So many golf courses, so little time. With a little planning, you can build yourself a pretty nice personal golf trail along virtually any U.S. interstate. Along I-81 from Pennsylvania to Virginia, for example, you will find excellent daily fee courses like Wren Dale in Hershey, PA; Dauphin Highlands, near Harrisburg, PA; and Rock Harbor in Winchester, VA. (We know these by reputation and look forward to trying them on the way to visit our son at college in Virginia over the next four years.) It is fun to explore new golf courses, and equally fun to try interesting restaurants along the way.
Nothing tops off a nice day of golf like an excellent meal. On Wednesday night, on the way to college, my wife, son and I dined at One Block West , one of the most highly regarded restaurants in Winchester, an attractive, bustling town in the northernmost part of Virginia. OBW, as the locals call it, is located in Indian Alley in downtown Winchester. Parking on a quiet weekday night was not a problem; most parking spaces were reserved for office workers who had long since left for the day.
We considered ourselves lucky that Wednesday is Tapas Night at OBW. We love the "little plates" of food that characterize this Spanish-inspired style of dining; they are a fine way to determine a kitchen's range and quality and to give you a hint of what you might order as an entrée on any return visit (for the record, we plan to return). Tapas is also entertaining; the more people around the table, the more fun because of the sharing. Everyone seems to become an instant restaurant critic when the plates are passed around.
One Block West, which is decorated in brick and wood and the dark colonial colors of green and red, is owned by the affable Chef Ed Mathews. On a quiet night, with just a half-dozen tables occupied both inside and in the comfortable outdoor seating area, Chef Mathews greeted us at the door when we arrived and came over to the table at the end of the meal to see how we had liked it. He wasn't disappointed in our responses. He and his restaurant passed with flying colors, on both taste and presentation. Out of the 15 dishes we ordered ($5 to $10 each), only one was less than excellent, the lamb kebabs. Although cooked to a tasty medium rare, the lamb was overly chewy, burdened by too much gristle; however, the Greek tzatziki sauce accompaniment was exceptionally tasty, with just the right yogurt and garlic zing.
My marinated baby grilled fennel shared a long rectangular plate with hamachi seviche. The fennel, served cold atop exceptionally fresh arugula, was a refreshing way to start the meal. Neither the marination nor grilling did a thing to disturb the natural anise taste of the root vegetable, and the perfectly aligned grill marks showed careful attention to detail. The hamachi, which had been steeped in a citrus marinade, was astringent and lustrous at the same time, the just-beyond-raw fish as fresh and sparkling as anything you will find in a sushi palace. My wife and I split the aforementioned lamb, as well as separate dishes of grilled Surry sausage and Basque-style chicken. The locally produced sausage - I assumed from the town of Surry, less than an hour away - was shot through with smoke tempered by a thin maple syrup sauce, the maple syrup also from Virginia. It is always a good sign to see local produce and meats on a menu; you know they are likely to be fresh. The Basque chicken was a good-sized thigh piece simmered in a light-tomato sauce with a hint of green pepper, a faithful rendition of a classic peasant dish.
I glommed a taste of my wife and son's dishes as well, and they were all equally outstanding. The most memorable were the grilled baby eggplant with spicy hummus, a nice marriage of the sweet flesh of the vegetable with the bite of the pureed chick peas; prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin with grilled plum, the pork easily the most tender piece of meat of the night (or the month); and the mini Thai-inspired crab cakes, packing more meat than filling and accompanied by a thin, spicy Asian sauce.
OBW offers a wide range of wines by the glass, as well as by the bottle. I went for a couple of glasses of sherry, a good choice with tapas. The slightly nutty taste of the sherry matches well with virtually everything on a tapas menu, and after a seven-hour drive, I just wasn't in the mood to think about which whites and reds matched which dishes (I also didn't want to drink too much). The Lustau oloroso and amontillado I ordered were both fine and reasonably priced, at just $5 per glass. Three other styles of sherry were offered at equally reasonable prices.
If you aren't careful, the final bill for your evening of grazing on a tapas menu can go pretty high, in our case $120 for the 15 dishes we ordered. But I didn't flinch when I opened the leatherette pouch with the bill. Excellent meals seem to crowd out such worldly concerns.
One Block West is located at 25 South Indian Alley in Winchester, VA. Telephone number is (540) 662-1455. Reservations suggested, especially on the weekends. Web site is www.obwrestaurant.com.
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