In 1978, Patrick O’Connell converted a late-1890s garage in Washington, Virginia, into a restaurant. The town had fewer than 200 residents. The nearest major city, Washington, D.C., was an hour and a half away. By any reasonable measure, it was not a promising location for a fine-dining destination. Yet over the following decades, O’Connell transformed it into The Inn at Little Washington, one of the world’s most recognized culinary institutions. The property has earned two Michelin stars, along with the Double Forbes Five-Star and Double AAA Five Diamond distinctions, making it the only property in the Washington metropolitan area to hold both simultaneously.
The Inn today bears little resemblance to the garage where it started, though the address is the same. O’Connell says the restaurant initially felt like an extension of his home, a small farm where he raised much of the food he ate. “In those first years, we did everything ourselves. There was no infrastructure behind us, so we had to be resourceful about everything from foraging ingredients to creating the dining room to luring diners from Washington, D.C.” O’Connell began building relationships with local farmers and producers, many of which became instrumental to The Inn’s growth. As the restaurant developed a following, diners began asking if they could stay overnight, prompting him to gradually add guest rooms. Today, he owns approximately 60 percent of the town and is the largest employer in Rappahannock County. Looking back, he says, “The improbability about beginning in a former garage is a charming part of the legend today. It’s living proof that the improbable is still possible in America.”
The Inn has grown into what might best be described as a culinary campus. The property’s organic garden and farm supply produce directly to the kitchen, a relationship between land and plate that has been central to O’Connell’s philosophy long before farm-to-table became a marketing phrase. The main building houses 24 rooms and suites, along with the flagship dining rooms, bar, solarium, and reception. The surrounding grounds include a pond, organic garden, chicken coop, a new outdoor pool, and walking paths.
Several historic structures around town, including the Mayor’s House, Gamekeepers Cottage, and Claiborne House, have been converted into private accommodations. A newer cottage, the Cardinal’s Room, was named in honor of the first Relais & Châteaux property in France and decorated as a tribute to Virginia’s state bird. It has become one of the property’s most sought-after bookings. Across the accommodations, rooms and suites are named for American culinary pioneers and feature an English-country aesthetic designed by London stage and set designer Joyce Evans. Guests receive a welcome cocktail, continental breakfast, umbrellas, bicycle rentals, and a guaranteed dining reservation each evening.
The dining program is the property’s gravitational center, with the flagship restaurant serving a prix-fixe menu of refined American cuisine in an elegant setting of rose-colored silk lampshades and tapestried walls. The restaurant offers three menus, starting with Enduring Classics, which features signature dishes such as the butter poached Maine lobster. Here and Now highlights seasonal dishes, many built around ingredients grown on the property, while a third menu focuses entirely on vegetarian cuisine. O’Connell explains the philosophy behind the menus. “A restaurant has to continually reinvent itself while maintaining a thread of continuity. Every time a guest comes, there should be something familiar and something that surprises them.”
The 14,000-bottle wine cellar draws from Bordeaux, Burgundy, California, and Virginia, with a sommelier team whose role O’Connell has described as playing matchmaker between the guest and the wine. Across the street from the main building, Patty O’s offers a more casual but still elevated dining experience with a bar and an attached bakery and coffee shop. The Inn’s ballroom accommodates private dinners for up to 30 guests and receptions for up to 90, and the Claiborne House can be configured for small corporate retreats with its own private garden. Afternoon tea, served in the conservatory with an extensive globally inspired tea selection and carefully prepared accompaniments, is the recommended way to arrive and orient yourself before the evening begins.
The Inn recently introduced several new experiences for guests, including individual and group cooking classes, sourdough baking classes, oenology courses and Scotch, cheese and water tastings. The daily afternoon goose walk with farmer Andy remains one of the property’s most beloved traditions. Plans are underway for a spa and winery. Rappahannock County also offers a range of outdoor activities, from hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing and canoeing to hot-air balloon rides and visits to local vineyards.
O’Connell has received a lifetime achievement award from the James Beard Foundation and a National Humanities Medal for raising the culinary arts to new heights and championing local farmers. Now 80, O’Connell just released his first memoir, Main, Middle & Gay, a project he describes as eight decades in the making. For guests who know The Inn, he hopes the book offers a glimpse into the story behind the restaurant and its rooms. “They may be familiar with the food and the rooms, but the book will introduce them to the improbable story and some of the colorful characters who have shaped the drama.” Above all, he hopes readers come away inspired and reminded that “good things don’t happen without a lot of persistence and struggle.”
The book’s title refers to the three streets that intersect where The Inn began, which feels fitting for a story so closely tied to one small town and one person’s decision to build something there against the odds. As The Inn at Little Washington prepares to mark its 50th anniversary in 2028, O’Connell continues to see the property as a work in progress. “I have always regarded The Inn as an unfinished canvas which seems to keep expanding. When it appears almost finished, you realize there is still much more to paint.”
