Eat It, Virginia!

David Dunlap was at the top of his game in March 2020. The executive chef, who gained experience in notable restaurants like The Inn at Little Washington and The Ashby, was running Maple and Pine at the Quirk Hotel in downtown Richmond and had just opened a second location in Charlottesville when the pandemic closed restaurants statewide. "Fifteen days of 'slow spread' turned into four months," Dunlap told Scott and Robey on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "Then I got a call saying they weren't bringing back my position." The husband and father was now faced with a life-changing decision. Move the family to a place where restaurants were hiring during the pandemic or figure out a new plan. Fortunately for David, his wife Brittany took over. "My wife is a hustler. Her background is in marketing. She made a website and started to promote private dinners," he said. "I reached out to a bunch of wineries and breweries and started wine dinners and beer dinners for small groups of people and then kept myself really