Chipotle will open its eighth Richmond-area restaurant tomorrow at 810 W Grace St., near the VCU Campus. Today, though, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the restaurant will have a pre-opening benefit for Byrd House Market and Grace Arents Community Garden (part of the William Byrd Community House). For $5, the restaurant will provide each customer with a burrito (or an order of tacos, or a bowl or salad), tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole and a fountain drink. All proceeds will go to the market and community garden to support its community outreach.

About a week and a half ago, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Finn McCools quickly and quietly opened in the Innsbrook Shoppes.  The Irish pub—which bears no connection to other pubs around the nation with the same name—is owned by David Stout and Tim Bulman, who also owned Foster’s Grille, the previous inhabitant of the space at 4028-J Cox Road.

Recent raves The most recent restaurants to receive three or more stars from restaurant reviewer Dana Craig The Black Sheep 901 W. Marshall St.

I like wine. He likes beer. I like sampling my way through an array of small plates. He likes sticking to one entrée, preferably without my fork making its way
over for a taste.

Cold, smoky, slow and absolutely delightful, the Hermitage Grill is the perfect spot for the working lunch for people not particularly concerned with getting back to work. A recent lunch for two stretched out for well more than an hour. It was hard to figure out why—the five people seated were already eating when we walked in, and we ordered standard fare off the menu—but just as hard to care.

Recent raves The most recent restaurants to receive three or more stars from restaurant reviewer Dana Craig The Black Sheep 901 W. Marshall St.

The eatery, which features specialty burritos, will be in the spot previously occupied by Pizza Hut at West Grace and North Laurel streets. Chipotle already has seven restaurants in the Richmond area.

DEAR ACCIDENTAL CHEF: Like a lot of people, I am trying to start the new year eating healthier and exercising regularly. I do great most of the time, however, I seem to fall off the wagon when eating out. Everything seems to be fried or coated in butter, and the portions are huge. Is there any way to eat out and not totally break your diet? - Stuffed in Short Pump

Pasta Luna has served its last penne. The Italian restaurant at 8902 W. Broad St. in western Henrico County closed last week after nearly 15 years in that location.

Aurora, the new bakery-restaurant-lounge on the corner of Grace and Fourth streets, has impressively high ceilings. And for that I’m glad, because all the potential swirling around this Euro-chic, open-air, are-we-really-in-Richmond? establishment needs plenty of room to keep on growing.

Fans of Andre’s Grill on Courthouse Road might be surprised to know that a couple of months ago, the restaurant changed ownership and now is known as My Restaurant.

Thai food isn’t just Pad Thai anymore. Unless you’re our dining companion, who gets Pad Thai every time we go to Elephant Thai Restaurant. But that’s fine, because the Pad Thai there is excellent. Then again, so is everything else that we’ve tried—and we’ve tried a good-sized chunk of the menu. Nestled in the VCU/Fan area (which means parking can be problematic), Elephant Thai is a neighborhood restaurant worth driving to. It features impeccable service and a wide variety of traditional, fresh Thai food.

Great dining and a tattoo parlor?  Who knew!  Check out the slideshow of Stronghill Dining Company on Boulevard. 

The thought of getting food—real food, not the kind in crinkly plastic—at the same place you pump your gas still makes many food snobs wrinkle their noses in disgust. Too bad, because they have no idea what they’re missing. Wawa, the convenience chain based in Pennsylvania, not only provides the usual low-cost selections for people in a hurry—need a doughnut? Yogurt? A bag of cheese curls? A banana?—but its deli area is the definition of handiness.

ALLENTOWN, Pa.—A Pennsylvania pizzeria insists venison is not on the menu—despite the impression a customer may have gotten when she saw one of the cooks butchering a deer in the shop’s kitchen. The manager of Stromboli Pizza in Allentown says a customer saw one of the restaurant cooks carving up a deer Tuesday. But John Okumus says the venison was not intended for the store.