For a carless week in Richmond, Virginia, I wanted a hotel centrally located to most of what I planned to see that I could reach by walking. I found it in the 110-year-old The Commonwealth, in the heart of downtown. I found it to be friendly, truly convenient, and quite comfortable. What I didn’t expect to find, however, was a series of supernatural occurrences that exceeded the parameters of normal hotel room idiosyncrasies and kept my stay here an ongoing guessing game of what would happen next. Read about it >
Tag Archives: Virginia
Pub Grub Done Right
I had just taken a one-mile late-afternoon walk along the old canal in Richmond, Virginia, now transformed from an abandoned industrial hub to a quiet pedestrian walkway where you can still see glimpses of the manmade canal’s heyday when it spurred the city’s economic growth. Up the stairs to street level, I began to search for a dinner spot, in the mood for comfort food. I quickly found it in the sole survivor of a mostly demolished freight depot that shut down in the 1980s at Southern Railway Taphouse. Read about it >
Share my story:
Comfort Food Without the Wrong Kind of Spirits
I was trying to determine if my hotel in Richmond, Virginia—the Commonwealth—was haunted or not. Drawers that opened by themselves, toilet bowls that never flushed the same way twice, lights turned on after I switched them off earlier in the day, an air conditioner that continued to click on and off after I unplugged it from the wall. The Commonwealth doesn’t bill itself as haunted, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the 110-year-old hotel in this terrifically historic city has a few supernatural things lurking about. Fortunately, none of them showed up during my dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Rueger’s, so you can enjoy your meal where the only spirits come in a glass. Read about it >
Share my story:
Northern Italian in the Southern United States
Sometimes you just happen upon a restaurant that beckons you. Here in Richmond, Virginia, I was admiring the four-story Art Deco building that used to be the flagship location of Miller & Rhoads Department Store when I noticed that much of the ground floor was now given over to La Grotta, an inviting Northern Italian restaurant that left no choice as to where I would be having dinner. Read about it >
Share my story:
German Goodness at the Only Schnitzel Bar in Richmond, Virginia
It may not feel exactly like a café or bar you would find in Germany, but it does capture a certain stimmung, a convivial mood that I often found when visiting Germany itself. I didn’t expect that in Richmond, Virginia, but Café Rustika pleasantly surprised me. Serving up German comfort food with smiles and raves for the chef’s creations, the staff here make you feel like you would, if you lived in town, come back again and again. Read about it >
Share my story:
How to Satisfy Your Hankerin’ for Southern Food in Richmond
On my first night in Richmond, Virginia, I felt the need to go full-on Southern for dinner. Tobacco Company Restaurant certainly had the name that indicated it might fit the bill. And it delivered in a big way, with iconic Southern food, a very lively vibe, and a terrific backstory. Read about it >
Share my story:
What’s the Deal With Waffles?
Forget those frozen waffles in your freezer. Instead, reimagine them as a filling breakfast bounty, elevating your expectations to a higher level. Then make them Southern. Done? Now you have the Capitol Waffle Shop in downtown Richmond, Virginia, where “waffles are just pancakes with abs.” Read about it >
Stephen Travels 