The Capital Ale House is one of the oldest drinking establishments in the area, and is know in Richmond chiefly as the only tavern to stay open as Richmond burned when the Yankees showed up in 1865. Their resolute employees stayed, risking their lives, to serve increasingly warm port, sherry and laagers to flaming* individuals.
Okay, I made all that up. But it LOOKS old, and has a big window open on Main Street, so as to allow music to spill out, brightening the evenings of passersby...of whom there were precious few on a Tuesday night.

*please note that I use the word "flaming" not in the post-1970's context but in the sense of "on fire." Although who's to say to what lengths Richmonders may have been driven to keep up an active nightlife that late in the war?

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