1708 Gallery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This nonprofit gallery devotes its walls to contemporary and experimental art. It gives new and untested work a place to be seen in Richmond.
Best for Contemporary and experimental art
Shopping in Richmond
Shop by craft
Best of Richmond; search or filter for all 12
Visit official site ↗Ardent Craft Ales
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This Scott's Addition brewery pairs its craft beers with a well-loved taproom and beer garden. It has become a fixture of the neighborhood's brewing scene.
Best for Craft beer in Scott's Addition
Visit official site ↗Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co.
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
Certified-organic Blanchard's has roasted coffee in Richmond, VA since 2005, built on direct farmer relationships and single-origin releases. Its Handshake and Dark As Dark blends anchor three Richmond cafes plus a subscription business.
Best for Handshake, the staff-favorite blend from a certified-organic roaster working Richmond since 2005
Blanchard's has roasted in Richmond since 2005, long enough to become the kind of local fixture judged less by novelty than by consistency. The company frames its sourcing as direct relationships rather than commodity buying, describing its work as "working with farmers from around the coffee world," and puts real weight behind single-origin releases it calls "celebrating the process" — a line that reads as a small rebuke to roasters who treat origin coffee as a marketing footnote rather than the actual point.
That philosophy plays out across three blends that anchor the lineup: Handshake, the staff favorite; Dark As Dark, the top seller for drinkers who want intensity; and the house Blanchard's Blend, the everyday pour. All three, plus the rotating single origins, are available as subscriptions as well as one-off bags, with free shipping on orders over $100 — a detail that signals a roaster used to shipping well beyond Richmond city limits.
Three Richmond cafes carry the roastery's name into daily service, giving the certified-organic beans a local face alongside the online and wholesale business. It is not a flashy operation — twenty years in, it reads more like a roaster that found its lane early and has kept refining it since.
Visit official site ↗Cirrus Vodka
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
Cirrus distils vodka from potatoes and serves it through a dedicated Richmond tasting room. The current visit page lists rotating cocktail specials and an age-restricted room, turning the production address into a drink stop.
Best for Locally distilled vodka
Visit official site ↗Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This craft brewery builds its beers on Virginia-grown ingredients across two Richmond taprooms. Both sites open their doors for taproom visits and pours.
Best for Craft beer and taproom visits
Visit official site ↗Lamplighter Roasting Company
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This independent cafe and roasting company has worked in Richmond since 2009. It roasts its own coffee and serves it across the counter.
Best for Richmond-roasted coffee from a converted gas station
Lamplighter Roasting Company opened in December 2009 inside a converted gas station at 116 Addison Street in Richmond's Fan district. It was co-founded by Jennifer Rawlings, who had been roasting coffee since 1998 and had previously run a Richmond coffee shop called 17.5, alongside Noelle Archibald and her husband Zach, who built out the food menu. The three recognized a shared obsession with coffee and decided to combine it into a roastery and cafe rather than separate ventures. From the start, the goal wasn't rapid expansion but a gathering place -- a small, scrappy operation built around the neighborhood it served. The gas-station shell shaped the cafe's layout and gave it an identity distinct from a purpose-built coffee shop, something regulars still reference when describing the space. Since opening, Lamplighter has continued to roast its own coffee on-site and serve it across the same counter where the original crew started, keeping the operation independent through Richmond's growth as a coffee city -- one of the city's founding third-wave roasters, still running out of the same repurposed filling station where it first opened.
Visit official site ↗Page Bond Gallery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This contemporary gallery presents rotating group and solo exhibitions in Richmond. The program keeps its walls in steady rotation.
Best for Rotating group and solo contemporary art exhibitions in Richmond
Visit official site ↗Plan 9 Music
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This long-running independent record store in Carytown stocks new and used vinyl. In-store events keep the shop tied to Richmond's music community.
Best for Vinyl records and in-store events
Visit official site ↗Reservoir Distillery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This craft distillery makes bourbon, wheat and rye whiskey in Richmond. Its Scott's Addition tasting room pours the small-batch results.
Best for Small-batch Virginia whiskey
Visit official site ↗Reynolds Gallery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
Opened as Richmond's first contemporary art gallery, this Libbie Avenue space shows work by current artists. Its exhibitions helped establish the city's contemporary scene.
Best for Contemporary art exhibitions at Richmond's first contemporary gallery on Libbie Avenue
Visit official site ↗Sub Rosa Bakery
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This Church Hill bakery bakes naturally leavened breads and pastries in a wood-fired oven. Stone-milled local flours form the base of everything it makes.
Best for Naturally leavened breads and pastries
Visit official site ↗World of Mirth
Hidden GemRichmond, Virginia
This independent toy and gift shop has earned a loyal following in Carytown. Its shelves run to toys and quirky, offbeat gifts.
Best for Toys and quirky gifts
Visit official site ↗Neighbourhood walks
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Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.