Bridging History; Sally Bell’s Centennial; The “Asian Wegmans;” Follow the Tour Guys; Cycles with Reach.

RVA 5x5 - May 21, 2024

No algorithms. No content filters. No A.I. Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

You can find the 5 main stories from Sunday’s edition here, and today features the “ALT 5” stories for a nice, leisurely, read. Enjoy!

This week check out our five stories on:

• Discover your own city with one of the many great tours that showcases the historic, the scary, the tragic, the river, cool street art, and more.

• The famed Sally Bell’s Kitchen celebrates 100 years of being a treasured Richmond institution with a great story, delicious food and lasting charm.

• The Mayo Bridge will soon be rebuilt, and the new bridge will be just the latest chapter of a long history that goes all the way back to the time of the Constitutional Convention.

• A local non-profit celebrates ten years of providing bicycles for children with disabilities with an outcome that “just warms your heart.”

• A Maryland-based grocer is now open in Henrico that some praise as the “Asian Wegmans,” or the “Disneyland of Asian grocers” and carries all kinds of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Taiwanese and Indian groceries — and so much more.

THE ALT 5

ALT #1 — OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Follow the Tour Guys
Richmond offers numerous and awesome and different types of tours that help explain the city’s DNA both past and present, and each one offers something a little different.

You can hop on a Segway and cruise around town, or visit some of the city’s awesome street art and murals; Basket & Bike offers three types of downtown Richmond tours via bicycle, Discover Richmond takes you around the James River to old train bridge ruins, Class IV rapids, pipelines and nature in the middle of Downtown; or you can follow on foot the Richmond Slave Trail led by the Elegba Folklore Society.

If you want to be scared, check out the Haunts of Richmond Ghost Tours, or you can kick back on a boat and take a Historic Riverfront Canal Cruise. Or if you want a workout on your own time, check out the Liberty Trail which takes you via sidewalk markings to 15 national historic landmarks over a 6.2 mile trail (and up and down hills) and in Shockoe Bottom connects with the Richmond Slave Trail and the Virginia Capital Trail.

But there is also a tour group gaining attention in the post-pandemic years called the Richmond Tour Guys that covers a lot of ground and a lot of history. Owner Ray Kaufman has been leading the tours for nearly a decade and he is not shy about what and how much you will see.

“You’ll come to learn that Richmond has more history than anywhere on the East Coast — more than Charleston, more than Savannah,” Kaufman told Em Holter in the Times-Dispatch in a recent article.

Kaufman and a handful of other guides explore the city’s complex history — both good and bad — and relay all of its eccentricities to locals and out-of-towners. They touch on the James River fall line, which played a tremendous part in the city’s founding, as well as the industries that defined Richmond and the people who helped build it.

One couple from Australia took a tour recently after having also visited Tokyo, Chicago, the Grand Canyon, Jamestown and Williamsburg.