Hard to believe. Drive to Craigsville, then onto W.Va. 20. Follow the Farmers Table Restaurant sign up a gravel road, over the cattle guard, past fenced fields and pastures. Behind the farmhouse is a small, unprepossessing building.
Hard to believe. Drive to Craigsville, then onto W.Va. 20. Follow the Farmers Table Restaurant sign up a gravel road, over the cattle guard, past fenced fields and pastures. Behind the farmhouse is a small, unprepossessing building.
It used to be the cellar where the Meadows family stored canned goods against a Nicholas County winter. Farm tractors are parked nearby. The building is now the restaurant run by sisters Frances and Susie Meadows.
We expected country cooking, perhaps beans and corn bread. We were wrong. We opened the door to splendor. White tablecloths, black cloth napkins, wine glasses sparkling in the waning sunlight, and a menu that promises gourmet pleasures. Could they bring it off?
Chef Sam Riffle and his staff do, using Riffle's recipes, all carefully tested by Frances. Vegetables, fruits, herbs and meats couldn't be fresher, because they come from this farm. Out one window, I watched Black Angus heifers and calves grazing in a meadow; soon they would end up on the dinner table, after butchering in Lewisburg. Out another window, I saw an immense corn crib holding Bloody Butcher corn. Reed's Mill in Monroe County processes it in a polenta grind.
(Bloody Butcher corn has been grown by the Meadows family for seven generations, ever since an ancestor brought some home when she escaped from Indian captivity. The Meadowses grew it every year, made corn bread or slopped it to the hogs. Then several West Virginia chefs suggested that the cornmeal be ground finer, for polenta. Now The Greenbrier and other fine restaurants offer it on their menus.)
Lunches include rosemary foccacia topped by a mix of portabellas and goat cheese with drizzles of honey and balsamic vinegar. Salads come with a variety of dressings, including their own strawberry vinaigrette.
And there's that famous Bloody Butcher polenta - with a twist: Riffle mixes it with goat cheese, then sautés it in garlic butter. There are sandwiches, wraps and burgers, including one with a half-pound of buffalo meat.
Lunch desserts include sister Susie's double-layer double chocolate cake, and family patriarch Edgar Meadows' favorite, the banana creme tort, with flaky pastry and strawberry sauce.
But we came at sundown, when the Greek salad caught the eye of our friend, who shared it with me. Red onion, kalamatas, feta and romaine all made a pleasant start for her raspberry creme lamb chops.
We invited Edgar to have supper with us. We knew him from Stonewall Resort's Culinary Classic weekends, and always enjoyed hearing him talk about old times on the farm. He chose the chicken with raspberry red-wine sauce.
When the meals at one table are ready, each dish arrives in the hands of an individual server. Guests feel like royalty here.
My husband Bill tried the polenta with salmon that had been basted in citrus marinade and served with citrus herb butter. He also had delightfully herb-flavored penne and sautéed mushrooms.
I chose the piña colada scallops, grilled and topped with tequila glaze. Roasted coconut and pineapple slices came along. Edgar decided we all needed fresh green scallions, so he left the table to dig, clean and bring them back in a serving dish. Can't get fresher than that.
Hard to believe. Drive to Craigsville, then onto W.Va. 20. Follow the Farmers Table Restaurant sign up a gravel road, over the cattle guard, past fenced fields and pastures. Behind the farmhouse is a small, unprepossessing building.
It used to be the cellar where the Meadows family stored canned goods against a Nicholas County winter. Farm tractors are parked nearby. The building is now the restaurant run by sisters Frances and Susie Meadows.
We expected country cooking, perhaps beans and corn bread. We were wrong. We opened the door to splendor. White tablecloths, black cloth napkins, wine glasses sparkling in the waning sunlight, and a menu that promises gourmet pleasures. Could they bring it off?
Chef Sam Riffle and his staff do, using Riffle's recipes, all carefully tested by Frances. Vegetables, fruits, herbs and meats couldn't be fresher, because they come from this farm. Out one window, I watched Black Angus heifers and calves grazing in a meadow; soon they would end up on the dinner table, after butchering in Lewisburg. Out another window, I saw an immense corn crib holding Bloody Butcher corn. Reed's Mill in Monroe County processes it in a polenta grind.
(Bloody Butcher corn has been grown by the Meadows family for seven generations, ever since an ancestor brought some home when she escaped from Indian captivity. The Meadowses grew it every year, made corn bread or slopped it to the hogs. Then several West Virginia chefs suggested that the cornmeal be ground finer, for polenta. Now The Greenbrier and other fine restaurants offer it on their menus.)
Lunches include rosemary foccacia topped by a mix of portabellas and goat cheese with drizzles of honey and balsamic vinegar. Salads come with a variety of dressings, including their own strawberry vinaigrette.
And there's that famous Bloody Butcher polenta - with a twist: Riffle mixes it with goat cheese, then sautés it in garlic butter. There are sandwiches, wraps and burgers, including one with a half-pound of buffalo meat.
Lunch desserts include sister Susie's double-layer double chocolate cake, and family patriarch Edgar Meadows' favorite, the banana creme tort, with flaky pastry and strawberry sauce.
But we came at sundown, when the Greek salad caught the eye of our friend, who shared it with me. Red onion, kalamatas, feta and romaine all made a pleasant start for her raspberry creme lamb chops.
We invited Edgar to have supper with us. We knew him from Stonewall Resort's Culinary Classic weekends, and always enjoyed hearing him talk about old times on the farm. He chose the chicken with raspberry red-wine sauce.
When the meals at one table are ready, each dish arrives in the hands of an individual server. Guests feel like royalty here.
My husband Bill tried the polenta with salmon that had been basted in citrus marinade and served with citrus herb butter. He also had delightfully herb-flavored penne and sautéed mushrooms.
I chose the piña colada scallops, grilled and topped with tequila glaze. Roasted coconut and pineapple slices came along. Edgar decided we all needed fresh green scallions, so he left the table to dig, clean and bring them back in a serving dish. Can't get fresher than that.
Bill and I shared a bourbon pecan tort glazed with caramel, which reminded me of an American version of baklava. There was enough left to take home and enjoy for two more desserts.
A license to serve wine is pending, and they also hope to have an interesting beer selection.
Frances invited us downstairs to the kitchen and storerooms to see where this largesse happens. One room held floor-to-ceiling treasures of brightly colored jewels - red, yellow, purple and green - Frances and Susie's canning harvest of string beans, grape jelly, black raspberry jelly, and one called tropical bliss, made with berries, pineapples and peaches. There are whole racks of Roma tomatoes in glass jars for the restaurant's marinara sauce.
Back upstairs, Bill paid for our two dinners (under $50), then followed Edgar to his cabbage patch. Edgar harvests his cabbages, digs holes, places the heads of cabbage upside-down in the holes, and covers them with dirt for the winter. "Boil it up. It turns pink, and will be the finest cabbage you ever had," he told me, handing me one in a heavy plastic bag.
It's 1 hour 15 minutes up the road from Charleston, and well worth a visit to enjoy haute cuisine in the back of beyond. Their restaurant makes you proud to be West Virginian.
If you go:
The Farmers Table Restaurant
Spring Creek Farms, P.O. Box 1670, Craigsville, WV 26205
Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday, 3-9 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Phone: (304) 742-3376
Most popular item: raspberry creme lamb chops
Maureen Crockett is a frequent contributor of freelance articles on travel and food to the Sunday Gazette-Mail. E-mail her at CrockettM...@netscape.net.
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