Making Something Memorable
By Sydney Page Lester On any given day in a sun-drenched studio in Manchester, Andrea Gleason is making something memorable. Step inside and you’ll find five to four women next to Gleason, all chatting and laughing while remaining intensely focused on the beautiful assortment of Swarovski crystals, beads, sequins, and pearls in front of them. […]
Shop and Sip Roaring Pines
Drew Dayberry is an advertising man gone rogue. He is the owner and operator of Roaring Pines, a general store and soda shop in Union Hill. Walking through the front door of Roaring Pines is like walking through time. The walls are made mostly of frosty gray-green pegboard decorated with American-manufactured goods: brooms, galvanized buckets, […]
An Instrument Built to Last
By Davy Jones Many would consider metal to be Richmond’s main musical export, but an instrument with a slightly more dulcet tone is bringing our city’s creativity and ingenuity to households all over the globe—the ukulele. From the Richmond office of Hohner, the storied German instrument manufacturing company, Leon Lewis heads up Lanikai, which has […]
Community Supported Agriculture in RVA
RVA likes to mash up, collaborate, and find mutually beneficial relationships in the startups that we support. It comes as no surprise that Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) continues to thrive in the River City where the bond between local farmers and the community is growing. From strawberries to sugar snap peas and everything in between, […]
Old Produce: Preserving Our Future
Over the past several generations, the food we eat has changed. Farm subsidies have impacted what farmers grow. More than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from our farming landscape, half of the breeds of domestic animals have been lost, and more than 80 percent of corn and 90 percent of soybeans are now […]
The RVA Card: Everything’s Better Linked Together
By Becky Carey You know that happy feeling when you swipe your loyalty card at the grocery store and the total on the register shrinks, or remember when you used your college ID to score deals on or around campus? That savings experience is now available to Richmonders at select local businesses. The RVA Card is […]
Mash Up: Defining RVA by The Way We Co-Create
Two things became clear when putting together our stories of collaboration among Richmond’s finest organizations. One, these mash-ups were so unplanned—natural, even—that people involved in them could barely recall how they started. At first glance, there’s not even that much to the story. “That’s pretty much it.” “It just happened.” “That’s basically the whole story.” […]
Well Worn Vintage
Richmond’s vendors have a pretty good selection of marketplaces where they can peddle anything from produce to art. But when Johnny Hugel and Drew Spruill were seeking venues where they could display their vast collections of “rustic, masculine-inspired” vintage items, they decided to create their own. Well Worn Vintage—a one-day, curated bazaar featuring vendors of […]
Makerset Design Keeps it Local
In the corner of a wood working shop on the North Side, three guys are cutting shapes out of metal, polishing them, and shipping their shiny product around the country. Humming with machinery and echoing with clanging tools, this small shop is where 21st century manufacturing is alive and well. This is Makerset Design Co., […]
A Perfect Match: Need Supply Co. and Warby Parker
By the time you read this, they will be gone. The men behind the glasses, that is. Not the glasses themselves. Luckily for you and the rest of Richmond, the glasses are here to stay. On May 2, with an in-store event featuring food by Goatacado, custom-made cocktails by Saison, complimentary cones from Mister Softee, […]