Eat It, Virginia!

Aline and Dale Reitzer have owned three Richmond restaurants, in three different Richmond neighborhoods, over the course of three decades.  Acacia in Carytown served guests from 1998 thru 2007. In December 2008, the Reitzers opened a new Acacia near the Fan on Cary and Robinson. That location closed just before the pandemic in 2020. "Everyone thought we were geniuses because we closed right before the pandemic, which was purely by luck," chef Dale Reitzer, who has been honored with multiple James Beard Award nominations, said. "But now we're picking probably the worst time to construct a restaurant. So I think it's come back to even the playing field out." The Reitzers are in the construction phase of a new Acacia restaurant, this time at Libbie Mill. They hope to have Acacia midtown open by the end of the year.  But Acacia isn't the couple's only claim to food fame.  Aline Reitzer started Richmond Restaurant Week as a way to raise awareness about the city's restaurants and raise money for the food bank. "I g