1799 at The Clifton Awards

1799 at The Clifton Restaurant Review:

Try and conjure a more idyllic setting than a firefly-lit terrace imbued with Southern charm, its Blue Ridge location heightening your appetite. Add contemporary cuisine and you’ll find any attempt futile. Indulge in Chesapeake Bay crab and avocado salad or braised pork shoulder with crispy grit cake, broccoli rabe and roasted apple jus from a seasonal, local-minded menu where most of the vegetables hail from the large garden amongst the Inn’s 100 lush acres. Of course, the indoor environs are appealing, too, with a dining room at once classic and modern. Service is warm, knowledgeable and refined. There’s even a wine cellar, home to the bottles on the Inn’s wine list, for intimate, private parties. Could it get better? Yes. If all you have to do after dinner’s end (apple clafoutis with house-made salted caramel ice cream) is climb the stairs to one of the Inn’s tastefully appointed guest rooms.