New Nellysford restaurant has family, historical ties

Erin McGrath
Published: April 1, 2008

First it was a school, then it was a house and now, it’s a restaurant.

Dennis and Cathy Hunt, of Amherst, spent the past two years turning the old Rockfish Valley School into the Dogwood Restaurant, which opened in Nellysford along Virginia 151 in February.

“It was a long time coming,” Dennis Hunt said. “There was such a need for it over here. The response has been terrific.”

Hunt said the idea to open a restaurant came from customers who frequent the family’s other business in Amherst, the Dogwood Café.

“I never would have even known about Nellysford if it hadn’t been for our customers,” Hunt said. “They said, ‘You need to put a restaurant over here.’”

The old school house, which opened in 1910 and closed in 1939, has been added on to over the years, becoming a private residence and a garden center.

Students who once attended the school, now come in to eat.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Hunt said.

Hunt said the reason it took so long to open the restaurant was because of construction issues.

“This is a 100-year-old building. The wiring, the plumbing, the septic and everything had to be redone to bring it up to this century,” Hunt said.

Improvements and changes are still being made to the restaurant, which open Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The menu, which includes lunch and dinner choices like sandwiches, steak and seafood, will include breakfast items starting on April 28 and will be open on Sundays starting May 4.

Hunt is also working on changing the greenhouse in the rear of the building into a banquet hall for more seating and larger parties.

“We get pretty busy in here,” Hunt said. “We need more space and that’s what that back room is going to be for.”