On Palani Drive's last night in late June, the restaurant at 401 Libbie Ave. was packed. Friends, family, former employees and several generations of regulars came in, and some of them took the artwork off the walls home as keepsakes. Founder Jeff Weatherly told Richmond BizSense that some customers had met there and married, and a few had even held their receptions in the room.
A few days later the sale closed. The buyers had previously owned Lola's Farmhouse Bistro in Goochland County.
That makes two Lola's stories in the Near West End this year. Veronica and Tommy Hussey, Lola's longtime owners, now run Lily's Italian Bistro in Palani's old space. Marianne Trak Hess, who bought Lola's from them, is bringing Lola's dishes to a new Mediterranean restaurant at Libbie Mill-Midtown. Both owner teams of a Goochland farmhouse bistro have chosen the same part of Richmond for their next project.
How Palani Drive Picked Its Successor
Palani Drive opened in 1998, a block north of Libbie and Grove. Weatherly named it for a road in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, near the finish of the Ironman Triathlon, a race he has finished three times. The place started as what he called "basically a little coffee shop that sold wraps and smoothies" and grew into a full-service restaurant known for smoothies, wraps, salads, breakfast burritos and quesadillas, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options.
In April, Weatherly told BizSense he was looking for a buyer ahead of a July 1 retirement. He said closing wasn't an option he wanted, and he was handling the sale himself without a broker. The business leased about 1,800 square feet and had a staff of around 10.
He also said what he hoped a buyer would do:
"It'd be great if a person takes the ball and runs, helps the restaurant evolve. I think that's how restaurants keep going and keep in existence."
The Husseys took that further than a menu update. They bought Palani Drive's lease, equipment and business assets in a deal that closed in late June, and the price wasn't disclosed. They planned from the start to retire the Palani Drive concept and open something new. Weatherly told BizSense that he and his kitchen manager "met them and liked them right away."
The Couple Who Couldn't Stay Retired
The Husseys sold Lola's in early 2025. "We got kind of bored and missed the business, the people, the excitement and all that," Veronica Hussey told BizSense. She said they had looked for six to nine months before the Palani listing came up. When she was asked what sold them on it, she answered in one line: "It was the area, definitely. We like the Libbie-Grove area."
They took over a long-running neighborhood room of about 1,800 square feet on a block they already liked, and chose the new place's name for personal reasons.
Axios Richmond reported in September that Lily's had opened a few weeks earlier, after the Husseys remodeled about 80% of the space. BizSense's restaurant roundup confirmed the opening on Oct. 6.
What 401 Libbie Serves Now
The menu has gone from smoothies to "modern Italian-American," with Tommy Hussey, a longtime chef, running the kitchen. "I'd say it's 'innovative Italian,'" Veronica Hussey told BizSense. "He does more than just chicken parm and lasagna."
Here is what Axios and the restaurant's own site report for a first visit:
| Lily's Italian Bistro | |
|---|---|
| Address | 401 Libbie Ave. |
| Lunch | Quiche Lorraine, fried green tomato sandwich, Italian meatball panini, $16 to $18 |
| Dinner | Bolognese, lobster ravioli, chicken marsala, $24 to $29 |
| Schedule | Lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, brunch Sunday, closed Monday |
| Porch | Dog-friendly |
| Happy hour | At the bar: half-price appetizers, $5 mixed drinks, $3 drafts |
Sources disagree on happy hour. Axios reported 2 to 5 p.m. daily, and Lily's website lists 2 to 6 p.m. The website is probably the better guide for the current schedule. The full menu also lists spicy rigatoni and chicken francaise along with starters, salads and panini.
Coverage doesn't say whether any Palani dishes or former staff stayed on after the sale, so treat the smoothie bowl as gone until you hear otherwise.
The Second Thread, at Libbie Mill
At the end of its July story, BizSense mentioned the second thread. Marianne Trak Hess, the restaurateur who bought Lola's from the Husseys, was working on a new restaurant of her own.
The restaurant is OPA! Social. It's going into Libbie Mill-Midtown at 4900 Libbie Mill E. Blvd., in the space Crafted left when it closed in December 2025 after more than six years. BizSense reported in April that Hess comes from the Grapevine restaurant family. She described the look she wanted as "traditional Greek mom-and-pop" with "a modern twist."
Lola's shows up most clearly at OPA!. The Libbie Mill announcement describes a Greek and Mediterranean menu with Italian and American dishes, plus Lola's wines, cocktails and popular plates. BizSense named some of the carryovers: Lola's Bolognese made with New York strip steak, spanakopita and hummus. The paper also mentioned an experimental "Greek sushi" made with dolmades vine leaves.
So Lily's and OPA! will both serve a Bolognese with a Lola's connection. At Lily's it's part of a menu Axios says was built around the Italian dishes Tommy Hussey has spent years perfecting. At OPA! it's the Lola's recipe, listed by name.
The two rooms are very different sizes. Richmond Magazine described OPA! as a planned 6,000-square-foot restaurant, more than three times the size of Lily's. Hess told BizSense the draw was "the patio, the big bar, the space for private events." The Husseys went small and built on a 28-year-old neighborhood room. Hess went big, into a mixed-use development with a bar and event space.
Where OPA! Stands in October
BizSense's April story put the opening "sometime in August." That month has passed. As of this week, OPA! Social's website still says "Coming Soon" and says the site is being updated ahead of opening. We haven't found any reporting with a new date.
The site already lists hours for when it opens: Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday. Lily's is also closed Mondays, so neither Lola's-connected spot will be an option on Monday nights.
Here's the timeline so far:
- Early 2025: The Husseys sell Lola's Farmhouse Bistro to Marianne Trak Hess.
- December 2025: Crafted closes at Libbie Mill.
- April 2026: OPA! Social is announced for the Crafted space, and Weatherly puts Palani Drive up for sale.
- Late June 2026: The Husseys close on Palani Drive's lease and assets after Palani's send-off party.
- Late summer 2026: Lily's Italian Bistro opens at 401 Libbie Ave.
- October 2026: OPA! Social is still listed as coming soon.
Palani Drive went to buyers Weatherly met and liked, and Crafted's space went to a restaurateur who already owned a restaurant with a following. We covered other recent changes around Libbie and Grove in The Avenues Are Being Rewritten by the People Who Already Live Here. For more on daily life around Libbie and Grove, see our Near West End guide and our roundup of shops, dining and daily life in the Near West End.
If you live a few blocks from Lily's and want to know how these new openings fit into your corner of the Near West End, Gary Martin follows these blocks closely and is happy to talk them through. Let's talk about your Richmond home.
