Sam Miller’s had been in Shockoe Slip for over a century. (Mike Platania photo)
After a sports bar false-started, a famed Shockoe Slip restaurant space has landed its next tenant.
Manny Baiden is preparing to open a new restaurant, Aya, in the former Sam Miller’s space at 1210 E. Cary St.
The space has been vacant since last summer, when Sam Miller’s quietly ended a decadeslong run in the Shockoe area. Shortly after Sam Miller’s closed, a sports bar signed on to open there, but that deal fell through, and earlier this year Baiden stepped in and leased the 6,100-square-foot spot.
The new spot will be an expansion of sorts of Manny Eats, a private dining and catering company Baiden started nearly eight years ago.
Baiden grew up in Ghana and moved to the U.S. in the 2010s to study hospitality management at James Madison University. After a stint at Blue Ridge luxury resort Keswick Hall, he moved to Richmond, and while navigating the process for a work permit, he started Manny Eats just to get by.
He started the business shortly before the pandemic, offering private dinners as well as catering for events like weddings and corporate parties. Unlike many in the hospitality industry, Manny Eats benefited from the pandemic.
Manny Baiden at his new space (Courtesy Manny Eats)
“I feel like COVID was almost a catapult for my business. People were so driven to in-home experiences because they couldn’t go out to restaurants,” Baiden said. “So I built on that and grew some clientele through lots of word of mouth and social media.”
He said he began thinking about the next phase in Manny Eats’ evolution and found the old Sam Miller’s spot, which lends itself to his concept: The space is split between a dining room with a bar and a private dining area, and Baiden said he’s keeping that setup. He’s planning to convert the bar into a chef’s counter with about a dozen seats, with an additional 16 throughout the dining room.
“The restaurant portion of it is not that big. We want to focus on intimacy, sort of like we do with our private dining events in-home, and making sure the guests have a really cool experience when they come in,” Baiden said.
Aya, which Baiden said is a Ghanaian symbol that represents resilience, will serve similar fare to what he does with Manny Eats. He said a lot of the cuisine is rooted in his West African background, but he has influences from all sorts of places in the African diaspora, including the Caribbean, among other places.
“A lot of the food across those nations is very similar to what I ate growing up in Ghana,” Baiden said. “And I like to travel a lot with my wife, and we eat all sorts of things in our travels. I learn things along the way. I’ll take cooking classes in different countries and bring some of those things back to Manny Eats.”
Baiden is working on designing and renovating the space with plans to open Aya in early 2027 or next spring. He’s working with design firms Studio Tarea and Future Cities.
Manny Eats will continue operating as normal after Aya opens. Baiden said he’s excited to make the jump into the brick-and-mortar restaurant world.
“It’s different from anything that I’ve ever done. It’s probably the biggest project that I’ve worked on, but also it already feels rewarding because we can see everything coming together,” he said.
A more casual restaurant and bar recently opened a block down in Shockoe Slip, with Cicada’s taking over the old City Dogs spot at 1316 E. Cary St.
The post After a sports bar’s false start, new restaurant Aya set to open in former Sam Miller’s in the Slip appeared first on Richmond BizSense.
