"We felt honored to come and fill those big shoes," Camille Sheppard-Parrish told a local news crew the week she reopened her bakery on the corner of Boush and College. She meant it literally. The space had belonged to Chocollage, a fixture of that corner for years before it closed. Sheppard-Parrish moved her business, Crave Bakery + Coffee Bar, into the empty storefront and got back to baking.
That was roughly two years ago. If you live in Freemason, you've probably stopped thinking of Crave as "the new bakery." It's just where you get coffee now. Same with the bistro two blocks over. Same with the courtyard dinners at the inn on York Street. None of it feels new anymore, and that's exactly why it's worth a second look. In a neighborhood's food scene, what survives past the opening buzz tells you more than the opening itself ever did.
Two Corners That Sat Empty, Then Didn't
Freemason has two high-visibility corners that spent real time vacant before they got filled. Both are still occupied by the same operators who moved in, which is not something every downtown corridor can say two years out.
| Corner | What Was There Before | What's There Now | How Long It's Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| York & Botetourt | Voila, closed after roughly 20 years in business | ILO Bistro, opened by Chef Zack Close in September 2024 | About two years, still packed on weeknights |
| Boush & College | Chocollage Bakery | Crave Bakery + Coffee Bar, relocated from Chesapeake in early 2024 | About two years, still the same owner behind the counter |
Close spent time in New York working under Daniel Boulud at Café Boulud before coming home to Norfolk, where he had already run the kitchen at the Glass Light Hotel restaurant downtown. When the Voila space came open after two decades under one owner, he took it. The bistro seats around 30 people plus eight at the bar, and the bar is the harder reservation to get on a Friday night, according to coverage from the time it opened.
Sheppard-Parrish's path was different. Crave had spent its first three years in Chesapeake before she moved it into Norfolk looking for more foot traffic. She landed at the old Chocollage corner, a spot with real name recognition in the neighborhood, and had to earn her way in under that shadow. Two years later, the shop still runs from-scratch pastries, coffee, and a full breakfast and lunch menu, and it still draws a crowd big enough that regulars don't remember what used to be there.
The Spot That Didn't Need Discovering, Just Confirmation
Not every piece of this story is about a vacancy getting filled. Four Eleven York, the boutique inn and restaurant on West York Street, had already been a fixture in Freemason for years before 2024. What changed that year was recognition: Coastal Virginia Magazine named it a Culinary Award winner, citing owner Malia Paasch's dining room and the garden courtyard with its wooden pergola and fire pits as one of the region's standout dining destinations.
If you've eaten there, none of that is a surprise. What the award confirms is something locals already knew: the caviar service, the grass-fed heritage beef, the "Bartender's Experience" where the drink gets built around what you tell the bartender you like. It's the kind of place you save for an anniversary, not a Tuesday, and the recognition just made that reputation official.
The One Thing That Never Moved
While all of this shifted around it, Freemason Abbey Restaurant hasn't budged an inch, literally or otherwise. The building started as a church in 1873, passed through the First Church of Christ Scientist and then the Independent Order of Odd Fellows before it became a restaurant in 1988. The She-Crab soup that made it a local favorite is still on the menu. The tavern atmosphere is still the same warm, casual room it's always been.
That stability matters more than it sounds like it should. A neighborhood where every restaurant is new is a neighborhood still figuring itself out. A neighborhood where the newest additions have settled in around a 150-year-old anchor is one that's actually working.
What Two Years Without a Closure Actually Means
Restaurants that move into long-vacant, high-visibility corners often don't make it past their second year. The rent is usually higher precisely because the corner gets seen, and the pressure to perform from day one is real. What makes ILO and Crave worth noting isn't that they opened. It's that neither one has skipped a beat since. That's not a coincidence born of luck. Close brought fine-dining experience from two well-regarded kitchens before he ever signed a lease. Sheppard-Parrish had already run Crave successfully for three years in Chesapeake before she moved it. Both operators walked in with a track record, and two years later, both are still there.
If you live within walking distance of either spot, that's the quiet upgrade to your own routine. Your five-minute radius has better coffee and a better bar seat than it did in 2023, and neither one is going anywhere.
Fall in Freemason: The NEON Festival Returns
A few blocks from Freemason's restaurant row sits the NEON District, Norfolk's official arts district, anchored by the Chrysler Museum of Art and Harrison Opera House. Every fall, the district throws its namesake festival, with large-scale art installations, mural tours, and pop-up performances filling the streets for a weekend. Last year's festival marked the district's tenth anniversary, an occasion the Downtown Norfolk Council celebrated with a 244-page hardcover history of NEON's public art called "NEON at Ten," documenting more than 200 works.
The festival is an annual tradition that typically lands in mid-October, which means it's coming back around soon. If you've never made the walk from Freemason over to Granby Street for it, this is the year to go. Grab dinner first. You'll have options now that you didn't have two Octobers ago.
A Local's Freemason Fall Checklist
- Get to ILO Bistro on a weeknight if you want a shot at the bar without a long wait.
- Stop into Crave Bakery + Coffee Bar at Boush and College for scratch-made pastries and coffee, especially if you haven't been since it moved.
- Save Four Eleven York's courtyard for something worth marking, an anniversary, a promotion, a visit from family.
- Walk over to the NEON District when the festival returns this fall for the murals and the street performances.
- Close the night with a bowl of She-Crab soup at Freemason Abbey, because some things in this neighborhood are exactly as good as they've always been.
Two years ago, three of these five stops either didn't exist or hadn't been recognized yet. None of them are new anymore. They're just part of how Freemason eats now, sitting comfortably next to a restaurant that's been serving the same soup since before most of us were born.
If you're already living in Freemason, none of this changes your address. It just means the walk from your front door got better without you having to do anything but notice. And if you know someone who's been eyeing this neighborhood from the outside, wondering what it's actually like to live here day to day, this is a fair sample of it.
For questions about property values, market timing, or what's happening on your specific block, the team at Conner & Company knows Freemason the way a neighbor does, not just the way a market report does. Reach out anytime, or start with our instant home valuation if you're curious what your Freemason home is worth in today's market.
