Virginia Kitchens, Restaurants, and Food in May

Food in Virginia in May

This is the first of two posts about food and kitchens in May, 2025. We had such a busy month that I had to break my usual wrap-up post into two parts: tomorrow will be a post about Ann Arbor kitchens and dining. During our trip to Fairfax and Charlottesville to attend Alice’s college graduation, we ate many good things. Here are a few examples.

Restaurant food: a steak at our graduation celebration in Charlottesville.

Brunch at a favorite Cuban diner: huevos ranchros.

Back in Fairfax: dinner at Evelyn’s. Salad, quinoa, bread…

… and the main course: trout.

Evelyn’s fried Gabriella brought us Armenian apricot leather.

Tom’s crab cakes in the refrigerator!

Bonus: Murals

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry and Sami.

Graduates

A Few More Graduation Photos

The family at Alice’s graduation, 2025.

Alice and her balloon in the graduation procession.

Just before the procession began.

Memories: Miriam’s Graduation in 2023

Balloons were just as popular two years ago!

We were not as close to the procession during Miriam’s graduation.

The family in 2023.

New Photo on Display

Old Photo Recreated

On our last day in Fairfax, Evelyn’s friend Gabriella arrived from Berlin for a visit before she attends a workshop next week. We were recalling many times we have visited with her, and they recreated one of them that was taken in 2014 at the Brandenburg Gate.

 Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Sunday Brunch

Waiting for a table.

Evelyn tries the rocking horse.

At the table: Jacob and his family and our family.

Driving back to Faifax

A stop at the Moo Thru Ice Cream Stand.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Celebration Dinner and Saturday Night Party

 Dinner at Orzo Restaurant

The graduate, her parents, and her sister.

After attending three graduation ceremonies (the general one, the mathematics one, and the computer science one) we enjoyed a celebratory Saturday might dinner at a very nice restaurant called Orzo. 

We are now (Monday) spending a day in Fairfax on the way back home, but I have a couple more blog posts about the weekend that I’ll continue with for a while.

Appetizers

Grilled Asparagus.

Green Gazpacho.

Main Courses

Grilled Swordfish.

Coffee-braised Lamb Shank.

Grilled NY Sirloin.

This was my delicious steak.

Desserts

Olive Oil and Rosemary Cake.

Tiramisu.

Mango Sorbet.

In the Restaurant

The kitchen.

Graduation Party

The party had begun with a taco truck, but we had been at Orzo during this time.