Dry-cured-and-smoked Virginia country ham, sliced thin and served center-cut on Sally Bell's box-lunch plates and inside The Roosevelt's biscuits. Smithfield-style is the canonical version.
Captain Mallory Todd of Smithfield, Virginia made the first known commercial export of cured Smithfield ham in 1779. The Virginia General Assembly later codified the Smithfield ham name in a 1926 statute tied to peanut-fed hogs from the Virginia and North Carolina peanut belt (the peanut-belt requirement was removed in 1966; the geographic-processing requirement remains). The dry-cure, salt-rub and slow-smoke method became a Virginia trade. Smithfield is now a Smithfield Foods brand, but small smokehouses across the region (Edwards, Surryano, Gwaltney) continue the country-cured tradition. Today, country ham appears on Richmond restaurant menus from Lemaire's tasting plate to Sally Bell's box-lunch biscuit.
3 editor picks for Country ham in Richmond, ranked by editorial score. All Richmond signature dishes · Country ham across every city.
Lemaire ★ 4.7
downtown · 101 W Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Lemaire inside the Jefferson Hotel is named for Etienne Lemaire, Thomas Jefferson's maitre d'. Chef Patrick Willis since 2009; grande dame of RVA.
The Roosevelt ★ 4.6
church-hill · 623 N 25th Street, Richmond, VA 23223
The Roosevelt in Church Hill cooks Southern food under Leah Branch, a 2026 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. Country ham biscuits, gravy.
Sally Bell's Kitchen ★ 4.4
downtown · 2337 W Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Sally Bell's Kitchen has sold box lunches since 1924, founded by Sarah Cabell Jones and Elizabeth Lee Milton. House-made cupcakes and deviled eggs daily.