New Culinary and Beverage Experiences Debut in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is the state’s largest agricultural producing region, making it an amazing place to visit for authentic farm-to-table culinary and beverage experiences. Here’s a look at up-and-coming dining additions in the Valley:

• Rise and Shine! The newest restaurant on Main Street in Front Royal, Truss’d, puts a fresh spin on classic Southern comfort-food brunch items. The restaurant is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, and favorites here include the “Blue Ridge” stack, the “Kick’n Chick’n” chicken and waffles dish, and the veggie “Valley Hash” featuring locally grown vegetables and sweet potatoes.
• With menu items like the Shenandoah Chopped Salad and House Smoked Southern Ribs, Montpelier Restaurant and Bar features Southern-inspired regional dishes crafted with locally sourced ingredients. Diners are sure to enjoy local cheese selections, butcher-cut meats, produce and other Shenandoah Valley products in this rustically elegant restaurant located in Harrisonburg’s Hotel Madison.

• The owners of Zynodoa in Staunton proudly support Virginia’s independent farmers and producers, using only the freshest ingredients seasonally available. In their new venture, they’re combining their explorations of the Chesapeake Bay with their love of the New England shore to open a new oyster bar in Staunton. BLU Point Seafood Co.’s menu is set to include seafood favorites like lobster rolls, fried clam baskets, soft shell crabs and raw oysters. Though the restaurant’s focus is seafood, the menu will also offer land lovers a variety of local, pasture-raised offerings along with the best of the Valley’s produce and a regional beverage selection.

Speaking of beverages, wineries, cideries and breweries have been popping up all over the Shenandoah Valley. What’s especially unique about these establishments is that many of them have also chosen to grow or source their delicious ingredients right in the Shenandoah Valley, too. Here are the region’s newcomers:

• Committed to producing small-batch wines reflective of the terroir of the Shenandoah Valley, Star in the Valley Vineyard uses grapes exclusively grown on its estate in the wines they produce. Located outside Strasburg on the foothills of Little North Mountain, these vineyards are planted on the oldest mountains in the world.
• A cider company featuring an apple orchard labyrinth? Yes, please! Halcyon Days Cider Company and its on-site apple orchard labyrinth are modeled after the Chartres Labyrinth in France. Using 100% Virginia grown apples, small-batch hard ciders are produced in the on-site 1940s milking barn and enjoyed in the 1860s log cabin tasting room. Outside, visitors can explore nearly two miles of pathways surrounded by approximately 2,500 dwarf apple trees, whose limbs create the walls of the labyrinth.

• Heliotrope, a farmhouse-style brewery set to open this fall in Lexington, will use Virginia malt, farm-fresh produce and their own house culture of locally foraged microflora to produce beers that are uniquely representative of the Shenandoah Valley. Featuring small-batch artisan ales and lagers, Heliotrope tries to live up to its motto “Pax Soles Fermentum,” which loosely translates to “Peace, Sunshine and Fermentation.”
• Skipping Rock Beer Co. in Staunton was co-founded by two brothers with an award-winning brewer at the helm. The micro-production brewery’s beverages are a reflection of place, as they say all beers should be, but also a reflection of their motto to “worry less, live more.” Serving up craft food to pair with the craft beer, the on-site Hops Kitchen food truck features its award-winning Brewery Crafted Nachos, along with shareables, burgers and more.

The destinations that are part of the Shenandoah Valley Tourism Partnership look forward to welcoming you to their part of Virginia! For more information and to begin planning your trip, please visit https://shenandoahvalley.org/.