A Food Truck With No Wheels
Great news for Shenandoah wine tasters and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Front Royal finally has a food truck (of sorts)!
PaveMint Taphouse & Grill has recently popped up in an old gas station and is serving innovative, yet affordable bites in a laid-back atmosphere.
They have some of the more comfortable bar seats I’ve sat in and I really dug the concrete counters. If you’re lucky you might get to sit at the table that once was the service station’s car lift. 🙂
PaveMint offers a pretty extensive draft beer list featuring craft beers from all over and a nice selection of Virginia breweries. The wine list is only house wines, but let that throw you off. They’re apparently select European wines, not the usual Barefoot or Turning Leaf I’ve come to expect.
My biggest issue when I visited last night was decided what to get! The menu is simple but diverse with entrees priced ~$9-$15 — way way better than the similarly priced Cracker Barrel and Applebees options a few miles down the road. Not to mention the number of amazing looking vegetarian options!
Specials are announced via little Polaroid-esque papers.
We wound up splitting the Crab Tots, mashed potatoes and crab balls covered in panko and fried, and Pavement Platter — in-house charcuterie and cheese plate.
The platter was good, but everything else was amazing!
I finally settled on the duck tacos with honey braised cabbage, cumin aioli, and radishes which had come highly recommended. It was a bit of risk since I often find duck a little too gamey and or fatty, but these were delicious!
The Chili Cheese Polenta Fry and Black Pepper Tomato Salad were also amazing.
I’d never even heard of Polenta fries before but mmmmm.
I wasn’t sure what to expect before I went, but I was impressed to get that modern feel and amazing food at that pricepoint (did I mention most the beers are $5?) and only a few miles from the entrance to the Shenadoah Skyline Drive is pretty awesome.
Other casual dining options in Front Royal I like:
- Spelunker’s Burgers & Frozen Custard — it’s fast food but they actually chargrill their burgers and their frozen custard is amazing.
- Weekend BBQ tent in the parking lot of Two Fat Butchers — they offer ribs, chicken, and pulled pork. I’m picky about my BBQ and every time I go its tender and flavorful. If you need a place to eat, the park downtown a few blocks away is a great choice.
