Woodstock Cafe, in the town of Woodstock, Virginia, offers a pretty bountiful menu considering that it sits in a town of 5,212 residents.
For starters, it is open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week, and for dinner Thursday through Saturday. The menu has a lot of choose-your-own-adventure elements: breakfast sandwiches, lunch combinations, and dinner specials. Sunday means brunch, with omelets, biscuits and gravy, and a skillet meal with potatoes, sausage, and eggs, topped with cheese, spicy Mexican crema, and fresh scallions.
The daytime menu is lunch-driven, with an array of mix and match salads, wraps, sandwiches, soups, and quiches. The pastry case is stocked with treats from a new bakery in neighboring Front Royal. Wednesdays are smash burger day, with beef from a local farm and brioche buns baked nearby. Customers start calling in to reserve their burgers at 8:00 AM – one time they sold out in 46 minutes.
At Woodstock Cafe dinners are more upscale and carefully thought-out, but not fussy. Jose Arevalos, a French-trained chef of Mexican origin who is self-taught in Italian cuisine, brings a breadth of talent; homemade pasta is his passion, and an abundance of different shapes and sizes star in evening dishes. In a year, diners can sample 80 different pasta dishes, like tagliatelle with shrimp and spaccatelli with beets.
Smash Burger, Crispy Chicken Wrap, Tagliatelle with Shrimp, and Spaccatelli with Beets. (Photos courtesy of Woodstock Café)
Guests can choose an extravagant ribeye meal or a more modest burger. Both are accompanied by a range of vegetables, including a brussels sprouts salad with quinoa, dates, goat cheese, and candied almonds. The beverage list includes a full espresso menu, craft cocktails, an extensive wine selection, and more than 100 varieties of craft beer.
The focus is on quality ingredients in this agriculture-rich area. Chef Arevalos frequents farmers markets and farm stands for fresh seasonal produce. He spends time with producers, partnering with them to integrate their apples, tomatoes, peaches, and corn into the café’s daily menu.
From Big City to Small Town
Chef Arevalos and Nikki Grant are the owners of Woodstock Cafe. The two met in Chicago while working for a large restaurant group and became a couple in Washington, DC, where they relocated to open a new corporate restaurant. Both spent their adult lives in urban locales across the country.
But Grant grew up in Woodstock. And when her mother passed away a couple of years ago, suddenly and tragically, she felt called back home.
“When something that shapes your core like that happens, it shifts your perspective,” said Grant. “Being closer to family became more important.”
Grant has always worked in the restaurant and hospitality industry, from waiting tables as a teen to bartending through college and more recently, event planning. Even though she felt a push to “get a real job,” the living wage and variety of day-to-day tasks has always made this industry an appealing career option for her.
Entrepreneurship intrigued Grant, but she didn’t know what kind of business she wanted to own until she met Arevalos. “He is one of the most talented people I have ever worked with,” she said. “Still, buying the restaurant was the scariest thing I have ever done.”
The couple bought Woodstock Cafe in 2019. Purchasing a beloved operation (open since 2005) in a small town presented a bit of a balancing act. They promised the community they wouldn’t make any changes right away.
“We have been true to our word and not really changed the breakfast or lunch menu, but have added dinner as our contribution,” said Grant. “Having a small-town perspective, not a city mentality, has helped us be successful.”
An Important Third Space
The town of Woodstock is one and a half hours from Washington, DC, in the scenic Shenandoah Valley. The cafe is right on Main Street, in the heart of the downtown. It is separated into several rooms – the main dining space and ordering counter in front, with a living room-like wine shop behind. Welcoming outside seating is placed near the parking lot.
While the cafe hosts city-based tourists, the backbone of the business is local. It serves as a space for meetings and celebrations. For a group of a dozen community elders, gathering there each day is an important part of their routine.
These local people rallied around the café during the pandemic. Regulars ordered curbside delivery and special take and bake dinners with Alverado’s homemade pasta, helping the café keep half of its staff employed. It was a great vote of confidence that might not have happened in an urban setting.
Supportive community goes two ways. Grant said, “We could be in any city, and we chose to be out here.”
Special care is taken by Chef Jose, who specializes in handmade pasta. A neighboring bakery provides a selection of pastries. (Photo courtesy Woodstock Café)
Thanks to reader Amanda Richardson who recommended we feature the Woodstock Cafe. She wrote, “Getting so much flavor and fun in this small town is a wonderful treat!”
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