A Parisian-inspired “dive bar” with oysters and cocktails on the forefront is now open in a former Fan standby. Situated within the previous Industrial Taphouse house at 111 N. Robinson St., Beaucoup — French for “lots” — invitations diners on a funds to indulge within the finer issues.
“We took French meals and wine and oysters, that are three issues in America which have a connotation of being costly, luxurious and big day and attempt to gown these issues all the way down to what they are surely, which is for everyone,” says Donnie Glass, chef and proprietor of Church Hill’s Grisette and Most important Avenue wine lair Jardin, who additionally owns Beaucoup with longtime Grisette bar supervisor Elias “Eli” Adams.
Leaving pretense and fuss behind, the companions try to maintain it accessible, a operating theme in every little thing they do. A “Cheers”-like model of a neighborhood oyster bar, Beaucoup exudes an easygoing, informal demeanor amplified by $1 oysters throughout pleased hour and the acquainted, tenured forged of characters at work there.
Aligned on shared values regarding what they recognize in a office and in life — and a shared affinity for Vans sneakers — Glass and Adams initially met working on the bygone Citizen Burger Bar. They shortly bonded, and when Glass opened Grisette in 2019, Adams joined as bar supervisor. Now on the seven-year mark of their relationship, typically thought of a make-or-break second, the duo have leveled up. When the chance to snag the previous Industrial Taphouse house appeared, they seized it.
“This was very natural for Eli and for me,” says Glass, whose first govt chef job was with Public Fish & Oyster in Charlottesville. “We’re by no means going to sit down down and say, ‘What will we need to open in 2026?’ If one thing occurs, one thing occurs.”
Leaning right into a timeless really feel, ditching the earlier tenant’s string lights, darkish partitions and wooden for a refreshed, minimal, but moody inside, Glass says, “The imaginative and prescient was for it to really feel like certainly one of 10,000 completely different hole-in-the-wall bars in Paris. It wanted to look completely completely different. It had been that restaurant for over 56 years; any time you’re taking an institution, it wants an entire change.
“I additionally find yourself pondering it retains some actual soul within the place, it doesn’t really feel fancy or overseas,” he continues. “Even if you stroll into Grisette, you don’t really feel such as you’re in a high-end place, which is what we wish. It is a Grisette model of an oyster bar.”
A chalkboard much like the one at Grisette that lists charcuterie alternatives shows the oysters obtainable every day at Beaucoup, similar to Lynnhaven Fancies from Virginia Seaside or Wild Blue Factors hailing from Lengthy Island Hold forth Connecticut. Patrons may additionally spy little nods to the previous among the many decor, together with a framed Richmond Occasions-Dispatch assessment of Industrial Taphouse that mentions a “uncooked bar” upstairs, a dartboard on the wall and an previous specials board.
The kitchen crew, led by Govt Chef Dylan Nemetz, is letting the dishes, pushed by seasonality and what’s recent on the docks, showcase their experience. A lot of the choices at Beaucoup had been created with teams in thoughts, the menu break up between “oysters” and “not oysters.”
Bivalves are served all methods — uncooked with a alternative of accoutrements; fried with gribiche and lemon; or roasted with creamed greens, bacon and Parmesan. A celebration of French fare, the menu lists gougères, pillowy, crispy pockets of tacky dough; a easy wedge of Comté, a agency French cheese; panisse (chickpea fritters) served with Calabrian chile oil; frites with garlic aioli; and chips and fromage. Royal Osetra caviar can be obtainable by the tin.
Different choices embrace oeuf mayonaisse, a soft-boiled egg fried and draped in a Dijon aioli; heat rapini greens with lemon chevre and pistachios; and a fragile bluefin tuna crudo with diced apples, foie gras and hazelnuts. Friends can even discover a scallop roll, mussels with white wine and fines herbes (a traditional French mix of tarragon, parsley, chives and chervil), in addition to a flounder filet with brown butter hollandaise.
Blissful hour (every day from 4 to six p.m.) presents bivalves for a buck, $6 crispy “Massive Beers,” $8 ice chilly martinis and a $30 bottle of Muscadet — the necessities.
An enormous emphasis at Beaucoup is the bar, and Adams is the mastermind behind the beverage program. His bookworm tendencies are mirrored in a From the Books part on the drink menu, a group of cocktail classics and different favorites with brief descriptions together with when and the place they had been invented. Eight authentic creations embrace This One Easy Trick (rhum, cachaca, Thai basil, lemon, pineapple and coconut) and Forest for the Rees with bourbon, blended scotch, Zirbenz pine liqueur, oloroso sherry, turbinado sugar and angostura bitters.
Wine drinkers will uncover over 40 bottles, together with quite a lot of white Burgundies.
An added bonus on the new enterprise is its upstairs house, which can now function a pastry and dessert manufacturing house and bakery for Beaucoup, Grisette and Jardin. Glass says that when the bake store finds its groove — in about six months, he predicts — Jardin will likely be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days per week and provide espresso, pastries, breakfast and bread. He additionally hopes to open Grisette on Mondays.
“We’re at such a crushing vital mass of not having the ability to bake one other loaf of bread at Grisette or Jardin, and it’s such an integral a part of our ideas,” Glass says. Beaucoup “would be the storefront of basically the corporate bakery, and that house is so good for that.”
Beaucoup’s opening additionally means development for the remainder of the staff who work for the restaurant group.
“My function is altering drastically and considerably inside the group, and that’s OK with me; I feel it’s wholesome for it to alter,” Glass says, spouting off the employment anniversaries of workers members. “The tenure of the management place is nuts. It flies by, and it’s superb.”
Beaucoup is open Wednesday via Friday from 4 p.m. to midnight and Saturday and Sunday from midday to midnight.