Metzger Bar and Butchery Metzger Bar & Butchery

Metzger Bar & Butchery

801 N. 23rd St. (Cedar St.)
Richmond, VA 23223
804-325-3147
Map
Cuisine: German
Cleave to this groundbreaking German-inspired eatery if you like to get to the meat of the matter.
Openings: Dinner Tues.-Sun., Brunch Sun.

Features

  • Dress code: Casual
  • Full bar
  • Reservations suggested


Metzger Bar & Butchery Restaurant Review:


They say you can tell a lot about a restaurant by its restrooms. At Metzger Bar & Butchery, the requisite “All employees must wash hands” sign also reads, “Bitte hände waschen.” Still, German is more a point of reference than theme park cliché at this über-cool hipster eatery with a near-austere aesthetic (only nine wood-topped tables, industrial-looking chairs and a sterile, white-tiled bar) devoted to sausage and schnitzel. Its trio of founders, with sturdy backgrounds in butchering, fish mongering, cooking and wine sales, are as much artisans as restaurateurs. They offer a small charcuterie retail case up front (open select evenings) and a menu where every dish is a complex work, be it juniper-smoked duck breast with roasted cherries, grilled sweet onion, freekeh and anise; scallops with broccoli, spigarello, pickled raisins, lemon aïoli and speck; or beer-brined pork chop with wild mushrooms, spätzle and frisée. A meat-and-cheese board could be a Flegel still life. Thoughtful wines and beers veer to the Germanic, but try one of the innovative cocktails, and, come dessert, you won’t go wrong with a Deutschland delight like pineapple kuchen.