Sit-Down Dining Returns at Stir Crazy and The Mill

by Charles McGuigan 08.2021

Two of Northside’s favorite spots are again open for sit-down dining—Stir Crazy Café and The Mill on MacArthur, both located in the heart of Bellevue.

The other restaurants along MacArthur—Dot’s Back Inn, Demi’s Mediterranean Kitchen, Zorba’s Pizza Express, and Mi Jalisco—have been open for seated dining for some time now.

Mid-March of 2020 saw the closure of most restaurants in Richmond.  Overnight, many of them shuttered, at least temporarily.

“March 18 was the last day of sit-down service,” said Vickie Hall, co-owner of Stir Crazy Café in Bellevue. “We reopened for takeout on May 14, so we were closed for almost two months.”

The same was the case just up the street.

“Everybody remembers their last day,” according to Amy Foxworthy, co-owner of The Mill on MacArthur. “March 18, 2020 was our last day. We closed down and did a lot of deep-cleaning, and were able to reopen for carry out at the end of April or the beginning of May.”

Now, both The Mill and Stir Crazy are seating customers again, and business is booming.

I visited Stir Crazy a couple hours after they reopened. There were a lot of familiar faces waiting in line, hugs exchanged, pandemic stories told; and behind the counter there were even more familiar faces. 

The morning hustle was in full swing, but Vickie talked with me near one of the latest features in the coffee shop, a sort of digitized hearth with a blazing fire that in the cooler months will actually emit heat. “We wanted a kind of cozy lounge area in the back away from all the seating up front,” Vickie told me. “So, we took one of the walls and installed an electric fireplace and it’s got a cool little holographic flame going up and then in the winter it will actually put out heat so it will be nice and cozy back here.”

Along with installing the mock fireplace, the staff completely redid the interior, from repainting to making the menu chalkboard much easier to read. 

And there have been a lot of changes in the back of the house as well. “We’ve put in some new prep stations, added another freezer back there,” said Vickie. “And, hopefully soon, we’re going to be adding another convection oven.” They also installed an automatic dishwasher.

Ian, who has been a mainstay at Stir Crazy longer than anyone else, approached Vickie. He told her they have another downtown delivery order for tomorrow morning. “We’ve also got thirty-five boxed lunches for tomorrow,” Vickie said, and Ian nodded.

Much of the staff remained on throughout the pandemic, and there have been a number of new additions. 

“Ian is here, and so is Lewis, Danielle, Beth, Jackson, Dante, Asa and Charles,” Vickie said. “Scott’s back, too. And we have another Asa, and we’ve got a new barista, Adriana, and another one, Jordan.” 

And there are a lot of new customers as well, folks who made Stir Crazy a regular stop for contactless pickup. “We have a whole group of new regular customers we had never seen before,” said Vickie. “But they started doing it through takeout online ordering, and they were became regulars.”

Customers, vaccinated or not, must wear masks when they’re not seated at their tables, and complementary masks are available at the counter. 

“All of our staff is fully vaccinated, but we’ll continue to wear masks and gloves just because we think it’s a safe practice anyway,” Vickie said. “And we’re also trying to look out for those who can’t be vaccinated, the people with immune suppression issues, and children.”

Vickie considered all the hurdles cleared over the past year. “We’re just so happy to be back and figuring out a whole different way to survive last year,” she said “It’s going great, and I’m just tickled pink that we made it.”

COVID, in a weird way, even brought her family closer, and tightened the bonds of an extended family.

“There have been plenty of times in this whole past year that back in the kitchen it’s all of the Halls, all four of us working—me, Trey, Asa and Jackson,” she said. “It was really sweet.”

Vickie stood up, and as she did, looked at Adriane and Ian and Danielle who were working behind the counter. “The staff here has been great,” she said. “I know everybody says it and it sounds corny, but we’re all family. We really are. We were in our own little Stir Crazy bubble. We had our own bubble. We were all in the same little bubble.”

Stir Crazy Café 

Open 7 Days a Week, 7:30am-3pm

4015 MacArthur Avenue Richmond, VA 23227

(804)864-0264

stircrazycaferva.com 

On July 20, my son Charles and I did something we hadn’t done in almost a year and a half: we sat down at a table in one of our favorite haunts—The Mill and MacArthur—and enjoyed every moment of that restaurant experience we’ve all been craving. 

“You guys were here on our first night,” Amy Foxworthy told me a few days later. “That was the first dine-in night since the pandemic hit. It seems the majority of people want to come and dine in. We can’t wait until we can open on the weekends for brunch.”

In order to do that, they’ll need additional staff. “In the back of the house we could use more line cooks,” Amy said. “And we’re looking for servers with experience. We have the expectation that anyone working here would be able to make drinks if they needed to. Servers have to have that kind of skill set.”

Like Stir Crazy, The Mill retained its core staff throughout the pandemic. “About seven of us have worked since we came back after shutting down in March of 2020,” she said. “It was all just carry out and delivery from that point up until last Tuesday, the night you and your son came in.”

The Mill had wanted to reopen for dine-in service for quite some time. 

“We’ve been trying to hire staff to let us reopen since last August.” Amy told me. “It’s literally been a year of trying to hire to get fully staffed. Over the course of 2020 we had a number of folks that worked with us who moved away, and we actually had somebody who worked for us for quite some time who was really excellent and very skilled, who started in a different line of work. We were trying to hire to replace that person that moved on and we have been trying to hire ever since.”

Finding employees has been next to impossible for many business owners. “Anybody who comes in, whether it’s a plumber or the guy who replaced the glass in our store front, has been trying to actively hire for quite some time,” said Amy. “There are a lot of jobs out there, if people are interested.”

One thing has remained constant throughout this very stressful year for many independently owned businesses. “The support from our customers has always been consistent and good,” Amy said. ”And I think Richmond has changed a lot in the last year and a half. We’ve had a lot of transplants move into Richmond from New York and the DC area, and we’ve seen a lot of new faces ordering online. It will be fun to actually have them come in and dine in.”

Downtime during the pandemic was never idle. “Along with deep cleaning, we were able to do some work on the back of the house, the area that people don’t get to see,” Amy explained.

Now, they’ll be doing some work on the front of the house. “We’re going to make the walls a little bit more durable by adding bead board, which will painted blue,” Amy said. 

The front of the building will also get a color overhaul. “The exterior is going to be the same color as the interior,” Amy said, indicating the walls. “I love this color. I think our color will look really great against the Yoga front and our other neighbors.”

Then Amy mentioned the updated menu, which includes this new addition: “Serving Northside for ten years.” 

She smiled.   

“March 23, 2021 was our tenth anniversary,” said Amy Foxworthy. “It’s amazing, and it’s very flattering. We love this neighborhood and our customers.”

The Mill on MacArthur

Tuesday-Friday, 11am-9pm

4023 MacArthur Avenue

Richmond, VA 23227

(804) 716-1196

themillrva.com