Adventure Brewing at Eagle Village will open for business on January 11, bringing its award-winning craft brews to a second location in Fredericksburg.

“We have been looking at locations for a very long time since Adventure South closed, with the landlord not wanting to renew the lease. We still wanted to have a presence in the Fredericksburg area,” said co-owner Russ Patishnock.

Adventure Brewing South, the second location the brewery Adventure’s opened, was located at 3300 Dill Smith Drive in Fredericksburg, closed on March 1, 2019.

Patishnock said that their location near the University of Mary Washington wasn’t the driving force to choose that location.

“Yeah, we’re by a college but that’s not really a driving factor. You have to be legal to drink so all our servers will be ‘SafeServ’ trained for alcohol to make sure everyone is the appropriate age to drink.”

“We’ve been inside about 20 different spaces and it really comes down to traffic location and price per square foot. One of the things we like about this location is that it’s on a main highway in an area not being serviced by a brewery,” Patishnock said.

Adventure Brewing first brewery opened in May 2014, remains open, and is located at 33 Perchwood Drive, #101 in Stafford County.

Award-Winning Craft Offerings

Adventure Brewing has won several honors at the Virginia Craft Brewers Festival. Their Scotch Ale won the gold medal and their Wicked Nymph brought home the bronze medal.

For their grand opening, they expect to have four flavors of hard seltzers on tap including their Tsunami Whitewater and Strawberry Lemonade Whitewater. They will also serve a selection of their non-seasonal beers including Fred Red Ale, Expedition IPA and Stiletto Stout.

“People say they don’t like beer then they start tasting craft beer products and realize it’s a good product. You can spend $6 to $8 on a good quality craft beer and have great discussions here,” Patishnock said.

The new location opens at 1113 Jefferson Davis Highway.

Dark Star Saloon & Cafe serves fresh farm-to-fork, gourmet food in a casual environment. 

 

• “It’s really truly a family restaurant, run by a young family. I want people to understand that they don’t have to literally come to a place that’s super high-end, like [The Inn at] Little Washington is super high-end fine dining. I want people to get the same type of product but in an environment, they’re not used to getting it in,” said Krystopher Scott, owner and executive chef of Dark Star Saloon & Cafe.

• “Our veggies change based on what we get at the farmer’s market…All the herbs come from the garden around the building, a lot of the meat comes from the butcher’s shop in town. We are starting to source out to other farms for different items,” Scott said.

 

Scott runs the restaurant in Fredericksburg along with his girlfriend, Kendyl Morgan and both have worked in the restaurant industry for their entire careers. 

• Scott is the executive chef and owner while Morgan is the front of the house manager, bartender, herb gardener and creative mind behind their mimosa menu.
  

 

• “When it was time for me to get a job…I set off on foot to look for a job and found myself in a place called Corky’s. On my lunch breaks, I’d go to Spanky’s. I started helping my friends out and I worked my way all the way to Augustine’s, I worked at J. Brian’s…by far my best training has come from Augustine’s from a CIA [Culinary Institute of America] chef named Abraham,” Scott said. 

 

• Morgan has always worked in restaurants as a server and now she gets to be creative and explore her passion for the restaurant business. 

 

• “I’m passionate about making sure things are fresh. I love it when people are in here and having a good time. I get to learn a lot more about hospitality but being southern it’s a tad natural,” Morgan said. 

 

For Thanksgiving, they are offering pre-cooked meals for customers to reheat at home. 

• The meals serve eight to ten guests and include one whole turkey, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, green beans, sweet mashed potatoes with sauteed granny smith apples or classic mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey gravy, “family secret” jelly, rolls homemade pie —pumpkin, apple or pecan.

They are making 70 of these packages and each package costs $300. Click or call (540) 361-1987 to order.

The restaurant is located at 303 Fauquier Street in Fredericksburg and is open for lunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and for dinner from 5 to 9 p.m.

Eavesdrop Brewery has been issued a new license from the Virginia ABC to operate as a brewpub.

• They may now serve wine, hard seltzer and cider in addition to craft beers. 

Prior to this licensing change, Eavesdrop was only able to offer its patrons craft beers with special occasions where they could serve wine, cider, and seltzer under a banquet license. 

 

• “As of this last weekend we served wine, sangria and we are working with a distributor to get cider in here. We also have a seltzer that we are planning on releasing on November 22. It is a raspberry seltzer, we are brewing that for the first time,” said Sam Madden, general manager of Eavesdrop Brewery.

• “People really like the IPAs that we have. Yorkshire IPA that’s the house beer we’ve had since we opened up. We do swap out a lot according to what our Mug Club members prefer and what our customers want,” Madden said.

 

They are also partnering with a second location of Eugene’s Sausage and Fries to bring their customers’ consistent food service. 

• Eugene’s Sausage and Fries serves gourmet sausages made with specialty meats like elk and duck along with classic hot dogs, brats and sandwiches.
  

 

• “We officially signed a lease with Eugene’s Sausage and Fries, originally located in Haymarket, will be opening right across from Eavesdrop brewery,” Madden said. 

 

 

• “They’re a separate business about 15 feet away. This will be a symbiotic relationship. Fingers crossed they will be open in a few months. They will have a full kitchen and the full menu that they offer at their first location. This is a big step for us because of the food trucks and a lot of breweries have inconsistent food because things fall through,” Madden said. 

 

The brewery offers your standard beers to include IPAs, American ales, and stouts. There’s also red ales, and a Wiki Carn Wit Beer on the menu. 

• Eavesdrop is located on Route 28 near the Prince William County/Fairfax County line at 7223 Centreville Road.

• It’s partially hidden behind some larger buildings, so you’ll need to look for it if you’ve not been there before. 

Rep. Rob Wittman(R-1st District) joined Stafford County Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton, and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam chief broadband advisor Evan Feinman, discuss the way ahead for getting broadband access to the underserved areas of Stafford County.

• Wittman said the first hurdle is getting an accurate map of underserved regions.
• The current maps are inaccurate because all of the internet service providers have not given the information.
• The Broadband Data Improvement Act, co-sponsored by Wittman, requires broadband providers to report service availability on geolocation rather than traditional census blocks, to create an improved National Broadband Map that is significantly more accurate.
• This allows federal broadband funds to be better directed to areas that need it most,” according to the meeting agenda from Congressman Wittman’s office.

“Our job is to first make sure we have dollars at the federal level that will go into accelerating our investment in broadband. We have $600 million allocated to build out this system. The total cost of building out broadband in the U.S., it’s about $80 billion. This is not going to be the panacea that folks think it will be,” Wittman said.

“What we want to be able to do in conjunction with Stafford County, the state of Virginia, the federal government can help accelerate the investment in infrastructure,” Wittman said.

“This is critical to Virginia and critical to our economy,” said Wittman.

Universal broadband is one of Governor Northam’s top priorities.

• Feinman said that universal broadband access was essential to supporting the most vulnerable people in our state.

“Should we really go for universal coverage? Economically it’s a necessity. Socially and politically our conversation is happening online. That’s where the primary place where our culture is happening,” he said. “From a moral and equitable standpoint, some people on the most vulnerable ends of our society depend on it.”

Linking up every underserved portion of the state would cost between $900 million and $1.5 billion, said Feinman.

• The pot of money for broadband grants in 2019 is $19 million.

“That’s not all state dollars — that’s state, federal, local and private dollars,” Feinman added.

Stafford County has already applied for grant funds to expand broadband to the most underserved areas in the county include Marlborough Point, Widewater, and Aquia Creek .

• The proposal involves erecting new towers on telephone poles, using fixed 5G to reach 727 homes.
• Plans also include broadband service to the new Widewater State Park.
• If Stafford County receives state grant funding, broadband customers in the new service areas can expect high-speed internet within about a year of the project initiation.

“Most areas will be able to get 100 to 500 Mbps download speeds and 20 to 50 Mbps upload speeds. The total ask [in the grant] is 857,000. It’s a total of $1.1 million dollar project. Within a year of receiving the grant, the project should be complete,” said Stafford County Chief Technology Officer Micheal Cannon.

The county will know by December if it will get the grant.

The broadband meeting took place Thursday, Oct. 3 at Stafford Hospital.

Jack’s Pumpkin Glow, a family-friendly Halloween event, is creating an enormous display of over 1,000 expertly carved pumpkins at Lake Fairfax Park. 

 “Guests can expect to be transported into a pumpkin wonderland that features over 5,000 hand-carved jack o’ lanterns. Jack’s Pumpkin Glow brings the Halloween spirit to life that everyone can enjoy,” said Vice President of The Glow Shannon Donnelly,in an email.

“Guests will see larger than life pumpkin sculptures of dinosaurs, motorcycles, and flowers, along with other beautiful pieces. They can also expect to see carvings of their favorite characters from princesses to superheroes to classic Halloween creatures,” Donnely said.

They carve over 1,000 pumpkins weekly so there are always fresh pumpkins. 

• Pumpkin carvers continue to carve out new designs throughout the month of October.
• There are several master carvers who carve pumpkins live during the event. 

“We have the same designs our patrons can see each week, we have a lot of new scenes this year for Lake Fairfax, like our giant pumpkin tower, our 15-foot tall pumpkin lighthouse, and some of the most famous paintings, like the Mona Lisa, pumpkinized,” said Donnelly.

“We have several live carvers, Angelito Baban has won national carving competitions in both ice and pumpkins. Rachel O’Neil is one of our new artists, who specializes in painting and sculpting. So, they both bring different techniques to our creations,” said Donnelly.

Organizers suggest that guests wear appropriate attire for the weather, as the event takes place outdoors.  

• The event opens for the weekend starting Thursday, October 3rd and will run every weekend in October. 
• Tickets range between $17 and $28 per person.
• Lake Fairfax Park is located at 1400 Lake Fairfax Drive in Reston. 
• For more information: glowpumpkin.com/washington-dc.

Editors note: Potomac Local Parents is a monthly column that looks at life through the eyes of real parents. Do you know of a parent we should feature? Send us their contact information and we’ll contact them.

This month, we interview Reyner.

How many children do you have and what are their ages?

We have five wonderful daughters: Sarah Elizabeth (8), Laura Ann (6), Emily Jane (5), Hannah Grace (2), and Abigail Joy (8 mo). We also have two precious boys who could not be carried to term: Jonathan Reyner and Nathan Daniel. The boys are buried in my plot at Quantico National Cemetery (Gina and I are both veterans of the United States Marine Corps).

Describe your career in a nutshell.

I am a CPA, licensed in Virginia and working for a “Big Four” public accounting firm. I specialize in managing large program transformation projects. As they say, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree – Mom and Dad are both Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in Missouri. Dad is a university professor, and mom is an accountant for a midwestern telecommunications company.

What are your top 3 tips for balancing a career and parenthood?

Work when you’re at work; don’t work when you’re at home. In an increasingly interconnected world, many people are distracted at work and unproductive, finishing the day accomplishing little and then being forced to take work home.

On a related note, telework and mobile devices have done much to provide flexible options to working moms and dads, but have also done much to allow parents to work “24/7,” if things are allowed to get out of balance. Of course, finding your rhythm is the key.

The point is, focus on work at the office, and focus on family at home.

Choose when your family gets to spend time with you each day, and keep to the schedule. I try to give my kids an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening at roughly the same times each day.

Schedule family events on your calendar like you would schedule anything else that is important. Don’t let anything hinder you from keeping those appointments.

How do you tackle any important project at work?

You carefully budget the most valuable, unrecoverable asset, time. Every good business person knows there are 1,440 minutes in a day, and one who recognizes that minutes wasted are never recovered will carefully plan how they are spent.

If an important project requires time invested to be successful, why do we believe our families are different? Successful marriages and the turning out of well-adjusted children both require time, and you must make the investment.

What do you like to do for family fun time?

The kids are at an age where simple things are fun. That means playing hide-and-go-seek, tag, the kiddie pool in the yard, sprinklers, catching bugs, board games, etc. We also love riding bikes and camping.

What’s your best piece of advice for new parents?

Love your children. Love compensates for many mistakes, and no parent is perfect. I have Psalm 127 written in the front of my family journal, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it…” Read the Bible every morning and evening, and pray for your spouse and children often. Wisdom comes from above, and parenting requires all the wisdom you can get.

What’s your favorite book?

The Bible, as a guide and compass for life.

Beyond that, we love Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan) and have lately been working our way through the Laura Ingalls Wilder series with much excitement in the evenings before bedtime.

With our second daughter already being named Laura, we simply substitute the names of Laura’s Ingalls’ sisters with the names of our other daughters, and the girls seem to get a thrill from imagining themselves in an early-American setting.

What do you like to do in your free time for fun?

When I was seven years old, Dad bought 80 acres for us to enjoy, and I couldn’t stay inside; this meant I read very little. Now I’m trying to make up for lost time – I love to read. Beyond that, anything outdoors – with fishing at the top of the list.

How do you handle things at work when unexpected things pop up with children, like multiple rounds of illness or snow days?

Probably like anyone, you make it work. The key is to communicate and set expectations with colleagues in a timely manner. If I need to make a last-minute adjustment to my work schedule, I try to plan how objectives will still be achieved on time, but by alternative means.

With the kids being young and us deciding to homeschool, my wife cares for the children full-time, which provides coverage for almost anything. When necessary, my job has been flexible, and I have been careful to honor that flexibility by only requesting it when absolutely necessary.

As a manager of large projects, I have made it a point to be especially understanding of single-parents. When snow days or sick days come, I make the accommodation without question, and employees usually honor that by ensuring nothing gets dropped.

STAFFORD COUNTY — — Residents of Marlborough Point and parts of Widewater will now have access to broadband Internet service provided by KGI Communications, LLC. The King George County-based firm is the first company to offer high-speed broadband to this area of Stafford County.

Who can get service and how?

Currently, this service is available to “those within the MP [Marlboro Point] area from Potomac Overlook to the water, and Widewater, on the water near Simms Point area and a small area around,” said KGI Communications President Michele Wido.

“KGI is a wireless internet service provider who uses Airfiber to provide superfast broadband with no throttling and unlimited usage. According to survey data, there was no true high-speed broadband, only satellite, and some areas could get hot spots,” Wido said.

They offer several business packages ranging from $125 per month to $400 per month.

For household service, they offer several service options. They offer both month-to-month and 2-year contract options. Packages range from $150 to $200  for contract plans and $5 more per month for month-to-month service.

To determine eligibility or sign up, residents can call 540-709-7070, email [email protected] or visit their website. 

The road to broadband and what lies ahead

“KGI resorted to a standard commercial project and installed an antenna and equipment on a King George County tower that would send signals across the water into Stafford.  It is definitely not the bigger solution designed which would have served all of Marlboro Point as it can reach only about a third. Basically, if you can see the tower you are in!” Stafford County Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton stated in an email. 

Late last year, Stafford County applied for a grant to help fund the expansion of broadband services to the Marlborough Point and Widewater areas, from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Telecommunications Initiative. However, it did not receive any grant funds. 

“The project was scaled back to only those who came to our Aquia Roundtable [a monthly meeting hosted by Shelton for her constituents] and signed up or who contacted KGI directly. Since the supplier doesn’t require contracts, individuals pay more upfront to ensure that they will remain,” said Shelton.

Moving forward, the county plans to apply for more grant money to provide broadband internet service for more rural areas of Stafford County not served by cable or fiber lines.

“We are working on a county-wide plan and also teeing up for the new commonwealth grants set at $19 million. The county currently has an RFI [request for information] on the streets for organizations and partners to apply as partners with Stafford for the grant funds which close on Labor Day. Of course, the vendors must create their own responses, but the groups from Aquia are more organized as we meet often and trade solution ideas,” Shelton said. 

Another possible solution, if the county does not receive grant money, is to create a special service district, where taxes in a defined neighborhood can be raised to fund the project.

Shelton explained, “…many of these residents are considering applying for a service district… Stafford proposed this idea to the General Assembly last year and Delegate [Bob] Thomas took it beautifully across the finish line. A service district allows a group of people to self organize to build infrastructure that serves only them. The project is paid upfront by the county and the residents are taxed over 10 years to pay back the free loan.”

Thomas proposed legislation that expanded the definition of service districts.

“The legislation gave localities the ability to create a service district for this. Without that they wouldn’t be allowed to apply this concept of service district for broadband,” said Thomas. 

KGI does have plans to extend its services to other parts of Stafford, but the company won’t say to which neighborhoods. 

Pictured left to right in the featured story photo: Michele Wido, President of KGI, Dave Kleber, Marlborough Point resident, who knocked on doors to get people to sign up for KGI’s Service, Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton.

STAFFORD — The owner of a one-of-a-kind brewery hopes Stafford County authorities will let him reopen soon. 

Wild Run Brewing Company, a microbrewery at Aquia Pines Camp Resort off Route 1 in North Stafford has been closed for zoning infractions since March 23, 2017.

Owner Everett Lovell opened the brewery with the idea that it would be an amenity at his Aquia Pines Camp Resort, a place with campsites for RVs, or cabins for those who want four walls. Unlike other brew houses now dotting the landscape, Lovell’s was designed to a resort amenity, much like a swimming pool or put-put golf course.   

It wasn’t long after opening that Lovell’s dealings with the Stafford County Board of Zoning Appeals began.  His first appearance before the Board came after his first cited zoning infraction. 

“They didn’t comply,” said Stafford County spokesman Andrew Spence. 

Everett Lovell detailed the zoning violations. 

“The first one was I didn’t have an occupancy certificate for my building. The building existed before the occupancy certificates list. We haven’t changed building use or owners, so I didn’t think I needed an occupancy certificate,” said Lovell 

Subsequent charges by the Board of Zoning Appeals included a lack of sufficient vehicle parking and the lack of handicapped parking spaces outside his brewery. Lovell said he’s adding the new parking spaces as required.

During a recent hearing at the Board of Zoning Appeals, Wild Run Brewing Company’s permit “was approved with conditions. 

“They’ve submitted an application but they don’t have an occupancy permit just yet,” Spence said. 

Lovell anxiously awaits the permit and is hopeful that the brewery will be reopening soon. 

Once Stafford County has issued permits to reopen, Lovell will begin brewing again. 

“We had 12 beers on tap and two bottles. It will probably take us a good 6 months of brewing to get back to that point, if not a year. The first beer is our hefeweizen. We had four stouts on tap. We hope to get back to a couple stouts, a couple IPAs, and our 0311 Pale Ale,” Lovell said. 

Wild Run’s pale ale was the first beer brewed at the campground, and the name is a nod to Marines.

“We came up with that name because if you’re in the Marine Corps your designation is a basic rifleman, that’s where you start. The Marines suggested the name,” Lovell said. 

Lovell said they served a variety of customers when they were open. 

“We served a wide variety — campers, people going and coming from work. Some people come here just for propane and have a pint. We also sell home brewing supplies for making beer or wine at home. Some people would come in and have a growler filled up and don’t have a pint on site,” Lovell said. 

The latest zoning hearing cost Mr. Lovell $1,412, according to Spence.

STAFFORD COUNTY — When it was time to commemorate and educate the public about one local man’s contribution to the Harlem Renaissance, a group of Stafford residents stepped up to make it happen.

Commemorating Palmer Hayden, Widewater-born artist

Friends of Widewater State Park is beginning to request donations to fund a historical marker within the park that opened last fall, a the confluence of the Potomac River and Aquia Creek, for Palmer Hayden, local African American painter famous for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Hayden became famous as a painter in New York City, but he began his life in Widewater, Virginia, located in northeast Stafford County on the Potomac River. He was born on January 15, 1890, Peyton Cole Hedgeman, but later changed his name to Palmer Hayden.

Hayden served nearly a decade in the U.S. Army’s all-African American Company A, 24th Infantry Regiment beginning in 1911. After leaving the Army, he worked his way through formal art training at Columbia University, while working at the post office and then as a janitor.

One of his well-known works titled The Janitor Who Paints was described as a “protest painting” in a 1969 interview, according to the Smithsonian Institute. Hayden had a friend named Cloyd Boykin, an older African American painter who made his living as a janitor. During that interview, Hayden said, “I painted it because no one called Boykin the artist. They called him the janitor.”

His work largely portrayed everyday African American life in both oil and watercolor. He was a prolific artist of his era.

Friends of Widewater State Park Brings improvements to the park

The Friends of Widewater State Park group is making continuous improvements to the park thanks to donations from the local community and volunteer efforts.

It’s a 501C3 public charity that falls under the umbrella organization, the Virginia Association for Parks.

“Basically the state parks in Virginia, most of them have associated friends groups. State parks have a set budget and are highly underfunded for the bare bones that state parks have. Everything above that the ‘friends’ group charities get the money and volunteers to build it. We advocate for the park to help it see its full potential and work with the community to get additional amenities into the park that the public can use.”

— Michelle Mahoney, President of the Friends of Widewater State Park Board of Directors

These groups routinely collaborate and brainstorm to help one another meet their goals for the parks.

“We collaborate regularly in the region…They’ll give us their opinions on how we can do certain things and we tell them what’s working for us… It’s a really good relationship, it’s interesting to see how other parks are building their parks out,” Mahoney said.

Anyone can join the Friends of Widewater State Park. To become a member, the cost is $10 per individual or $20 per family per year.

“Predominantly what we need are people who can actually give time…People with limited physical ability can work on advocacy and planning. Other people build trails. Anyone willing to give time, experience or knowledge is welcome,” Mahoney said.
Upcoming Improvements for Widewater State Park

The “friends” group has big plans for the park over the next year.

“We are working with Patowomeck Indian Tribe of White Oak, Virginia, gathering the material and building an Algonquin longhouse at the park…The dedication is on June 22. We are hoping people will help support it, we’re going to need money to actually enclose it with grass matting,” Mahoney said.

A longhouse, also known as a birch bark house, is a long and narrow house with a grass mat roof traditionally built by Native American tribes.

The group is planning to build a main trunkline trail, for hiking and biking, that will connect both sides of the park.

“The park is compartmentalized between private roads, so we have no real safe way to go from one side of the park to the other…We are mostly wetland area, very swampy, so right now we are working on walking the area with the [Virginia] Department of Conservation and Recreation to see how much will need boardwalk to traverse it.

One of the other projects that we’re embarking on this summer, we have a long pond by the visitors center. We are going to make that a children’s only fishing pond. It will be an exciting learning area for children with fishing poles provided, a worm box and fishing areas along the shore. We are going out and seeking grants and donations for really nice fishing gear.

This is our first year with the park open we’re having fun figuring all this stuff out.”

— Michelle Mahoney, President of the Friends of Widewater State Park Board of Directors

Widewater Park opened on November 8, 2019. The park covers 1,100 acres and two miles of waterfront along Aquia Creek and the Potomac River. In the coming years, park visitors can expect to see improvements like a boat launch, a trail connecting the visitors center with the boat launch and other trails and trails that will take them into nature.