West Chester Dish

This year I opted to trade my traditional Easter celebrations for a Southern-style Bunny Day. I headed to Virginia for some good eats, drinks and, of course, I was hoping for some good peanut-butter eggs.

A foodie date and I rented a cabin in Nellysford, VA, and made the journey Friday afternoon. I didn’t know much about Nellysford except that it was in a beautiful part of Virginia and it was in close proximity to many-a-wineries. It was also near beautiful Skyline Drive, and provided many opportunities for hiking and exploring. I was excited to pack my hiking boots and scope out the land, but as we traveled down the winding country road on the way to our cabin I discovered some other things I’d like to explore.

A large, pink, wooden pig hovered over the road to our left. Underneath, the sign read “Blue Ridge Pig.” I had heard of a barbecue place in the area, and could only hope that this was it. It was closed, but I made a mental note to stop by the next day.

Next door was a charming restaurant/wine and cheese shop appropriately named Bare Necessities. The wooden sign announced that they served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fantastique…we hadn’t figured out just what we would do for dinner ’round these parts.

Half a mile later we turned onto a gravel road and found our home for the next two days. I ran through the cabin like a happy child…fireplace, hot tub, mountain views, tea kettle, coffee maker–nothing else was needed. Well, okay, we would need a few Bare Necessities (wine and cheese). We unpacked and headed back to town to get some eats.

We were given a table in the front of the gift shop next to bottles and bottles of wine from all over the world. I started to think about how all of these bottles ended up in Nellysford, Virginia, but was so excited with the options that I decided not to.

Barb (an owner) helped us open a bottle of Merlot, and we ordered a sampling of appetizers. Our fare included rosemary-marinated olives, freshly made feta, local smoked trout, spinach raviolis and tasty French bread with (must have been squeezed out of an olive minutes before I dipped my bread in it) olive oil with grated Parmesan cheese.

We finished the night with some French coffee and the BEST bread pudding I have ever tasted. Barb promised to send the recipe for this double chocolate concoction with a white chocolate sauce drizzled over top for me to post.

The Final Dish: A hell of a way to start out my Easter weekend (It’s probably not right to use the word ‘hell’ and ‘Easter’ in the same sentence, is it?).