17 Aug. 23, 2018
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ative cuisine can be found throughout the county. Mixed-use centers like One Loudoun, Lansdowne, and Brambleton offer variety on every block. Middleburg’s thriving restaurant scene adds a whole new layer to the Hunt Country dynamic. And in downtown Leesburg, the growing number of restaurants still outpaces the expanding craft brewery operations, if only barely.
Something New While there are many places to explore during restaurant week, one new venue in particular has been drawing rave reviews. AsHo in the Brambleton Town Center is the creation of Chef Jason Wheeler, who describes his first restaurant as a “modern American bistro” where he can flex his muscles as a sommelier, pairing fine wines with a dynamic, locally sourced menu. The Loudoun native remembers considering opening in Reston, and DC might have seemed to be the obvious choice, “but nothing had the allure for me that Loudoun County did.”
And a Farewell For one more established member the culinary community, Loudoun Restaurant Week will be a last hurrah. It will be the final week of operations for the Wine Kitchen Hearth & Steak in Purcellville. But owner Jason Miller wants the location to go out with a bang. Miller said he’s treating the location’s last week more like a celebration than a funeral, with a closing-night party and specials throughout the week. While Miller’s other ventures—the Leesburg Wine Kitchen and the Wine
Kitchen on the Creek in Frederick, MD— have become culinary destinations, the Purcellville location, which opened five years ago, struggled to gain traction amid light foot traffic and a fire that closed the venue for months. Miller is a veteran of restaurant week programs around the region and helped to build this year’s Loudoun event. His menus for the Leesburg and Purcellville Wine Kitchens are primed with specials. In Leesburg, the Wine Kitchen is offering a beet and citrus salad with walnut vinaigrette, oranges, shaved fennel, spicy walnuts and beet goddess dressing. In its final week of operation, the Wine Kitchen Hearth & Steak is offering a lamb chop special with lacinato kale, new potatoes, Asian pear gastrique and a pear and fennel salad.
The Week Ahead Loudoun Restaurant Week will kick off Friday at Leesburg’s Market Station, where several of the participating chefs will be featured during a live broadcast by Fox 5’s Zip Trip team. Each day from Aug. 24 to Aug. 31, participating restaurants will offer special two-course lunch menus and threecourse dinner options. In this special section, information is provided for each of the participating restaurants and participants were invited to submit ads that highlight their venues or the special menus they’ll be offering. Find more details about each of the participants at loudounrestaurantweek. com. Bon appetit.
www.loudounnow.com
t no time in Loudoun’s history have residents had more choices to dine out with family and friends. The quality and variety of the county’s culinary landscape will be on full display during the inaugural Loudoun Restaurant Week. Starting Friday and continuing for eight days, the chefs at 40 eateries will be offering special menus both to impress new customers and to give loyal patrons a little different taste or reason to take time to relax with a good meal. The effort to put a brighter spotlight on this dynamic industry was built from a partnership of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, Visit Loudoun and Loudoun Now with the goals of building stronger relationships among restaurant entrepreneurs, spreading the word to foodies around the region, and helping local residents discover new culinary treasures close to home. Sterling Restaurant Supply, based at One Loudoun, jumped aboard as the signature sponsor to support the project. Longtime Loudouners will remember the days when dining choices were much more limited. Family in town? Let’s get a table at Johnson’s Charcoal House of Beef where Violet Jewell was likely to take the order. Need to get the kids out of the house? It was off to see Mr. and Mrs. Zarou at Uncle Abe’s for pizza. Much has changed in the past three decades. The modern dining scene has its roots with the pioneering efforts of Kevin Malone at Tuscarora Mill and the Gustavson sisters at Lightfoot created to provide fine dining destinations in Leesburg’s historic district. Today, high-quality, cre-
LOUDOUN RESTAURANT WEEK
Restaurant Week Spotlights County’s Rich Culinary Offerings