Bistro on Main
8 North Main Street
Lexington, Virginia
A very pleasant bar and restaurant on one of the main downtown streets of a charming burg. Excellent service, and interesting menu, and reasonable prices for an upscale-tending bistrot. When I looked over the lunch menu, my New Orleanian heritage kicked in and forced me to order an oyster po-boy.
Many people say you shouldn't order seafood when dining inland, especially people from coastal areas. But I found the best oysters of my life in the Rocky Mountains behind Denver -- no, not THAT kind of oyster; regular oysters -- and also the most expensive. The lesson I drew from that experience is that money trumps distance. And so it is here: the oysters were excellent, the preparation was very good, and the presentation, with a nice handful of well-prepared fried potatoes and a very good coleslaw, was likewise very well done. The only upsetting thing was that the sandwich was served on a small, soft round bun, which the purist in me regards as an almost unpardonable breach of propriety. A po-boy must -- MUST, I say -- be served on a crusty baguette. If it wasn't so damned good I'd really have to mark them down for that offense. (Imagine the appropriate emoticon here.)
