Food & Drink
Soft Opening Done Right by Pizza & Beer of Richmond
The customers were given their fill of pizza but were too young to sample the 45 plus beers on tap.
The latest venture by EAT Restaurant Partners who at last count have 10,423 restaurants in Richmond, is Pizza & Beer of Richmond (PBR) located at 2553 W. Cary Street as part of the Bus Barn repurposing.
Go to 10 soft-openings of Richmond restaurants and you’ll likely see the same faces. They’re a mix of food writers, bloggers, restaurant folk, foodie, and those that just seem to know where and when to show up. It’s refreshing to see a restaurant do something new and help the community at the same time.
PBR (why has there not be a restaurant with that name before?) added another type of practice run to the usual soft opening process and this one is much shorter, literally. Fifty students from J.L. Francis Elementary School were invited out for lunch for each reading 100 books this year. What a great test for a new kitchen and waitstaff at the same time being a great treat for the kids.
Pizza & Beer of Richmond opens this weekend and RichmondMag.com has an excellent preview.
“We’re taking it and putting a chef spin on pizza … we’re doing cool stuff, and it gives us an avenue so we’re not stuck in a bubble and gives us a better niche,” says Lindsey. “I’m not concerned [about competition] because we’re so different in the way we do our pizza.”
The pizza dough is made daily along with a variety of sauces including BBQ, pesto and zesty tomato, spicy garlic-ginger, and buffalo; fresh-made mozzarella and meats like prosciutto, meatballs and brisket are cured in house; toppings such as pork rinds, shishito peppers, fried green tomatoes, spicy honey and roasted Brussels sprouts offer atypical choices.
