Back in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Richmond Times Dispatch published a series of articles announcing the toll on the city’s restaurant industry. By December 11, 40 area restaurants had permanently closed their doors. By December 23 – less than two weeks later – the number had spiked to 50.
Richmond, like cities and towns across the country, is littered with monuments to our national desecration. Empty buildings droop under the weight of absence – windows plastered with last year’s daily specials, graffiti-covered walls sending out signals to no one in particular. “One Nation Underground.” “Dude, Just Go to Therapy.”
That Bandito’s Burrito Lounge and underground music venue has survived this purge is a kind of haphazard miracle. More, it’s a testament to the resilience of the line cooks, and bartenders, and wait staff that keep places like this running.
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