From left, co-owners Jon Bell, Neil McLean, Doug Clodfelter and TJ Hayes. (Courtesy Doug Clodfelter)
A restaurant concept created by five friends is officially up and running in the Fan.
Brazen, which serves guests a slow-braise-focused menu, opened at 2028 W. Cary St. on March 12.
The team behind the new restaurant consists of co-owners and chefs Neil McLean, Jon Bell and TJ Hayes, general manager and co-owner Doug Clodfelter, and bartender Jackson Pettitt.
Most of the team members have been friends for years and between them have had stints working across the Richmond food scene, including at the likes of L’Opossum, Maple & Pine and Tarrant’s.
Though the friends had toyed with the idea of starting a restaurant together for years, it wasn’t until last March that they decided to go all in.
“It was kind of an ‘if not now, never’ kind of moment,” McLean said.
After looking at several spaces around Richmond, the group settled on the roughly 1,600-square-foot space at 2028 W. Cary St. last May. It formerly housed Asian fusion restaurant Lucky Whale and sandwich and salad shop Olio before that. The space has seating for about 45 inside along with a patio that can seat around 24.
Build-out for Brazen took about three months, during which the interior was transformed to include blue walls, polished floors and some frog motifs on the walls, all of which harken back to the Brazen team’s memories of spending time along the river at Texas Beach, where many of them met, Clodfelter said.
Brazen originally planned to open last fall, but the team said permitting issues with the city of Richmond delayed the date.
Brazen’s menu includes options such as a slow-braised short rib with potato, duxelles and shallots on a torpedo roll, a braised beef Bourguignon, fennel salad and garlic aioli sandwich and a spicy fried chicken thigh tossed in house-made Helles Belles sauce on a potato roll.
Brazen sandwiches range in price from $15 to $20.
“Sandwiches get kind of a bad rap as being lower end, but I think you can do anything excellently. Our short rib sandwich is a sandwich, but it’s got duxelles, it’s got crispy shallots,” McLean said.
The interior of Brazen. (Photo by Doug Clodfelter)
The restaurant also has multiple vegan and gluten-free options, and features weekly specials that will rotate so the team can add customer favorites to the menu, Clodfelter said.
Other than its braised theme, Brazen’s menu does not focus on any one type of cuisine and keeps ingredients seasonal for variation throughout the year, Bell said.
Brazen’s name is twofold, meant to represent both the restaurant’s braised options that are cooked slowly, typically over hours, and the “brazen” idea to start a new restaurant together in an industry that can be oversaturated.
“If you’ve worked in restaurants then you are all too familiar with their success rate and their profit margins, and it’s a brazen idea, it’s extremely difficult,” McLean said. “But it’s worth it, because we get to do it how we envision things.”
About two weeks on from opening day, the Brazen team said their already established friendship is the extra sauce that makes the restaurant special.
“A lot of people start businesses with people they think are the best in their field, but they realize they don’t even like that person,” Bell said. “You have to have that foundation of trust.”
“If you’re gonna spend, on a light day, 15 hours here, you should probably like the guys that you’re with,” McLean added.
Brazen is open Wednesdays through Mondays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
From left, co-owners Jon Bell, Neil McLean, Doug Clodfelter and TJ Hayes. (Courtesy Doug Clodfelter)
A restaurant concept created by five friends is officially up and running in the Fan.
Brazen, which serves guests a slow-braise-focused menu, opened at 2028 W. Cary St. on March 12.
The team behind the new restaurant consists of co-owners and chefs Neil McLean, Jon Bell and TJ Hayes, general manager and co-owner Doug Clodfelter, and bartender Jackson Pettitt.
Most of the team members have been friends for years and between them have had stints working across the Richmond food scene, including at the likes of L’Opossum, Maple & Pine and Tarrant’s.
Though the friends had toyed with the idea of starting a restaurant together for years, it wasn’t until last March that they decided to go all in.
“It was kind of an ‘if not now, never’ kind of moment,” McLean said.
After looking at several spaces around Richmond, the group settled on the roughly 1,600-square-foot space at 2028 W. Cary St. last May. It formerly housed Asian fusion restaurant Lucky Whale and sandwich and salad shop Olio before that. The space has seating for about 45 inside along with a patio that can seat around 24.
Build-out for Brazen took about three months, during which the interior was transformed to include blue walls, polished floors and some frog motifs on the walls, all of which harken back to the Brazen team’s memories of spending time along the river at Texas Beach, where many of them met, Clodfelter said.
Brazen originally planned to open last fall, but the team said permitting issues with the city of Richmond delayed the date.
Brazen’s menu includes options such as a slow-braised short rib with potato, duxelles and shallots on a torpedo roll, a braised beef Bourguignon, fennel salad and garlic aioli sandwich and a spicy fried chicken thigh tossed in house-made Helles Belles sauce on a potato roll.
Brazen sandwiches range in price from $15 to $20.
“Sandwiches get kind of a bad rap as being lower end, but I think you can do anything excellently. Our short rib sandwich is a sandwich, but it’s got duxelles, it’s got crispy shallots,” McLean said.
The interior of Brazen. (Photo by Doug Clodfelter)
The restaurant also has multiple vegan and gluten-free options, and features weekly specials that will rotate so the team can add customer favorites to the menu, Clodfelter said.
Other than its braised theme, Brazen’s menu does not focus on any one type of cuisine and keeps ingredients seasonal for variation throughout the year, Bell said.
Brazen’s name is twofold, meant to represent both the restaurant’s braised options that are cooked slowly, typically over hours, and the “brazen” idea to start a new restaurant together in an industry that can be oversaturated.
“If you’ve worked in restaurants then you are all too familiar with their success rate and their profit margins, and it’s a brazen idea, it’s extremely difficult,” McLean said. “But it’s worth it, because we get to do it how we envision things.”
About two weeks on from opening day, the Brazen team said their already established friendship is the extra sauce that makes the restaurant special.
“A lot of people start businesses with people they think are the best in their field, but they realize they don’t even like that person,” Bell said. “You have to have that foundation of trust.”
“If you’re gonna spend, on a light day, 15 hours here, you should probably like the guys that you’re with,” McLean added.
Brazen is open Wednesdays through Mondays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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This is great news! I cannot wait to get in there and try some of their slow cooked goodness.
Honestly, when I saw the picture of them, I thought it was a band called “Brazen” starting a restaurant.