The Dog and Pig Show is so effing good

A piece of advice: Do not eat the shrimp and grits. You will never want to eat anything else…

I have to agree with Neighbor. I am happy for the success of the Roosevelt, Dutch and Co etc but most people in this neighborhood including me can’t go there. I don’t want to tarnish the nice review or discourage anyone from patronizing someone’s business, but it’s still true. They’re probably going to have to make it without me.

$7 for a grilled cheese is insane, even with fancy-schmancy tomato jam…whatever the heck that is! Bring me @BAF and the diner he is pushing!

$7 is not insane for a sandwich that you don’t make yourself at home. Some of you guys are going to have to get over it, people.
Eating out means paying for all of the overhead incurred by the business of preparing food for people–rent, electricity, water, insurance, walk-ins, staff to clean up, and of course waste.

If someone wants a diner, then open a diner. These people have executed ::their:: vision, and sounds like folks are receptive.

It’s very easy to spend $7 on a single bottle of beer or a single glass of wine in the neighborhood, but I don’t hear people complaining as much about that.

I think $7 for a sandwich is actually quite reasonable. This isn’t 1950, folks.

All I am trying to say is that if 78 percent of children enrolled in the school system are eligible for free or reduced meals (both breakfast and lunch is provided at Richmond public schools) then maybe a realization that these restaurants are not serving the majority of the community.

http://wtvr.com/2014/08/19/richmond-students-get-free-breakfasts-lunches/

Treated myself to a Po’ Boy last week and it was full of juicy pork goodness. If there’s unmet demand at a lower price point out there – just means there’s room for another Church Hill establishment.

@Neighbor – that statistic might also indicate that lots of people don’t actually have children, or choose private over public schools.

Also, I’m not sure that low end mom and pop places can compete with fast food and sit down chains. Neighborhood/local loyalty means less to people who really need to stretch a dollar. (And that’s assuming that they eat out at all…)

What I am highlighting is that there are many postings about how some businesses don’t seem to last in Church Hill and that one of those reasons may be that the businesses are not being realistic about the community in which they are located. If a business is located in area dominated by poverty such that 78% of kids are coming from households that cannot afford to feed them breakfast or lunch, than the price point of food at a restaurant should take that into consideration. Otherwise, right from the beginning, the majority of the residents cannot afford to patronize the establishment; kind of hard to be successful as a business when the price point automatically excludes 78% of potential customers.
Understanding the customer and the disposable income they have is important for a business success. Though gentrification is alive and well in church hill and the price of housing is rising, many of us have seen the census data of the area. It is that census data that causes me to question the price point at restaurants that excludes a majority of the community as a successful business plan.

Maybe they will become a destination. If the food is that good, I’d spend my bucks.

I’m not on the hill, but I am in Shockoe…

Seems like all the restaurants are thriving.

Sub Rosa, Dutch, Roosevelt, Proper Pie, WPA, Hill Cafe, Union Market.

Not only are they thriving, they are attracting other businesses to the neighborhood. A neighborhood which is also committed to expanding food opportunities for lower-income people–see the recent Tricycle Gardens move to 31st Street Baptist Church, which will offer double value to folks who purchase food with SNAP dollars.

I don’t get your point, Neighbor.

Can you get the Shrimp and Grits without the kimchi? I love shrimp and grits (which will need to be on the menu of the diner that is certain to go into Sarahfran’s if the next tenant does the right thing), but not with kimchi.

Um … eating out should be an occasion and not an everyday thing. And sorry, places like the Dog and Pig Show and the Roosevelt don’t aim at the Mosby Court contingent. These places know that there are people with considerable disposable income in the area, as well as those who might travel into OMG THE GHETTO for good food. By the way, you know who considers Church Hill the ghetto, the place from which a person should escape rather than embrace? Overwhelmingly African-Americans. If I had a dollar for every black person who’s said to me “oh, my God, you live in Church Hill? My parents FOUGHT to get us out of there” or words along those lines, I’d be rich. You can stop the white guilt now.

@ 25,BAF – I think we’re talking about two different types of places here. I get what you are trying to find or invent, a cheap diner with cheap diner food. But I also like the Dog and Pig Show, a lot. No, I can’t afford to eat there all the time – but to treat myself to the shrimp and grits every so often is a treat.

Now, why don’t you find a location (there’s already one on 25th – or look around at other locations near), write a marketing plan, apply for seed money from Bon Secours,do a Kickstarter campaign, get a loan if need be, and open it? I’d eat there, too!

Congrats to the Dog and Pig Show havent tried it but i’ll be there soon as anyone serving shrimp and grits in the South (Yes RVA is the South) gets my vote and of course my dollar. We are all arguing, fighting, debating about a good thing here. No one can deny the resurgence of Church Hill and places like this and people like us are the reason it’s happening… I too deal with the tongue in cheek comments of those coming to visit deriding my choice of living on Hill as the Ghetto … psshhht They just dont know the Hill and we are all ambassadors!

I did go to Sarafran’s, and always had great food, reasonable prices, and good service. However, the more bar-like atmosphere make it not kool for the kiddos

@trish

Where is it written that eating out has to be an occasion? Some people don’t enjoy cooking or don’t have the time, or simply prefer the convenience.

@35 BAF, I can’t wait to see this happen. Some years ago I cheered on those who wanted a Church Hill dog park – and it happened! YOU make this happen! (And when you do, I’ll stop by, get a cheap grilled cheese, and introduce myself!)

I’m in my mid-40s Trish. My wife and I eat out frequently–although not everyday. We both work a ton of hours and often one or both of us are not home before 8. We are not especially wealthy so some restaurants are visited less frequently or only on special occasions to manage our budget. But to maximize our time we do seek out and patronize inexpensive places for a quick bite. Sometimes that’s a drive-thru like Chick-Fil-A. Other times it’s The Village, or Mama J’s or the Monday night blue plate deal at The Hill.

I actually like to cook. I paid my way through college cooking in some surprisingly nice places and would have made it a career (I was planning to go to CIA but that was pre-Food Channel when it was easier to get in) if I hadn’t had certain food intolerances get in the way. If you drive up 25th on some weekend days you may smell smoke. It’s not the Alamo drifting over and I’ll put my pulled pork up against theirs anytime. Their brisket does win–for now.

So everyone’s needs, desires and lifestyles are different, Trish. I know what I want and need. And while a lot of my diner posts are tongue-in-cheek to tweak some of the over-the-top foodyism that seems to have gripped some here, if I had the cash to quit my job, cut some real windows in the wall and open such a place at Sarahfran’s, I think a place like that would work. A place for a quick, good, inexpensive bite of a familiar flavor, where you don’t have to ask a server (and maybe feel a little embarrassed for doing so) about what some ingredient is because you have never heard of it, is not some molecular gastronomy breakthrough, or is not the melding of some unusual favors (kimchi–ick). A place where when you order a grilled cheese you don’t necessarily feel you need to ask what cheese is used because the place wouldn’t sneak in anything other than ‘murcan or cheddar without asking.

I hope every restaurant that opens here makes a fortune whether they make food I want to eat or not because it is good for the neighborhood and good for my property value. I just wish I could get my shrimp and grits without kimchi or my ham and cheese with a side of fries rather than a mandatory salad without leaving the ‘hood. But maybe that’s just me.

In a partnership.

And I would also volunteer to wear a name tag that said Flo, pop some gum, tell the cook to Kiss my Grits and call everyone who walked in the door Honey!

I too am price-sensitive so I can appreciate where some of these posts are coming from. I don’t eat out very often but when I do I’ll pay for something good- as long as it’s really good and a nice experience, it’s worth it.

That being said, I’d like to see something more democratic open, maybe with taps and pub grub.

The owners being from New Orleans may recall one of the best restaurants in town but was an underground secret of sorts hidden away from the normal tourist trails. Buster Holmes who served up the best Red Beans & Rice in town, a New Orleans staple Monday menu item anywhere you go. I ate there many times having lived in NOLA in the late 1970s early 1980s. The restaurant closed in the 1990s after 50+ years in business and the last location since 1960. Buster died in 1994. The décor was shabby and the kitchen out in the open with the customers. The menu was written on a chalk board and changed very little serving mainly his world famous beans (200 pounds per day) in well seasoned pots and only a handful of other items that rotated as “specials”. I am sure Dog and Pig are taking a cue from mostly forgotten dives like these from days gone by.