Pescados continues to impress. Besides running in yet another best new restaurant poll, it is continuing to offer ‘charity nights’, like the upcoming Friends of James River Park benefit.

But one thing that helps make it stand out is its website, which has a ‘history page’. Check out this excerpt:

The Belvidere Mansion and its extensive gardens were destroyed by fire in 1854, and the land was subdivided into residential lots for workers of Tredgar Iron Works and other industrial sites along the Kanawha Canal and the James River. Streets were named after trees, such as Pine, Laurel, Cherry, and Holly Streets. Pescados is located on China Street, which is named for the chinaberry tree.

Built in the early-1900s, the restaurant building was used as a residence until 1916 when S.T. Taylor, and later R.L. Chappell and R.E. Satterwhite, introduced grocery stores to serve the local community. Around 1930, it was converted to a confectionery which was operated for several decades by Richard Fuehar and later William O’Brien. In the 1950s, the Sisters of the Most Blessed Trinity ran a nursery school and after-school program at the site. From 1959-1961, a laundromat occupied the building. In the 1970s, the Chuckwagon (last owned by Joe Burns) opened and became a favorite hangout in Oregon Hill’s close-knit, working-class neighborhood. In 2001, the Chuckwagon was renamed Hollywood Grill (operated by Brock Burns), after nearby Hollywood Cemetery, until the property was sold in 2008 to its new owners, contractor Bob Windsor and chef Todd Manley.