Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [73]
Jimmie’s Market is a place that’s been catering to the discriminating lunch crowd and shopper since the 1970s. A store since 1939, the small, narrow shop at 22 Main Street has original tin ceilings and is packed with all kinds of imported and gourmet groceries, 80 kinds of beer, local wines, deli items, even some antiques. At a counter you can sit and browse through the cookbooks for sale, or have a flavored coffee and a European pastry brought in from New York City. A small café in the back seats about eight. The deli sandwiches use the finest ingredients, and you can purchase locally produced Black Angus beef or organic meat from the freezer, including châteaubriand and veal scaloppine from Summerfield Farms in nearby Culpeper. (tel. 540-347-1942)
Dining
There are several options for fine dining: The Depot Restaurant is located inside, you guessed it, an old train station, decorated with old railroad memorabilia and photographs. The fare is Mediterranean and American. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday. (65 S. Third Street, tel. 540-347-1212)
Fantastico-Ristorante Italiano & Inn is authentically northern Italian cuisine brought by the family straight from Italy. Open daily for lunch and dinner and brunch on Sunday, with live music Thursday-Saturday. Tuesday is open mike night, if you’d like to bring your own entertainment. (380 Broadview Avenue, tel. 540-349-2575, www.fantastico-inn.com)
Napoleon’s Restaurant is in a restored 1830s Greek Revival, serving Continental fare. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. (67 Waterloo Street, tel. 540-347-4300, www.napoleonsrestaurant.com)
Pubs, cafés and bistros include: The Main Street Bistro, one of the newer establishments, having opened in 2002 serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily (32 Main Street, tel. 540-428-1778); Molly’s Irish Pub, open for dinner nightly, Sunday brunch, and live music on weekends (36 Main Street, tel. 540-349-5300); and Smokey Joe’s Café serving American fare and live entertainment (11 Second Street, tel. 540-341-2826). The Earthly Paradise is a coffeehouse on Main Street, open daily (tel. 540-341-7115), The Creamery is an ice cream parlor at 61 S. Fourth Street (closed in winter), and Old Town Café is a renovated soda fountain serving daily specials and cocktails (79 Main St, Warrenton (tel. 540-347-4147).
Lodging
The Black Horse Inn is a 19th-century Colonial Estate with nine guest rooms, stables, a new reception facility and ballroom, and panoramic views of hunt country. (8393 Meetze Road, tel. 540-349-4020, www.blackhorseinn.com)
Fantastico Inn has 14 rooms with private baths, a restaurant and piano bar. (380 Broadview Avenue, tel. 540-349-2575, www.fantastico-inn.com, $$)
Stonehurst Farms is a secluded inn with great mountain views. (6623 McRaes Road, tel. 540-347-7710, www.stonehurstfarms.com, $$)
Pet-friendly: Pet-owners, you’re in luck, and you have choices! The Hampton Inn accepts pets without a charge (501 Blackwell Road, tel. 540-349-4200, $). The Comfort Inn (7379 Comfort Inn Drive, tel. 540-349-8900, $$) and Howard Johnson (6 Broadview Avenue, tel. 540-347-4141, $), both accept pets with a $10 extra charge.
Information
Warrenton-Fauquier County Visitor Center, 183-A Keith Street, tel. 540-347-4414 or 800-820-1021, www.fauquierchamber.org, is open daily. Pick up a walking tour brochure of the historic downtown.
Partnership for Warrenton Foundation, tel. 540-349-8606, www.historicwarrenton.org, provides maps and information about events and historic attractions.
TRIVIA: Across the street from the visitor center is The Warrenton Cemetery, the resting place of Col. John Mosby and a memorial to 600 fallen Confederates.
The Plains
The Plains, a tiny village of 266 people, will forever be remembered as the place where we learned the difference between liver pâté and truffee. Truffee is creamier in texture, more like a mousse, and it spreads beautifully on a Carr’s cracker. We enjoyed it with a nice, inexpensive (around $6)