Independent trade coverage of the Commonwealth
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The 50-year-old Great Falls institution comes under Warren Thompson's stewardship this month. Chef Jacques Haeringer stays, the menu stays, and coverage is notably vague about what kind of transaction this actually is.
VHN Staff · · Northern Virginia
The Henrico-based company filed in federal court in Lubbock, Texas on September 2, arguing the FDA has never met the 180-day statutory deadline for premarket tobacco applications and that some have been pending more than six years.
VHN Staff · · Richmond
State law protects a specific list of farm winery activities from local ordinance, and sets a high bar before a locality can restrict the rest. Most disputes turn on the phrase 'usual and customary.'
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Congress passed a one-month delay on September 1 and sent it to the President. The federal limit is 0.4mg of total THC per container. Virginia's cap, in force since August 15, is 2mg per package.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Del. Delores Oates convened VDACS Commissioner Charles Green and Virginia Tourism Corporation staff for an agritourism summit on August 28, with regulatory barriers and farmland preservation on the agenda.
VHN Staff · · Shenandoah Valley
A draft farm business ordinance would allow 30 events a year without a permit, cap by-right attendance at 150, and treat weddings as agritourism but not concerts. The board sent it back to staff on August 28.
VHN Staff · · Charlottesville
The Golden Pony drew a 30-day suspension and a $7,500 fine after serving an undercover Virginia ABC agent. Displaced shows moved to a manufacturing space and two houses, and Harrisonburg Fire shut all three.
VHN Staff · · Shenandoah Valley
Virginia's largest single hospitality opening in a generation lands off I-95 in November 2026: 907 rooms, 13 food and beverage outlets, and a hiring target that will pull staff from Richmond to Fredericksburg. Here is what operators in that corridor should be watching.
VHN Staff · · Fredericksburg & Central Virginia
Supervisors voted to remove all caps on winery and brewery events in May, reversed themselves 15 days later, then handed the question to a nine-member committee that cannot reopen it. Wineries, breweries and distilleries come up on November 9.
VHN Staff · · Northern Virginia
The Mixed Beverage Annual Review is due on your license anniversary, not a fixed date, and the records it depends on have to be built months earlier. Here is what it is and where operators get caught.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Richmond lost Assante's, Pig & Brew, Charlotte's and the Carytown Daily inside a week. The quieter story is Ellwood Thompson's falling behind on payments to local suppliers.
VHN Staff · · Richmond
Not the interesting numbers. The ones that decide whether you keep your license. Each one is a threshold somebody crosses without noticing.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
The minimum wage steps to $13.75 in January and $15.00 in 2028. Tips are now statutory wages with treble damages attached. The non-compete ban now covers anyone eligible for overtime. Paid sick leave arrives in 2027.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
The 25-to-1 ratio allowance is gone, replaced by a hard two-milligram total THC cap per package as of August 15. Regulation moved from VDACS to the Cannabis Control Authority, which now has cease-and-desist power.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Virginia's local meals tax is climbing, and the referendum that used to stand in a county's way has been gone since 2020. In Roanoke, unpaid meals tax has produced criminal charges against restaurant owners.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Virginia's retail tobacco permit takes effect October 1, 2026. It covers restaurants and bars, not just smoke shops, and ABC says applications take 20 to 30 days. The window to be legal on day one is closing now.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
The statewide figure is out. Locality-level numbers, which is where operators can actually see their own market, are due around Labor Day.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
The first-offense penalty schedule is public, specific, and almost nobody in the industry has read it. Twenty-six violations, the suspension days and the civil charge attached to each.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Virginia ABC issues more than seventy license and permit types. Most operators only ever need one of about a dozen. Here is how to find yours without reading the whole code.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
BriefingPolicy & Legislation
The tiered ratio takes hold, the Ordinary Awards close voting, and the Styrofoam ban widens. Short takes and links to the reporting.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
An editor's note on what this site will cover, what it won't, and how it plans to be useful to people who actually run restaurants, bars and hotels in the Commonwealth.
Kevin · · Statewide
VRLTA's 2026 Ordinary Awards added a category for newly opened restaurants. The nominees span Hopewell to Tysons, and the list says something about where Virginia's growth is.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
HB 975 replaced the flat 45% food requirement for mixed beverage licensees with three tiers keyed to monthly food sales, and added a new seating rule. The change took effect July 1, 2026.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
Beyond the food-to-beverage overhaul, the 2026 session turned on what didn't pass: predictive scheduling, whistleblower expansion and per-item sodium labeling all died.
VHN Staff · · Statewide
