Walk Grove between Robinson and Meadow on an August evening and the storefronts read a little differently than they did last summer. A cat cafe has taken a room that used to smell like coffee and nothing else. A slow-cooking restaurant occupies a corner that had held the same tenant for years. The murals are the same. The porches are the same. The people running the businesses behind them are, in many cases, brand new to this stretch of Richmond.
That is the story of The Fan right now, and it is not the story you get from a generic "best of" list.
The thesis, before the roundup
The Fan in 2026 is being rewritten by first-time and out-of-town operators more than by menu trends. Long-tenured places closed in 2025. The spaces did not sit empty. What moved in tends to be smaller, more personal, and run by people who had not previously held a lease on these blocks. If you already live here, the practical consequence is simple: the fastest way to know your neighborhood this fall is to meet the new operators before the crowds do, and the community calendar hands you the excuse.
What actually changed on the block
Two long-running restaurants closed in the Fan and VCU area during 2025. Sam Miller's closed in Shockoe Slip, ending a run that dated back to the early 1900s, while Heritage and Ipanema Cafe closed in the Fan and VCU areas. Ipanema had been serving near VCU for close to three decades. Heritage had been a fixture for date-night reservations. Losing both in the same year is the kind of shift a resident feels in small ways: fewer default answers when a friend asks where to eat.
The replacements have arrived in a different key. Also new to the Fan is Brazen, a slow-cooking-focused restaurant from a group of local chefs. Brazen's own site places it in the heart of The Fan district in Richmond, Virginia, and the kitchen leans into longer-cook proteins rather than the quick-turn dinner formats that dominate a lot of the neighborhood.
Two other openings tell you something about who is betting on The Fan right now. Cahoots, a new bar from a Los Angeles native, opened in the Fan, as did the Purrfect Bean, a cat cafe from a first-time operator. A first-time operator taking a Fan lease is a data point worth pausing on. Rents on the walkable stretches of Main and Grove are not entry-level, and the fact that a first-timer chose those blocks over cheaper corridors says something about how the neighborhood is being read from the outside.
A quick reference for what has come and gone within roughly the last year:
| Change | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Brazen (opened) | The Fan | Slow-cooking concept from local chefs |
| Cahoots (opened) | The Fan | New bar, operator new to Richmond |
| The Purrfect Bean (opened) | The Fan | Cat cafe, first-time operator |
| Heritage (closed) | The Fan | 2025 |
| Ipanema Cafe (closed) | Near VCU | Closed after roughly three decades |
Two more shifts worth noting because they change walking patterns. Fan bakery Nate's Bagels expanded with a Scott's Addition location, which means the original Fan shop is no longer the only counter in town for a morning sesame with cream cheese. And the Giavos family is also staying busy as it works to open Lafayette Tavern near the original Stella's in the city. For anyone whose weekend already orbits Stella's Market on Lafayette, a Giavos-run tavern within walking distance changes the after-dinner map.
The August calendar worth putting on the fridge
The Fan District Association is running two things right now that a lot of residents miss because they never make it onto the citywide event roundups.
- National Night Out, August 4, at Meadow Park. The association is hosting it directly. Their site describes family fun, a real fire truck and a chance to say thank you to our first responders. If you have kids on bikes and have not walked over yet, this is the low-effort version of meeting the block.
- Adopt-a-Tree, applications open through September 1. Bring beauty and much needed shade to the Fan with our Adopt-a-Tree program! Applications are accepted through Sept. 1. The Fan's canopy is one of its defining features, and the program lets homeowners nominate a tree for the strip between sidewalk and curb in front of their property. If you have been meaning to do it, the window closes at the start of September.
- Fan Arts Stroll, note for next spring. The 2026 stroll already ran on Hanover and Grove between Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15, from 4 to 8 p.m., with roughly 150 exhibitors along the 2000 to 2500 blocks. It comes back every year, and it is worth putting on the calendar now for 2027 if you missed it.
None of these show up on the citywide "things to do in Richmond" pages, which is exactly why they are the ones to know.
Where The Fan spills into the rest of Richmond this fall
The Fan's advantage in October and November is geographic. Three of the city's biggest fall events either run through the neighborhood or sit within an easy walk or bike ride.
Richmond's premier outdoor food festival closes a full mile of Broad Street to traffic and fills it with booths from more than 60 local restaurants, food trucks, and artisan vendors. Proceeds benefit local food banks, community giving folded straight into a joyful celebration of Richmond food culture. Broad Appetit runs Broad Street through The Fan and the Museum District. If you live north of Grove, you can be at the first booth in ten minutes on foot.
The Richmond Folk Festival is the bigger one, and it sits downtown on the riverfront. The Folk Festival crushes Richmond. Every October, 200,000+ visitors flood this free three-day event, no hotel rooms left, no vacation rentals either, anywhere in the metro area. The practical Fan-specific takeaway: parking downtown is a lost cause on Folk Festival weekend. Walking the length of Main or biking the Cary Street corridor gets you there faster than driving.
And on the second Saturday of November, the marathon comes to the doorstep. Thousands of runners hit the second Saturday of November for America's most scenic 26.2, Richmond. They'll tear through historic Richmond neighborhoods, sprint Monument Avenue's boulevard, then hug the James River all the way to a downtown riverfront finish. If your house sits on the Monument route, you are hosting a spectator party whether you planned to or not. Coffee and folding chairs on the porch is the traditional response.
For anyone tracking arts programming rather than food or running, artoberVA, a month-long showcase of arts and culture across Richmond and the Tri-Cities, threads studios, galleries, and small venues throughout October.
A quieter note for longtime residents
If you have been in The Fan for more than a few years, the pattern is familiar. A restaurant you loved closes. A stretch of storefronts turns over. A new operator brings a concept that reads as foreign until it becomes your Tuesday standby. The neighborhood absorbs change without losing what makes it recognizable, which is the architecture, the canopy, and the pace of the sidewalks more than any particular tenant.
The 85 blocks are still the 85 blocks. The Italianate cornices are still there. The corner grocery model still works. What is different in 2026 is the ratio of veteran operators to first-timers, and that ratio is worth paying attention to because it changes who shows up at neighborhood meetings, who sponsors the porch fest, and who is on the receiving end when a Fan District Association email goes out asking for volunteers.
The reason to walk into Cahoots or the Purrfect Bean this month is not the drink or the pastry. It is that the person behind the counter has been in the neighborhood for less time than most of your neighbors, and they will remember you introduced yourself early.
If you have been thinking about your own place on the block, whether that is a valuation question, a renovation question, or something quieter about timing, let's talk about your Richmond home. Reach out through Gary Martin - VA and we'll pick it up from there.
