Regency restaurant Sloop John B closes, to be converted into Twin Hickory Tavern

Taco restaurant Sloop John B has closed after a three-year run at Regency. (BizSense file photos)

A restaurant space at Regency that recently went dark won’t stay idle for long.

Sloop John B, a Caribbean-themed taco joint owned by Garland Taylor, ended a three-year run at the western Henrico mall on Sunday.

And now Taylor is converting the space at the mall’s Quioccasin Road entrance into a new location of his Twin Hickory Tavern.

It’s slated to open in early December and will be the second location of Twin Hickory Tavern, following the original spot that opened in 2020 at 11351 Nuckols Road in Glen Allen.

Taylor said Sloop John B, which made higher-end tacos its focus, found it challenging to compete with nearby restaurants that also sold tacos. He added that the restaurant’s Caribbean-influenced menu items seemed to have trouble catching on with customers.

“In a period of just months I was making adjustments to the menu, repositioning it to meet the market. I’ve done that, in three years, six times and I found myself getting away from what I wanted to do, which is authentic food. I ended up with french fries on my menu,” he said.

Taylor said that Sloop John B’s initial approach, which emphasized from-scratch cooking, was also difficult to do in a large restaurant space and amid cost increases felt across the industry.

“We were making so many more items from scratch that were unique and special. The feedback was good, but operationally it’s a large restaurant with a lot of seats and it’s difficult to do something like that at that scale,” he said.

The 5,000-square-foot space has a similarly sized rooftop seating area. It has capacity for 250 people in the dining room and patio, and room for about as many people on the restaurant’s rooftop area.

Taylor said he’s had more success with Twin Hickory Tavern, which opened its original location the year before Sloop John B. Its menu features burgers, sandwiches and sliders as well as seafood entrees, salads and tacos, and is open for brunch, lunch and dinner. Taylor is hopeful that concept will be a better fit for Regency and the surrounding area amid the mall’s shift away from a retail focus toward being a mixed-use development.

“I still believe it’s going to be very successful here (at Regency). I just need to give the market what the market wants. My Twin Hickory concept is something I believe will work here well,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he plans to spend $800,000 on renovations to the Regency space as part of the rebrand to a Twin Hickory location. Much of those funds have been earmarked for a new retractable cover for a portion of the rooftop so that the restaurant can take greater advantage of its capacity during cold or bad weather.

804 Builders is the project’s general contractor.

Garland Taylor inside Sloop John B around the time it opened in 2021. Taylor is now preparing to open a new location of Twin Hickory Tavern in the space at Regency.

Twin Hickory Tavern started in Glen Allen as a rebrand of one of Taylor’s Home Team Grill locations, the sports bar chain he formerly owned. Home Team still has a location in the Fan but is no longer owned by Taylor.

Sloop John B opened in late 2021. At the time, Taylor also had plans for a pizza spot in an adjacent space at the mall, though that project ultimately fell through. That space is now home to virtual reality venue Pelagos VR.

Regency owners Rebkee Co. and Thalhimer Realty Partners have brought activity-based tenants and residential units to the mall in recent years as part of their redevelopment of the property. Anchor tenants at Regency include trampoline venue Surge Adventure Park and Performance Pickleball.