Spoonbread Bistro’s former location at 2526 Floyd Ave. is for lease following the exit of the eatery that served French-inspired Southern food. (Jack Jacobs photo)
A Fan restaurant that took cover at the onset of the pandemic won’t be reopening.
Spoonbread Bistro has formally vacated 2526 Floyd Ave., after closing for what was supposed to be a temporary stint in March 2020.
The restaurant had initially been in wait-and-see mode for a few months but by the summer of 2020 had decided to close the book on the Fan location, a decision helped along by the fact that it was nearing the end of the five-year lease it signed in 2016.
It had continued to pay the rent in the meantime and recently made its exit official by agreeing with its landlord to an early end of the lease.
“Basically, the lease was going to be up soon anyway. So, we just decided to focus on the newer location in Short Pump,” Chef Greg Dunlap said, referring to sister restaurant Spoonbread Bistro Deux on Lauderdale Drive.
The Floyd Avenue property recently hit the market after renovations by the landlord. Rich Holden of Holden Realty has the listing and is also the property manager.
“We negotiated a deal with them and let them out of the lease and we had to go back in and do a lot of work because it wasn’t left that well, and we just finished all that work,” said Holden.
Spoonbread Deux opened in 2018 and continues to operate at 3416 Lauderdale Drive near Short Pump. Dunlap said business has picked up at that location and the restaurant, currently open Wednesday to Saturday, plans to expand its days and hours of operation soon.
Though Spoonbread has experienced some challenges in hiring, Dunlap said a core of employees have stuck it out and helped keep the business afloat.
“Now with the vaccine and people feeling a bit more comfortable about coming out I can really tell that’s caused an influx of business,” Dunlap said. “We’ve been blessed to have a crew of employees that’s been with the company for a while.”
Dunlap helped chef Michael Hall launch the first Spoonbread in the Fan in 2016. Hall parted ways with Spoonbread in 2020.
Hall told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that company investors took over the company and he didn’t comment on why he left the company.
The Fan space is roughly 5,000 square feet and includes both the Floyd-side storefront as well as 105 Robinson St.
“It could be separated but it would be complicated. It would require reconfiguring the 105 building,” Holden said. “It’s always been leased with the two building. So, I’m hoping we can continue down that route.”
Holden said the space is largely move-in ready for a restaurant operator and about $50,000 has been invested in renovations to the building since Spoonbread departed. He said the restaurant can seat more than 80 diners.
“It’s really in good condition for someone to walk in and it’s virtually a turnkey situation with the exception of a few pieces of equipment,” Holden said, adding that they’ve had interest from several potential tenants.
Spoonbread Bistro’s former location at 2526 Floyd Ave. is for lease following the exit of the eatery that served French-inspired Southern food. (Jack Jacobs photo)
A Fan restaurant that took cover at the onset of the pandemic won’t be reopening.
Spoonbread Bistro has formally vacated 2526 Floyd Ave., after closing for what was supposed to be a temporary stint in March 2020.
The restaurant had initially been in wait-and-see mode for a few months but by the summer of 2020 had decided to close the book on the Fan location, a decision helped along by the fact that it was nearing the end of the five-year lease it signed in 2016.
It had continued to pay the rent in the meantime and recently made its exit official by agreeing with its landlord to an early end of the lease.
“Basically, the lease was going to be up soon anyway. So, we just decided to focus on the newer location in Short Pump,” Chef Greg Dunlap said, referring to sister restaurant Spoonbread Bistro Deux on Lauderdale Drive.
The Floyd Avenue property recently hit the market after renovations by the landlord. Rich Holden of Holden Realty has the listing and is also the property manager.
“We negotiated a deal with them and let them out of the lease and we had to go back in and do a lot of work because it wasn’t left that well, and we just finished all that work,” said Holden.
Spoonbread Deux opened in 2018 and continues to operate at 3416 Lauderdale Drive near Short Pump. Dunlap said business has picked up at that location and the restaurant, currently open Wednesday to Saturday, plans to expand its days and hours of operation soon.
Though Spoonbread has experienced some challenges in hiring, Dunlap said a core of employees have stuck it out and helped keep the business afloat.
“Now with the vaccine and people feeling a bit more comfortable about coming out I can really tell that’s caused an influx of business,” Dunlap said. “We’ve been blessed to have a crew of employees that’s been with the company for a while.”
Dunlap helped chef Michael Hall launch the first Spoonbread in the Fan in 2016. Hall parted ways with Spoonbread in 2020.
Hall told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that company investors took over the company and he didn’t comment on why he left the company.
The Fan space is roughly 5,000 square feet and includes both the Floyd-side storefront as well as 105 Robinson St.
“It could be separated but it would be complicated. It would require reconfiguring the 105 building,” Holden said. “It’s always been leased with the two building. So, I’m hoping we can continue down that route.”
Holden said the space is largely move-in ready for a restaurant operator and about $50,000 has been invested in renovations to the building since Spoonbread departed. He said the restaurant can seat more than 80 diners.
“It’s really in good condition for someone to walk in and it’s virtually a turnkey situation with the exception of a few pieces of equipment,” Holden said, adding that they’ve had interest from several potential tenants.
This restaurant space has good bones and for whatever reason, it turns over so much compared to its neighboring restaurants. Since 2004 it has be Konsta’s, Jorge’s Cantina, FANHOUSE, Verbena, and Spoonbread. I’ve always heard it’s not allowed to have a bar downstairs and its inability to have a patio have hurt. Is there more to this location‘s history?
Spoonbread was great but the layout has always been odd. The bar is upstairs and is tight space-wise. It also gets incredibly loud with the open stairs area that funnels all the sound upstairs
Well….Just one block away at the corner of Main and Robinson we’ve seen Soble’s, Devil’s Kitchen, Starlite, Bruch (also closed when Covid hit) and now we have SB’s Main Street Love Shack, which is great btw.
Probably didn’t help that a couple of the past ‘owner’s’ for the space mentioned here were among the most notorious in RVA restaurant memory,
Go on…..spill the beans.
Also, that please is really strangely laid out, the upstairs bar is just strange, it probably seemed like a cool idea but nope.