Kybecca (Fredericksburg, Virginia)

 restaurant, wine shop

Wine Bar and Restaurant- BY RICHARD AMRHINE / THE FREE LANCE–STAR (April 19, 2013)
As kybecca has become established in recent years as a wine bar and restaurant at 400 William St. downtown, owner Rebecca Thomas’s goal has been to restore the interior in historically sensitive fashion. The building is probably best-known locally as the E.D. Cole building, named for its owner in the late 1800s. The portion that is 402 William St. opened as a wine, beer and gourmet food store in 2005 and had expanded into what was 400 William by 2008. It was thoroughly restored, with its brick walls revealed, pressed tin ceiling revitalized and wood floor refinished. An old, arched doorway between the two areas that had been walled over at some point was rediscovered Thomas, who partners with her brother Matt Thomas on the kybecca enterprise, decided last year that converting the old retail area into additional restaurant space would be a savvy business decision. “We decided to sacrifice the retail store,” she said. “I’ve always said you don’t want to be sentimentally attached to any portion of your business.” The plan also meant another restoration project was in order to facilitate the change. Once again, the goal was to take advantage of the old building’s existing but often covered-up features, reuse materials where possible and feature a look that incorporates the existing architecture. But it didn’t mean that new materials, like the zinc sheets Thomas discovered in California, couldn’t be used to top the bar and the dining tables. She turned the zinc sheets over to Virginia Architectural Metals of Fredericksburg, which did the work.
“We want to show how old meets new,” said Thomas. “We wanted to respect the past, but not be enslaved by it. Respect and preserve the original architecture, but introduce modern elements that complement.” One way to do that was to take old oak floorboards that had covered the earthen cellar floor, rub them with tung oil and use them to build a bar for the newly restored area. “The floorboards take an old element of the building and use them where they can be seen,” she said. Another way is to use contemporary-style lighting but attach it to the brick walls using a base of reclaimed wood. Yet another was to remove the drop ceiling, previously installed, to reveal the old pressed tin ceiling, which had to be repaired and repainted. The part of the basement that is not used for storage was also given a facelift for use as a private dining area. As with the rest of the restoration work, the idea was to maintain the structure’s historic integrity. Interestingly, the portion of the building below street level appears to date well before the existing above-ground structure, which is post-Civil War, perhaps as early as the mid-1860s. However, the handmade bricks that form the building’s foundation, massive hand-hewn beams and the post-and-beam construction that support the building all appear to date to the early 1800s. According to information from Gary Stanton of the University of Mary Washington’s Department of Historic Preservation, the earlier building apparently housed a brick and slate store owned by Alexander F. Rose, who died in 1831. While the existing building is known to have once housed a bank, a grocery store, a car dealership, a social club and a mortgage brokerage, the role of any structure there prior to the Civil War is unclear. Thomas said the restoration project was timed to coincide with the slow period for business in January and February. “It couldn’t have worked out any better,” she said of the project. “We’re calling it kybecca 2.0.” The following contractors and craftsmen were involved in the latest kybecca project: Virginia Architectural Metals, Fredericksburg, fashioning zinc sheets into a bar countertop Spaces Design Studio, consulted on layout and design questions, though Rebecca Thomas did most of the design work herself im’s Plumbing and Gas LLC
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