Photographed By Tony Belcastro
Running late for our dinner reservations at the Charlotte Hotel & Restaurant, my husband and I rush past the clapboard steeples and old-fashioned glass storefronts of Market Street, Onancock’s main drag. We turn down an equally tranquil side street to the handsome leaf-green entrance of the Charlotte, an eight-room inn and fine eatery that opened in January. Sandwiched neatly between an antique store and wine-and-cheese shop, the facade is a welcoming combination of wood and windows, with warm, cream-painted brick adorning the upper floors.
Waiting inside the softly lit, brick-floored lobby is the hotel’s namesake, Charlotte Heath, a slender, wavy-haired woman in her fifties, who greets us with a gracious smile and handshake, and introduces us to her husband and hotel co-owner Gary Cochran.
They tell us that the building dates to 1907, when it housed the Thomas White Hotel. Over the years it has served as a drugstore, a church, and an apartment house. When Gary and Charlotte bought it in October 2002, its first floor held a beauty parlor with second-floor apartments. Since much of the building’s interior had already been robbed of its historic architecture, the couple gutted it and started over. “It actually turned out better this way,” says Charlotte, a trained artist who once designed cards for American Greetings. “With a historic restoration you’re hemmed in, but starting everything from scratch, we had the freedom to follow our own vision.”
That vision was inspired by the Dorchester Square, a diminutive English hotel she and Gary once visited. At the Charlotte, they captured that same European feel with a tiny lobby, complete with check-in desk and old-time cubbyholes for keys. A small bar with four hand-painted stools provides guests with a comfortable spot for before-dinner drinks.
With stomachs growling, we gratefully follow Charlotte to the dining room. The restaurant holds nine small tables draped in white linens, but it’s the dappled yellow walls that define the cozy room. Four layers of paint and a week of Charlotte’s energy made it a lovely backdrop for several of her acclaimed botanical watercolorsÑdelicate sweet peas, ready-to-be-picked hollyhocks. The couple added a touch of whimsy with an arrangement of antique cutting boards mounted on a wall.
Visiting us at our table as he does all the guests, Gary, who doubles as the bartender, is as genial as his gray mustache and bespectacled face suggest. He explains that they are refugees from the Pittsburgh weather and the corporate world. “I was a chemist. I’ve graduated to mixologist,” he says with a wink as Charlotte whisks him away to guests awaiting their drinks.
Our meal is perfection, from the seafood crepe that includes local oysters in a savory yet light garlic-wine sauce, to our main courses of roasted salmon and center-cut beef fillet.
Chef Phillip Blane is fearless with fine food, offering only four entrees to keep things fresh and changing the menu every two weeks. Though Blane last worked as chef in a French restaurant in Memphis, he doesn’t downplay his current small-town clientele. “There is a local bumper sticker that reads ÔWe’re rural, not stupid,’ he says. “Just because we are surrounded by farm fields doesn’t mean there isn’t a real level of sophistication here.”
Sated and content, we retire to our second-floor room at the top of the stairs. Those who have room for a nibble will appreciate the complimentary, pre-bedtime snack of grapes, strawberries, two chocolates, and bottled spring water.
Our room, like all the others at the inn, forgoes the frou-frou for a more serene elegance: A calm canvas of cream walls, white woodwork, and snowy matelasse coverlets is complemented by colorful, flowery quilts and Charlotte’s floral paintings. Evidence of Charlotte’s paintbrush is everywhere, from the red diamonds bordering the ceiling to the painted floors to the colorful painted “rugs” that decorate each bathroom.
The beautiful beds with white wainscoted headboards are handmade by Gary, as is a distressed white porch column transformed into an eye-catching floor lamp.
The next morning, the sounds of our hosts toiling in the kitchen carries up to our room. (Late sleepers might want to request a different room.) The wonderful smells draw us to the dining room, where we enjoy a citrusy salad of grapefruit, oranges, apples, and mangoes arranged as a sunburst, scrambled eggs, and waffles topped with apple compote. (Weekend guests pay $9 for brunch; continental-style breakfast is free.)
After breakfast, the quaint town calls, so we set out on foot. Walking past the town gazebo and rows of gingerbread porches, it’s hard not to be smitten with Onancock’s pretty but unpretentious charm. Serving up stress-free sophistication, the Charlotte Hotel & Restaurant fits right in.
Donna Bozza Packer writes from her home in Cape Charles, Va.
Charlotte Hotel & Restaurant
7 North St., Onancock, Va.
757-787-7400
http://www.thecharlottehotel.com
The restaurant is open to the public Wednesday-Sunday, 5:30-9 p.m., and for brunch on weekends, 8-11 a.m.
Room rates: May-Sept. 30, $170 and $190; off-season, $150 and $170.
