Photo: Richard Hayes

The week in brief

Well, we made it to the end of a short week thanks to the Memorial Day holiday, and food festivals galore await us. I just returned from my first visit (of many) to the Richmond Greek Festival, and all I’ve got to say is you have to check out the lamb sausage platter, which is new this year. It’s incredibly tasty. The lines weren’t too bad at lunchtime, but you can bet they’ll be wrapped around the festival site all weekend. Lucky for you, we put together a guide with five tips for making the most of the Greek Festival, how to avoid the lines, parking info, and more! Check it out right here before you go.

This Sunday, the food madness continues when 75 of Richmond’s best restaurants descend upon the Arts District for Broad Appétit. Richard Hayes has not five, but ten tips to help you navigate this festival. A surprising amount of strategy is involved, y’all! You’ve got to scout out the food, make a plan to get it while someone else holds your table, have a designated beer runner, etc. Teamwork makes the dream work. Check out his guide here.

Likely the biggest act to grace the stage of Friday Cheers this season, Conor Oberst will perform on Brown’s Island this evening. Big Thief will warm up the stage beforehand around 6:00. It’s going to be a beautiful night to listen to some tunes and sip a beer or three by the river. Check out our show preview from contributor Scott Castro (I can tell you personally that he may be one of Oberst’s biggest fans out there) before you head out.

What do you do when you own a shopping center and you have two empty units side by side? If you’re anything like visionary developer Sidney Gunst–the man who envisioned and developed Innsbrook–you fill it with your own concept featuring beer, wine, and lawn games. Check out what’s coming to the Innsbrook Shoppes from BizSense here.

Did you know a lot of unnecessary traffic backups can be alleviated by using something known as the zipper merging method? Richard Hayes does, and he provides this handy tutorial and video to help you merge into traffic more efficiently right here.

The American Civil War Center is poised for a large expansion, with a new exhibit space set to be built atop the old ruins that currently exist at Tredegar, between the existing portion of the museum and their event space. Check out this video rendering and walk through the new space here. Construction should start this summer.

Bellytimber served their last meal on Wednesday, a new yakitori place opens tonight, and a Korean fried chicken concept is on its way to VCU. Read all about these developments and more in our Weekly Food News. Fancy some sudsy news about this weekend’s beer releases and brewery events? Look no further than our RVA Beer Explorer.

Until next time,

Trevor Dickerson, Editor
RVAHub