Neighborhood restaurant 821 Cafe was present and serving at today’s Vegetarian Festival.

Thursday, April 27th Unita Brewing will be taking over the taps here at Mojo’s. Event starts at 8pm after Happy Hour. See ya there!

Draft Selection includes:
Small Batch Pils
Hop Nosh IPA
Baba Black Lager
Golden Ale

Proving that April Fool’s continues, local satire site The Peedmont has a ‘breaking news’ story about a server smiling at Mamma Zu’s restaurant. Excerpt:

Once the food order was finally placed, the birthday group reportedly relaxed and the rest of the evening went smoothly. Then, as witnesses described it, the unexpected occurred.

“She was clearing our plates and then she started doing this weird thing with her mouth,” recalled Mable, “I was about to ask if she was okay.”

The group fell silent, reporting that they were afraid of the way she was distorting her face.

“Suddenly, we all realized she was smiling,” described witness, Mike Donahue. “It was almost like she was grateful that we were there.”

The incident lightened the mood significantly. However, the server immediately returned to her original demeanor when the group all asked for separate checks.

(Editorial note: I for one have always appreciated Mamma Zu’s service. Their systematic and calm approach is helpful when dealing with some of the West End crowd.)

Writer Liza Kate Boisineau waxes poetic about the experience of eating ramps at Dinamo restaurant. Excerpt from her article:

I had just eaten a beautiful dish of ramp pesto with handmade tagliatelle, but I could feel the warmth coursing through my veins before the very first bite hit my mouth. And what a hit it was! I might have some bruising, but I had waited for one long, lonely year to have the dish again and it was worth waiting for.
When I first tried Dinamo’s ramp pesto last year, my eyes closed involuntarily and I was transported to an oniony, garlicky, green-tasting galaxy somewhere between the Earth’s core and some star cluster yet undiscovered. The sounds around me melted together and for a brief moment, my whole world was smooth and comforting and right.
Something akin to magic was happening to my body, maybe to my aura too, and I wished for even my worst enemy to have this experience at least once in their miserable life.

From Facebook event page:

Tap Takeover this thursday at Mojo’s featuring Trapezium Brewery!
Starts at 8 after Happy Hour. Free glasses while supplies last! See ya there!
Draft Selection:
Lucky 39 IPA 7.0%
Lucky 75 Lemon Honey Ginger Pale Ale 7.6%
Lucky 25 Brown Ale 5.0%
Lucky 47 White Ale 5.2%

Zagat’s recently had an article entitled ‘8 Reasons to Drive to Richmond’.

In it, it celebrated Mamma Zu’s:

This place had lines down the block and a chalkboard menu before it was cool, and on that chalkboard you’ll find antipasti like scungilli (Italian for whelk) or roasted red peppers; pastas like the perfectly perfect marinara and the best carbonara we’ve ever tasted; and entrees like osso buco and rockfish.

As well as L’Opossum:

Like Mamma ’Zu, you’ll find this corner spot in Richmond’s residential Oregon Hill neighborhood near the James River. The restaurant is the wonderfully quirky brainchild of chef-owner David Shannon, who spices up his dishes with names like “vegan orgy on a Texas beach” — that would be papadums and dips — and “a tawdry and salacious arrangement of freshly procured Manakintowne mesclun” — aka salad. Sit under the colorful lights at a table lined with black-and-gold Andy Warhol wallpaper and order the eggs with caviar; the “the swank bank,” a bowl of buttery lobster mac ‘n’ cheese with asparagus and chard; and a dessert of grilled pineapple ambrosia with boozy cherries.