Richmond Times Dispatch
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Meredith Bonny

"There was a lot of bootleggin' back then," said Boelt, 60, who was born in
Powhatan and still lives on 100 acres about 2 miles west of the county's
historic village.
    
"The county has gotten so populated. It's pretty straight now," he said.  These days, commerce in this rural yet developing county -- the courthouse is just shy of 40 miles west of Richmond's downtown relies on corn meal for homemade bread rather than booze.

If you're hungry, Powhatan has something to offer.  There's the Village Garden Cafe, Four Seasons Restaurant at Maxey's Store and the County Seat.  "We went from having no eating places to having three," said John Rothert, a local resident who's commonly referred to as the village's unofficial mayor.  Rothert, 59, owns the building where the County Seat sits.

Surrounded by warm red walls and plaid tablecloths, patrons enjoy daily
blackboard specials, North Carolina-style barbecue and homemade pies. Sandwiches come with such extras as greens or black-eyed peas.  Located in the county's historic village, across from the 1849 Powhatan County Courthouse, the restaurant was placed there so patrons would have a view inside the courthouse door, Rothert said.

The village offers no big-box department stores, just little shops and Southern
country charm.  East of the courthouse, you'll find Holly Spring Homespun, a local yarn shop, and The Complete Picture Framing.  There's also Inlight Books & Yoga -- a sure sign that some things are changing in Powhatan. Another is the wireless Internet connection served up at the Village Garden Cafe, where regulars can log on and sink their teeth into homemade pastries and sandwiches such as the Potter's Club and The Scottsville.

In 1972, the county used to close schools for the opening of deer-hunting season, all five members of the Board of Supervisors were farmers, and the locals insist you could fall asleep on the yellow lines running down the middle of Old Buckingham Road and not get hit.  "Now the only thing you can plant in Powhatan that makes money is a septic tank," Rothert said.

While the county boasts its fair share of bluegrass music fans -- boosted by the
occasional sighting of well-loved sanger James King in the village -- the owners
of the Four Seasons Restaurant are trying to introduce the locals to the likes of Old Blue Eyes.  And it hasn't been easy. 

George Vlasidis, who runs the Four Seasons Restaurant with his son, Jimmy, and
wife, Effie, is originally from Greece but spent plenty of time in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Before opening the Powhatan restaurant, Vlasidis owned The Lighthouse Restaurant in Richmond's Fan District. When he left the Fan, he brought Frank Sinatra with him to the new place, he said. The charcoal sketch hangs above the bar.  He also brought the family's famous desserts, including New York-style
cheesecake, lemon meringue pie, rice pudding and coconut cream pie. Effie gets
to the restaurant by 4 a.m. to start working on them. 

And if you don't like them, tough.  There's a saying hammered to the wall: "If you're grouchy, irritable, or just a plain mean S.O.B., there will be a $20 charge for putting up with you."

Like the Four Seasons Restaurant, much of Powhatan's village has been built and
preserved around its historic buildings. Maxey's Store, constructed in 1914, was
once a general store run by the father of longtime Circuit Court clerk and Powhatan resident William E. Maxey Jr., the longest-serving court clerk in Virginia. 

Rothert, a University of Richmond graduate who majored in history, will tell you
he's devoted his life to the village's historic buildings. He lives in part of the 18th-century Courthouse Tavern, which is best known as the oldest continuous
business place in Powhatan. 

Over the years the building, featuring a white, double-gallery porch, has served
as a tavern, hotel, post office and apartment building. Now it's home to lawyers' offices and two residences.  "It's what brought me to Powhatan," Rothert said of the structure.

Paul Hook came for another reason. He enjoys the county's rural landscape, which
lends itself to his passion and craft: making furniture.  A native of England, Hook moved to Powhatan more than nine years ago.

Recently, he stopped in the village's Holly Spring Homespun store looking for
someone to knit him a Guernsey, a sweater he could wear while toiling away in
his workshop.  Owner Kathy Oliver told him he was on his own in his hunt for the sweater but spent about 30 minutes chatting.

That's what people do in Powhatan.  No one's really in a hurry here.

They talked about Powhatan and about the shop. Oliver opened her store on Old
Buckingham Road in 2004. She raises her own cashmere goats and sells the
animal's yarn and roving in her shop, along with other specialty yarns, knitting
needles and accessories.

She also authors her own knitting blog and podcast, which she uses as a journal
on what it's like to own a yarn shop.  "I like it here," Hook said. "Like England, in Powhatan we promote our eccentrics."  Oliver laughed.  "Powhatan has a cozy, out-of-the-way atmosphere," she said. "It's a little piece of country within easy driving distance of Richmond."

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