Another Great Eatery

by Jeanne Mozier

"I can't believe there's a restaurant this good in West Virginia," said my father who's always considered the state a wasteland for the finer things in life. Drawing on past visits, I'd told him about the excellent gourmet food at Lot 12, but my words didn't count.

Celebrating its first anniversary in mid-August, Lot 12 Public House is a prize addition to eating in Berkeley Springs. Now visitors can come for a weekend and have an excellent dining experience without having to eat at Tari's Cafe every night. Choice and variety are good and enhance our reputation. In fact, one visiting Charleston honcho told our State Delegate that she now considered two of the three best restaurants in the state to be in Berkeley Springs. That's the kind of attention we want from the capital.

Unlike most gourmet restaurants that describe their food as contemporary and create designs on the plate with their sauces, Lot 12 is appetite satisfying. Even my husband, Jack, was able to take home a doggy bag -- after he cleaned up remnants from all our plates.

My father was initially pleased with the perfection of his dry martini, an essential characteristic for him to consider a restaurant first rate. Then came the gazpacho with a green side and an orange side to the bowl of the cold soup. He proclaimed the light smoky taste of roasted quail on parmesan garlic mashed potatoes excellent and enjoyed the cheesecake he had for dessert. It's the chef's specialty and proclaimed by many as the best ever. He was even impressed with the tiny scoop of homemade tangerine sherbert that appeared as a palate cleanser -- called intermezzo on the menu -- between the appetizer and entree.

The rest of the summer menu was also interesting and tasty. Appetizers ranged from goat cheese medallions and toasted gnocchis to grilled venison sausage. My garlic marinated shrimp appetizer was grilled perfectly. The entree selection had something for everyone from sesame seared tuna to a completely organic risotto as well as roasted duck with bourbon sauce, beef and chicken dishes. I found my veal scaloppini with country ham very full-flavored while Jack's double cut pork chop was succulent and at least three inches thick.

If there is any complaint to be made, it's related to price. Some whine about the charge of $1 per basket for additional bread -- served with peppered extra virgin olive oil flavored with rosemary as the trend demands. This is not a place for those on a limited budget although you can stuff yourself for under $50 if you ignore the alluring wine list and microbrews -- a bargain when compared with city restaurants of similar type. We never even flinched at the tab since Dad paid it.

The ambiance of Lot 12 matches well with the food. The two dining rooms and wrap-around porch in the restored 1913 house perched behind a white picket fence are simple and elegant, offering a feel different than anyplace else in town. Seating is arranged so that even when full, as it was on the Saturday night we were there, the noise level is at best, subdued. Try as I might, I could not overhear a single nearby conversation. Fortunately, the other diners were all tourists so I wasn't missing any hot local gossip.

The soft cream walls trimmed with dark wood molding and dividers are hung with the art of Jan and Jonathan Heath, arguably the premier painter and printmaker in this art town. The art has a very direct connection with the restaurant. The Heath's are parents of the chef, Damian, and proclaim themselves "very pleased and proud" of his efforts.

Damian's return to Berkeley Springs in triumph is an interesting sociological phenomenon. We non-natives in Morgan County have often wondered what would happen when our second generation began reaching adulthood. Would they stay or set out for livelier surroundings? In Damian's case, he did both. After finishing Berkeley Springs High School, he spent a couple years in college then engaged in a pilgrimage of cooking that ranged from the famous Baltimore International Culinary College and a stint in Europe to various cheffing stops in the Carolinas. While at the Yellow Brick Bank in Shepherdstown he met and married the lovely Betsy who also hails from the Eastern Panhandle. The couple answered their destiny and returned to Berkeley Springs from North Carolina when the ideal house came up for sale.

In addition to his acclaimed cheesecake, Damian is passionate about olive oil, garlic, and fresh local ingredients. Betsy tends a garden in the front yard that provides some of the latter.

Calling the restaurant Lot 12 is very Generation X, a group that I find partial to names filled with numbers and symbols. It is also historic, being the number of restaurant's lot on the original 1776 plat of the town of Bath -- the official name of Berkeley Springs.

Rave reviews from various newspapers including the Washington Post, and Lot 12's selection as USA Today's West Virginia "plate" for its gourmet ramp dish, may draw people who want to see if it's really "worth the drive from Washington" as one writer claimed. Yet, it's the fact that Damian, Betsy and their team of servers can deliver on the promise that has guaranteed them success in their first year in a business notorious for failure.

Reservations are recommended for Lot 12 which is open only for dinner, Wednesday trhough Sunday. Call 258-6264 and try it for yourself. If my father didn't believe me, why should you?