Whitebarrel

This is a great place to come and enjoy great VA wine! It has a unique atmosphere for the area, food that compliments the wine very well, and very friendly and knowledgeable staff! I even joined the wine club after hearing all the great perks that I'll get to use during each visit! I can't wait to go back soon!

Unfortunately this place has gone way downhill. I came here for the first time for wine with my girlfriends, who had been here plenty of times before and loved it. I got 2 wine flights and was happy for the most part because I'm easily satisfied with wine, although one of them tasted like straight up chemicals. Then I came here twice for Bottomless Mimosa Sunday Brunch, where you pay $30 and get unlimited "mimosas" (really just sparkling wine, blood orange juice, and grenadine) and small brunch plates. Both of these times, there were people in my party who just ordered small plates a la carte because they didn't want unlimited mimosas. They had no problem doing this because the small plate prices (all $3 - very reasonable) are listed on the menu along with the fixed price (which makes it a little confusing, but easy enough when the waiter explained it). Both times, which were a couple weeks apart, I did the bottomless/fixed price brunch and got my money's worth because I had 5-6 mimosas ($6 a la carte) plus several small plates. I was satisfied, although the setup they had was pretty awkward. You ordered drinks from your waiter, but when you wanted small plates you had to order them directly from the kitchen and retrieve them yourself when they were done. Weird but doable. Fast forward to today when we came in for a friend's birthday brunch. It was completely empty and no one greeted me, which was strange but fine since I was joining a party and knew where to go. Our waitress Maggie, bless her heart, could not command a table even though my friend told me Maggie wasn't new there. When she came to me, I said I wasn't doing bottomless but that I wanted to order a coffee, a mimosa, and one small plate. She rudely told me that it was "brunch or nothing" - you could no longer order small plates a la carte. I asked if there was a lunch menu instead then because I did not want to pay $30 when I wasn't going to drink or eat that much worth of food. She said no, only brunch - mind you, it was noon by now, definitely time to have lunch items available. I asked again to confirm, no a la carte choices? No food at all unless you pay $30? She said no. So I ordered a coffee and did not eat for the next 2 hours that my party was there. Over those two hours, some of my friends ordered small plates, waited 15+ minutes for them to come out (even though we were the only group in there for a while), and had to repeatedly ask for mimosa refills and other drinks (again, even though we were the only ones there). I also saw multiple parties come in and immediately leave once they heard the only food option was $30. Why would a business, which has a delicious lunch/dinner menu and previously allowed a la carte ordering, suddenly change their menu but not edit the paper menu to reflect this? This change made several customers, both in my party and other parties, end up not ordering anything at all, causing this business to lose out on a decent amount of money. For the people in my group who did order food, they were unimpressed- there was nothing special about the french toast and the avocado was barely ripe, making it hard. I will not be coming back here, which is disappointing given how much I loved it before. Good luck, Whitebarrel.

This was our first time here, and we had a lovely evening. We only planned to have a drink and then go elsewhere for dinner, but once we shared a panini and some artichokes, we stayed put. We tried every wine flight except the sweet one, and White Barrell has some stand out varietals. The cab franc and petit verdot are particularly tasty. Perhaps almost as good as the wine is the house-made balsamic vinegar; that alone makes a visit here worthwhile. The service was excellent: we didn't feel hurried, and when we needed anything, we were promptly attended to. Can't wait to come back soon! White Barrell is a delightful addition to downtown.

Food quality is not up to par for the price. Food time wasn’t too horribly bad but the food wasn’t anything I couldn’t get at an Applebee’s. While my friend and I were waiting, we could also hear one of the girls working there talking bad about the owner and how he treats his staff as well as how little he cares about the food he serves there. My friend is a culinary student and had asked to meet the chef on two separate occasions this past week and both times were told he was “not around.” Just put a bad taste in my mouth.