Cuddling salon to open in Richmond

It’s not an April Fools’ day joke. Richmond will get its first professional cuddling salon next week.

Cuddle RVA will open April 8 at 1805 Monument Ave., Suite 600.

For $60 per hour, clients can opt to cuddle with a staff member in bed, read together on the couch, or “enjoy a cup of tea and pleasant conversation in the quiet atmosphere of the salon,” says a news release issued by the company.

Sessions are by appointment only and must be prepaid. According to the news release, no nudity, kissing, or sexual contact will be tolerated. Video cameras will be in use during all sessions for the sake of security.

The salon will be owned by Mary Tucker and her fiancée Robert Castelvecchi. Tucker owns Wild Heaven Farm in Richmond, a company that makes and sells goat milk soap.

Tucker says she learned about the concept when she read an article about Cuddle Up to Me, a cuddle salon in Portland, Ore., “and I thought … what a wonderful thing it is to be able to offer comfort to people like that, and I figured someone in Virginia was going to be the first one to do it so it might as well be me,” Tucker says.

The service is only available for adults, but Tucker expects to see an equal number of women and men as clients. Overall, Tucker, would like to have five cuddlers on payroll.