Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [103]
Step into Bizzotto’s Gallery and Café and you might feel like you’re in a Soho gallery instead of a small fishing village. The chef/owner, Miguel Bizzotto from Argentina, not only makes all the dishes, he makes the fine leather handbags displayed for sale. This storefront, with its pressed tin ceilings and original wood floors, was once a hat shop. The mirrored shelves where women admired their chapeaus are still on the walls. While waiting for your meal, browse the art craft items for sale: jewelry, pottery, and artwork. By the way, the food is awesome: creative salads and wraps for lunch, imaginative international dinner specials. (41 Market Street, tel. 757-787-3103)
Flounder’s Restaurant is in a 19th-century Victorian home that still sports original wallpaper, lighting and wood floors. They have a rare thing on the shore – vegetarian specials – as well as seafood, beef, homemade desserts and the drink of the house, the Famous Blue Whale. Locals spread the word about the Sunday brunch buffet. Closed Mondays. (145 Market Street, tel. 757-787-2233)
Eastern Shore Steamboat Co. serves seafood from Hopkins Bros. store on the wharf. Eat lunch or dinner out on the dock or inside the historic 1842 general store (2 Market Street, tel. 757-787-3100). If you’re looking for a casual spot for lunch or dinner, Peppers serves specialty sandwiches and fresh salads daily. (151 Market Street, tel. 757-787-3457)
Stella’s is a busy pizza and sandwich shop across from Armando’s on North Street. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday. (tel. 757-789-7770)
Lodging
The 1810 plantation home known as Montrose House Bed & Breakfast was built in the Eastern Shore style known as “big house, little house, colonnade, kitchen.” Antiques fill the four guest rooms. (20494 Market Street, tel. 757-787-8887, 757-787-7088 evenings, www.bbonline.com/va/montrose, $$)
Colonial Manor Inn Bed and Breakfast has a fully handicapped-accessible suite on the first floor with a ramped entrance. There are also ramps to the gazebo and sundeck, an outside intercom system, and a massage therapy studio. (84 Market Street, tel. 757-787-3521, www.colonialmanorinn.com, $$)
76 Market Street Bed and Breakfast is an 1840 Victorian at the same address as its name, with central air conditioning and featherbeds. (tel. 888-751-7600, www.76marketst.com, $$)
Spinning Wheel Bed and Breakfast is an 1890s home, complete with rockers on the front porch. (31 North Street, tel. 888-787-0337 or 757-787-7311, www.1890spinningwheel.com, $$)
Information
Onancock Town Office, tel. 757-787-3363.
Onancock Business & Civic Association, http://onancock.org
For general area information, www.ChesapeakeBaysampler.com.
Event
The main event of the year is Harborfest in mid-August, and the Christmas season brings caroling, home tours and a parade.
INSIDER TIP: Stop in the Corner Bakery for homemade donuts and to taste the famous Eastern Shore sweet potato biscuits. (36 Market Street, tel. 757-787-4520)
Trip Journal: Locustville
One afternoon we decided to go exploring with Kirk Mariner’s Off 13 book, which is the Bible for off-the-beaten-track spots on the Shore. This trip led us to the unlikely town of Locustville. Passing down the main street felt like stepping back more than a century. This small cluster of homes, a hotel and general store truly hasn’t changed much since before the Civil War when Locustville was a stop on the stagecoach line from Maryland south to Eastville. Still standing are the original tavern, hotel, church, school and store.
A lot of old-time general stores say they’re just like they were 100 years ago, but they’re really not, not with those boutique-style gift items and upscale groceries. Except for the soda cooler, the Locustville General Store really is the way it has always been, maybe since it opened in 1844. It exists for the reason there was once a general store at nearly