VIRGINIA, USA — For 45 years, Washingtonians have fled the hustle and bustle of life in the political epicenter for a different kind of theater.
We met visionary owner and chef Patrick O’Connell in his happy place less than 70 miles southwest of the city he once called home. The world-renowned culinary sanctuary, with fans around the globe, started out as an old building with an uncertain future.
Forty-five years ago, The Inn's living room had been the grease pit.
“When I opened the restaurant here, of course, everybody thought I was insane," Patrick O'Connell said. "They were partly right. Our first guests in 1978 often come in and say last time I was in this building, I was having my car greased."
Back then, the meals were just $4.95 but a review in the Washington Star just two weeks after they opened changed everything about the elevated cuisine in a little-known town.
"The reviewer claimed it to be this to be the best restaurant in a radius of 150 miles and nobody quite knew how to compute what that meant," O'Connell said. "They got out their compasses and wondered did that go to Philadelphia or what? And then because it was still very cheap, all of D.C. just said descend on us."
O'Connell said they try to orchestrate the dining experience around expectations, meet them and surpass them.
“We like to think of it as a living theater," O'Connell explained. "If there’s one thing that differentiates us from all other American restaurants, it’s probably that sense that it’s more than dinner. It’s been a show, and it’s the guest who is the star."
Before guests take their seats, the team is taking their pulse.
“We rate the mood of guests from a 1 to 10. So the whole staff can be alerted if somebody has a low mood rating. And we record, you know, that body language intuition,” he said.
They try to never say no to a guest but there are times when The Inn at Little Washington has received an unusual request.
“We did have a very famous performer, singer, whose name escapes me for good reason," he recalled. "She sat down and the waiter said, ‘May I bring you anything to start?’ And she said, a seven-ounce can of caviar, a mirror and a razor blade. And that was, that was unexpected.”
At The Inn at Little Washington extraordinary is expected every day but the team doesn’t take themselves too seriously.
During the pandemic, they dressed up mannequins to help fill the space.
“It gave you the feeling especially at night that people were here," O'Connell said. "Then we got a company to dress them and then we went further, we were feeding them.”
The Conservatory is its newest space within The Inn and one of many changes O’Connell is bringing to this quaint town.
“When you come in, you don’t know if you’re indoors or outdoors because you’re both,” he said. “Our new expansion will take place behind this wall, all of this will be connected to a new courtyard, a new arrivals area, and a kind of carriage house in the rear.”
To see the transformation, we walked out to the "Field of Dreams" at the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains and took a ride in a carriage.
“We have a big garden back here where we often grow vegetables, herbs and things like that. We recently acquired that building on the corner left - it used to be a general store before that it was a bank and the people who lived in the Victorian house ran the bank - so we’re reconnecting everything,” he said.
Downtown Little Washington looks almost like a movie set.
O’Connell and The Inn own all of the property on the central block of town and both streets, saving buildings he says likely would have been torn down.
There are new shops, cottages to develop into new guestroom buildings for staff, private gardens and their newest café Patty O’s Cafe and Bakery, an ode to O’Connell’s childhood nickname.
“You’re either growing or dying, there’s no standing still or in between. So you have to reinvent and you have to forge forward every day,” he said.
Much of that innovation ends up on a plate that emerges from Chef O’Connell’s defining kitchen at The Inn with its three Michelin stars. It’s the only restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area to earn that coveted rating.
So, of course, we had to get a little cooking lesson.
“I’m going to show you something you can do at home," he said. "We’re going to take a very simple concept of how to cook scrambled eggs, and we’re gonna dress them up.”
After a once in a lifetime meal, some guests take it a step further and spend the night in one of the Inn’s 23 hideaways. Each room is named for a culinary pioneer who actually stayed at The Inn and was a source of inspiration to help elevate American cuisine.
With a careful eye always on the details, you’ll often find O’Connell tasting food by day and driving around at night looking for burned-out lightbulbs. And sometimes, he gets to take in all that he’s created in his second hometown.
RELATED: 2 DC restaurants earn Michelin stars