Lair is setting up shop at 17 W. Main St.
The owners of a local food truck are getting a new taste of the stationary life.
Jason Williams and Chris Mullenix, owners of the Chupacabra food truck, are launching the Lair at 17 W. Main St.
The restaurant, which is set to open this week, will serve Chupacabra’s Tex-Mex menu, along with pizza and breakfast.
Williams and Mullenix leased the 2,400-squre-foot space, formerly home to Jamaican restaurant Caribbean Mingles, last November. It sits on a quieter stretch of Main Street that’s bookended by the glut of restaurants in VCU and the Fan, and downtown.
“This is a great area,” Williams said. “It’s up and coming and there is a void of food here.”
It’s taken about nine months and an investment of between $60,000 and $70,000 to get the Lair ready to open, he said.
The pair cut startup costs by buying building materials and décor through auctions, eBay, Craigslist and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore. The wood used for a 180-foot bar top, for example, cost $320 from ReStore.
While their focus lately has been on wheeled-restaurants, Williams and Mullenix aren’t new to stationary food ventures.
Jason Williams
Since 2008 Williams has owned and operated 6 CiCi’s Pizza franchises in the greater Richmond area. Mullenix worked as a general manager at one of the restaurants. Williams launched his first food truck with CiCi’s in 2010. He and Mullenix started Chupacabra in 2011.
Wanting to focus more on his own ventures, Williams sold his 6 CiCi’s holdings earlier this year intending to use the money to finance a commissary for Chupacabra.
“Then I had the idea for the Lair and people jumped on board and it got a lot of momentum,” he said. “I’m definitely not the mastermind.”
Williams also hasn’t taken his eye off the food truck scene. He said a coffee truck, pizza truck and sushi truck are all in the works.
Lair is setting up shop at 17 W. Main St.
The owners of a local food truck are getting a new taste of the stationary life.
Jason Williams and Chris Mullenix, owners of the Chupacabra food truck, are launching the Lair at 17 W. Main St.
The restaurant, which is set to open this week, will serve Chupacabra’s Tex-Mex menu, along with pizza and breakfast.
Williams and Mullenix leased the 2,400-squre-foot space, formerly home to Jamaican restaurant Caribbean Mingles, last November. It sits on a quieter stretch of Main Street that’s bookended by the glut of restaurants in VCU and the Fan, and downtown.
“This is a great area,” Williams said. “It’s up and coming and there is a void of food here.”
It’s taken about nine months and an investment of between $60,000 and $70,000 to get the Lair ready to open, he said.
The pair cut startup costs by buying building materials and décor through auctions, eBay, Craigslist and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore. The wood used for a 180-foot bar top, for example, cost $320 from ReStore.
While their focus lately has been on wheeled-restaurants, Williams and Mullenix aren’t new to stationary food ventures.
Jason Williams
Since 2008 Williams has owned and operated 6 CiCi’s Pizza franchises in the greater Richmond area. Mullenix worked as a general manager at one of the restaurants. Williams launched his first food truck with CiCi’s in 2010. He and Mullenix started Chupacabra in 2011.
Wanting to focus more on his own ventures, Williams sold his 6 CiCi’s holdings earlier this year intending to use the money to finance a commissary for Chupacabra.
“Then I had the idea for the Lair and people jumped on board and it got a lot of momentum,” he said. “I’m definitely not the mastermind.”
Williams also hasn’t taken his eye off the food truck scene. He said a coffee truck, pizza truck and sushi truck are all in the works.