from there." While his parents and others handle what comes out of the kitchen at Giavos-family restaurants such as the aforementioned Stella's, Continental (2x), plus Little Nickel, Sidewalk Cafe, Kuba Kuba (2x), Galley, and Perly's, Constantine handles what you experience upon entering the space. He sets the tone by, among other things, designing each restaurant's decor, choosing the dishes and drinkware, set

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 comfortable working in a huge kitchen setting. So I pulled back and I decided to invest a little bit more in Fat Rabbit, and it just seemed to work." In the early months of the pandemic, Hopper was baking out of her home kitchen and making cake deliveries all over town. "There were some days where I was making 10 to 15 deliveries daily, of different orders," she said about the early days of her business. "I just got into this weird little at-home rhythm where I'd wake up really early, bake like crazy, and then around 4 p.m. just head out and drive to people's houses and drop off." "I think the time was right. People we

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 on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "I was just really caught off guard, I was just like, 'alright, I'm gonna check the stats, check the chart.' And it hit number one, I almost fell out of the chair." Freeman's podcast focuses on the impact African Americans have made on American food. "I knew I wanted to do something about Black baking. I wrote an article on yellow cake and people that I did not know were sending me pictures of their grandmothers and their mothers and sharing their memories and crying. So things like that kind of spark, oh, this might be an interesting podcast," Freeman said. " So I lay out, who I would

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 Whisky Grill in the Fan, and McCormack's Irish Pub in Shockoe Bottom. "I don't know that anybody has more of a selection than we do at Big Whisky. I don't see how they could, because it took me 10 years to put this collection together. Virginia has some restrictions where we have to buy everything from the ABC. And so one of the reasons we have so many bottles and backstock is because of that. So when things become available, I buy as many as I can, just to make sure that we keep them in stock, because I have to not think about today or tomorrow, I have to think about five years from now. And some of the products that w

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 Carl Gupton said on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "The reason is that that was harvested three, four, five, six days ago at a minimum. It's harvested, cool chain there [California or Arizona], traveled across the country, hit a distribution center. It's not just a problem of fresh produce, they've got drought. We've all seen the mega droughts going on in California. It's changing the way that we are consuming. Throw COVID on top of it and the supply chain is broken in a lot of ways for our food system. We talk with some of our food distributors and when they order from the West Coast, they don't know if they're get

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 and I was working in China, and they said they needed [someone from] Yale or Harvard or an Ivy League school because our organization was now being reported to the board. So they let me go." When Gwen flew back to the states after losing her job, the situation did not improve. "I was going to my office to clean my desk and we were in a car accident. We were at a red light and this gentleman slammed into us at 55 miles an hour," she said. "So we get the bad news at the hospital. My back is injured. My neck is injured. Brittny's bursa sac and her hip were destroyed." It was during their at-home recovery, that thei

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 Mexican food. It's a big city with a lot going on. And that's my influence," he said. "I'm a city boy, born and raised. And so that's what we're trying to bring [here], a modern take on traditional food." Mena cooked in some big-name New York City restaurants and opened two of his own (Hecho en Dumbo and La Loncheria) before he was tapped to lead the Conejo kitchen. And in that kitchen, Mena said he and his team lean on quality ingredients. "The quality of meat that we use, the quality of ingredients that we do is far superior [to many other Mexican restaurants]," he said. "We luckily have the time, the effort, the k

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." After some soul searching and discussion with her husband, the couple landed on a frozen custard truck. Two, to be exact. Learn more about jiji's Frozen Custard on this week's Eat It, Virginia! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 roommate who was also a bartender. So, it was a way for me to pass the time and stay creative." Using the handle BarDaddy_, a nickname she earned behind the bar at now-defunct Richmond restaurant Fatty Smokes, Stuart posted drink recipes and funny skits to keep herself and her growing fan base entertained. "It was a hobby at first," she said. "Now it's a whole tax form. Now it's a responsibility. I have contracts. I have deadlines. Stuff that I never really expected to happen." Brands reach out to Katie now, hoping she will review their product or create a recipe using their spirit. It seems to be working as BarDa

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 us on-site, and then we also have them work in different departments within the bakery, everything from packaging, to marketing, to working in the kitchen, to also doing sales at our main sales counter." On Saturday, May 21, from 10 a.m. to Noon, Scott and Robey will be working at Tablespoons Bakery as part of an effort to help raise money for the Richmond nonprofit.  Tablespoons Bakery is located at 1707 Westover Hills Blvd, Richmond, VA 23225. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 your friends answer an age-old question. "You can really come in with a group of people that don't know what they want, or the famous 'I don't know what I want to eat for dinner' question and have a perfect spot," she said. "You can really get whatever you want. And then you can all sit together and eat it." Hatch Local also has craft cocktails to pair with food coming out of the different kitchens. "So you come in and scan one of our QR codes and then ask the bartender and they're more than willing to be in your business and ask what did you get to eat, and then suggest a cocktail," Holland said. "[The cocktails are]