This VA Eatery Ranked Among Most Unusual Restaurants In U.S.

Dinner and a show? How about dinner and a sideshow? You’ll find it in Virginia, according to a ranking of the country’s most unusual restaurant experiences.

The food and travel website Lovefood ranked restaurant experiences in all 50 states from the weirdest to the least weird, but they’re all places where the setting may be as memorable as the food.

Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant In Alexandria ranked 17th on the list. Serving fine dining since 1770, Gadsby's takes diners on a journey into the past, through elegant dining rooms lit by candles and decorated with chandeliers, oil paintings and graceful drapes. The restaurant offers traditional colonial food, including grilled duck breast with potatoes — George Washington's favorite dish.

Located at 138 North Royal St. in Old Town, Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant is open for Sunday Brunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Lunch Wednesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; and Dinner, Wednesday through Sunday, from 5:30 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Monday and Tuesday. To reserve a table, visit OpenTable.

The five most unusual restaurant experiences are:

1. The Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar in San Francisco, a tiki-themed restaurant in San Francisco with a huge central lagoon and floating stage where simulated tropical storms roll through between courses.
2. The Yurt at Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah, where guests have to snowshoe through a moonlight forest to the yurt, where a chef will prepare a meal at their table(this spot is open only seasonally, from December through April).
3. The Airplane Restaurant in Colorado Springs, which is housed in a Boeing KC-97 tanker built in 1953. The plane flew all over the world before being decommissioned in 2002.
4. Catacombs at Bube’s Brewery in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where guests descend 43 feet for a candlelight dinner in the brewery’s old stone aging cellars.
5. Enoteca Maria, a Staten Island eatery that doesn’t have a regular chef but hires “Nonnas of the World” — grandmothers from around the globe — to cook their best dishes for a menu that changes daily. The cuisine is so good it has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand label.

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