Since moving to the DC metro area with my wife Jun a few years ago, one of our favorite fall activities has been to drive to Shenandoah National Park to enjoy the fall foliage. We made the same trip recently but it turned out to be a bust. Due to an unusually warm fall, the leaves have not turned color that much, and also with the government shutdown (meaning the park office could not collect entrance fees), the crowd was absolutely packed around hiking trails, with cars parked all over the roads where they were not supposed to be. After a quick hike to the Stony Mountain trail, Jun and I decided to call it a day and head over to get dinner at Sumac, a trailer operation inside Pen Druid Brewing. Little did we know that our experience at Sumac would turn out to the highlight of our trip!

Run by chef Dan Gleason and his wife Abigail, Sumac has both a la carte options and a tasting menu at a reasonable $95 per person. If you want to explore the full range of dishes from the trailer, I highly recommend going with the latter. The food comes out in paper plates and you get plastic utensils, but there is nothing modest about the high level of execution displayed by the kitchen, using local ingredients from rural Virginia in a very skillful manner. A starter dish of tomatoes (playfully named Tomatoes’ Last Waltz with chewy millets) was a nice surprise, and the grilled eggplant with pepper mayo and XO sauce was one of my favorite dishes from the tasting menu with its smoky flavor and texture that was spot-on.

Who knew that a humble combination of napa cabbage, butternut squash and ricotta could create such a wonderful effect together? I certainly gained a renewed appreciation for the delightfully sweet butternut squash from the dish. Picanha steak with Amarosa potato fingerlings as well as black cod with lobster sherry sauce also wouldn’t have felt out of place at other high-end restaurants. The desserts from the tasting menu were even more memorable. I was very fond of the pear cake with bay leaf cream (and pear is not even one of my favorite fruits), while Jun savored the acorn squash sundae with apple cider that more or less perfectly captured the fall flavor.

If you are inclined to try the tasting menu, advance ticket sales last until the night of Wednesday for the upcoming weekend from Friday through Sunday so definitely plan ahead. You can complement your meal with beer, cider or natural wine options coming from Pen Druid Brewing; a glass of cider that I ordered turned out to be quite a nice pairing to the food. You can either grab an outdoor table behind the kitchen trailer or an indoor table inside the brewery and a staff member will deliver the dishes to you. Sumac was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, and Jun and I are very excited to go back for a constantly changing seasonal menu for more. Who knew that you would find one of the most delicious food trailers in the Virginia countryside?

KenScale: 8.25/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.0/10)

Address: 3863 Sperryville Pike, Sperryville, VA 22740

Website: https://www.sumac-va.com/

Reservation via Website