Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [69]
Back Street Café serves fresh food with an Italian flair, and hosts live jazz on the weekends (tel. 540-687-3122). The Hidden Horse Tavern is indeed hidden down a lane on the side of Middleburg Plaza. Live jazz during Sunday brunch (7 W. Washington Street, tel. 540-687-3828).
Magpie’s Café is more of a tavern with outdoor dining for people-watching and live music on Thursday and Sunday (118 West Washington Street, tel. 540-687-6443). Mosby’s Tavern is a fun eating and drinking establishment at 2 West Marshall Street, near the Pink Box visitor’s center (tel. 540-687-5282).
Lodging
The Long Barn is a renovated 100-year-old barn in the woods. That might sound rustic, but it has air conditioning, fireplaces, a library and is furnished elegantly in Italian country style. (37129 Adams Green Lane, tel. 540-687-4137, http://members.aol.com/thlongbarn, $$)
The Middleburg Country Inn, circa 1820, has eight period guest rooms, serves a full breakfast daily, dinner on weekends, and afternoon tea in the parlor or out on the terrace. Canopy beds, fireplaces, and an outdoor hot tub make for romantic weekends combining the best in historic elegance and modern comfort. (209 E. Washington Street, tel. 800-262-6082, www.midcountryinn.com, $$$)
Accommodations at The Red Fox Inn are in 30 guest rooms and suites located in four adjacent historic buildings. Rooms start at $150 and go up to $325 for the Belmont Suite. (2 East Washington Street, 800-223-1728, www.redfox.com, $$$)
Welbourne is a 1775 home with six guest rooms and two cottages on Route 1. (tel. 540-687-3201, $$)
The Goodstone Inn is a manor house and carriage house on 265 acres in the midst of hunt country. (36205 Snake Hill Road, tel. 540-687-4645, www.goodstone.com, $$$$)
Information
The Pink Box at 12 North Madison Street (turn off Washington Street at the Red Fox Inn) serves as the visitor’s center. The little whitewashed brick house does look kind of pink (tel. 540-687-8888, www.middleburgonline.com).
Loudoun County Tourism Council, tel. 800-752-6118, www.visitloudoun.org.
Events
Glenwood Park hosts the Middleburg Spring Races in April and the Virginia Fall Races the first weekend in October. (tel. 540-687-5662, www.vafallraces.com)
The Farmers’ Market is held every Saturday, 9 am-1 pm, May-October, behind the community center. The market features produce such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, honey and eggs, as well as canned and baked goods and even wine. (tel. 703-777-0426)
In September, the Middleburg Classic Horse Show comes to Great Meadow in the Plains. (tel. 703-777-0775, www.middleburgclassic.com)
Virginia’s annual Historic Garden Week in April offers outsiders rare glimpses of private gardens and homes in the area (tel. 804-644-7778).
TRIVIA: Established in 1787, the name of Middleburg comes from its location midway on the commercial route between Winchester and Alexandria.
Occoquan
In the language of the Dogue Indian, “at the end of water” translates as “Occoquan,” a term English settlers adopted when they built a small industrial and commercial center near the falls of this Potomac tributary. Once a thriving 19th-century mill town, Historic Occoquan is a small village with barely 800 residents. It’s also a charming oasis of shops, restaurants and inns. The Occoquan River was the conduit of commerce of the community’s early industrial days. That job is now handled by nearby Interstate 95. Yet it remains a striking feature of this town how closely it exists to the East Coast’s major interstate, yet in such undisturbed and relative quietude.
It helps that the village sits in a bowl – well, not exactly a bowl, but at the base of a hill along the Occoquan River. It is bounded by water and by hills, and buffered by both from distraction. On a spring day, the sun will set a few minutes earlier downtown than it does on the hilltops south and east, which are fringed with town homes. The sun’s last rays play on a