Eating My Way Through Fredericksburg

Smythes Cottage- located in a pre-civil war cottage and home to several resident ghosts, this charming restaurant has good solid Southern cuisine with imaginative touches. The peanut soup is to die for and can be enjoyed outdoors if the weather permits.

J. Brian's Pub- Located in a historic former hotel, this pub offers grub a bit more sophisticated than your usual pub fare. They have an extensive beer list and the porch makes a good location for people-watching.

Merrimans’s- fine dining is a relaxed atmosphere. You don’t need to wear a suit but don’t be surprised to see tuxedos and ball gowns as this is a popular before event dining location. They have a very popular alternative lifestyle bar with live entertainment in the rear.

Lee’s Ice cream- If you are adventurous and love to try new flavors this is your kind of place. Jeff has his finger on the pulse of the ice-cream eating public and in October we were eating wonderful pumpkin ice-cream and experimenting with cake batter flavor.

Bangkok Café-not much atmosphere but large portions of excellent Thai food are offered at this Caroline Street location.

Quick Tips:

From Our bed-and-breakfast on Caroline Street we could walk to mostly any restaurant in Historic Downtown Fredericksburg. There were so many to choose from that it was impossible to get to all the really good ones. Bonnie, at the Richard Johnston Inn gave us a few suggestions and there were menus available at the Inn if you prefer to have a good idea what they are offering.

At this particular point in our trip I had a cold, was tired, and not as obsessed as usual with where we were going to eat. Actually spontaneity didn’t seem to mean that we had bad experiences, actually it was rather liberating to just eat where ever and whenever we got hungry. Now weather this was due to just dumb luck or to the general superior quality of food in Fredericksburg, I will never be quite sure. It is not my usual style and I will probably never be that way again but for 3 days I just relaxed and enjoyed not knowing where my next meal (except for breakfast) was going to be.

Best Way To Get Around:

Fredericksburg is very much two cities. There is the historic downtown with the narrow one-way streets which is lovely but challenging to drive and park. Then there is greater Fredericksburg which is very much like any medium sized city , filled with wide streets and strip malls. It really is like two different worlds.

In the historic section you are better served to park your car and walk. There is street parking on many of the streets and off of Carline there are some small parking lots. If you can afford it or are without small children I am going to suggest that you pick one of the B&B’s in the historic section. From most of them the whole historic district will be walkable. There are some hills however, between Caroline Street and Charles Street it is an up hill walk.

You will need a car to get out to the battlefield and across the river to Ferry Farm, Chatham, and Belmont. You also can use your car to get to the chain restaurants which are located outside of the historic downtown and I have to admit we did stop at a KFC for popcorn shrimp before we tackled our first drive into the historic district. (It had been about 6 hours since breakfast in West Chester Pa and I was starving).

UPDATE: RESTAURANT IS CLOSED. This is an utterly charming little restaurant which we happened upon as we were walking from the Rising Star Tavern to the Mary Washington House. It turned out to be a very lucky find indeed. Part of the charm is the family who owns the cottage. The father was waiting tables on this day at lunch and the mother was cooking but also trying to keep track of a very precocious 2-year-old daughter. It made the experience all the more memorable. The cottage itself is very cute, it is a pre Civil War construction with a more formal parlor dining area, and an outdoor patio dining area in addition to where we were seated which looks like it may have been a porch at one time. There are resident ghosts but as usual I was totally unaware of any unusual happenings

The lunch menu is not extensive but offers some interesting choices. They had two soups, the Virginia Peanut which is their specialty and the today’s special which was potato. You may order a cup or a crock. I ordered the peanut and Al got the potato. Both of them were excellent but I can have potato soup any day, when else am I going to eat peanut soup. I would go back just to eat the peanut soup.

They offered Virginia Ham biscuits, Chicken salad biscuits, and a variety of sandwiches, roast beef, turkey, chicken salad, tuna ham and Swiss, club sandwich and turkey club. There was also a broccoli and cheese quiche, chicken pot pie, and ginger beef in a pot with rice. If you prefer salad they offer a tossed salad alone or in combination with soup and also a chef salad. Their Smythe’s chicken salad includes grilled chicken, mandarin oranges, pineapples and pecans. They have sweet tea and unsweetened, beer, wine and stronger spirits, and of course coffee and soda.

The ham was shredded and served on warm biscuits. The ham was a hair dry but very tasty and I enjoyed my three biscuits. It was served with slices of melon and a wedge of orange. Al had a roast beef sandwich on rye which had perfect slices of rare roast beef and was served with chips and a slice of melon and tomatoes. A very satisfying lunch.

On this one occasion we didn’t have time to try the dessert but if we had they offered pecan pie, peach Melba, apple turnovers, chocolate turnovers, caramel cream, and mud pie. All desserts are made on site. I really am going to have to return and have a huge bowl of peanut soup and try one or more of their desserts. By the way, they also serve dinner and one entree the turkey shortcake certainly sounds intriguing.

SADLY THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED FOR BUSINESS.

We came here on the suggestion of Bonnie, at the Richard Johnston Inn, and I must say she didn’t steer us wrong. I knew as soon as I saw that they served Stella Artois that I was going to like this place.

It really is lovely inside, candlelit with crisp white table cloths and wooden tables up against banquettes along the walls. The walls are done to resemble marble and the lighting is wall sconces which helps to create the warm atmosphere. When we arrived there was a large party of people who were dressed to the nines, evidently a wedding rehearsal party or a pre gala dinner. We were much more casually dressed but never felt we needed to be dressed up. We were given the choice of a window seat, and our waitress Olivia was wonderful.

There is a very eclectic choice of appetizers and dinner entrees. The appetizers included Virginia corn fried oysters, red bean humus, and warm artichoke and spinach dip. We opted to pass on an appetizer and went right to the main course. It was a hard decision, with choices like pecan crusted chicken, curried pork loin, Virginia crab cakes, linguine Mykonos, and lemon caper salmon. They ever had a vegetarian angel hair pasta.

I decided that the white cheddar meatloaf would be my choice and Al chose the bourbon hanger steak. Both were served with a house salad and two sides. Mine came with white cheddar mashed potatoes and broccoli and Al chose the whipped potatoes and the corn and pepper saute.

Our salads arrived room temperature and included exotic and domestic greens, scallions, mushrooms, red onions and tomatoes with the House balsamic dressing. It was very good. We also had a basket of crispy rolls served warm with honey butter, needless to say we made short work of them.

My meatloaf was a little individual loaf, sliced and served with a ketchup that is quite spicy. The white cheddar mashed were good enough for me to eat them (all those carbs) and the broccoli was a winner. Al’s meal was also good in every respect.

We finished our meal with coffee and split Kahlua fudge cheesecake. We passed on the pecan pie, creme brulee and key lime pie. They also offer plenty of specialty coffees and after dinner drinks. The coffee was very good, served in an amazingly large cup and refilled at will. The cheesecake like all of Merriman’s desserts is made here and was delicious, rich and redolent of chocolate and Kahlua. I wouldn’t change a thing.

They have a very hopping bar in the rear of the building. It is an alternative lifestyle bar but I think everyone is welcome. Entrance is unfortunately through the restaurant which is the only fault I could even remotely find. It just meant there was a lot of traffic though the restaurant which was a bit distracting.

For some reason our waitress at the J. Brian Pub didn’t ask us if we wanted any dessert. We found this quite amusing, I guess we either looked like we don’t like dessert or don’t need dessert. Either way she was wrong, looks can be so deceiving.

It was a balmy night in October, and Caroline Street was calling. We were sure a dessert stop would present itself. We had hoped to walk a few blocks but fate intervened in the form of Lee’s Ice Cream. We spied it across the street and made a quick beeline to its door. We actually walked less than a block, so while my sweet tooth was about to be satisfied, my need to exercise was not.

On the outside and on the inside, this is a good old fashioned ice-cream shop. The flavors however are anything but ordinary. With the likes of spicy pumpkin, toasted almond, and death by chocolate there is a flavor for every member of the family.

We got into a conversation with owner, Jeff Fults. He is beginning to make his own ice- cream in house, but only flavors that he feels he can make better than his supplier. He is working with an ice-cream expert to perfect his product. On our second visit we got to be ice-cream guinea pigs, he was making cake mix ice-cream which he assured us is the latest fad. And yes it did taste exactly like yellow cake mix. I am never going to love that flavor as much as the spiced pumpkin but it certainly was interesting.

Al and I were fascinated by the edible ice-cream cups, they are the perfect container for the very delicious ice-cream. I also had one of their ice-cream and coffee drinks, on the idea of a moo-latte at Dairy Queen but even better.

The hours are very liberal at Lee’s and the ice-cream is worth coming for. Jeff is working on developing the hot fudge to end all hot fudge and I am betting that he will indeed find it.

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Our first evening in Fredericksburg was warm and muggy. Tired after a long day of travel in heavy traffic we wanted a low key place for dinner where we could just chill out. J Brian fit the bill. Housed in what was the Exchange Hotel it was built in 1837 and it was said to have some of the handsomest brickwork in Virginia. It was destroyed by fire in 1857 and rebuilding was delayed by the War. It finally reopened in 1867 and it housed a museum of the Civil War for man years. Among the many famous people who stayed at the Exchange was Charles Dickens. It was renamed the Maury Hotel in 1927 and in 1980 it was converted into a restaurant.

We had the choice of eating in the dining room or on the porch. We choose the porch. There are two tables with benches that occupy the ends of the porch and two that flank the stairs. We had the table and bench on the right hand side. We got quick service and ordered our beers. A Michelob Ultra for Al and a Blue and Gray for me. Blue and Gray is a local beer with a brewery right here in Fredericksburg. They offer tasting and tours which unfortunately I didn’t have time to do.

Like any good tap room they have a varied beer menu. You can try Yuengling lager, Sierra Nevada Pale ale, Guinness Stout, Bass, Harp, New Castle Brown Ale, Miller Light, Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen, Blue Moon Belgian, and Killians Irish Red, and much more.

The menu was pretty much what you would expect of a pub, lots of appetizers, steaks, salads etc. They had a variety of Quesadillas, chicken, tomato artichoke, con carne just to mention a few. They also have a good selection of dips artichoke and spinach, crab and three layer. They offer a mixed bag of burgers, veggie, buffalo and beef and pizzas with andouille, barbecue chicken, artichoke and with a choice of thick or thin crust.

If you want a full meal they have jambalaya, lamb chops, New York Strip or a crab cake platter just to name a few. Al and I opted for something in between, I ordered the chicken caesar salad and Al ordered the steak sandwich.

The chicken caesar was very good, the chicken was served warm with grated mozzarella cheese which was melted where it hit the chicken, there were also tomatoes in the salad which is unusual in a Caesar. Al’s steak sandwich was rated very good and they  served it with coleslaw instead of fries. It was good coleslaw but it was missing that horseradish bite that we prefer. It did come with a very good pickle however.

Our waitress never offered us dessert which gave us a good laugh. Must be looking like we didn’t need any we figured and actually since we found the ice-cream store down the street we were grateful to her for the oversight.

If you are looking for atmosphere keep on walking. This restaurant has absolutely no atmosphere. It has very plain tables and chairs and paper place mats but the top of our table was hand painted with scenes from Thailand. It is very clean which is always a plus and the service was fast and efficient. There was, however, a fresh rose in a vase on our table so some effort goes into making it a welcoming place.

Al is never a fan of any type of food that hasn’t been sliced off a steer but every so often I actually win the battle of the restaurant choices and this was one of those times. We were tired, and if the truth be known quite crabby, we didn’t feel like dressing up we just wanted to eat and get back to the B&B. We headed out with no plan and this is where we ended up.
It is located very close to the Richard Johnston Inn.

We began our meal with satay. Served with the normal peanut sauce for dipping and also a very good cucumber sauce. We loved it and frankly we could have eaten two portions, it was that good. We even ate up all the leftover sauces and Al who never, and I mean never, eats cucumber was dipping away at the sweet cucumber sauce.

Al ordered the half chicken marinated with Thai spices and I always one for being brave and daring ordered the Thai red curry, hot. What was I thinking...As I sat sipping my Jasmine tea I wondered if I would be able to handle hot Thai spices.

Al’s chicken was just right for him, very flavorful but not too spicy. I just about blew the top of my head off. It was fabulous with lots of peas, red and green peppers, and a coconut milk based sauce that was fantastic but when Thai is spicy it is very spicy. I think all of me broke out in a sweat, it was just about perfect. Thank goodness for the rice which helped to absorb some of the heat and the Jasmine tea for putting out the fire. All in all an excellent experience at a very good price.