The Richmond version of Stone’s Throw Pizza will introduce itself to the community on Tuesday, January 7, serving free pies from 5 to 8 p.m. 

The pizza party at 39 Esplanade — former site of On the Rise Bakery — is the day before the restaurant’s official launch on Wednesday, January 8. It is the second location of Stone’s Throw, which opened its original site on Main Street in Fairfax in November 2018.

Stone's Throw is owned and operated by Tyler Stratton and Silas Pollitt, childhood friends from Fairfax now in their early thirties, and Stratton’s wife, Allison Stratton.  They decided  last summer to open a second restaurant after getting an "out of the blue" phone call from the owners of the Richmond building, who called to ask if Stone's Throw might be interested in leasing the space.

“It was perfect,” Tyler Stratton told Seven Days in July. "A former bakery in the heart of a community in a town in Vermont. If we took our experience here and made a wish list of the things we would want and the place we’d want them, it’s this place.”

According to Allison Stratton, the menu in Richmond will be similar to the one in Fairfax, including  weekly pie specials, vegan options, gluten-free pizza, salads, house-pickled veggies and kimchi. The restaurateurs will tend the garden out front in summer, and plan to use the produce on pizza and in salads, she said by email.
The Richmond location will be open every day but Monday, with service from 11 a.m.  to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; and 8 p.m. on Sunday.  Beer and wine is forthcoming at Stone's Throw, but it's unclear if alcohol permitting will be in place for next week's party, according to the owners.  The January 7 event will feature music by Will Pearl of the Wormdogs.

Stone's Throw is the fourth restaurant at 39 Esplanade since it was built for On the Rise in 2007.  One Radish Eatery, which closed in April 2019, was the most recent occupant. The restaurant is on a rise next to Volunteers Green.