Virginia's Crunchy Half

Southwest Virginia may not be on you list of must-make weekend trips - yet. But I hope to correct that oversight. Not only is this 5 hr drive worth making for the authentic bluegrass music, but there is some interesting food to try too.

The capital of funky SW VA is Floyd. This small rural town was a mecca of communes and hippies back in the 70's, and guess what- they're still there, just older and unreformed (thank goodness). So are the local farmers and proud rednecks. All happily living side by side. This makes for a fun culture which all come together every Friday night at the famous Floyd Country Store This place is not exactly undiscovered, there was a Washington Post article on it not that long ago. The point is that bluegrass and mountain music are alive and well. If you liked Oh Brother Where Art Thou, this is the place.

Anyway enough about the music; where to eat in Floyd is the question. The best Natural Food store in the area is Harvest Moon, a wonderful shop, and above it on the second floor is Over the Moon Bakery and Coffee Shop - a lovely combo café and high-class crafts gallery (it's that kind of town).

Another cool café is Café Sol - again sharing space with a wonderful imported batik clothing store, Wintersun , and also a small theater also called Café Sol which offers world music. And finally, Black Water Café - above a combo music and bookstore, Notebooks. Not bad - three cool cafés in a town of 431! That's right, population 431 in 2004.

Older, odder, and even cooler is Oddfella's Cantina, the original hippy restaurant. Local artists on the wall, natch. This is a full service restaurant with waiters and some great eclectic dining. The accent is on organic local ingredients and they are serious about it, served in recipes with a Tex-Mex /SE Asian slant. Always plenty of veg options. Open for lunch Wed - Sat, Sun brunch is also fine and there is often live music on Thursday or Friday.

Two places for old, authentic country cooking are The Pine Tavern and the Blue Ridge Restaurant. Blue Ridge has a full menu breakfast, lunch and dinner with real home made biscuits, mashed potatoes, sausage gravy, country ham, and homemade pie. The Pine Tavern serves big family-style meals. That's 2 or 3 meats with sides with big bowls that everyone helps themselves from. Two or three meats means fried chicken, country ham and roast beef with sides - ready? Mashed potatoes, dumplings, green beans, pinto beans, cole slaw, fruit cobbler and home made biscuits. You get all of it. For $12 with three meats, $11 for 2.

The best of these incredibly reasonable family style country restaurants is not in Floyd but about 1/2 hr away. Its called >The Homeplace and is definitely, absolutely worth the trip. Catawba, Virginia.

To wash it all down, you can complete your weekend with two good wineries, Chateau Morrisette which has a full, upscale restaurant and Villa Appalachia, which specializes in Italian style wines and is a fun visit too.

There are B and B's in the area too and did I mention that you are smack on the Blue Ridge Parkway for hiking, biking and camping?

This guest blog is by reformed New Yorker MHF, to whom we really should just give an account.