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The Bases Loaded cocktail from Silver Lyan (Photo courtesy Silver Lyan)
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Silver Lyan’s Frosted Tips (Photo courtesy Silver Lyan)
Silver Lyan
900 F St. NW, Washington, D.C.
For those who deeply appreciate a cocktail with a point of view, a visit to Silver Lyan, the only stateside bar from world-renowned cocktail creator Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka “Mr Lyan,” feels like a holy pilgrimage. Stepping into Silver Lyan, located in the basement of the Riggs Hotel, guests enter a subterranean Willy Wonka lair of drinks and showmanship. You’ll want to reserve not just a table for the evening, but a suite upstairs.
Silver Lyan’s summer menu showcases the nation’s capital one sip at a time — The District plays up Washington’s culture and history; The Idea Business explores the influence of global flavors; Flights of Fancy is whimsy on full display; and Kinda Classics celebrates iconic cocktails in a very Lyan way.
Get started with the boy band-inspired Frosted Tips, consisting of Hendrick’s gin and honeydew sherbet. “It’s specifically a frozen serve as a nod to the flavored-ice desserts popular in Seoul and Philly, with a lingonberry drizzle to nod toward Sweden,” Chetiyawardana says.
After, circle back to the classics. Patrons can trust that the Silver Service Martini selection — a make-your-own setup of olives, house-pickled onions, lemon twist and an oyster — will exceed ’tini time expectations. The snack menu, a drinker’s dream, features everything from pizza rolls to togarashi-spiked chicken and biscuits, and an indulgent ice cream and caviar for dessert that delivers grown-up “Eloise at the Plaza” energy.
Steelhead trout tartine with beets at Love Song (Photo courtesy Love Song)
Love Song
327 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach
Just a flip-flop-flapping walk from the beachfront, you’ll discover Love Song, the vibey restaurant and natural wine shop from Virginia Beach native Mike Hill. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because Hill, along with Love Song sous chef Jake Heller, was in the kitchen at Richmond’s Heritage from 2013 to 2017.
“Something Joe [Sparatta, owner of Heritage] really instilled in me is the importance of supporting local purveyors,” Hill says. “We’re very lucky to be right next to the Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Shore, and close to some of the best farms Virginia has to offer, and we really let what they produce do the talking.”
The menu is engineered to pair with Love Song’s biodynamic wines, curated with aplomb by sommelier Brittany Herlig, another Heritage alum. This summer, Love Song plans to double down on its wine focus and debut a back bar area as a low-key, snacky hangout.
With its restaurant-spanning terrazzo bar, vintage china and an effortlessly cool and kind staff, Love Song feels like a spot that could hold its own in bigger cities but with a laid-back atmosphere only found in beach towns. Hill and his team capture the essence of French brasseries and Spanish and Portuguese neighborhood restaurants in plates such as littleneck clams with leeks and saffron cream, as well as a soul-stirring bowl of white beans with charred cabbage and chili broth. For maximum effect, bring the crew and order one of everything.
Photo by Kate Joyce courtesy Trapezium Brewing Co.
Camp Trapezium
140 Union Hill Road, Amherst
Featuring 75 acres of no-till permaculture farmland that feeds directly into its program of mixed-fermentation beers, Camp Trapezium is the rustic, countryside sister to Petersburg-born Trapezium Brewing Co. Celebrating its first anniversary last month, Camp Trapezium gives funky, tart pours center stage in its tasting room — a converted 1890s mill that was formerly the home of Amherst Milling Co.
The sprawling grounds are home to a newly renovated eight-bedroom Airbnb property, which can be rented in its entirety or by the room, for an extended stay from which you can embark on a tour of the Brew Ridge Trail. A wood-fired oven spits out pizzas such as the pepperoni- and prosciutto-loaded Billy Wydner (named for the former owner of Amherst Milling Co. and pillar of the Amherst community), along with a make-your-own pie using fresh ingredients grown on the farm.
Sample on-tap offerings such as the crispy Burner Phone, a cheek-puckering kettle-soured wheat beer with notes of hibiscus, lemon and cherry that’s perfect for summer, or the Lucky 25 American Brown, a velvety brown ale. Don’t miss Trapezium’s bottle program and the opportunity to snag a sudsy souvenir — their orchard series manages to capture the bucolic setting in a 1.5-liter bottle. Grab the peach.
Mole negromasa croquetas at Conmole (Photo courtesy Conmole)
Conmole
816 Hinton Ave., Charlottesville
Just a few steps away from Mas, the Charlottesville tapas institution where Conmole owner Benos Bustamante earned his reputation as a detail-driven server and manager for over 16 years, the Oaxaca, Mexico, native created his dream restaurant in Conmole. A riot of bright color and even brighter flavors in an itty-bitty package, Conmole reflects the heritage of recipes passed down by Bustamante’s mother and grandmothers through a variety of complex, nuanced moles that are as authentic as we might hope to find in the commonwealth.
“Mole comes from the Nahuatl word ‘molli,’ [which] means ‘sauce,’ ” Bustamante says. “Mole is an intriguing sauce [that] takes a long process to make. … What makes mole special [is that] you must put your heart in it while making it, and the concentration you must put on every ingredient.”
Joined by fellow Mas veterans Jose Zaragoza, a Guanajuato native, and Efrain Hernandez of Mexico City, Bustamante has centered his menu around moles, including vegetarian offerings. In the mariscos con frijol molido mole, plump shrimp rest on a sumptuous pool of sauce, shot through with smoky chiles and a hint of cinnamon, while fluffy masa cakes in the mole negro contrast the silkiness of a traditional Oaxacan mole that tastes like it took nothing short of centuries to create.
