Rappahannock County’s Sumac on Wednesday was named by Washingtonian magazine the 25th best restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area, a first for the food truck that parks outside Sperryville’s Pen Druid brewery.
Sumac, which is run by residents Dan and Abigail Gleason, offers a rotating menu of locally-sourced food for those enjoying a drink at the brewery or otherwise stopping by for a bite.
“We had a really great team last year and we owe a lot of our success to, not just myself, but the culinary team that we worked with,” Dan Gleason said of the distinction. “We had some fantastic cooks: Josh Williamson and Joe Baker. So, some gratitude towards my team and to the support of customers.”
Washingtonian in its review of Sumac praised the food truck for matching its “hyper-local” ingredients to the yeast in beers on tap at Pen Druid. “Owners Abbey and Dan Gleason—alums of organic farms and fine restaurants — invent weekly changing menus, Friday through Sunday, during farming season (April through December), which emerge, astonishingly, from a 12-foot kitchen,” the magazine said of Sumac. “We visited in summer for beef-tartare bao buns and charred-hiramasa aguachile, and returned eagerly in fall for rabbit cassoulet and winter-squash risotto.”
Chef and owner Dan Gleason garnishes a dish.
Photographer: Luke Christopher
Dan Gleason and his wife are also slated to open a new southern-style diner and bar in the coming months that will replace Headmaster’s Pub in Sperryville. The restaurant will be named The Black Twig for the apple species native to Virginia that can also be found in Rappahannock, Dan Gleason said.
The new restaurant doesn’t have an opening date set, but Gleason gains control of the space March 1 when Headmaster’s will officially close. He hopes to open the new business a week later since they’re absorbing most of the current Headmaster's staff.
Washingtonian also named The Inn at Little Washington among the “The 100 Very Best Restaurants in Washington,” placing 14th on the list where it has earned a place in years past. A spokesperson for The Inn did not immediately return a request for comment on the distinction.
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