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Owner and innkeeper Shawn Donahue opened Kilmarnock Inn nine years ago as a bed and breakfast serving just breakfast to guests. Today, the inn serves up three meals a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year to guests and locals.
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Crepe myrtle-shaded walkway leads to the Kilmarnock Inn, a great choice for sleeping and eating.
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It looks like lunchtime at the Kilmarnock Inn where in moderate weather guests can enjoy sunny al fresco dining.
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Owner Shawn Donahue has managed the evolution of the Kilmarnock Inn’s food options from B&B only to full service restaurant.
If you’re looking for a dining experience that blends classic Southern comfort foods and all the charm of “small-town America at its best,” the Kilmarnock Inn is a local favorite. No one is more surprised than innkeeper-owner Shawn Donahue, who opened the Inn nine years ago as “a true B&B—serving breakfast for guests only!”
He did his homework, met with chef-owner Patrick O’Connell of the renowned Inn at Little Washington and recipient of five James Beard Foundation awards. The Inn is rated as one of the Top Ten Best Restaurants in the World. “He told me to keep it simple; keep the menu simple and be very good at what you do.” In other words, don’t get ahead of yourself.
But the locals asked why they couldn’t eat there, so he figured, why stop at scones and Bloody Marys?
By the second year, breakfast was open to the public—a gourmet-style preparation of traditional Southern dishes, ranging from made-from-scratch biscuits and scones, to Chesapeake Bay blue crab omelets and Virginia ham and eggs with creamy Brie. A lunch menu followed with Naan bread topped with goat cheese and arugula and dishes like the popular Epicurean Burger with Brie and strawberry-fig compote.
“Then,” explained Donahue, “in 2013 we experienced a tremendous growth among business travelers and they had nowhere to eat dinner on Monday nights. “The Inn opened for dinner, highlighting local seafood, salmon, pan-seared chicken breast with fennel and tarragon jus, and a host of eclectic, brilliantly-executed specials. The Jefferson Gathering Room opened soon after. These days it’s bustling with everything from business meetings to private birthday, anniversary, wedding and Christmas parties—all catered by the Inn’s four chefs.
Today, the Inn serves up three meals a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year to locals, guests and a revolving door of celebrities from Tim Kaine, to every Virginia governor since Abner Linwood Holton Jr., the sixty-first Governor of Virginia. And far from resting on its laurels, the Inn continues to raise the bar from year to year, says General Manager Greg Griffin, who worked as a chef with Hyatt Hotels for 23 years. “Our goal is always to bring in more quality ingredients. We make our own sauces, like veal demi-glace—roasting the bones and simmering in a heavenly process that takes three days.
We make our own soups. And we’re constantly offering new specials—nothing ever stays the same.”
Learn more at kilmarnockinn.com.
