The Plant RVA — Restaurant in Richmond

This place is incredible. Everything is high-quality: the coffee, the drinks, the pastries, the pizza, the staff, the renovation of the space, the enhancement of the canal walk. I don’t play padel ball or pickleball, but I love coming in here and grabbing coffee or pizza and just hanging out. It is full of life and young people, and adds a much needed rest-stop for relaxation and refreshments on the canal walk. It portends better things to come for the canal walk: a safer, more beautiful, sustainable, and thriving area where Richmonders can relax.

Here are my thoughts on the controversy about the artwork/art walk that many are commenting on in these reviews:

I live just steps away in an apartment and this is a huge step up from what this space was. The area was unsafe in several ways: the building was dilapidated and falling apart, on track to be condemned, and used as a toilet by the homeless at night. The murals, they were nice … I guess? But frankly I thought some of them were inappropriate for a public place and my guess is most people who looked at them would agree. The Night Owl’s witch painting, in particular, (@thenightowl on Instagram) which depicts a smirking witch wearing an upside-down cross, would be controversial almost anywhere except for a city as cowed to loud activists as Richmond. (I imagine Portland, Oregon – a place with a downtown that has yet to recover from its destruction by activist violence during Covid – is another city where this might be acceptable. Not exactly a place Richmond should emulate.)

What’s more, I can only imagine the controversy had some of this public art depicted Christian symbols. Can you imagine what some of these activist artists would be saying then? “Is Richmond in bed with organized religion?” “What ever happened to the division between church and state?” “Christianity has hurt many people and shouldn’t be associated with Richmond or its vision of itself.” That the current artwork, replete with satanic religious symbols, has not been subject to this scrutiny is testament to the outsize influence of the loudest voices over the desires of the general public. (If I were to ask the average person, “Do you want satanic symbols on your art in public places?”, they would think I was joking.)

As for the objections about the proper use of this space: In an ideal world could this space have been used for something less profit-driven? Sure. But no one stepped up to do that for the 50+ years since the power plant shut down: not the city, not the artists, not another investor. Finally, the Padel Plant business stepped up, and they’ve done a great job. This is how rejuvenation happens. People invest their private money (not to mention time, heart and soul) to improve places. We have private property rights, and we don’t live in communist Russia, thank God. While I don’t think these artists would truly want to live in communist Russia, their objections lie firmly on some sort of communist principles that amount to “We don’t like that private money overrode our ideal vision, so we are going to throw a tantrum and hope that our friends pile on. Perhaps we can tar this business enough so that it gets destroyed.”

The objecting artists have invested several dozen hours on their wall paintings. The Padel Plant owners have invested many thousands of hours. I support the people who have invested thousands of hours, huge amounts of money, and perhaps their future,...

I am writing to demand that you take immediate action to address the excessive noise coming from the late night events held here. Every Wednesday night, the Latin music played outside your establishment is so loud that it rattles the windows of my apartment, making it impossible for me, my partner and out pets to relax or sleep peacefuly. I hate that we all have to adjust to their ignorant behavior when all we want to do is sleep at a reasonable time, especially on a Wednesday night during the work/school week. My children sleep through their alarms now since they started to become accustom to the loud music. My partner started taking sleeping medicine which causes them to move more aggressively in their sleep, which inturns keeps me even more awake into the brutal head aching nights of music. My pets cower in the corner of their cages whining in fear of the loud noise and the rattling of windows and glassware in our apartment. I had to throw blanket over the cages to muffle the noise to keep them somewhat calm. I, myself feel like I'm indirectly dancing to the music making sure my humble abode is sleeping and getting the rest they deserve and earned from our long busy days. I twist and sway my body to walk carefully not to wake anyone as I go to the bathroom at night. I scrouch, kneel and even spin around in bed avoiding my partner kicks and violent arm swings during their night terrors cause by the sleep medicine they're forced to take because of the ignorant business owners. I only manage to get a few hours of sleep those nights before I awake at 6:15 a.m. and gather my family to start their busy days. I am tired, sore, and my head throbs in relentless pain from the soulless business owners decision to keep playing loud music into the late night. My family no longer talks in the morning just to give me peace. I used to enjoy the morning conversations with my family about their dreams and what they plan on doing that day. Now? Silence. I and my family lost apart of our routine and more importantly what made us a close family. That had bleed into other days of the week as well. I'm not only losing my sleep, but I'm losing my gosh-darn family. They make my mild and stressful days at work worth getting through. The smiles and stories they tell put me at ease, unlike the loud music that have infect our daily routine. I want to be free of this infection and enjoy my family without misery ruining us. Cure us of this by ending your events at 10pm as your websites states. I can't afford to move or want to because of this noise. I also can't afford to lose my family and myself. Please, please help me and everyone else in my apartment building have peaceful nights once...

MY RESPONSE TO OWNERS REPLY TO MY ORIGINAL POST: Alex, your response is full of contradictions and completely dismisses the core issue: this space was once free and open to the entire community, and now nearly everything requires payment.

You claim it’s “still accessible to everyone” but then point to a single patio while everything else (courts, restaurant, cafe) requires payment. That IS a paywall.

Calling $10–$20 per person “accessible” ignores the fact that this space used to be FREE. Pricing out lower-income community members isn’t accessibility - it’s exclusion.

You say you “kept as many murals as possible,” yet art that was once FREE for the public to enjoy is now inside your place of business (“two artists whose murals have been blocked by the new restaurant were given the opportunity to create a new large mural inside”). That’s NOT preservation - that’s monetization.

What you’ve done is taken a once-inclusive community space and turned it into a business that only benefits those who can afford it - so no, this is NOT a third place. I’d recommend acknowledging that instead of dismissing so many of the valid concerns shared across these reviews.

MY ORIGINAL REVIEW: If they truly cared about the community this would be an accessible third space. However, this “third space” is only accessible to those who are as rich & inconsiderate as the owners. They wastefully destroyed art (they could’ve easily kept it) and are now charging an obscene amount for a third space that was once free for all to enjoy.

TLDR: They’ve taken from the community and added a pay wall to anything that could have benefited the community.

TO PADEL PLANT: please create an accessible third space and find ways to honor the community you’ve taken so much from - then we’ll consider buying from your overpriced coffee shop and restaurant…

THE BUSINESS REPLIED: “Destiny, I assure you that it still accessible to everyone as will be the new patio seating area out by the murals and re-opened canal walk.

On the pricing side of things, there is no pay wall and I think it would be very hard to find a more fairly priced cafe and bar than ours. And the courts are very accessible priced between $10-20 per person per hour depending on the number of players (can be less if you bring more).

We have kept as many of the murals as possible. The two artists whose murals have been blocked by the new restaurant were given the opportunity to create a new large mural inside (which you should check out, they did an amazing job).

I encourage you to come by for a tour and a...