Aline and Dale Reitzer: Acacia and Richmond Restaurant Week

Aline and Dale Reitzer have owned three Richmond restaurants, in
three different Richmond neighborhoods, over the course of three
decades. 


Acacia in Carytown served guests from 1998 thru 2007. In December
2008, the Reitzers opened a new Acacia near the Fan on Cary and
Robinson. That location closed just before the pandemic in 2020.


"Everyone thought we were geniuses because we closed right before
the pandemic, which was purely by luck," chef Dale Reitzer, who
has been honored with multiple James Beard Award nominations,
said. "But now we're picking probably the worst time to construct
a restaurant. So I think it's come back to even the playing field
out."


The Reitzers are in the construction phase of a new Acacia
restaurant, this time at Libbie Mill. They hope to have Acacia
midtown open by the end of the year. 


But Acacia isn't the couple's only claim to food fame. 


Aline Reitzer started Richmond Restaurant Week as a way to raise
awareness about the city's restaurants and raise money for the
food bank.


"I grew up in New Jersey and being in the restaurant business
when New York Restaurant Week started, you could go to Union
Pacific and all these amazing restaurants and you know what
you're going to spend, and it was affordable, and you get to try
these restaurants," Aline Reitzer said. "In 2001, I brought on
nine local restaurants. They sat on our porch overlooking
Carytown and I pitched the idea to them. I knew that Richmond was
a very charitable and giving community. I knew that you couldn't
just say, 'Hey, it's Restaurant Week, go out to eat and support
the restaurants.' So I wanted to line up this opportunity with
Central Virginia Food Bank [now Feed More]. So restaurateurs are
feeding the general public on every given day and this money
would then, in turn, feed those in need." 


Richmond Restaurant Week runs October 24-30.


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