Richmond Barbershop opens in Carytown at 2820 W. Cary St.

Richmond Barbershop opened at 2820 W. Cary St. in mid-December with four chairs under a three-year lease, a price ceiling of $60 on a standard haircut, and a deliberate refusal to grow beyond one location.

The shop sits in Suite C of the Cary Street building shared with Sen Organic Farmers Market. Its storefront actually faces South Colonial Avenue, a footprint Traunero took over from Sen Organic Flowers, which still operates in the same building.

What's on the menu and at what price?

Owner Joe Traunero describes Richmond Barbershop as a traditional barbershop. Service prices:

• Haircuts: $40 to $60
• Straight-razor shaves: $50
• Beard trims: $40

For a working salon operator, those numbers sit roughly mid-market for the Richmond trade — above quick-service walk-ins, below the concierge tier. A $50 straight-razor shave and a $40 beard trim keep the door open to walk-in facial-hair work that fills slow midweek hours without cannibalizing chair time on cut appointments.

Who is behind the chair?

Traunero moved to Richmond from San Diego less than a year ago. He worked as a barber and managed barbershops in California before relocating, then cut at Station 10 Barber in the Fan before going solo on the Carytown lease.

He is currently the only barber on the floor. Traunero declined to share startup costs but commissioned local artist Basta to paint a mural inside — a soft-cost line item that signals a community-first buildout rather than a chain template.

For salon owners, a manager-track hire going solo is a familiar trajectory: institutional training behind the chair, then a bet on direct client ownership.

What does Traunero say about the location?

The Carytown east end isn't short on competition or turnover. Permanent jewelry shop Full Circle and fast-casual chain Sweetgreen both opened in the neighborhood last year. Garden Grove Brewing ended a 10-year run in Carytown in 2025, and Torchy's Tacos also closed its outpost there.

Traunero pointed to Coppola's Deli, the corner sandwich shop, as his model.

"I'm trying to build relationships with people in the community, and I think that location is great. I mean, Coppola's Deli is right on the corner and I know they've been (in business) for what, 40 years," Traunero said. "That's pretty inspiring and I'm trying to do something like that."

That Coppola reference sets a 40-year anchor for Traunero's expectations about retention and walk-in cadence on the W. Cary Street corridor.

Is expansion on the table?

No. Traunero framed scale as a threat to the shop's character.

"I don't really have plans on expanding or anything like that. I just think once you start expanding, then it's just trying to get people in and out," he said.

That single-chair-plus vision keeps labor costs flat but caps revenue at roughly Traunero's own chair-hours. For trade readers, it positions Richmond Barbershop as a lifestyle-style solo operation, not a multi-chair employer — a deliberate trade-off between margin per service and throughput.

How is the early trade?

Busier than expected, per Traunero. He declined to share revenue figures, but a mid-December opening heading into a typically soft January barbershop window suggests the shop is pulling local foot traffic from both the W. Cary Street corridor and the South Colonial Avenue side door.

The next data point to watch: whether Traunero hires a second barber to absorb demand, or holds the line on the single-chair format through spring.