No owner ever tried to correct it too hard—a little mystery is good for business. So the phantom bar persisted. If you were to hear a Richmonder tell the story of the Paper Moon, it might go like this: “Back in the late 2010s, before Scott’s Addition had all the cideries and the axe-throwing places, there was this one bar that felt different. It was tucked in an old dairy loading dock on Leigh Street. No sign out front, just a painted crescent moon on the brick.
They called it Paper Moon, after the old movie. Inside, it was all shadows and bourbon. The bartender—a guy they called ‘Moses’—wouldn’t give you a menu. He’d just ask, ‘What’s your trouble?’ and then make you a drink to fix it. paper moon scott's addition
People said you could go there to hide out, to make a deal, to fall in love, or to break one off. It wasn’t on any map. You just had to know someone who knew the password. And then one day, like a ghost, it was gone. The space became a regular cocktail bar called The Jasper. Nice place. But it’s not the same.” That’s the fiction. The truth is tamer: a clever bar with a moon logo, a classic film, and a neighborhood full of romantic ruin. But the fiction is why people still ask about the “Paper Moon” today. Go to The Jasper (3117 W. Leigh St., Richmond, VA 23230). Order an Old Fashioned. Sit in the back booth. Watch the black-and-white movie playing silently on the little TV above the bar. And when someone asks where you are, smile and say, “Paper Moon.” No owner ever tried to correct it too