A new pizza operation is moving into a Richmond coffee shop's kitchen after dark. Danger Pie, with Nick Walthall, opens this Friday inside Blanchard's on Morris Street in the Fan, serving takeout-only pies from roughly 5 to 9 p.m. with pickup through the cafe's garage-door window.
A Brewer Turned Pizza Maker
Walthall's path to pizza runs through the beer industry. As reported by Axios, he has 20 years of experience since one of his first pizza-making jobs, which included a stint making pizza at Whole Foods, and he hosted pizza parties for friends and neighbors before turning the hobby into a business. Walthall told Axios he hopes the residency could eventually become a full-time job.
Danger Pie is a family operation. Walthall works in the kitchen while his wife and business partner, Michelle Hamson, runs pizzas out front and developed the recipes and business alongside him, per the same account. The pop-up runs an open-ended residency inside Blanchard's, starting with Friday-only service and limited capacity, though Walthall told the outlet he hopes to add more service days down the road.
How Ordering Works
Because the kitchen has limited capacity, Danger Pie relies primarily on preorders, with online ordering opening the day of service. Customers pick up from Blanchard's garage-door window, and while the operation is takeout only, there's a mini patio where diners can eat on site.
The menu centers on The Cheese Hog, a signature pie built on 48-hour hand-mixed fermented dough topped with organic California tomatoes, wild Greek oregano, crispy garlic, low-moisture mozzarella, Scamorza Bianca, fresh mozzarella, pecorino, and Parmigiano Reggiano, according to details posted on Danger Pie's Cash App ordering page. The menu also includes a vegan marinara option and a rotating pie that changes weekly or monthly depending on seasonal ingredients and customer response — Walthall has suggested a white pie with Virginia muscadine grapes, potatoes, rosemary, and red onion could make an appearance. The 14-inch pizzas are priced roughly between $15 and $23.
A Coffee Shop With Room to Share
The arrangement works because of timing. Blanchard's Morris Street cafe operates exclusively daytime hours, closing at 2 p.m. daily, which leaves its kitchen facilities free for Danger Pie's evening service window, according to Blanchard's own store information. The 1,500-square-foot space at 26 N. Morris Street has a long hospitality history, having previously housed Lamplighter Coffee Roasters until its pandemic closure, and Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream before that, per Richmond BizSense.
Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co. itself has deep local roots. The company was founded in January 2005 by David Blanchard, according to URNow. The roaster has since built a strong local following, having been voted Richmond's top coffee roaster in a 2025 Axios Richmond readers' poll with 59% of the vote, per a guide from RoamRecs.
This also isn't the first time Blanchard's has shared its space with another food or beverage concept. The company previously ran a dual-concept setup at its Forest Hill location alongside Richmond craft brewery The Veil Brewing Co., Richmond BizSense also notes, pointing to an established pattern of partnering with local vendors rather than running every corner of its cafes solo.
Part of a Bigger Richmond Pattern
Danger Pie's arrival fits a broader shift happening across Richmond's food scene, where pop-ups are increasingly settling into semi-permanent residencies or jumping to standalone storefronts. Sourdough pop-up opens Jackson Ward shop after making a similar leap in September, when Sunday Bagel opened a permanent storefront there. Danger Pie has already shown a taste for collaboration beyond Blanchard's, too — before landing this residency, the pop-up teamed with Richmond ice cream brand Alter to create a pizza-inspired flavor built on extra-crispy, deeply charred pizza dough, according to Alter.
The Fan location puts Danger Pie along a corridor dense with VCU students and independent cheap-eats spots, per RVA Magazine, a setting that should feed plenty of evening takeout traffic once word spreads. Asked about the venture by Axios, Walthall kept things simple, reflecting on how far the hobby has come: “I think he'd be stoked.”
