The Flying Biscuit Café Enters Virginia With a Franchise Agreement in Richmond

September 28, 2026 // Franchising.com // RICHMOND, Va. — The Flying Biscuit Café has signed a franchise agreement with Nitant Patel, who will bring the Atlanta-born all-day breakfast and brunch brand to Richmond, Va. The agreement covers one café and marks the brand’s first location in Virginia and its first in the Richmond market. Site selection is underway; the address, opening date and hiring details will be announced once a lease is signed.

Nitant Patel is joined by franchise partners Niraj Patel and Nimesh Patel. The three are family and have operated restaurant and retail businesses in Virginia and North Carolina, including convenience stores with delis — a business that put Nitant Patel behind a morning counter running food service, hiring and customer service before he looked at a restaurant of his own. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He had not eaten at a Flying Biscuit before Niraj Patel brought the brand to him; the group looked at the business model and the brand’s three decades in operation before signing.

The Richmond region is one of the fastest-growing markets in Virginia. The Richmond metropolitan statistical area grew from 1,186,501 residents in 2010 to 1,314,434 in the 2020 census, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimated it at 1,349,732 in 2023. Growth has run heaviest in the surrounding counties — Chesterfield, Hanover and Goochland — where new rooftops have outpaced the area’s sit-down breakfast and brunch options.

“We’re the first Flying Biscuit in this market, so we get to be a new face here,” said Nitant Patel, franchise partner. “What we want is to leave a lasting impression and make a lot of friends out of it. Richmond has all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds, and every one of them should feel looked after when they walk in.”

Flying Biscuit serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, with cafés closing in the afternoon. The menu runs to Southern-inspired takes on brunch standards — from stuffed French toast, and the brand’s shrimp and grits, to hearty omelets, vegan scrambles, burgers and wraps. The Richmond café will include a full bar, serving the brand’s brunch-forward cocktails alongside the breakfast and lunch menu.

“Virginia has been the logical next step north as our Carolina cafés have filled in, and Richmond is where we wanted to start,” said Andrew Scherzer, partner and director of franchise development, Flying Biscuit Franchising. “The Patels have been running restaurant and retail businesses in Virginia and North Carolina for years. They know the market, and they understand a business that opens early and closes in the afternoon — that is a different operation from a dinner house, and they walked in already knowing the difference.”

This first café is the extent of the signed agreement. The partners have said they would like to sign for a second café once the first is open, and hope to develop three to five over time.

The Richmond agreement follows a run of new-market activity. Flying Biscuit signed its first Missouri lease in the St. Louis metro in August, and added franchise agreements in Nashville, the Tri-Cities in northeast Tennessee and Palm Beach County, Fla. Its newest café opened in downtown Knoxville on Sept. 12.

SOURCE The Flying Biscuit Café

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