Locally focused Pasture restaurant in Richmond, Virginia offers Southern-style foods prepared with an upscale gourmet focus, served tapas style, with community seating. Its mix of features is unique among Richmond restaurants. You’ll need to open the gate and let your dinner expectations roam free before setting foot in the Pasture.
Small-plate style servings
Don’t expect an array of entrees to satiate your appetite. Instead, you’ll find small plates–generous serving sizes of appetizers, main dishes, and sides, all tapas-style. Two plates minimum are suggested per person, four to five for a couple to share.
Only one menu option would stand alone as a meal: the “all-beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun” is what the Big Mac would be like if McDonald’s could put quality over quantity and cheap price. Though the hefty burger comes with a generous serving of Pasture’s thin potato fries, you can supplement the sandwich with a side of vegetable tapas.
Southern-inspired foods
Second, if you hear “tapas” and think Spanish, you’ll need to expand your definition. The similarity is small serving sizes and perhaps that the region is the southern area of a continent.
Upscale quality
Third, if you’re looking for Southern foods, don’t expect the basic, artery-clogging, delicious foods that Grandma and Aunt Mabel set out for Sunday dinner. Though also delicious, Pasture restaurant specializes in “upscale” Southern food with gourmet flair, hearkening to the experience of the Pasture co-owner Jason Alley, who also owns nearby Comfort restaurant.
Notable specialties include the house-made pimento cheese, beef brisket, lamb sausage with navy beans, steak tartare with jalapeno and quail egg, and Rappahannock oysters.
Community seating
Pasture provides only two two-top tables, so diners will often share the longer tables with other parties. There is always the option to wait for the next available two-top, but a shared tapas-style meal can be conducive to sharing some table conversation as well.
Spare modern decor
Don’t expect pictures or TV screens to distract you. The décor is simple, with only one picture plus a large map of Virginia soil types in the back. The color comes from the solid green-grass splash below the chair rail and a handful of the schoolhouse-style chairs. The walls at the back of the restaurant are of dark reclaimed lumber.
Quality craft beer & top-shelf liquor
Finally, don’t expect the bartender to cater to the least discriminating of palates. You won’t find Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors, or any of those other incipient domestic macrobrews. What Pasture does offer is over a dozen taps with well-chosen craft beers. The beer selection includes some simpler styles for those who are merely dipping their toes into the craft beer world plus a few more adventuresome beers and local brews. I enjoyed a Flying Dog beer that had been on my wish list for a while: Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout.
As I’ve written about and followed the craft beer movement in Richmond, I’ve seen the rising popularity of pairing quality food and craft beer–this is reflected here at Pasture.
You won’t find bottom-shelf liquors or bottled mixes here either. If you order a mixed drink, you can expect fresh ingredients with better or best liquors.
If you like Pasture, you can thank co-owners Jason Alley and Ry Marchant of Six Burner (another groundbreaking Richmond restaurant, which uses the Sous Vide method of cooking) and Michele Jones, plus many noteworthy back-of-house staff with experience at quality Richmond restaurants.
Pasture is located in the old Montaldo’s women’s clothing shop at 416 East Grace Street. Limited information is available on the Pasture restaurant web site and the Facebook page feed.
