RICHMOND, Va. — There’s no place like home.
And for the owners of a longtime Richmond-based restaurant, that means coming back to where it all started: Jackson Ward.
The owners of Croaker’s Spot – a brand long associated with Southern soul food cooking – will be coming back to the historic downtown neighborhood by late 2017, confirmed Enjoli Moon, the restaurant’s head of marketing and branding.
The new restaurant, which will be run by Neverett Eggleston Jr., will be a ground floor tenant in the Eggleston Plaza – a mixed-use development currently under construction by Richmond-based Hanson Company at the former site of the historic Eggleston Hotel at Second and Leigh streets.
“Jackson Ward is home,” Moon said. “It has always been a goal to come back to the neighborhood and continue that legacy.”
While the size of the restaurant is still being determined, Moon said the new eatery will be designed to accommodate about 75 seats.
With plans for the restaurant well underway, Moon could not confirm whether the Jackson Ward site would carry the Croaker’s Spot full-service brand, saying the location could be rebranded and opened under another name that falls under the Croaker’s Spot umbrella.
“That’s something we are still trying to determine,” Moon said. “Whether it’s Croaker’s Spot, or another name, people will still have the same experience as they would if they were to come to a Croaker’s Spot.”
Croaker’s Spot first opened in Jackson Ward in 2001 at 119 E. Leigh St., where a new restaurant – Jackson Beer Garden & Smokehouse – is now planning to open in the coming months.
The eatery closed its Jackson Ward location in 2010 after the Virginia Department of Taxation said it owed the state nearly $44,000 in back taxes – money, Moon said, that has since been satisfied. Croaker’s Spot would later set up new digs at 1020 Hull St. in the city’s Manchester section in 2009.
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