Richmond Geeks?

June 21, 2009 12:09 PM

Where can some geeks in Richmond, VA go for a good time?

My boyfriend and I are relocating from Long Island, NY to Richmond in September. We are moving away from all our friends and family and will not know anyone who is less than 2 hours away. We are both SciFi geeks and are used to getting together with friends to play Arkham Horror, Munchkin and other assorted board/card games. Are there any good hangouts in the area?

posted by Catbunny to sports, hobbies, & recreation (14 answers total)

Any other suggestions about moving to Richmond, VA are welcome as well. =)
posted by Catbunny at 12:11 PM on June 21, 2009

You are going to LOVE Richmond! I live about an hour away from it, and they have loads of interesting things to do...i have no clue about sci fi stuff (sorry!) but i have been to E.A. Poe's house, which is awesome, they have beautiful little bookshops, loads of bars, cafes and even one huge shop full of imported art from all over the world (which we mostly visit as a museum, because it's crazy expensive), plenty f concert venues (small local bands mostly, which are always great to see)
Check out this website for all kinds of things to do in Richmond...

http://www.brickweekly.com/

It's a very varied and big city, so I expect you'll have next to no trouble finding a crowd that suits you! I wish I lived in Richmond! I just googled "richmond va scifi" and got several interesting results.

Good luck!
posted by Tarumba at 12:35 PM on June 21, 2009

RVA is wonderful! I often wish I stilled lived there...
First off there is the gaming store
http://www.yelp.com/biz/one-eyed-jacques-richmond

and then only a block away is the scifi mystery bookshop
http://www.cncbooks.com/

These blogs are also helpful
http://rvablogs.com/

You must eat at Kuba Kuba!
posted by mcbietila at 1:00 PM on June 21, 2009

...to play Arkham Horror
Richmond, VA is home of the Edgar Allen Poe museum.
posted by PenDevil at 1:26 PM on June 21, 2009

Also you'll want to hang out in Careytown(sp?).
posted by PenDevil at 1:27 PM on June 21, 2009

Carytown.
posted by PenDevil at 1:29 PM on June 21, 2009

I've lived in Richmond for about 3 years, it's a cool city. One Eyes Jacques in Carytown is the only gaming resource I know of (though I could be wrong!), and it's a pretty cool place. Velocity Comics on Broad is a pretty great local comics shop.

As for other Richmond stuff, there's a lot of cool stuff/restaurants around. If you like Vietnamese food, Pho 79 on Staples Mill is my favorite by far. Kuba Kuba (cuban, obviously) is pretty good overall, but their desserts are spectacular. Ipanema is a realllll solid vegetarian restaurant and a sweet bar after 11. The Phonecian out on Broad has great Mediterranean.

There are a lot of cool stores in Carytown, but also a lot of weird "how is this still open?" places. Plan 9 (in Carytown) is a pretty good record store, and Deep Grooves just opened on Robinson, and I liked that place a lot.

That's all off the top of my head, but feel free to mefimail me if you want more recommendations!
posted by frankdrebin at 1:46 PM on June 21, 2009

Oh! And as someone else who moved here from the North, prepare to be wildly disappointed in the pizza across the board. Mary Angela's in Carytown has the best I've had in the city. Apparently, Biongiorno's down the street is also really good, but I've never been there. People are going to recommend that you get some pizza at Bottom's Up (in Shockoe Bottom). Don't listen to these people.

I don't know where you're planning on moving, but I'd definitely recommend living in/very near the city rather than out in the West End. It gets real suburban and kind of depressing reallll fast.
posted by frankdrebin at 1:53 PM on June 21, 2009

I've lived in Richmond my entire life (I'm 28), and I know this place inside and out. There's way too much to type here, but if you memail me, we can get down to specifics depending on the things that you like. I can also help you with suggestions as to where to live in the city.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 2:06 PM on June 21, 2009

Catbunny, I moved with my family to Richmond from Long Island almost 30 years ago. When are you getting here? We're having a 10th anniversary meetup on July 18 AND YOU'RE INVITED!
posted by emelenjr at 7:28 PM on June 21, 2009

This may be a bit of a leap from your geek focus, but I think you would enjoy First Fridays. Also, you may want to subscribe to Weekly Rant to get an easy overview of some of the activities in the area.

A different kind of geekery than yours... but there's almost always some Shakespeare to see if you have some money to burn.

In addition to Brick, check out RVA News and Style Weekly.
posted by hellogoodbye at 7:51 PM on June 21, 2009

I'm a Richmond native, but have been away for a few years.

Yeah, One-Eyed Jacques is Richmond's center for games, though it was a lot cooler and more active several years ago. (The popularity of RPGs and CCGs have waned since then.) Creatures 'n' Crooks is a neat mystery/scifi/fantasy specialist bookstore -- I remember when they used to be down on Midlothian Turnpike. (I'm allergic to cats, though, so I didn't go often.) You might also like Stories (NSFW, lots of Playboy covers) on Forest Hill Avenue south of the river -- they're basically a used book/comic store jammed to the rafters with books, comics, figures, and magazines. They have a few stores around town, but the Forest Hill one is the best. The Time Capsule in Chester is another good comic store with weekly CCG and RPG games. Dave's Comics in the Village Shopping Center is overrated, in my opinion, but it is an institution. I'm not terribly familiar with Velocity, but they seem like a good addition to the downtown/Fan area, a place that used to be a shopping wasteland.

There's a comic con in September, apparently, as well as a sci-fi con next April. My friends enjoy MarsCon, a 45-minute drive away in Williamsburg; it's small and relaxing compared to some of the huge cons like DragonCon or Otakon.

FWIW, everytime I hang out with my geek friends in Richmond, One-Eyed Jacques and Mary Angelas (I second frankdrebin's statement that it has the best pizza -- and calzone -- in town) or barbeque are on our itineraries.
posted by armage at 8:04 PM on June 21, 2009

Incidentally, check One-Eyed Jacques' message board (posted by the door) to see if there are any gaming groups looking for players. You might post a "looking for a group"-type message as well. Though the Internet has supplanted traditional message boards, people have to go buy their cards/games somewhere, and a lot of folks still like to patronize their local store rather than Amazon.
posted by armage at 8:06 PM on June 21, 2009

One more thing: the River City Fanboys forum is reasonably active, so you might consider registering there.
posted by armage at 8:12 PM on June 21, 2009 [1 favorite]