This past weekend, my wife and I took a drive to Virginia for our second anniversary. I thought I’d do a trip review for this area because it’s not necessarily a common destination so there likely has never been a write up on it here.

Located about 60 miles from Washington, D.C., Rappahanook County has a population of roughly 6,000 people, zero stoplights, and a 3-Michelin Star restaurant. It also has more than a dozen wineries, a whiskey distillery, and a couple breweries. It’s known as a popular place for people from D.C. to stay for a day/weekend.

We stayed in the town of Sperryville (population 500). It’s so remote that I didn’t have cell service the entire weekend. Friday night, we got in and grabbed dinner at the only pub in town, and the food was actually outstanding. After a 10 hour drive, we were exhausted (and everything shuts down at 9pm), so we went to bed.

The first morning, I got up and grabbed coffees at the only coffee shop in town (see below). We were fortunate to stay right off the main road, where on Saturday they had “Sperryfest,” which was a little festival consisting of food, wine, beer, and products for sale from local stores. It made for a really nice day and a great way to see the town.

Amazingly, this small town is home to a restaurant called Three Blacksmiths, which was recently voted the Number 4 Best New Restaurant in the country. They are only open 3 nights a week, and they have one seating each night, with 16 seats in the entire restaurant. It takes months to get in, if you can, and because we planned this trip maybe 2 months in advance, we were unfortunately not able to secure a table. I actually walked in to ask if by any miracle someone had canceled, and was (very kindly and politely) told that their next availability was in November. This was especially disappointing because we could see it from our AirBnB.

After wandering around for a while and eating some insanely good brisket tacos, we walked over to Copper Fox Distillery. They do whiskey and gin, and have a great cocktail list you can order off of. We sat in their “backyard” along the Thornton River, and it was a great way to relax and enjoy the afternoon.

Finally, we went by a pizza place and wine bar for a few glasses of wine. We had dinner plans the next night (more on that in a bit), so we were content to get a pizza to go and relax in the AirBnB for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we grabbed brunch at a place called Griffin Tavern, and the food and atmosphere were outstanding.

Afterwards, we drove through Shenandoah National Park, which had some breathtaking views.

Afterwards, we spent most of our time going to some of the wineries around the county. I was incredibly impressed at the quality of wine that comes out of this region. And the scenery didn’t hurt either.

After that, my wife rested up while I snuck in a quick 9 holes at the local golf course before dinner at the Inn at Little Washington. This place is the most recent restaurant in the country to receive 3 Michelin Stars, but has been around for 40 years. It’s located in the town of Washington, which is somehow even smaller than Sperryville. The owner, Patrick O’Connell, also owns the Inn and a number of other buildings on the block. We would have loved to stay at the Inn, but at an average price of $1000+ on the weekends, it was only slightly out of our price range.

Chef Patrick also employs locals for a myriad of things, the most noticeable being to maintain the grounds. The entire area is covered in white and pink tulips, and that coupled with the perfect weather made us start trying to figure out how we could move there permanently.

For those interested in our meal, I’ll post that in a second post below. That way people who don’t care about dining experiences are able to pass over it easier.

We were fortunate enough to go back into the kitchen after our meal and meet Chef Patrick, which is our version of meeting a celebrity, so we were very grateful for that.

After dinner, we immediately went to the AirBnB and passed out, and the next morning we made the long drive back to Boston.

I was amazed at how genuine and kind everyone we encountered in the area was, and I have to say, I kept finding myself thinking “wow, maybe Virginia IS actually a southern state!” I could not recommend visiting this area for a couple days, especially if you can tack it on to a D.C. trip.

This post was edited on 4/30/19 at 8:34 pm