Since 2017, the black-painted building at 39285 Little River Turnpike has been a general store with a café, then a farm-to-table restaurant and market, and since January it has been Oak & Ember Tasting Room & Market. The current version is the smallest of the three. It has a short menu, about 50 seats and a chalkboard listing the farms it buys from. According to Northern Virginia Magazine's October review, prime-time reservations are booked weeks in advance.
The timing matters this winter. NOVA Parks closes Aldie Mill Historic Park from November 2 through December 31 and again from January 1 through March 30, so the village's best-known landmark stays dark until spring. That leaves the old store building as the main reason to pull off Route 50 in Aldie through the holidays.
The building's recent history is short and busy:
Every tenant has tried some mix of shop and kitchen under one roof. The general store put groceries first and food second. Oak & Ember reverses that. The dining room carries the business, and the market side is a small shelf of local goods. In January the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported that the shelf held local honey, mustard and olive oil alongside prepared food and charcuterie.
Puccio is not new to Loudoun restaurants. In 2003, in his mid-20s, he opened Puccio's New York Deli in Leesburg. He sold it six years later, and it still operates under its new owner. After that he worked for Metropolitan Hospitality Group, the company behind Circa, Open Road and Salt, and then spent more than seven years as general manager of Ahso in Brambleton Town Center.
In an Ashburn Magazine interview published in October, he described the concept this way:
"We consider ourselves 'Modern American Appalachian' Cuisine. The menu is intentionally focused and tight, allowing us to source exceptional local ingredients. We'd rather do a smaller number of things exceptionally well."
The location is a big part of that plan. The magazine pointed out that the restaurant is roughly a 20- to 30-minute drive from Ashburn. Puccio answered that he "knew I wanted to work with as many local farms and purveyors as we could," and that his chef de cuisine has built strong relationships with farms in the area. "When you come in, we have a chalkboard that lists every [farm] we use," he said.
Chef Tarek Kipriy and executive sous-chef Chris Barette run the kitchen. Northern Virginia Magazine says they make everything from scratch: house pastas, charcuterie from local animals, and the $5 plates of warm focaccia that also serve as the bread for lunch sandwiches. The ribeyes are dry-aged in a refrigerator kept for nothing else. The steak comes with a pomme purée from Chilly Hollow Farm, and the reviewer singled out a tortelli filled with braised beef neck as richer than the ribeye.
That review came from a mid-August visit at the height of peach season, which the critic called a seasonal bounty "that simply can't be replicated in colder months." The posted dinner menu, dated October 15, lists house pastas, dry-aged ribeye, seafood, appetizers and desserts. The wine list, bottled and canned beers and cocktails are on the same sheet. Because the menu runs on what the farms are producing, a November dinner will look different from the August one in the review.
Puccio explained the name to Ashburn Magazine: "We are wine and bourbon forward here. Oak is where wine and bourbon develop their character. Ember represents the fire, the warmth and the food that bring people together." He is a sommelier, and Northern Virginia Magazine credits two things with building the restaurant's following quickly: a wine club, and lunches that are popular with people visiting the area's wineries and breweries.
That second detail explains the location. For anyone spending a Saturday at tasting rooms west of Route 15, Aldie sits on the drive home to Stone Ridge, Willowsford and points east. The FAQ on the restaurant's Tock page describes lunch as charcuterie, sandwiches, salads and flatbreads, which suits a midday stop. Dinner shifts to pastas, seafood and steaks.
The room itself is lively. The review describes TVs over a pair of bars showing sports or the Food Network, diners in "some version of casual-but-stylish dress, often in large groups," and a dining room that can get loud on a Saturday night.
With Aldie Mill closed until spring, a winter trip to the village comes down to two stops.
Oak & Ember, 39285 Little River Turnpike, posts these hours on its website:
The restaurant takes reservations through Tock, and the review's warning about weeks-long waits for prime times applies most to Friday and Saturday dinners. A weekday lunch is the easier table to get. The site also advertises an "Ember Hour" with its own schedule, so call ahead if that's the plan.
The Aldie Peddler, a few doors along the same stretch of Route 50, has a wine room and sells handcrafted Amish-made outdoor furniture, according to its website. Visit Loudoun featured it in March in a roundup of mom-and-pop businesses. The store asks customers to call for information, which is the best way to check its winter days before you drive over.
A Peddler stop followed by a lunch reservation makes a full winter afternoon in the village. Aldie Mill's weekend tours return in April.
December's other fixed dates are a few miles east. The Stone Ridge Association's November–December calendar lists a Visit with Santa on December 5, with the clubhouse made over as Santa's Toy Factory. The line for Santa closes at 12:30 p.m. The 7th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting is that same evening, December 5, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Mineral Springs Circle. Carols will come from the Champe Choral Cluster, which includes the Arcola Elementary Chorus, Gum Springs Middle School and the John Champe Choir, and a food truck will serve free hot chocolate. The Holiday House Decorating Contest follows on December 18, and the calendar sets registration to open on November 15.
When a building in Aldie village gets a new tenant, the whole village changes, and our neighbors along Route 50 notice it fast. If you own a home anywhere from Aldie to Stone Ridge and Willowsford and wonder how the spots that are filling up nearby affect what your home is worth, Listed by Leslie Group can walk you through it over coffee or lunch. Request a complimentary home consultation.
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