Enjoy Classic Cuisine and Architecture at Lightfoot Café
If Thomas Jefferson were around today, he would saddle up his horse and journey to downtown Leesburg, Virginia to enjoy the seasonal contemporary American cuisine at the Lightfoot Restaurant. After all, it was Jefferson who wrote that in the garden there was “always something coming to perfection.”
Since Executive Chef and co-owner Ingrid Gustavson (recently voted as the best chef in Northern Virginia by the Times Newspapers) relies on locally grown ingredients whenever possible, diners at Lightfoot know that their hand-crafted meals will allow them to taste the perfection of the garden. Ingrid values the quality of local, fresh seasonal produce so much that she was even inspired to organize the Lightfoot Loudoun Farmers’ Market, held every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. in the parking lot behind the restaurant at 11 North King Street, just off Market Street. She even sells at the market herself. Her Walnut Raisin Pumpernickel bread is rich, dense, moist, sweet—and positively addictive.
“My goal in starting this market,” she says, “is to give farmers more opportunities to sell their products directly to the customer and to make available to the residents of Leesburg, the same fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables I buy for the restaurant.”
Ingrid—who wanted to be a chef since she was just seven years old—transforms these quality ingredients into a variety of creative dishes.
“Modern American cuisine now is really anything goes,” Ingrid says. “We really are truly a melting pot. One night we might do something Indonesian, another Thai, or something with a Latin influence to it. We pretty much travel around the globe here.”
Her Wild Mushroom Strudel with Goat Cheese and Fines Herbes, served with a Sage Cream Sauce and Roasted Walnuts, for example, truly blends many different flavors and serves as an incredibly delicious showcase for her culinary talents. Entrees such as her Filet Mignon (done to absolute perfection) are creatively served on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, topped with crispy onions, and served with sugar snap peas to offer diners a kaleidoscope of flavors.
Enjoy the Ambiance
As a definite architectural aficionado, Mr. Jefferson would have been drawn to the unique restaurant setting at Lightfoot as well. With his interest in architectural preservation, he would have overwhelming applauded the decision of sisters and co-owners Chef Ingrid Gustavson and General Manager Carrie Gustavson to undertake a two-year renovation effort to house their Lightfoot Café in the 1888 Peoples’ National Bank.
He would have heartily endorsed their efforts to not just gut the bank—as so many others would have done—but to select renowned architects and designers to preserve the integrity of the bank, while adapting it to restaurant and special-event use.
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