8. Inn at Little Washington
Of all the restaurants on the list, Inn at Little Washington seemed the most daunting. SO far away. SO fancy. SO expensive. SO not my scene. But that which the list dictates, I shall eat. I put this one off long enough, so I bit the bullet and forced my mom to make the three hour (round trip) trek out to greater Ohio. Or Washington, VA. Whatever, anything past Tyson’s Corner is a mystery to me.
It was rainy and cold and dark on this particular Sunday night which normally would be miserable, but as we drove up to the Inn, it all seemed kind of perfect. To say that the service is impeccable doesn’t do it justice. Actually, no word in the English language correctly identifies how attentive the staff was. When we walked in the door the lovely, distinguished maitre d’ asked if we were the Messicks. Why yes, we are! I don’t know if I just look like I’ve got a lot of German heritage, or maybe we were the only people with 5:45pm reservations, or maybe they’re psychic. Then, we were seated and our menus had “A Warm Welcome to the Messicks” across the top. I mean, come on. I’ve been to one hundred fancy meals over the past year, and that’s the first time I’ve been on the menu. Fan-cy.
The dining room is decorated…kind of weird. The hotel is very English bed and breakfast meets Williamsburg Inn, but the dining has a splash of the Russian Tea Room to it. Every table has a very large fringed red lampshade hanging above it. It somehow all worked, but there was a lot going on. Perhaps that was why it took my mom and I about thirty minutes to figure out what we wanted to order. All the distractions, yeah that’s it. There are three ways to do the menu: the Tasting Menu ($188), the Tasting Menu with wine pairings ($288) or the relative cheap-o a la carte menu ($148). Being total cheapskates, we went with $150 option, which got us four courses for our money.
The thing about Patrick O’Connell’s menu is that every dish is decked out to the foodie nines. Foie gras, truffles, lobster—it’s all there. I started with the spicy big eye tuna, which was sweet and spicy and served with a really amazing sake sorbet. My mom had a tough time deciding when to eat lobster (appetizer or main) but she ended up with the chilled lobster served with avocado, grapefruit and lotus root. I wouldn’t really think to serve lobster and grapefruit together, but it was a great compliment. For our second course, I had the diver scallops and gnocchi. My only complaint was that it was a tiny portion. I would end up loving that there tiny portion later when I was forcing my main course in to my over-stuffed belly. My mom had the macaroni and cheese, which seems weird at such a fancy place, but it was unlike any mac and cheese to come out of a blue box. It was only six pieces of rigatoni in a perfect cheese sauce with parmesan crisps and Virginia ham, not to mention the several hundreds of dollars worth of truffles shaved on to the mac table-side. We were unsure whether or not we were supposed to tell the shaver to stop, like a pepper grinder, but why stop a good thing like truffles raining on your pasta?
I know it’s getting touch, but stick with me folks, there’s still two more courses to go. But we are up to the main course—it’s the home stretch. I had the tiny filets of black cod with the lemon vodka sauce. De-lish. And the little shrimp dumplings served along with the fish were pretty great too. My mom had the beef two ways, mostly because I forced her, but I think she was happy with the decision. The teeny tiny filet mignon was practically raw but so tender and flavorful. It didn’t look all that appetizing, but boy did it taste good. The real showstopper were the short ribs, which were doused in a delicious barbecue sauce. By this time we were losing steam but found the strength to keep eating. It was dessert time! I went with the totally reserved and figure-friendly bread pudding while my mom got the dessert sampler. Did she get it because I forced her to? Perhaps, but that’s neither here nor there. Everything was great, not that I expect anything otherwise.
The food at the Inn is all around amazing, but the service is really unparalleled. After our meal, our waiter took us on a tour of the kitchen. I’ve seen a lot of TV shows based around how a restaurant kitchen works, and usually it’s a lot of screaming and things catching on fire. That’s not the case here, the kitchen was a clean, bright and relaxing place. I thought about curling up next to the fireplace for a little nap, but I had a quick hour and a half drive ahead of me so I figured we better get on the road. I can’t imagine there are many regulars at the Inn, but if you have a really special occasion to celebrate and about six hours to celebrate it, definitely don’t count the Inn out. I mean, it’s not really that far. (It is.)
