Ipanema Cafe goes dark on Grace St.

Signage for Ipanema was recently taken down. (Mike Platania photo)

Five years after its sale to a new owner, a staple of the VCU dining scene appears to have closed.

Signage for Ipanema Cafe, the long-running vegetarian restaurant at 917 W. Grace St., has been taken down and the business has not been open during its posted hours in recent days. 

Owner Seth Campbell, who bought the restaurant from founder Kendra Feather in early 2020, did not respond to multiple requests seeking comment. Online listings for Ipanema show it as permanently closed as of Feb. 17. 

Ipanema’s landlord, the VCU Real Estate Foundation, said through a university spokesman that the cafe’s lease at the property is still active despite its shuttering. VCU said it does not have any specific plans for the property, and a hair salon and recording studio continue to operate elsewhere in the three-story building. The Real Estate Foundation bought the building in 2023.

The closure marks the end of a nearly three-decade run for Ipanema, which had been a mainstay in the VCU- and Fan-area restaurant scene since 1998. 

Feather had worked at the building’s former tenant, Bidder’s Suite, and when it closed, she acquired the restaurant’s equipment and opened Ipanema, per a Style Weekly report. 

Ipanema’s exit comes as that stretch of Grace Street continues to evolve in step with the surrounding university. Just up the block is 931-933 W. Grace St., where construction recently began on a 21-apartment mixed-use building. The new structure recently landed Qdoba as a commercial tenant.