Submitted by AHippieDude t3_y98uqt in rva
This 4 block stretch used to be the most exciting (and sometimes dangerous) walk in richmond. You could find nearly every sub culture the city had, from bikers to hippies, rastas and strippers, dirt woman to gwar
This paragraph could be the beginning of a great novel.
I just saw this. I agree, like a cyberpunk style novel
Wow don't leave there just yet, could you remember the nicest thing you've seen there around that time?
Late spring on Hell Block. The kind of day that gets hot enough that you can smell the trash and piss and river but theres still a little chill in the air once the suns been down. If Grace Street was the main event , Hell Block was the box office.
I rounded the corner onto North Lombardy, sun in my eyes, and nearly trip over one of the regulars that stride the Grace Street gauntlet like lords of the urban savanna. Ronald Astrauskas, aka The Lithuanian, aka "yo Ronald you alive inside that bush?" His thousand yard stare doesn't even flinch. "Shit, sorry man" and I get kind of a half acknowledging grunt as he lifts his bottle arm gesturing in line with gaze. My eyes follow the bottle of rotgut Old Crow settling on today's discovery. I am face to face with a large painting of a large naked man, seated in a not so very large recliner. Late afternoon light bracketing the graphic detail of folds and dangles and textures of the human form aboard a barcalounger adrift in the black void background of canvas. Perched on top of a trashcan like it was hung at the Louvre.
"Reckon they stole it." His gaze never breaks. "Who are 'they' and what the hell makes you think 'they' stole it Ron?" Finally his eyes peel away and he looks at me, lifts the bottle to his mouth, whiskey dribbling down his gray stubbled chin, doesn't blink, and like a deranged tour guide he gestures me around to the back of our new found conversation piece. We stand side by side and in tiny block print it reads "Property of Library of Virginia Main Branch" across the top of the canvas.
We can speculate. We do. We can speculate why they had it. We can speculate whether it hung on a wall in the back stacks next to dusty classics and ancient municipal schematics. We can speculate that in fact it was never even there at all and we were both pulled into a shared hallucination, a little slice of the world peeled back like the corners of so many of the old fliers on the light posts. The backstage of perceived reality. We can speculate because for a minute we're just two men , untethered from that late afternoon sun, a million miles away, sitting naked in a recliner of our own reflections while the sun sets on Grace Street.
Hey, can we hang sometime? Id love to buy you your beverage of choice and pick your brain for a bit. I cant promise my stories will be anywhere near as interesting though...
I feel oddly satisfied reading this, yet somehow want more. Please let us in on where we can read more of your unique and colorful stories.
Also, write a full novel and let us know when it is released. I would read that book so hard.
Only complaint is calling Old Crow rot gut
This is fucking incredible.
The bongs at Bohannons.
So many hours spent in there wishing I had more money.
The new cyberpunk game sounds awesome
Feels like the beginning of a Cyberpunk style story.
True. It was Richmond at it’s best and worst at the same time. Live music almost every night, cheap drinks, cheap food- just a great time. I spent most nights from 1985-1992 working/hanging out in one place or another. So much fun
So true, and don’t forget the action at Lums, Grecca, and hanging by the burning fire barrels In the parking lot next to Burger King. Just a different time. Yeah some moments were ultra violent but most were lucid and care free.
Aladdin’s used to deliver food to my dorms & pick up cigarettes on the way..
Aladdin Express's building is apparently up for sale right now! I am going to be so pissed off if they put another garbage fucking fast-casual chain into that block...
Man I loved Aladdins. Every time I'd go in there he'd have something to talk about with me and share some traditional cultural food he had just made that wasn't on the menu that he wanted me to try while I waited to pick up my order
It’s for sale for $3.5mm so the options just got slimmer 😞
Now it's NOVA
I never went but the Grace Street Theater was the Lee Art Cinema when I moved to Richmond and the "art" was actually porn. Noodles and Company was the Biograph Twin Cinema which showed indie films and foreign stuff mostly.
The Biograph was the place to be. The Rocky Horror Show would get out of hand sometimes…in the best of ways.
Back in 2015 I walked down that stretch almost blackout at 1am and DIDN'T get mugged. It was wild.
Back in 94 or so I left village Cafe after hearing dirt woman telling a story about a date putting his fist in places I never thought it should go, walked in to twisters got alien splooge on me, down to the red light inn where a biker fight broke out... I finally went to the bidders suite to gather my senses
haha, I doubt there has ever been a mugging in Richmond.
If only that were true!
I went to London for NYE 2000 with some friends and a black cab driver asked us if we hung out on Grace. This is the exact scene he remembered from the one time he'd visited America.
Don's Hot Nuts.
Remember Chicken Box? Their motto in their advertising said that their chicken was the Second Best Thing You Ever Put Into Your Mouth.
Mmm. The smell of urine in the doorways. The nostalgia hits hard.
LOL. It’s so different than it used to be…I mean there’s a noodles and co where hyperlink used to be lollllll
Hyperlink was new. You mean where the Biograph used to be.
Technically that is better than a restaurant that translates to in the hand where a jerk off store used to be.. which I firmly believe there should be laws against
In his mouth*
It could mean "his" , "her", "your" singular formal, "their", or "your" plural, both formal and informal . I always thought it was "in your mouth" , like talking to the customer(s) directly.
a strange formality considering the phrase... surely one has achieved tu by that point? But considering the history, perhaps not
Part of me is just hoping it's NOT "in his mouth". Given how usted a lot of Latin American can be, maybe they don't wanna offend? Or it's an in joke and they want conversations like this to happen
interesting question. Or they used google translate...
Given we live in a city that probably has more Latino restaurants owned by white people than Latinos, you're probably right
cries in white sauce
I don't think enough clorox has been manufactured for me to eat there
Some of you may remember Johnson hall being listed in high times magazine ( or so the legend was )
Ah, my old stomping grounds, from when I was a young teen hanging out at Station Break, to doing the walk in the Village as a teenager.
Just here to add Rockitz and the Jade Elephant to the list. My first beer in Richmond was at the Jade Elephant, it was also the first time I saw Dirt Woman perform. My first job in Richmond was at Don’s Hot Nuts, I quit after one day.
The world of myrth and exile
Gah I miss Exile
Newgate Prison, and the cops gathering after the concerts for the inevitable fights.
Vito’s pizza
And that random sketchy “dollar store” that also sold what appeared to be used (stolen?) electronics..
Vito’s was the best. Especially when he would pick on the delivery driver.
So many ppl out and about all night. It was great. Seems like it changed around 90 or so. Cops tried to enforce a curfew in the late 80s for 18yo and under, iirc. That didn’t work out very well. Had some wild times. Not always good. Still restructuring my brain and what all I normalized from back then.
Ukrops!
Excuse you, it's Community Pride
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High school me driving to Bohannons to get a bong.
Leaving the side door of the metro/rockitz onto Laurel you'd see graffitti on the side wall of Aladdin's that said something like "it's late you're drunk do something stupid" it was always so inspiring
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BK Lounge
I didn't really have much need to leave that stretch of street for years
Every decision to darken the threshold of Sahara was invariably a poor one. A newer memory, but Burrito Chop was such a treasure while it lasted.
Now we have Manchester...how things change :)
Got dumplings is delicious tho... Gas to count in the improvement category
scrapaxe t1_it4q21w wrote
I worked nights in the area for years. Stools smashed through the front of Hyperlink, got held at gunpoint by RPD in front of the pizza hut when it was there, post 534 chaos with the troopers and every swinging dick in 4th precinct fogging the entire intersection on the weekends. Singing Pete and Dirtwoman, fights outside of the Raygun/Twisters/Strange Matter, Velocity Comics and Little Caesar's runs dodging drunks, jerks and maniacs. Absolute neon mayhem and the sound of smashed glass, all plowed under surface lots and banality. You could be anywhere but somehow it feels like youre nowhere. You can't live in the past but sometimes it's fun to vacation there.