Virginia’s expanding dining landscape now includes three current or planned Buc-ee’s locations, but the commonwealth’s strangest meals are found inside a bank vault, a 10-stool diner and an 18th-century tavern.
These five restaurants turn a meal into something considerably more memorable.
Spacebar in Falls Church
Spacebar is a dark, science-fiction-inspired beer bar devoted almost entirely to grilled cheese sandwiches.
The Falls Church restaurant describes itself as a “beer bar and grilled cheese emporium.” Its menu transforms an elementary-school lunch into dozens of combinations involving different cheeses, meats, vegetables, sauces and breads.
Tater tots complete the experience, while a rotating craft-beer selection gives adults considerably more choice than they had in the school cafeteria.
Spacebar is small, dim and unapologetically quirky. It is also restricted to customers 21 and older for dine-in service, making it one of the few places where an adult can pair a carefully selected beer with an entire meal built around grilled cheese.
FOODE in Fredericksburg
FOODE occupies Fredericksburg’s historic National Bank Building, but it did not remove every feature left behind by the previous tenant.
The old bank vault became one of the restaurant’s dining areas.
The vault’s heavy door and thick walls remain visible, allowing a small group of guests to eat inside the type of room once designed to protect money and important documents.
FOODE serves modern Southern comfort food emphasizing regional ingredients. That polished menu creates an amusing contrast with the intimidating steel surrounding the vault table.
Reservations do not automatically guarantee vault seating, so diners hoping to be locked in with brunch should request it in advance.
Texas Tavern in Roanoke
Texas Tavern claims that it can seat 1,000 people—10 at a time.
That is because the entire Roanoke institution contains only 10 counter stools. Customers sit almost directly beside the tiny cooking area as employees prepare burgers, hot dogs, chili and the restaurant’s signature Cheesy Western.
That sandwich combines a hamburger patty, fried egg, cheese, onions, pickles and sweet relish on a soft bun.
The family-owned restaurant opened in 1930 and has remained remarkably resistant to modernization. Its small size, cash-only tradition and direct counter service make visiting feel like entering an earlier version of downtown Roanoke.
Texas Tavern’s weirdness comes from how little it has changed.
The Floyd Country Store in Floyd
The Floyd Country Store cannot decide whether it is a restaurant, music venue, dance hall, gift shop or old-fashioned general store.
Fortunately, it does not have to choose.
The café serves Brunswick stew, pinto beans, cornbread, sandwiches and homemade desserts. Shelves near the dining area contain old-fashioned candy, clothing, music and locally made products.
Then the musicians arrive.
The weekly Friday Night Jamboree brings gospel, bluegrass and old-time string bands to the stage. Customers dance inside, while additional musicians sometimes gather in nearby alleys and parking lots during warm weather.
Dinner may begin with a bowl of stew and end with an impromptu Appalachian music festival.
Michie Tavern near Charlottesville
Michie Tavern allows guests to eat lunch as though the past 240 years never happened.
The tavern was established in 1784 and later moved to its current location near Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Servers in period clothing offer Southern food inside rustic dining rooms furnished to evoke an 18th-century tavern.
The midday meal includes fried chicken, pork barbecue, black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes and buttermilk biscuits. An adjoining pub serves Virginia beer, wine and cider in the oldest section of the building.
Michie Tavern is part restaurant, part museum and part historical performance.
It may be Virginia’s only place where asking for another helping of fried chicken feels like participating in living history.
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