Joe's Inn in Richmond, Virginia

I don’t know who Joe was, but he must have had an appetite.

Set in a wood-paneled space in The Fan, Joe’s feels like your grandparent’s slightly outdated dining room from the 70’s - in a nostalgic, comforting way. There are newspaper clippings covering the walls alongside old, black-and-white photos of various people who all must have been Joe-adjacent. There are Christmas lights hanging behind the bar and booths that look like church pews.

All to say: Joe's is unassuming and has a "come-one-come-all vibe." Truly the best way I can describe this environment is that it feels like a restaurant your family would go to after you and your sister went to Friday night soccer practice. You know, when you're sweaty and wearing literal cleats and shin guards, and your parents are one meal prep away from a mental breakdown (hopefully this is a shared experience)? That's exactly the casual, nostalgic vibe here.

Chance of walking home: 0%.

As you sit down in your booth at Joe's, make sure to take a look at the plates set in front of other diners because the portions are...astronomical? Astounding? Unexplainable? It appears that in today’s day and age, none of us will be able to afford a home, but you can still get a serving of spaghetti at Joe’s Inn for $15 that lasts all week.

Bring your Lactaid.

Joe’s will serve you red-sauce pastas, mozzarella sticks, meatballs, and mountains of wedge salad, but the best thing we had was the cucumber and tomato salad, doused in the most delicious Italian dressing-inspired sauce that demanded to be lapped up with garlic bread after. I love an vinegary, salty, tangy bite, and this was the juiciest take on that.

And because Richmond is fun and wacky and weird, Joe's has a knack for offering off-menu specials that...have nothing at all to do with their red sauce menu. My thesis is that all the cool, tattooed twenty-somethings who work at Joe's have quietly influenced the menu and brought a bit of that counterculture energy. Like all family institutions, there's always that one cousin DJing and offering you cigarettes, right?

Joe's version of this is their off-menu Roseterade. This fine drink is comprised of Rosé and Gatorade. Yes, the perfect elixir to wash down your linguine. We asked our waiter to bring us a glass, and he literally said Are you sure? I love an honest waiter not afraid to rag on his own employer. Regardless, we said we were not leaving without the Roseterade, and he stayed at the table to see our reactions as we sipped it.

Was the Roseterade good? Absolutely not! But was it fun? Yes. It was the equivalent of getting a large soft drink cup at Taco Bell and filling it up with two inches of each soda on the machine. It was a gag and we had fun.

At the end of the day, Joe’s Inn ain’t fancy and it’s certainly not pushing the boundaries of cuisine (the pizza can be skipped). But Joe's is oozing with an air of family, nostalgia, and simple comforts. It's haphazard menu, overwhelming portions, slightly uncomfortable booths, and punk rock servers all somehow come together to create a perfectly imperfect space - just like most families.