Dining in Luray - Uncle Bucks Baby Back Ribs!!!

It is amazing the number of people who visit Luray Caverns each year and miss the Town of Luray entirely.  The Caverns does a great job of telling the world what they will discover at the Caverns, but there is a whole town here just waiting for you to discover it as well.  You need to know that the Town hosts the local Visitor's Information Center,  restaurants, movie and live theater, two fine galleries, gift, antique and what-have-you shops all just waiting to be discovered by those who do not know the Town exists.  So, when you visit Luray Caverns, do keep an eye out for signs pointing toward the Town of Luray and take a turn down the road into beautiful small town America, a Town that will remind you of Norman Rockwell, visits to Grand Ma's and a time when folks waved at every car passing because they were sure they must know the folks driving past and did not want to hurt their feelings. 
I'm always given pause when a guest asks for recommendations on where to eat while in Luray.  We have one upscale restaurant...Artisan's Grill...and several much less formal choices.  But when someone asks about baby back ribs, I always have a ready answer: "You'll get the best ribs in town at Uncle Buck's and the slab is huge!"
Uncle Buck's is one of the Norman Rockwell eateries in Town that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner...including prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights...and, amazingly for this far into the 21st Century, sports one bar for smokers and another for those who don't. Stop by Uncle Buck's for a quick snack or a full meal.  But if you are looking for good ribs, make a beeline for Uncle Buck's.  The slab is longer and has more meat than any slab I've encountered anywhere else in several years now.  It usually comes slathered with BBQ sauce, so make sure you ask for it on the side if you want less sauce.  No matter, you'll soon be enjoying the moist, fall-off-the-bone meat with your choice of sides...and busy depleting the extra napkins to keep the sauce out of your ears.  As you can tell, I like their ribs.  Before I went on the newest version of Atkins, I could put a pretty heavy dent in a slab of Uncle Buck's ribs!  Now that I've been on Atkins for a while, I've found I can get two meals out of one slab and control the carb-reinforced sauce by getting it on the side. 
So, the bottom line is, if you head to Luray Caverns, make sure you save time to discover the Town of Luray!  It is only a mile from the Caverns parking lot, but easy enough to miss because the 4-lane bypass eases you right on past the Town.  Come make a great discovery...the beautiful Town of Luray and Uncle Buck's baby back ribs!  And of course, if you are headed in this direction, get a reservation with us here at South Court Inn and enjoy a great night's sleep on memory foam mattresses and soft-as-silk bedding, topped only by our great breakfast at 9AM each morning.  See you soon, Tom

Dining In Luray: The Artisans Grill

When last I spoke with you, it was about enjoying a picnic at one of the tables set up in the Luray Greenway Park, which borders the banks of the Hawksbill Creek here in Luray, VA. Remember??? Downtown Luray, VA, is only a mile from the world famous Luray Caverns. You see the Caverns on TV, hear about them on the radio and visit the area to enjoy nature all year long. Well, it is now time for you to plan a getaway to Luray so you can de-stress from all pressure at work, the white-knuckle commute on the Beltway and the planned-down-to the-minute schedule that so often takes over our lives.

Of course, the first thing we want you to do is to pick up the phone and make a reservation for your favorite room or the Susie Hodges Cottage at South Court Inn. We'll be happy to schedule a masseuse to come in and massage all those knots in your calf or across your shoulders. Or, we'll steam up a pot of tea for you to enjoy on the front porch or a wing-back in the living room. Or, we'll leave you to your own devices to retreat, relax and enjoy doing absolutely nothing. No matter what you do, you will, sooner or later, want to know about dining in Luray, VA. So, this first of many blog posts will talk about the varied landscape of dining available to you here in Luray.

So this time I want you to know about the Artisans Grill, 2 East Main Street, Luray, VA, 22835. Artisans Grill is not just a good place to eat, but a great re-purposing of an old Art Deco building. Enjoy a sandwich for lunch or later and dinner from 5PM Wednesday through Monday. Note that comment about them being open on Mondays and look forward to a hearty welcome and service on what can sometimes be a hard day to find dinner in Town. They pride themselves on using local produce as much as possible and the natural, grass-fed beef that stars in their burgers and steaks. Artisans Grill offers a great selection of sandwiches and sides, any of which they will happily pack as a picnic meal you can enjoy at one of the tables in the Hawkbill Greenway Park, only about 50 yards from the Grill. The dinner menu features a good selection of American fare...crab cakes, grilled salmon, grilled steaks, even game every once in a while...all with something to match from the wine or beer list...or, OK...OK...iced tea, water and soft drinks.

Whether for lunch or dinner, here is a vegan alert! If you like grilled portobello mushrooms, then you will love the grilled protobello sandwich served from lunch 'til closing. It is one of my favorites and I have a hard time getting past ordering it whenever I stop there. Come dinner time, however, the grilled protobello is also offered as a dinner entree. If you'll allow me to stretch you imagination just a bit, I'll say that it is a large portobello Napoleon centered on a base of salad. The portobello is grilled to perfection, then filled with layer upon layer of grilled onions, soft, fresh mozzarella and roasted sweet red pepper. The dressing adds the touch of tartness so important to obtaining good depth and complexity of flavors. Anyway, whether you are a vegetarian or steak lover, you'll love the deep flavors and hunger-quenching texture this plate offers at the end of the day...and it is right here in Downtown Luray, only 90 minutes from the Beltway and a mile from world famous Luray Caverns!

Dining In Luray: German Cuisine at A Moment to Remember

Here's another great Luray restaurant we hope you will seek out and enjoy when visiting beautiful down-town Luray, VA.  Remember we are only 90 miles from the DC metro area, but a whole world away from the stress and demands of Beltway living!

There was a time not too long ago...when the wall was up...and our guards were up...and when Check Point Charlie was recognizable round the world...a time when rounding just about any corner in West Berlin meant encountering a wurst vendor's cart where the offering included, among other things, curry wurst:  a done-just-right sausage steeped in a curry sauce and then slathered with the sauce and add- your-own mustard to make a memorable sausage sandwich right there on the sidewalk.

Well, the wall is gone, our guards eye a different horizon and Charlie is hardly more memorable than the faint perfume of bygone years and us youngsters shagging into the wee hours to Beach and Motown music.  But for those who long for a-moment-in-time-rememberance of that strange concoction, melded together in an isolated-multicultural-city-caldron, there is curry wurst...and a lot more German fare to enjoy...only 90 minutes from the Beltway and one mile from world famous Luray Caverns...right here at A Moment to Remember, 55 Mains Street, Luray, VA.  22835.!!!

How strange as I sit down to write today that I feel the urge to stream my thoughts and talk about food through a looking glass of nostalgia, sensing the slow infusion of memories of Germany and the plates loaded with home-fries, with tight-bound  pork shoulder and hot, steaming wursts weeping hints of the taste delights to come.  Perhaps it is the thought of the connection between the buildings that are now home to A Moment to Remember and South Court Inn:  both built by the same man, both now re-purposed to other lives and views of different horizons.  Whatever it be, do plan on enjoying the years' ago decoration of this old building...the the pressed tin ceilings, the dark, oak, service counter of the 1880s, a counter which saw many a bag of nails and screws cross on their way to other habitats in Town...the large bank of drawers and cubbies that were the transient homes where nails and screws and hinges and clips and hardware rested until called to duty, waiting to be wrapped in newspaper or placed in bags to ease the transition.  Do plan a visit because you'll enjoy John and Elka Thomas' third-career adventure and good German fare to boot.  Do plan on having dinner at A Moment to Remember because the food is good!  Do plan on having dinner at A Moment to Remember because we need to reward folks who will come to Luray and offer good ethnic food to a meat and potatoes palate.  Do plan on dinner at A Moment to Remember! 

As usual, Anita and I have to head it two different directions.  She seems to always take the road opposite mine and enjoys one of the schnitzels...smokey mushrooms, tender pork, browned here and there...a slice of ham, perhaps...or a fried egg...all topped with brown gravy...and sidled up to by just cooked, blond spatzle and sweet-tart red cabbage.  I, on the other hand, have to ride hard on the right and chase memories of those bygone wursts from grill to platter to table.  Hard by I want strong mustard, dill-infused potato salad, red cabbage and reisling or Spaten, or Haker Pschoor or Grolsch even.  On other evenings, Elke makes it harder to choose our favorite, whether the schnitzel or wursts, by offerings of sauerbraten or rouladen.  Both are good; do plan on having dinner at A Moment to Remember.

And, then too, do plan on stopping with us here in Luray, VA, at South Court Inn.  We'll offer a quiet location for the two of you to burrow and enjoy memories of things past, of the sights and sounds that tip your automatic response recall into overdrive and release the mental flow of ease and joy.  Do plan to stay at South Court Inn and when you do and when you ask, we'll tell you that you do need to plan on having dinner at A Moment to Remember.