Sally Bell’s Kitchen, a Richmond fixture known for its box lunches, cupcakes, deviled eggs and potato salad, has a big reason to celebrate this year.
The iconic Richmond restaurant is turning 100 in October.
The go-to lunch spot opened in 1924 and, after a century, people are still lining up every day for its boxed lunches and award-winning homemade baked goods.
Manager Shannon Childers packs the famous lunchbox at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
To mark its centennial this fall, guests will get a taste of Sally Bell’s history: The owners plan to bring back the cinnamon buns and other baked goods from the restaurant’s heyday.
“My great aunt Sarah Cabell Jones started out making pies and selling them at the Women’s Exchange, a bazaar where you could get things people were making at home,” owner Scott Jones said.
People are also reading…
Sarah “Sallie” Cabell Jones and Elizabeth Lee Milton opened Sarah Lee’s Kitchen in 1924, using parts of their names for the shop’s moniker. “Sally was slang for Sarah, and Bell came from the Cabell name,” said Scott’s wife, Martha Jones.
Sally Bell’s Kitchen on Broad Street in Richmond, Va., Monday, July 8, 2024.
For a family-run business, Sally Bell’s got the correct formula straight out of the gate and rarely changed a thing about the customer experience. The family-style relationships between owners who work right alongside employees remain a hallmark of success — and reflect more than 300 years’ experience at work in the kitchen today.
“They say a good restaurant changes its menu three or four times a year. We haven’t changed the menu here three or four times a century. I think it’s the consistency and the quality of the food that comes through. We boil and peel potatoes — that’s no fun — most people throw them in a peeler. We try to keep things the same, and we’re pretty good guardians of the legacy,” Jones said.
The quaint kitchen and dining spot offers an assortment of sandwiches, a variety of salads and cupcakes all contained in a white carrier box and tied with string for $11.99, not a drastic increase from the original $5 price. In fact, Sally Bell’s sells about 150 to 200 boxed lunches a day, about the same as it was selling 70 years ago.
From the menu, you can get tangy ham biscuits, angelic deviled eggs, crispy cheese wafers with pecan tops, sweet icing-all-around cupcakes, velvety chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise, and, of course, the world’s most delicious potato salad.
Manager Shannon Childers ties up the famous lunchbox at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
The cupcakes are delightfully cute, cooked in traditional cupcake tins, but iced upside down so that they look like little domes. And maybe it’s this slightly unexpected twist on the traditional that’s the secret to the success of Sally Bell’s. The restaurants seems to take the standard format and make it interesting enough to be unique while keeping each item accessible enough to eat on a 40-minute lunch break.
A Richmond tradition
Sarah “Sallie” Cabell Jones and Elizabeth Lee Milton opened Sarah Lee’s Kitchen in a little brick building at 701 W. Grace St. in 1924. A few years later, Milton moved to New York and Jones took over the business, introducing the boxed lunch that would make Sally Bell’s famous. In 1951, Sarah Lee’s moved across the street to 708 W. Grace St. In 1959, they sold the name to Sara Lee’s and changed the name to Sally Bell’s.
To this day, Sally Bell’s remains a Richmond tradition, with everything made fresh daily.
“We even make our own mayonnaise and salad dressing,” Martha Jones said.
The recipes are handwritten in a small, old green binder.
“We’re still using (the co-founder’s) original recipes,” she said. “They are very labor-intensive. For example, when we make chicken salad, we boil and pick our own chickens.”
Scott and Martha Jones took over running Sally Bell’s Kitchen in 1985. He’s the third generation to run Sally Bell’s, with his mother manning it before him.
In 2014, Scott and Martha Jones sold the Grace Street building to Virginia Commonwealth University and moved in 2016 to its current location at 2337 W. Broad St., across from the Science Museum of Virginia.
Scott Jones is the owner of Sally Bell’s Kitchen in Richmond.
To say Sally Bell’s is loved would be an understatement. It has a devoted following, all of whom have been getting their lunches at the restaurant for years if not for generations.
Tommie Tiller Sr. has been a customer of Sally Bell’s Kitchen since he was 10 years old. He is 84 now and still brings crab cakes for the Sally Bell’s staff.
“Sally Bell’s is one of the best places for lunches and meals that you’d ever want to have. I think it’s one of the greatest places I’ve ever been in Richmond. When they were down on Grace Street (during the 1950s), it was amazing; there were lines of people, cars parked everywhere on Grace Street. It was a great time in life back in those days, and it still is now. I would hate to see that place close.”
The restaurant has been acknowledged with numerous prestigious awards, including an American Classic award from the James Beard Foundation in 2015.
This Sally Bell’s Kitchen famous lunch box has a chicken salad sandwich, deviled egg, crispy cheese wafer with a pecan top, strawberry cupcake and potato salad.
While the boxed lunch is a beloved tradition, it’s the potato salad that sticks out the most as the crowd favorite to Jones.
People stand in line at Sally Bell’s Kitchen on July 8.
“People would come at 5 a.m. and wait until we opened up at 10 a.m. for our potato salad, then we started giving out numbers so they wouldn’t lose their place in line. People would wait in the rain — it blew my mind. As a kid growing up, the holidays, we got drafted into peeling potatoes for potato salad. We make a lot more now because we’ve streamlined some things. But people still line up for our potato salad.”
Richmonders can now buy Sally Bell’s potato salad by the pound at Libbie Market, Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market and Whole Foods Grocery.
Jessie Childress takes orders from customers at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
Last year, Martha retired and Scott took over the reins of Sally Bell’s. But as he plans to follow his wife and ease into retirement, there’s no succession plan in place for who will take over at Sally Bell’s Kitchen.
“The food industry is hard work — a lot of hours. I cut way back, and I have a few key staff who keep things under control. So, now, I’m ready to slow down a bit. I have two kids, but they both have their own careers. So, no interest from them yet.”
Look out this October as Sally Bell’s is gearing up for an as yet unplanned celebration.
PHOTOS: Sally Bell’s Kitchen through the years
In April 1992, some veterans at Sally Bell’s Kitchen in Richmond – Lucille Zimmerman (from left), Mary Newcomb, Dorothy Daniels and Anne Mulfinger – posed with one of the countless cakes they had prepared over decades of working together.
Box lunches are tied for transport at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Box lunch boxes wait to be packed at Sally Bell’s Kitchen.
The lunch rush at Sally Bell’s Kitchen, 708 W. Grace. (1998)
An employee packs a box lunch order at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Martha Jones, co-owner and manager (foreground) reviews the next day’s orders, Connie Parker ices cupcakes (in yellow) and Joyce Brown makes ham sandwiches at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Cupcakes for sale at Sally Bell’s Kitchen (2013)
Martha Jones, co-owner and manager, packs box lunches at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Jay Marguerite holds a box lunch she just put together at the new West Broad Street location of Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2016)
Marguerite Morgan helps customer Janice Book at Sally Bell’s Kitchen (2013).
Martha Jones (left), Marcyne Jones (Scott Jones’ mother) and Jones at the new location of Sally Bell’s Kitchen on West Broad Street. (2016)
An employee packs a box lunch order at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Marsha Hamilton puts chocolate icing on cupcakes at Sally Bell’s Kitchen on West Broad Street. (2009)
Loraine Jackson rolls pie crust at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Marsha Hamilton puts chocolate icing on cupcakes at Sally Bell’s Kitchen on West Broad Street. (2016)
Dazarie Thompson ices cupcakes at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. She has worked at Sally Bell’s for 25 years and her mother worked there for 60. Deviled eggs are in the foreground. (2009)
Country ham sandwiches wait to be wrapped in cellophane at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
A box lunch from Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2016)
Connie Parker ices cupcakes (foreground) and Joyce Brown makes ham sandwiches at Sally Bell’s Kitchen. (2009)
Scott and Martha Jones are shown at Sally Bell’s Kitchen in Richmond on Monday, March 31, 2014. The Joneses own the business and they say they’ll stay there 3 years (as agreed in the sale) and maybe more, although they have sold the property to VCU.
Owners of Sally Bell’s Kitchen, Scott and Martha Jones, say they’ll stay there 3 years (as agreed in the sale) and maybe more, although they have sold the property to VCU. (2014)
Marguerite Moran portions potato salad at Sally Bell’s Kitchen, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. (2016)
Manager Shannon Childers packs the famous lunchbox at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
Jessie Childress takes orders from customers at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
People stand in line at Sally Bell’s Kitchen on July 8.
Manager Shannon Childers ties up the famous lunchbox at Sally Bell’s on July 8.
Scott Jones is the owner of Sally Bell’s Kitchen in Richmond.
This Sally Bell’s Kitchen famous lunch box has a chicken salad sandwich, deviled egg, crispy cheese wafer with a pecan top, strawberry cupcake and potato salad.
Manager Shannon Childers wraps a sandwich for the famous lunchbox menu at Sally Bell’s Kitchen on Broad Street in Richmond on July 8.
Sally Bell’s Kitchen on Broad Street in Richmond, Va., Monday, July 8, 2024.
William Thompson aka Billy, 55, points to a photo of his grandmother who worked at Sally Bell’s for 60 years in Richmond, Va., Monday, July 8, 2024. Following his grandmother’s footsteps, his mother worked for 40 years and Billy is working since 30 years.
