Plate & Goblet: Tacos in Short Pump, top food trends, food for thought
Table of Contents
If tacos are your thing, then get yourself over to Short Pump this week for the opening of Torchy's Tacos (11120 West Broad Street).
An open-to-the-public preview party featuring two free tacos per guest, queso, beer samples, a DJ, and swag giveaways was held Jan. 9, featuring Margaritas for a Cause, with all tips and proceeds from the sale of alcohol donated to Make-A-Wish Greater Virginia. And on opening day, Jan. 11, the first 100 guests in line at 10 a.m. received free queso for a year (restrictions apply), granted to each "Taco Junkie" via a limited-edition Torchy's Restaurant Opening t-shirt.
Founded in Austin, Texas, by Virginia native Mike Rypka, Torchy's began in 2006 as a food trailer and has grown to more than 100 U.S. locations. The first in Virginia opened in Charlottesville last month, and Richmond-area locations will soon include sites in Carytown and at Chesterfield Towne Center. Among the Torchy's specialties are breakfast tacos (served all day long) and Taco of the Month, a constantly changing offering that benefits Torchy's charitable partners.
Trending in 2023
Among the top food trends listed by Yelp for 2023 are alcohol-free beverages, which were explored in the May Plate & Goblet. The choices in alcohol alternatives continued to expand in 2022, with mocktails on many more restaurant menus and non-alcoholic options increasingly available at retailers. Two celebrities (Blake Lively and Bella Hadid) launched their own brands of mocktails, and the "sober-curious" movement became more mainstream, according to Yelp.
The website noted that "colorful, playful drinks" are also a trend, and many of these (such as the Michelagua — the alcohol-free version of the Mexican cocktail Michelada) are NA.
Other trends cited by Yelp include the popularity of slushies, experimental dining (underwater restaurants, dinner theaters, etc.), pickle flavored products, and dirty sodas (sodas with cream and either a sweetener or flavored syrup added). Nostalgia cravings are also becoming a powerful driver for food-seekers lately, and Yelp indicated that searches for fast food on its site were up 90 percent last year. Companies have responded by restoring classics like the McRib and kids’ meals toys to their menus, and (according to Yelp) in 2023 we can also expect to hear more ads featuring 1980s marketing and jingles.
A few quick nuggets of restaurant and food news around Henrico:
• A sign announcing Waygone Brewery's upcoming opening at 10612 Patterson Avenue drove me to check out the Facebook page, which says a grand opening is in the works for April/May 2023.
• A one-year-old wine shop in the Short Pump Crossing shopping Center (11535 West Broad Street at Pump Road) has expanded and added a bar with food service, among other new features. Wine Whisperer took advantage of an empty adjacent storefront to enlarge its space, and patrons can now sample small-plate menu items such as cheeses and charcuterie and enjoy wine by the glass.
• A tray of Bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Short Pump (11845 W Broad St.) was quite a hit at a party I attended just a few days into January. I'm guessing a few New Year's resolutions to diet or reduce sugar got postponed that night....
• Shawarma Bistro, operated by two brothers from Iraq, won praise recently from writers at both Richmond Magazine and Axios Richmond. Located at 12422 Gayton Rd. at Ridgefield, the restaurant features made-from-scratch Middle Eastern specialities, including spit-roasted lamb and other meats.
And finally, food for thought . . .
• Gee Suleymanian, owner of The Greek Taverna on Staples Mill Road, was profiled in an October WTVR-TV 6 feature describing his early life in Armenia under harsh conditions. Still a part of the Soviet Union and under communist rule at the time, Armenia was often lacking in such basic necessities as heat, hot water, and food. Some weeks, the family got one hour of electricity per week.
Then Suleymanian's father found a research job at MCV in Richmond. When 14-year-old Gagik Suleymanian and his family arrived in the U.S. in 1994, he faced new challenges -- like entering Thomas Jefferson H.S. knowing next to no English.
After years of hard work, Suleymanian is a successful restaurant owner, and even the busiest, most hectic of days in the Taverna kitchen don't get him down. After all, kitchen chaos is nothing compared to the hardships he knew in Armenia.
As he told WTVR's Greg McQuade, “Sometimes I joke that maybe part of being an American citizen, we should send everyone over to a third-world country for a week and bring them back so they can appreciate how it is over here."
