RICHMOND, Va. — Before Chez Nous became one of Richmond’s most talked-about dining rooms, Melissa Stallard learned hospitality in a Hanover County country store where her father cut meat by hand behind the butcher counter.
"That’s where food, the love of food, and the hospitality comes from," Stallard said during a recent appearance on the Eat It, Virginia podcast.
Today, Stallard is the proprietor of Chez Nous, the intimate French-inspired wine bar and mercantile tucked into Monroe Ward near The Jefferson Hotel.
Since opening in 2025, the 25-seat restaurant has earned a devoted following for its European wines, handwritten menus and comfortable, welcoming atmosphere. That feeling, Stallard said, is intentional.
“People come sit at the bar and they just start talking, and then numbers start getting exchanged between people,” she said. “It’s just like a little home away from home.”
The road to Chez Nous, however, was anything but conventional.
Stallard grew up in Caroline County working at Doswell Self Service, an old-school market near Kings Dominion that operated from 1973 until about 2001.
The store sold groceries, beer, cigarettes and sandwiches while serving as a community gathering spot in rural Hanover County.
“I grew up in that environment,” she said.
After graduating from James Madison University with a history degree, Stallard moved into the business world, first working in marketing for Carter Machinery before eventually finding a niche in insurance and surety bonds during the recession years.
“A lot of contractors were losing their bonding line because of failing balance sheets,” Stallard said. “If you couldn’t get a bond in the construction world, it was pretty much the kiss of death.”
She taught herself the SBA bond program and later co-founded Capital Insurance, a boutique agency that specialized in helping contractors secure bonding and stay afloat financially.
“It started as a convenience, and then going into surety became a little bit of a passion at the time because I like to help people,” she said.
Still, even while building a successful insurance business, Stallard never fully abandoned her love of entertaining, food and travel.
In her 20s, she hosted cocktail parties for dozens of people at her Fan District apartment. Around the same time, she deepened a lifelong fascination with French culture that began in childhood after taking French classes in Caroline County schools.
“I always loved the language and the culture,” she said.
Over the years, conversations with close friend Eric Leyssalle — a Paris native who now works alongside her at Chez Nous — slowly transformed into discussions about opening a restaurant together.
Then came what Stallard describes as a pivotal season in life.
The insurance agency was being sold. One daughter was graduating from the University of Virginia. Another was finishing high school. And Stallard herself was turning 50.
“I had to throw myself into what I thought was going to be the best for me,” she said.
Her oldest daughter finally pushed her to stop talking about the idea and actually pursue it.
“She said, ‘If you’re not going to do it now, when are you ever going to do it?’” Stallard recalled.
Within months, she had signed a lease on the Cary Street space that would become Chez Nous.
Inside, guests first enter a small boutique-style market stocked with imported salts, olive oils, candles, linens and European wines before stepping into the cozy wine bar itself, complete with marble tables, bentwood-style chairs and an open kitchen.
“It looks like a little bistro somewhere in France,” Stallard said.
The menu focuses on French classics and carefully sourced ingredients. Among the most popular dishes is the jambon-beurre sandwich layered with Parisian ham, Normandy sea salt butter, cornichons and Dijon on baguette.
“It’s just taking simple ingredients, but choosing really well ingredients,” Stallard said.
The menu also regularly features escargot, pâté de campagne, charcuterie boards, soups and rotating specials such as beef bourguignon and croque monsieur.
Travel continues to shape much of the restaurant’s identity. That passion recently expanded beyond the restaurant itself when Chez Nous began organizing small-group culinary trips to France for Richmond-area guests. The tours include cooking classes, Michelin-starred meals, wine tastings and excursions through Provence and Bordeaux.
“Someone came back and said it was like adult summer camp,” Stallard said.
Back in Richmond, Chez Nous has also become part of Monroe Ward’s broader revival as new restaurants, shops and residential developments continue reshaping the neighborhood.
“You can be a little bit of a destination, and I think that’s what we’ve become,” Stallard said.
Despite the restaurant’s popularity, Stallard said she is still learning how to navigate the rhythms and pressures of hospitality ownership.
“I think to be more patient with myself is probably the biggest thing that I’ve learned,” she said. “Something’s going to fail, something’s going to go wrong, and it’s just about how you respond to that.”
Even so, she says the personal connections formed inside Chez Nous have made the leap worthwhile.
“We have people that come in on our one-year anniversary bringing gifts, bringing flowers, bringing artwork,” Stallard said. “People check in on you. It’s a real connection.”
Now, Stallard is preparing to expand again with plans for a separate upstairs private dining space that will host wine dinners, oyster events and private gatherings while allowing the main dining room to remain open.
But despite the restaurant’s success, she still hopes her biggest accomplishment is something more personal, especially for her daughters.
“I hope they know that there’s not just an A-to-B plan,” Stallard said. “If things don’t work out, there’s always another avenue to go down.”
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