
DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710020075

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: MILES TO GO BEFORE I EAT

        This is another in an occasional series on regional restaurants that

        serve up  food in such a special way that people will drive miles

        farther just to eat  there. Maybe you know of such a place. Call us at

        446-2949; we'd like to check  it out.

SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: FLINT HILL, VA. LENGTH: 163 lines

RURAL VA. RESTAURANT STANDS OUT

THE FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS IN RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY ATTRACTS D.C. CROWDS

WHAT DO YOU MAKE of this place, anyway? It looks for all the world like a country general store: two-story, narrow rectangular box, balcony porch out front, flat roof sloping back. Wouldn't be half surprised to see one of those coal-oil barrels with the hand-crank pump around the side.

Except . . . except it's purple. Well, purple with shades of mauve, which is about the same thing. And which is definitely not a country general store color.

And it's called the Four & Twenty Blackbirds.

OK, then. Being purple and mauve and having a name like Four & Twenty Blackbirds, it's got to be an urbane, nouvelle-something or another restaurant in . . . well, what's the most sophisticated place you can think of?

Except . . . except this is Flint Hill, population about 50, in rural Rappahannock County, up against the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northern Virginia. Once upon a time, back when flint and steel produced the spark that fired rifles, somebody found a nice deposit of flint around here. It hasn't changed much since flint and steel days.

Essentially Flint Hill is a wide place in the old Chester Gap Road, one street wide by about a half-mile long, where the houses, a few stores, a couple of churches and a purple restaurant snuggle up to the road like some hamlet in the English countryside.

So, what is wrong with this picture?

Our perceptions.

Rappahannock County (see related story, page E1), on the one hand, is about as textbook rural as rural ever gets - visually, demographically, whatever. On the other hand, it is hardly more than an hour's drive from Washington, which, the cosmopolitan inmates within the beltway would have you believe, is at least one of the most sophisticated places on earth.

So . . . Rappahannock County has become, in some ways, an extention of Washington. It has become, for many Washingtonians, their ``little place in the country.''

A significant number of affluent and influential Washington movers and shakers actually live in the county. Several of the county's restaurants, the Four & Twenty Blackbirds among them, are regularly listed - no, acclaimed - in the Washingtonian magazine'a annual review of the capital's very best restaurants and in the Zagat Survey of Washington and Baltimore restaurants.

Here, a quirky former general store painted purple and called Four & Twenty Blackbirds works.

This is the kind of place it is.

In the basement dining room I noticed a cartoon drawing of the place by Jeff MacNelly. He labeled it the Two Dozen Crows and there were blackbirds peeking out the windows. Nearby were two framed ``Shoe'' comic strip blocks, also by MacNelly.

I asked co-owner Vinnie DeLuise about them.

``Well, he's what you might call a regular,'' Vinny said. ``He lives in the county. He wanted to come tonight, but I couldn't seat him.''

So take that under advisement. If a guy who won his first of three Pulitzer Prizes when he was 24, a local guy whose political cartoons are syndicated by the Chicago Tribune, a guy who does a comic strip and who illustrates Dave Barry's columns can't get in because he called too late, you'd better call early for reservations.

Now, you may wonder, if you know something about sophistication yourself, just how does a place like this try to compete with the Inn at Little Washington just down the road.

It doesn't. Nothing much does.

The Inn at Little Washington is a certifiable world-class country inn: five stars for its restaurant, another five for its accommodations from Mobil Travel Guide. The same sort of ranking in diamonds from the American Automobile Association. Ten stars and ten diamonds. It doesn't get any better than that.

A meal there will set you back $78 on weekdays, $88 Friday and $98 Saturday. Plus wine, tax and gratuity. It's a very-special occasion sort of place. Rare is the person who says it isn't worth it.

Vinny and co-owner Heidi Morf, the chef, know the Inn at Little Washington. Both used to work there, he as a waiter, she in the kitchen.

They're not competing. For eight years at the Blackbirds, they've been offering a modest alternative.

The menu, which changes every three weeks, is simple - four appetizers and eight entree selections, served with a fresh green salad - and eclectic: kind of contemporary American with international overtones. Chesapeake Bay and the Blue Ridge meet Morocco, the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia.

And the price is fairly down to earth: entrees range from about $15 to $20. The waitstaff is well-trained and attentive.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds is really a delightful experience, well worth the trip.

Inside, you'd hardly realize this was, in fact, a general store for about half a century.

The carpeted basement dining room is part rock wall, part plastering with a post and beam ceiling. The first-floor dining room has old pine flooring and ceiling fans and tables separated with screens of lace or floral prints. All the tables are white-linen covered and have fresh-cut flowers in small vases. Together the two rooms seat about 50.

Service begins with home-baked breads, featuring long, thin breadsticks, with herbs and the delightful, fresh taste of fennel, in the shape of fiddlehead ferns.

Eclectic is one of those words writers use when they can't quite describe something because they've never seen anything quite like whatever it is they're trying to describe. We kind of hope your imagination will pick up the slack.

The appetizers, for instance, are particularly eclectic. The choices were:

Japanese crab, mango, and mint nori roll served with wasabi, pickled ginger and Oriental dipping sauce.

Mexican corn tamales stuffed with spicy shredded pork, masa and dry jack cheese, served with tomato salsa.

Ipswich clam fritters with chimichurra dipping sauce.

Smoked summer vegetable pizza with fresh mozzarella and a basil pesto sauce.

Now, doesn't at least one of those make you want to order it just out of curiousity? The talames were excellent and the pizza was very good. I'm still curious about the clam fritters and chimichurra. Next time.

A soup of the day is also available if you choose.

For entrees, we settled on ``naturally raised'' chicken (I meant to ask if this was the same as ``free-range'' chicken) grilled with an apricot-mustard glaze served with sage cornbread pudding (more like a stuffing), and Thai-style trout stuffed with crabmeat and rice noddles served with a Thai basil and green curry sauce and stir-fried vegetables.

The large portion of chicken was extremely tender and pleasantly smoky tasting. The cornbread pudding got an extremely high rating from my cornbread authority.

The Thai trout with crabmeat was absolutely sensational. That is the highest praise in my repertoire. I have never tasted a better dish. I cannot describe it further without fear of doing it an injustice. I just want to pause for a moment and remember it.

The desert offerings this night included a raspberry tart with a lemon crust, chocolate silk cake with homemade mint white and dark chocolate chip ice cream and a local peach cobbler with homemade lemon caramel ice cream. I also saw large bowls of plain ice cream being served.

Scout reports tell me that the Sunday brunch features a Blackbirds' version of eggs Benedict: local-apple smoked trout and poached eggs on dill biscuits with hollandaise sauce and home fries. There's also its ``Huevos Blackbirdos'' special: poached eggs on a flour tortilla served with black beans, salsa, cheese, sour cream and home fries.

I'm already working on another trip that will have me there on a Sunday. And here's a tip about that - a strategy, if you will. They don't take reservations for the brunch except for groups of five or more. So, take some friends or be prepared to stand in line. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Flint Hill is home to the Four & Twenty Blackbirds restaurant...

Map

Graphic

FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

Getting there: Take I-64 west to Richmond, I-95 to

Fredericksburg, U.S. 17 north to Warrenton, U.S. 211 west to Massies

Corner, then U.S. 522 to Flint Hill. For an alternate route, see

fall foliage report on Rappahannock County in today's Daily Break.

Phone: (540) 675-1111.

Open: Wednesday-Saturday for dinner, 5:30-9; Sunday brunch 10-2.

Reservations imperative on Friday and Saturday. No reservations

taken on Sundays.