Dining in the Country

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(The Inn at Little Washington, site of two out of two of the most amazing meals of my now unsettlingly long life, courtesy of the Webb Family).

I had a minor adventure over the weekend- well, three, if you count the farm and the chores that made me justify a trip to town for a decent breakfast- but the contrast between the Hispanic short-order cook at the Frost Diner in Culpeper and magnificent excess of Chef Patrick O’Connell’s Inn at Little Washington could not have been more amazing. I am still leveled by the experience. Hell, both of them. But I get to do Frost whenever I feel like it.

The Inn at Little Washington, just up Rt. 522 from the farm, is a life changer.

Short order: (Pictured is the morning’s base stack of home-fries prepared for the after-church crowd being. The whole thing (including my two eggs over easy, English muffin and corned beef hash) was worked by one man of astonishing talents and the ability to multi-task based on glances- no more- to the green paper bills on the chrome rack to the left of the immaculate grill). There is no charge for watching, or having a stool in the kitchen, since that is what the whole place actually is. But it is kinda fun, and the jaded waitresses are as awesome in their way as the short-order cook is.

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(This guy is amazing, the single point of failure in The Place To Be on historic East Davis Street in Culpeper. I am pretty sure he had a name, but he won’t wear a tag that says what it is, and he doesn’t talk to you if you are sitting on a stool. He is too busy).

And in the same day- I kid you not- I went from the thoroughly blue-collar ambiance of a classic country diner, to the classic astonishment of haut cuisine not thirty miles away, and closer to the real hills. I had the opportunity to be with Master Chef Patrick O’Connell with my great pals the Webbs, of Kalamazoo. The Inn at Little Washington, Patrick’s playground for the last few decades, is one of life’s most amazing adventures. The pictures of this particular outing are on Facebook, if you want to see some extraordinary dishes, and I won’t try to put them here. And the wine was, well, extraordinary.

If you want a more thorough account of what it is like to dine at one of the two tables actually placed inside the kitchen of the Michelin Guide-rated Inn, check this one from a year ago this week:

www.wordpress/2015/06/the-inn-at-little-washington

I wore one of the nice aloha shirts to The Inn. It is only appropriate to show respect. I think I was in a t-shirt at the Frost Diner.

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(The Webbs, left, that idiot Vic in right center, and legendary Master Chef, Innkeeper extraordinaire, the redoubtable Patrick O’Connell to the right).

Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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