Cafféspresso sells more than coffee, says owner

Cafféspresso in Henrico sells more than coffee In Italy, and across most of Europe, a cup of coffee isn't brewed so you can drink it out of a plastic foam cup while driving to work.

It's meant to be enjoyed at a sidewalk café while reading or socializing.

Claudio Ragazzi is trying to bring a bit of that European sensibility to Richmond.

Ragazzi, a native of Northern Italy, owns Cafféspresso in the Gaskins Place shopping center in Henrico County.

The café opened late last month.

A former language professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ragazzi said he wants Cafféspresso to be the kind of place where customers can sit with a cup of coffee and spend hours talking, reading or just relaxing.

"We are not creating a business just to sell, but trying to provide an experience where the time is spent talking and listening," he said.

But selling is important, too. Beyond coffee, Cafféspresso carries gelato, pastries and panini sandwiches.

Ragazzi also runs language classes -- Italian and Spanish -- out of the café two days a week and is planning a group trip to Italy this summer, similar to trips he once took with students.

He began Cafféspresso about a year ago, as a cart service, when he was still teaching at VCU.

Ragazzi said that as much as he enjoyed teaching, there was something missing.

"I like getting out, meeting people," he said. So he bought a cart and started selling his wares around campus.

As his cart became more popular, customers were telling him he should open a shop.

Ragazzi still owns the cart, which is staffed by students. Most of his time is spent at the café, where he says his job is to make customers feel as if they are in the Old World.

"To me, it's so rewarding when a customer leaves happy and then brings back a friend," he said.

Jimmy John's coming

Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches will open later this spring in the Village Shopping Center on Three Chopt Road in Henrico.

The 2,156-square-foot sub shop is the chain's second Richmond-area restaurant. The first opened last year on West Broad Street in Henrico.

Also new at the center, Cheeburger Cheeburger opened a 2,717-square-foot restaurant earlier this month.

It's the third Richmond-area restaurant for the 1950s-style burger chain.

Westchester shoe store

Famous Footwear opened last week at Westchester Commons in Chesterfield County.

The shoe store incorporates the chain's new design with wider aisles so customers can move around easier and maneuver strollers.

Organ donor sign up

The Retail Merchants Association is signing up members to be a part of April's Retailers4Life month.

Participating retailers will offer space in their stores for customers to find out about organ donation and to become organ donors.

This the second year the Richmond-based trade association is holding Retailers4Life. It was one day last year.

The Retail Merchants Association is teaming up with the Donate Life Partnership on the effort. The partnership includes UNOS, Donate Life America, LifeNet Health, Old Dominion Eye Foundation and Minority Organ Tissue Transplantation Education Program of Richmond.

The partnership says each donor can save an average of seven lives.

Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or .