New Wishbone Food Shop to open in former Cafe Ole spot downtown - RichmondBizSense

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Ginny Sowers and Justin Cropper outside the former Cafe Ole. (Mike Platania photo)

The former Cafe Ole space downtown is set to come back to life after sitting idle for two years. 

Couple Ginny Sowers and Justin Cropper are preparing to open Wishbone Food Shop, a new market and cafe, in the long-dormant storefront at 2 N. 6th St.

With its space split by a three-quarter wall, Wishbone will include both a dine-in cafe area and a retail market side that’ll offer prepared foods and other goods. 

Cafe Ole had been a mainstay of the downtown breakfast and lunch scene for over 20 years until its closure in 2021. Sowers and Cropper are looking for Wishbone to serve a similar role. 

“I want that small neighborhood cafe kind of vibe, where you can come and get an espresso to sit down and chill, or you can grab some kind of sandwich and run,” Cropper said. “We wanted to be in a walking neighborhood. We didn’t want to be in a strip mall.”

Cropper previously worked in the kitchens of such local restaurants as Union Market, Don’t Look Back, Lemaire and Millie’s, while Sowers’ experience is in the front of the house.

Wishbone’s menu won’t have a set theme but will be influenced by the Latin and Italian cuisine Cropper became familiar with during a decade-plus stint working in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. 

“I worked with some amazing chefs out there that just really opened my eyes,” Cropper said. 

While at Union Market, Cropper said he came up with the recipe for the popular chicken tarragon sandwich, and he’ll be putting his sandwich-crafting skills back to use in making Wishbone’s menu. 

Some early ideas for the breakfast menu include an egg, kimchi, cilantro and avocado bagel sandwich as well as a tomato jam and cheddar egg sandwich on brioche. He added that Wishbone will make its breakfast sausage, chorizo and tempeh sausage in-house and also serve a breakfast burrito, various bowls and vegan options.  

Wishbone’s lunch menu is planned to include sandwiches like a tempeh banh mi, hot pastrami and tomato and fig with cheese and pesto mayonnaise. Cropper said the business is planning to apply for an ABC license for on- and off-premises alcohol sales. 

Though it’s been closed for years, Cafe Ole still held a lease on the space, along with the cafe’s equipment and assets. Sperity Real Estate Ventures’ Robert Brown represented Cropper and Sowers in assuming the lease and buying the assets. The deal closed last week. 

Sowers and Cropper are working on renovating the space with eyes on a fall opening.

Wishbone is the duo’s first time stepping out on their own, and Cropper said the pair are already getting attention from locals.

“The Virginia Lottery building is right across the street, and I’ve already had people coming up here like, ‘Are you opening the restaurant? It’s so nice to have somebody in this place that has been empty for a couple years,’” he said.

“I’ll be the first tenant that changes it from Cafe Ole in like 25 years.”

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New Wishbone Food Shop to open in former Cafe Ole spot downtown - RichmondBizSense
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