How does someone leave a successful insurance career at 50 to open one of Richmond’s most beloved wine bars?

On this episode of Eat It, Virginia, Scott Wise and Robey Martin sit down with Melissa Stallard, proprietor of Chez Nous in Richmond’s Monroe Ward neighborhood, to talk about food, reinvention, French culture, hospitality and building community through wine and conversation.

Melissa shares how growing up in her father’s Doswell butcher shop helped shape her love of food, why she left the insurance industry after decades in business, and how a lifelong fascination with France inspired Chez Nous. Her intimate French wine bar near The Jefferson Hotel has quickly become one of Richmond’s hottest dining destinations.

Whether you love Richmond restaurants, French food, wine bars, hospitality culture or stories about personal reinvention, this episode offers a thoughtful look inside one of RVA’s most talked-about culinary concepts.

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Chez Nous

4 W Cary St.
Richmond, VA 23220