Review 2010 Fall Dining Guide By Tom Sietsema Sunday, October 17, 2010 Few restaurants bridge old and new better than the Ashby Inn in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The property dates to 1829, but dinner delivers a taste of today, starting with a snack of airy crackers, perhaps spiced as if they were Buffalo wings, and concluding with black chunks of chocolate sponge cake supported by toasted cumin-flavored marshmallows. Tarver King is an imaginative chef with an artistic streak, partial to arranging his food -- heirloom tomato chunks and a snow globe of burrata fenced in with tuiles of bread; miso-braised pork shoulder and steamed jasmine rice tingling with lime -- in delicious rows on its plates. But he never forsakes flavor for gimmicks and always treats accompaniments as if they were centerpieces: Lemony spaeztle is as much a treat as the crisp rockfish it supports. All of the intimate dining rooms are welcoming, although warm weather typically finds me outside on the flagstone terrace, and the underground tap room with fireplace calls to me in winter. (In a triumph for line-weary females, the inn's restrooms are marked "Women" and "Men and Women.") The upstairs provides reasons to linger, provided you plan ahead: six romantic guest rooms.
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