Westbrook spends most of his time now in Minneapolis, but he still owns the White Fences Vineyard and Winery. You can’t miss it: There are two 40-foot-high corkscrews at the entrance. Jimmy Carter, Westbrook’s friend, is an investor. The two built 19 period-looking, 1,500-square-foot carpenter gothic “tents” on the property, inspired by the church-meeting camps of the middle 1800s. “They sold instantly,” says Carter. He says that 3north, a Richmond-based architectural group, leads a group of investors that will build 25 new homes on the vineyard property. Asked about development, Westbrook says, “There are certainly some people who’d like to see the area frozen in time. I think if it’s thoughtful, people will support it. If it’s irrational and doesn’t seem to fit, people will oppose it.”
These days, Kilmarnock is changing a lot, itself. The town still has few businesses that have been around for decades—the family-owned Lee’s restaurant and the Tri-Star Supermarket among them—but upscale shops are beginning the alter the nostalgic scene along Main Street. Jackie Brown, a Pennsylvania transplant, opened Carried Away Cuisine (the aforementioned gourmet carry-out) in 2002. Chesapeake & Crescent Home, owned by Paula and George Thomasson and specializing in antiques, home furnishings and design, hung its shingle soon after, as did the Main Street Antique Mall. The Pedestal offers custom decorating services. Swank, a new-ish bistro on Main Street, gets high marks from residents. The Rappahannock Art League, a cooperative, also can be found on Main Street, which got a facelift a few years ago. Power lines were buried, new streetlights were installed, and the sidewalks were improved. Thomasson, who practiced law in New Orleans for 30 years, calls Kilmarnock “very eclectic—a good spot. You meet people from all walks of life. It’s not a big city, and yet you have a sophisticated clientele.”
Still, plenty of tradition and local flavor remains. The Carwash Café—a converted gas station—is a favorite place for breakfast and lunch; its stone-ground grits are excellent. In White Stone, Rocket Billy’s has got to be the only roadside trailer in the country selling crab bisque and soft-shell crabs, among the many items on the menu. “We’ve got more in this place than most restaurants,” says Billy Ancarrow, a former Marine who rues the disappearance of watermen’s culture in the area.
Steve Bonner, the owner of the Kilmarnock Antique Gallery, is a font of knowledge about the town. His huge building, where 100 antique dealers rent space, is also the town’s unofficial visitor center. There are shelves full of tourist brochures in the back. “We encourage people to park in our lot and walk the town,” says Bonner, 60. He greeted me with his Yorkshire terrier, Windsor, in his arms—the two are inseparable. Bonner has been working in the building since he was 15—his family ran a wholesale operation. His great grandfather owned a market in the town. Bonner, who played the piano at some store openings in Kilmarnock when he was young, owns a collection of oyster plates, most more than 100 years old and some made by Haviland & Co. (Limoges, France) in the style of its White House china for President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.
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Northern Neck culture and it's future
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