Sunday, February 24, 2019

How You Do Richmond in a Day


It was a quick trip to Richmond this weekend. The most I had seen of the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia was from the rush of the car, sliding down the spaghetti interstates around it as I have driven back and forth from North Carolina to the DC area, over the years.

This weekend, we bought tickets to The Altria Theater to see The Piano Guys. For those of you who know them, I know, you’re thinking: we lived in Utah for seven years together and never saw this Utah group, and now we are driving three hours away from NC to see them live. What can I say?! Weirdness. And that does not stop here. Not on this trip.

We stayed at Quirk Hotel (that is right, no “the”, and no I am not making up the name) on Broad street, in the heart of the Arts District, as far as we could tell. The hotel is a mixture of unexpected and well, yes, “quirky” with a touch of avant-garde and echoes of Vegas boutique hotels. The accent color is pink and you see it anywhere from the pink shirts of the reception staff to the pink refrigerator in your room.

We were “upgraded for free” to a loft room – no idea why and how that happened, and this was the first loft room we have ever stayed in: the living room part of the room was “downstairs” and the bedroom and bath “upstairs” as you enter. Everything about this hotel was unique in some way, and a little surprising.


Example of art in our room. I still don't know whether those are sleeping animals or shells.

The night we arrived, we ate dinner at Bistro 27, a restaurant we could walk to from our hotel. The food presentation was amazing, whereas the taste was not completely out of the ordinary. It was delicious, just nothing surprising or out of this world in any way. At least in my dish or seabass topped with crab and mussels over roasted garlic potatoes. Quite a strange fact about choosing this place, though: we had many places to choose from on Broad street, where our hotel was, but we chose this one. 27 is the birth day of my husband, and this was his birthday trip. We both only realized this after we got back.


Tiramisu at Bistro 27

The Altria theater is unique in its own right: think Middle Eastern mosque architecture and décor in the middle of a Southern American state. A beautiful building, inside and out, loaded with history, and an equally beautiful and ornate concert hall and stage. Quite a feast for the eyes. The minute details of the mosaic tiles were impressive.




Details of the interior of The Altria Theater

The Piano Guys are another anomaly that matches the oddity of this trip: there is only one “piano guy”. The other ones are a cellist, and some sound and video engineers. They were amazing – their mix of classical and modern and religious music was interestingly unique and their command of their instruments truly amazing.

The following day, we had breakfast at 821 Bakery Café. We were the only ones in the joint without tattoos on our faces, it seemed. A crowd of hippy, artsy youngsters is this joint’s frequenting crowd. Definitely made us feel young. The food was delicious, with lots of vegan options, too. The art on the walls was original and surprising, like everything else we had seen thus far. 

Then, we headed to the Poe Museum, to travel back in the time of the 19th century writer, father of mystery literature and detective novels. The weather was exactly what you would expect to have when you’re reading Poe or about him: dreary, wet, cold, noisy drops, lots of mud, dripping decrepit brick walls barely holding up, right up against an aged stone home. The museum is made up of several buildings that house artifacts that either belonged to the author (like his bed, his sister’s piano forte, letters he wrote, his traveling trunk, etc.) or first-edition writings. There are a few eerie details you will learn about in this museum, as you probably can imagine. And he still, to this day, will remain a mystery.


The Poe Museum is full of mysterious details such as this

We drove around Richmond next – we could not so much as walk, in the torrential rain at 40F. You can almost taste the history in this city. Every corner of every street reeks with it. You see warped 1800’s brick and stone walls right next to new, steel and glass, modern apartment buildings. Cobble stone streets right under the spaghetti highways. It also seemed to be the city of murals. Almost every building has a story to tell in a beautifully painted wall. If I have one regret is that we didn’t stay longer. I would have loved to stroll the streets, to walk the galleries and museums, visited the islands with their parks in the James river, and try out a few more food places, too. But I think we will be back: we have seen enough to stay curious.


The mural at 821 Bakery Cafe 

All in all, we were gone for 27 hours from home and we packed a feast for the eyes, ears, and stomachs in that short of time. You’re thinking I am making up the 27, but I am not. Feel the quirkiness now?! So do we.


A metal sculpture adorns the walls of the Police Department on Jefferson Street. Click the picture to see the whole album from this trip.





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