Asado is heading back to the 126-year-old building at Broad and Laurel. (Mike Platania photo)
Over six years after closing down and leaving town amid the pandemic, a Tex-Mex joint is making its return to Richmond, and it’s heading to the exact space it used to call home.
Asado Wing & Taco Co. has signed on to reopen at 727 W. Broad St., near the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Asado co-owner Ian Anderson confirmed the plans.
Asado was founded in Richmond in 2015, serving smoked wings, tacos, burritos and other Tex-Mex staples. A second location opened in Charlottesville in 2018 and has remained open, but in 2020 the Richmond Asado closed down in the early days of the pandemic.
Anderson said that the business kept a good relationship with the owner of the Broad Street building, S.P. Staton, and that Staton recently called him to ask not about Asado, but rather something unrelated – a recommendation for an HVAC and refrigeration technician. The conversation ended with them discussing Asado’s return to Richmond.
Asado when it was open in 2015. (BizSense file photo)
“We’d been speculating for a while that maybe we wanted to expand and were checking some places out. (Staton) had reached out, we got to talking and it snowballed from there,” Anderson said. “It’s crazy.”
The space became available after another taqueria, El Taco Guapo, moved out after a one-year stint. Asado is now leasing the space.
Anderson said the Asado concept and menu haven’t changed, with highlights including sriracha shrimp tacos and the “dos amigos” special with five wings and a taco for about $17. Asado will be open for lunch and dinner service.
Anderson said work is focusing on renovating and redecorating the space, the idiosyncrasies of which he still remembers from Asado’s first go-round.
“It’s strange because I spent so much time and so many years there. It has that side door (on Laurel Street) and a sound it makes. The second I came back through it, I was like, ‘Man, I do remember that sound,’” he said, laughing.
Anderson said he’s hoping Asado will reopen in Richmond sometime this year. He acknowledged the odd nature of the restaurant’s return to its old digs.
“We think it’s funny. But we’re excited to be back in a great area,” he said.
Asado is now co-owned by Anderson and Kevin Costello. Anderson co-founded the concept with Steve Rogge and Kevin McGrath, who Anderson said exited the business a few years after Asado closed in Richmond.
Rogge and McGrath have remained busy with Midlothian eateries The Flyin’ Pig and Outpost Pizza, as well as their sports bar concept Wood & Iron Gameday, which has four locations: in Scott’s Addition, Short Pump, Midlothian and Arlington. Rogge has even stayed busy outside of the restaurant industry, publishing a children’s book, “Hangry the Bear.”
In addition to Asado and El Taco Guapo, a number of different concepts have occupied the Broad Street space over the years. Beginning in the 1970s, it housed restaurants and music venues such as The String Factory, Rockitz, Metro and Empire Dining and Lounge, the last of which preceded Asado.
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