Restaurants

California-based Dave’s Hot Chicken is taking over the Short Pump Crossing space formerly held by Rusty Taco, which closed its location there in recent weeks after a two-and-a-half-year run. 

A few years after attending his first Liberty University football game, Ryan O’Rourke is now making a play of his own in Lynchburg.

With both entertainment and dining options, Scotty’s Taphouse will be similar in concept to Slingshot Social Game Club, which closed over the summer after five years in the Scott’s Addition building.

Owner Ramy Yacoub is preparing to close the Mexican restaurant he purchased last fall to make way for Memi’s, an Egyptian and Middle Eastern concept. 

A chain of chicken wing restaurants will open in the storefront that’s sat dormant since 2019. It’ll be the chain’s first outpost in the city and sixth in the region overall.

The local restaurant group recently signed on to open a location of its Lucky AF sushi concept at 4701 Forest Hill Ave., and is working on a new, mystery concept at GreenGate in Short Pump.

Qahwah House has more than a dozen locations selling coffee originating from Yemen, which its owner said can be a difficult place to source coffee without local connections because of the decade-long war in the country.

While details are still being finalized, it’ll be the family’s first new restaurant brand since they opened Little Nickel on the Southside in 2018.

EAT Restaurant Partners will build a new ground-up restaurant on Rutlandshire Drive. The chain already has locations in Short Pump and Midlothian, and has another set to open in North Carolina.

“It’s a win for both of us,” Southern Kitchen owner Shane Roberts-Thomas said of her restaurant and the South Richmond mall.