The ham biscuit is the Virginia tea-table and tailgate staple. Country-cured Smithfield ham sliced paper-thin and pressed inside a small buttermilk biscuit. Sally Bell's box-lunch standard since 1924.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Captain Mallory Todd of Smithfield, Virginia (about 70 miles east of Richmond) made the first known commercial export of cured Smithfield ham in 1779; Virginia's General Assembly later codified the Smithfield ham name in a 1926 statute restricting it to hams cured, smoked and processed within the town. The dry-cure-and-smoke method of country-curing pork hindquarters became a colonial Virginia trade. The biscuit-and-ham combination appears in early-twentieth-century Virginia cookbooks as the canonical tea-table snack. Sally Bell's Kitchen has sold them in their box lunches since 1924, and Mama J's Kitchen in Jackson Ward keeps them on the menu today.
Tip from the editors. Country ham is salty by design. Don't add salt to the biscuit beyond what's in the flour, and skip the mustard.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Sally Bell's Kitchen has sold box lunches since 1924, founded by Sarah Cabell Jones and Elizabeth Lee Milton. Broad Street counter is easy to miss.
Order: Box lunch.
Why locals love it: Sally Bell's has sold the same box lunch since 1924, and most visitors miss the unmarked side counter near West Broad. A century of Richmond box-lunch history.
Tip: Call ahead; the deviled-egg-and-cheese-wafer box is the local-Saturday standard.
Mama J's Sunday brunch in Jackson Ward serves soul food at the family-table volume. Velma Johnson's kitchen pours sweet tea, runs the standard plate.
Order: Fried chicken and waffle with sweet tea.
Tip: Sunday morning is the family-dinner crowd; Saturday afternoon is the easier seat.
The Roosevelt in Church Hill opens for Sunday brunch under chef Leah Branch, 2026 James Beard semifinalist. Southern cuisine, biscuits, deep menu.
Order: Country ham biscuit with gravy.
Tip: Book the 11 am Sunday slot; the Roosevelt also runs an extended brunch sit-down upstairs.
More cities are in research. Want smithfield ham biscuit covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.