Eat It, Virginia!

When Joe and Emilia Sparatta arrived in Richmond about a decade ago, they hit the ground running. From helping Jason Alley open Pasture, to opening their wildly successful Richmond restaurant Heritage, to opening a second successful Richmond restaurant Southbound, to expanding from a couple to a family of four, there has not been much downtime for the Sparattas. That all changed in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the restaurant industry. "It was really hard to try to completely shift gears and amazingly stressful to try to make these decisions," Joe Sparatta said about the month the COVID-19 pandemic hit Richmond. "Being worried about people's health. Not knowing how the virus worked. Not understanding, are we keeping people safe? Is this a terrible idea being open? It was just very challenging, to say the least." After a few weeks of limited service and to-go orders, the Sparattas decided to temporarily close their beloved restaurant. "It was super traumatic. It was so hard to have to close down. It w