The Texas Inn arrived in Richmond in 2024. (Mike Platania photo)
It’s been a whirlwind week for a Museum District diner.
Last week The Texas Inn was visited by the fire marshal and promptly closed after multiple issues were found with its building at 2901 Park Ave.
Owner Dave Saunders, who opened the restaurant in 2024 as a fourth location for The Texas Inn, which was founded in Lynchburg nearly 100 years ago, said the building’s hood, HVAC and ventilation systems needed work. After he was quoted around $20,000 to get the building up to code, Saunders announced that the Richmond Texas Inn would be going out of business.
But over the following days Saunders said he began to hear from contractors, some from the Lynchburg area, offering to work on the building at a discount.
“The $20,000 it was going to cost to reopen is now going to be about $6,000,” said Saunders, who also owns local ad firm Madison + Main.
David Saunders
With the repairs getting underway, Saunders began discussions with a group of Texas Inn employees who also wanted to keep the spot alive, and on Wednesday, he said he struck a deal for the group to purchase the Richmond location and become the chain’s first franchised outpost.
The new ownership group in Richmond is led by Sam Barton, who’s been with the restaurant since its opening, and includes some other silent investors. Barton wasn’t available for comment by press time.
The restaurant is now set to reopen next week.
It’ll still be owned by Saunders and operated by Barton’s group until the new year, when Saunders said he anticipates having the requisite legal work to sell Texas Inn franchises complete. He said he’s heard from over a dozen parties interested in bringing the Texas Inn to places like Norfolk and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The other three Texas Inn locations, two of which are in Lynchburg and the third in Harrisonburg, will continue to be owned and operated by Saunders.
He described his initial decision to close the Richmond location as a low point for him.
“I have a coffee mug on my desk that says, ‘Failure is not an option.’ And everybody’s telling me, ‘You fought a good fight, you’ve got to give up.’ I got to a point where I said, ‘OK, we give up,’” he said. “I felt truly touched that Sam and the crew wanted to give it a go.”
The Texas Inn in Richmond is in a stand-alone building in the Museum District’s Devil’s Triangle area. The art deco-style building has housed a handful of restaurants over the years, including Izzy’s Kitchen, Little Saint, Deco Ristorante and Cucina.
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