You think Le Diplomate and Oyster Oyster in Washington are hard to book at prime time? Try getting dinner at Three Blacksmiths in Sperryville, Va. The restaurant is almost completely booked six months out, no thanks to a 20-seat dining room that’s open just four days a week and offers a single seating at 7 p.m.
It’s a recipe for success that Jake and Sara Addeo assumed two years ago, when the couple purchased the establishment in Rappahannock County from John and Diane MacPherson, former innkeepers who brought Three Blacksmiths to life in 2018. (The name of the restaurant honors a trio of blacksmiths who worked in a bustling, long-ago Sperryville.) While the Addeos both know how to cook — they met while working at the much-missed seafood draw Esca in New York — Jake, 50, takes the lead in the kitchen and Sara, 46, manages guest relations, the same division of labor as their predecessors. Three Blacksmiths is so intimate, though, that diners get face time with both.
If you’ve been lucky to dine here before, you’ll be pleased to find the same, warm-in-wood interior constructed by John MacPherson. Everybody gets a view of the open kitchen, dressed with a hearth, and the fine points — pools of space between tables, sheepskin stools for purses, miniature anvils with your party’s name written on them — continue to make big impressions. Jake grew up on Long Island in a food-loving Italian family whose gatherings gravitated toward the room with the sink and the stove. The tradition continues in his restaurant, he says: “You are in the kitchen.”
Some gratis bubbly starts the dinner party, just as it might in the home of a good host, trailed by a trio of little snacks. The night my posse dropped by, the spread featured a Maine oyster sparked with pink peppercorns and dandelion pesto; a beignet with a pinch of crab, a stamp of lardo and a dab of romesco; and a Lilliputian deviled (quail) egg on an equally tiny nest of kadaifi. Joy times three.
As in the beginning, there’s one menu, five courses, and everyone eats the same thing, with the exception of diners who have called at least a day ahead to ask for, say, gluten-free bread or something meatless. (Preferably, however, dietary and other concerns are raised at reservation time.) Hors d’oeuvres might give way to folds of black sea bass, pristine raw fish that gets a light jolt from preserved lemon and a gloss from the chef’s preferred Sicilian olive oil. A discerning shopper, Addeo gets the sea bass from the pedigreed Browne Trading Company in Portland, Maine, and arranges it in a fish-shaped dish along with black crackers spun from tapioca and squid ink.
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Three Blacksmiths bakes a couple of kinds of bread, typically rye and a focaccia flavored like the season. Having dined here before, I warn companions not to carbo-load, but I rarely take my own advice. Life is short, after all, and the breads make great erasers for things like carrot soup. It’s a brilliant bowlful that distinguishes itself from the lot with Indian accents (curry leaf, coriander) and a lightness that comes from whipping the coconut milk. Pine nuts seasoned with sumac provide textural contrast.
We cut into a floppy raviolo, our third course, to discover what tastes like pâté: chicken liver pureed with chicken heart, their richness heightened by a wash of garlicky butter and tamed with a green border of pureed fava beans. Addeo, a veteran of Bibiana (now Modena) in Washington, cooked in Italy beginning in 1997. “I went for two weeks and stayed for almost two years,” he says of his apprenticeship.
The owners meet with their team every Tuesday for coffee and discussion, during which ideas for dishes are tossed around and refined. Jake says the menu, “inspired from farmers’ lists,” changes about 70 percent every week. My garnish might not be yours, in other words, and elements come and go based on the whims of the chefs and what’s available. I scored a reduction of strawberries and red wine with a main course of saddle of lamb; the following week’s audience got a sauce made with sour cherries. Both groups sliced into a marvelous roulade whose stuffing revealed the chef’s passion for herbs and anchovies as a secret agent. Everything on the plate added to its beauty and succulence, including the sugar snap peas split open to show their green pearls and a golden cube of polenta flavored with pecorino and spring herbs.
When you’re making only a handful of things, each should be a success. Three Blacksmiths fulfills those expectations.
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This isn’t a duplicate of what the previous owners offered. Among the welcome changes are wine pairings that acknowledge some visitors want in on them, but they also might be driving a distance or wishing to upgrade. So there are short pours of 2 to 2½ ounces in addition to 3 or so ounces, and the option of reserve selections along with house wines. With the lamb, for instance, came the possibilities of the 2012 La Stoppa Macchiona Emilia Rosso, a barbera blend, or 2018 Maison Shaps Pommard, made with pinot noir. Addeo says he likes the fruit, age and subtle smokiness the two wines deliver.
The music — a little folk, a little country — fits the setting, inside and out, and you don’t even have to eat at Three Blacksmiths to enjoy it. “We made our playlist public” on Spotify, says the chef, who playfully chastises diners who preview the 145-song collection ahead of dinner: “You can’t watch the movie before coming to the movie!”
The size of the restaurant allows the owners to bring out the food, introduce the courses and spend more time than most hosts with their guests. Typically, this is a plus, but the lags between some courses feel like those dinner parties you get invited to by home cooks trying too hard to impress you. No diner wants to feel rushed, but no diner should be caught looking at his watch, either. Maybe I’d feel differently if I wasn’t facing an 80-mile drive home. I’ll admit my party was relieved to receive dessert, and revived by cherry sponge cake accompanied by Bing cherry sherbet and meringue-ringed lemon curd.
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Sweet somethings are doled out to remember the night by, and the Addeos might bid you farewell at the door. Their aim is to make you feel like you’re in their home. Between the food, hospitality and candlelit tables, three or so hours in their cocoon passes for an intimate dinner party.
Jake has some words of advice for would-be diners who aren’t long-range planners, by the way: “We get cancellations.”
Three Blacksmiths
20 Main St., Sperryville, Va. 540-987-5105. threeblacksmiths.com. Open for indoor dining Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m. Prices: Five-course menu $148 per person; optional wine pairings $68 to $128. Sound check: 74 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers to entry; ADA-compliant restroom.
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