Sausage-maker’s new restaurant, meat counter to replace Carytown Cupcakes

Sausage company The Mayor Meats and its pop-up brand Hots & Brats are planning to take over the Carytown Cupcakes space in Richmond. (Courtesy Hots & Brats)

As Carytown Cupcakes eyes its last day of business later this month, there’s been a change of plans for what’s next at the bakery’s storefront.

Local sausage company The Mayor Meats and its pop-up brand Hots & Brats are taking over at 3111 W. Cary St. later this year with a new meat counter and restaurant.

It marks a new direction for the space that had for a time been eyed by pop-up Young Mother for a brick-and-mortar location.

The Mayor Meats owner Kyle Morse said the brick-and-mortar version of Hots & Brats will have largely similar offerings to the pop-up but with an expanded menu focused on hot dogs and other sausages, such as wursts.

Morse described the restaurant as a casual eatery and said it would also sell beer and wine. It’ll have seating for 20 to 30 people.

“The point is to come in and grab a quick bite with your whole family,” Morse said.

Past Hots & Brats pop-up events have featured kimchi hot dogs and linguica, a Portuguese sausage, with goat cheese and caramelized onions on the menu.

Also moving into the space is The Mayor, which will have a meat counter in the restaurant where people can buy house-made sausages by the pound. Morse said he plans to add bacon and ham to the offerings once the business is in the new space.

Morse said a cost estimate on build-out and equipment for the space was still being worked out. WillHouse Construction has been tapped to serve as the general contractor for the project.

The Mayor is currently based at food-and-beverage incubator Hatch in Manchester and will relocate its production operations to Carytown. The sausage-maker sources most of its meats from Heritage Foods USA in New York.

The company’s products can be found at local stores including Ellwood Thompson’s and Stella’s Grocery, among others. The Mayor also sells sausage to local restaurants and at farmers markets.

Morse started The Mayor in 2019 and rolled out the Hots & Brats brand last year. In 2018, he moved to the area from New York City, where the Culinary Institute of America graduate worked in the fine-dining scene.

As Morse plots his entry into the neighborhood, Carytown Cupcakes is winding down. The bakery plans to close June 23, after more than a decade in business.

Previously there were plans for chef Daniel Harthausen of HBO fame to take over the bakery’s space with a brick-and-mortar version of his pop-up Young Mother, which served Korean- and Japanese-influenced dishes.

However, those plans are now off the table and Harthausen has taken a job with Late Air, a wine bar in Savannah, Georgia, online news outlet Eater reported.

Carytown Cupcakes plans to close later in June. Previously, Young Mother was slated to take over the space but that’s no longer planned.

Morse was teed up for the Carytown Cupcakes space through his connection with Kevin Liu, a co-owner of the bakery and Morse’s business partner in The Mayor’s jump to brick and mortar.

The duo met in early 2019 and became friends after Morse held a pop-up at Liu’s neighboring restaurant The Jasper.

Morse said Liu reached out to solicit ideas on what to do with the Carytown Cupcakes space after the Young Mother project fell apart, and that conversations then turned to Morse bringing his sausage company to the space instead.

Morse said The Mayor’s upcoming permanent retail space, which will be a first for the company, has been a goal of his since launching the company several years ago.

“I’ve been thinking about it for some time. Having one place to call home will make things easier on my end, and it’s something I’ve already been building toward,” he said.

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