Cozy Toliver House offers fine cuisine

Barboursville’s Toliver House offers fine dining in an elegant atmosphere.

Date published: 12/8/2005

For THE FREE LANCE–STAR

She: Soft lighting from a well-polished chandelier glowed down upon wine-colored walls and burnished hardwood floors. Black-and-white clad servers with enviable posture tended to tables laden with snowy linen and sparkling stemware. Spacious windows were hung with festive, old-fashioned Christmas wreaths.

On a recent visit, the only immediately obvious clues that we were in a 21st-century restaurant rather than a well-run salon of the 1800s were patrons’ reindeer- and Santa-themed sweaters, the kind favored by those merry and mysterious souls who finish their Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving.

He: Toliver House, once a Main Street dining mainstay in Gordonsville, had stood empty, forlorn and fading into genteel poverty, when new owner Vicky Castegren stepped up to the plate last spring. After a history-conscious refurbishment, the two-story, 19th-century structure, originally a residence, emerged a freshly groomed grande dame enjoying a new incarnation.

The three dining areas reflect the proportions of Victorian parlors, lending an air of intimacy. There is also a barroom for more casual dining, and in warmer temperatures dining is available at a half-dozen tables on the screened-in, wraparound front porch.

We have long been followers of chef Jonathan Hayward, a veteran of Charlottesville’s Escafé and C&O, and Orange’s Firehouse Café, and we were delighted to learn that he is now in charge of the kitchen at Toliver House.

She: We arrived on a frosty December evening and were grateful to discover that the Victorian ambience did not include period-authentic drafts.

I studied the concise, but not minimalist, wine list, and having settled on fish for an entrée, decided to have a little fun with our attentive server. I mentioned trout and pointed to a dusky grape on the list. Without pause, she smiled warmly and said, “Oh, that’s very good. If you like reds.”

There is a special place in heaven for servers who know how to steer a wine selection without being unctuous or smarmy. I settled in with my actual choice, a crisp and breezy 2004 Barboursville Pinot Grigio (glass, $6).

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Date published: 12/8/2005