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Save This PageThe Celebrity Room is back.
The pizzeria and restaurant, which operated in northern Henrico County for 31 years before closing in 1994, has taken over space in the TJ Maxx shopping center on West Broad Street in western Henrico. It opened in late May.
"It's great to be back," owner Alan Serafim said. "People walk in and they say the smell is just like the old place. They remember."
The new 40-seat restaurant even has some of the old fixtures that made The Celebrity Room a Richmond landmark. For example, Christmas decorations are up year-round, as they were at the old place.
"It's still Christmas every day in here," Serafim said, adding that more decorations will go up as the season approaches.
He already has decorated three Christmas trees, including a retro one that is hanging from the ceiling. "I am short on floor space," he said.
The jukebox plays Christmas carols and other music, as it did before.
Pictures of celebrities, including Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, adorn the walls. About two dozen of these photos hung on the walls of the old restaurant.
The original Celebrity Room had an Elvis room, with photos of Elvis Presley performing at various places, including the Richmond Coliseum. The new place instead has an Elvis corridor near the salad and pizza bar, but Serafim said he didn't have enough space in the new place for a whole room dedicated to The King.
Serafim said he is trying to re-create the original The Celebrity Room as much as possible, "but just on a smaller scale."
The fixtures and ambience help, he said, but the pizza is what everyone remembers.
"Everywhere I go people would say they remember the pizza and that they missed the pizza," he said. "Now they are saying that it is exactly what it was. And the old faces are coming back."
The original Celebrity Room opened in 1963 by Gus Serafim, Alan's father, who has since died. It moved to Brook Road in 1977.
But Serafim closed the restaurant in 1994, a year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
He opened another Celebrity Room in Mechanicsville in 1995 and sold it two years later. That location has since closed.
Since 1997, Serafim has owned and operated Memories Catering. He still operates the catering business.
Mall changes
Some additions coming to Chesterfield Towne Center:
Hollister has stores at Stony Point Fashion Park and Short Pump Town Center.
The chain closed its previous store across the street at 1200 Huguenot Road. That space will be used by The Fresh Market, which plans to open one of its specialty grocery stores this year.
Steve & Barry's
Look for Steve & Barry's, the cheap chic casual apparel retailer, to open a store in eastern Henrico County in middle to late summer.
The chain will take 35,889 square feet in the Glen Lea Centre on Mechanicsville Turnpike.
Steve & Barry's stores carry clothing from jeans and T-shirts to sweat shirts, jackets and sweaters. Nothing in the stores sells for more than $19.98.
This will be the area's first Steve & Barry's and the sixth in Virginia. The chain has more than 260 stores in 38 states.
Contact Gregory J. Gilligan at (804) 649-6379 or ggilligan@timesdispatch.com.
