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| Shepherdstown/ Bright red apples hang from ficus trees in this colorful – make that flamboyant – restaurant inside an old yellow brick bank. In the main dining room, huge old posters decorate the lavender walls, the chairs are pink and mauve, and the high coffered ceiling is edged in hand-painted blue and white clouds. A casual dining room and bar, done up in white wicker, has tall windows onto a side patio. At lunch, one of us enjoyed a bowl of sweet corn and jalapeño chowder, loaded with chopped ham and tomatoes and packing a spicy wallop, and an appetizer of shiitake mushrooms on lemon thyme toast. The other chose pesto pasta with chopped tomatoes, served in a big bowl with French bread alongside. We had no room left for desserts, among them lemon cheesecake with caramelized mascarpone, coffee ice cream with kahlua and coconut, and Mexican chocolate bread pudding with crème fraîche. On weekends, there are two sampler plates of four desserts each. The innovative dinner menu offers stellar pastas as well as entrées ranging from pan-seared scallops served over a watercress sauce with sundried tomato tapenade to grilled rack of lamb with dried cherry compote and minted cucumbers. Soft-shell crabs with a wasabi mayonnaise, baked rainbow trout with a roasted corn vinaigrette, and grilled hanger steak are among the choices. The cooking here is assertive, to go along with the eclectic atmosphere. A wood-burning oven and an applewood grill have been installed in a large kitchen addition to add even more contemporary flair to the menu. (304) 876-2208. Entrées, $17 to $25. Lunch, Monday-Saturday
11:30 to 4:30. Dinner from 5. Sunday brunch, 11 to 4.
This well-known dining room attracts diners from near and far. It's not the kind of place to which we were attracted for a Saturday lunch – we stopped, looked at the menu, saw all the staff and customers in dressy attire and decided to go on to a more casual place where we could eat outside. But it fit the bill perfectly for dinner at another visit. The main Hunt Room in the living room of the original greystone mansion resembles the interior of a Bavarian lodge with paneled walls, beamed ceiling, deer-antler chandeliers, a deer head over the huge stone fireplace and racks with displays of Bavarian china and beer steins. We preferred the pleasant, glassed-in terrace dining area with windows onto the gardens. The enormous dinner menu covers all the bases, including Bavarian, continental, American, cold platters and “lean and healthy.” When in Bavaria, do as...and one of us did. Wiener schnitzel with red cabbage and pan-fried potatoes with caraway seeds was the real thing. The other sampled the grilled medallions of pork tenderloin with red cabbage and green beans, which was unmemorable. Good German bread arrived as we sat down. A small slab of the chef's mellow veal, liver and duck pâté with all the trimmings and house salads tided us over until the entrées came. Desserts range from apple strudel to “the original trifle.” A Bavarian nut ball – vanilla ice cream rolled in peanuts and topped with chocolate sauce and coconut flakes – was not cold enough but quite good. There are interesting, reasonably priced international coffees and after-dinner drinks. You might want to adjourn downstairs to the Rathskellar, a very alpine place that wraps around the bar and offers weekend entertainment. (304) 876-2551. Entrées, $14.50 to $26.50. Lunch,
Monday-Saturday 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner, 5 to 10, Sunday noon to 9.
The interior of this Italian restaurant of recent vintage is one huge, columned space with a Mediterranean mural setting the theme. A jaunty outdoor patio is the dining venue of choice in good weather. “Escape from the mundane,” promises the enormous all-day menu, which offers extensive entrées with only about a dollar’s variation between lunch and dinner. “Historic sandwiches” are available only during lunch hours, but ten antipasti, nine salads and a dozen pastas are served all day. So are a variety of meat and fish dishes, from salmon alla griglia and king crab over linguini to veal parmigiana, saltimbocca and steak of the day. Hummus, dolmah, stuffed grape leaves and shish kabob are listed under Mediterranean specialties. They were the only items we could find that truly represented an escape from the mundane. (304) 728-8880. Entrées, $9.95 to $16.95. Open daily from 11:30 to 9:30 or 10:30, Sunday from noon. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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