Mt. Vernon Inn Restaurant - Mt. Vernon, VA

In May we visited Mt. Vernon, George Washington's 500 acre estate on the Potomac River, about 18 miles outside Washington, D.C., and were awed by the beauty of the place. Given current events, I was particularly appreciative of the political foresight and humility of General Washington who resigned his commission as general and refused to be named king, then later voluntarily stepped down as president after serving two terms. We would all be better served if our current president had even a tiny bit of Washington's humility and concern about the long-term welfare of the country. 

The front of the main mansion. 

View of the main mansion from the side...

...and from the back.

The Potomac viewed from the back porch. 

The bed where George Washington died.

And the crypt on the estate where George (right) and Martha (left) are buried. 

Somewhere during our tour Judy heard of peanut and chestnut soup and decided she wanted to try some. We inquired at the Mt. Vernon Inn Restaurant, on-site at Mt. Vernon, and found out they had it, so we got on their waiting list and were seated in about 20 minutes. It turned out to be one of my favorite meals of our trip. 

Judy shared the peanut and chestnut soup which contains peanut butter, chopped unsalted peanuts, water chestnuts, chicken broth, onion, butter, flour and Worcestershire sauce. The soup was worth the stop. It was thick, very peanuty, even more-so than Penang curry, with chunks of peanut and water chestnut with discernible differences in their textures. 

Peanut butter and chestnut soup.

We also shared skillet cornbread topped with vanilla bean honey butter. It looked really amazing, but the cornbread was overcooked and crusty and the honey butter was too cold - it needed time to thaw and melt, which we did not permit, and were underwhelmed by the result. 

The corn bread looked fantastic, but was disappointing.

I got a grilled grouper sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cole slaw and remoulade sauce on a wheat bun. They followed my instructions to under-cook the fish, so it was moist and worked well with the other ingredients. So far, I've not had a bad grouper sandwich. 

Grilled grouper, cole slaw and a fantastic remoulade. The remoulade really made the sandwich. It is typically made with mayonnaise, herbs, pickles and capers and melded the fish and other fixings together in a great way. The plate also contained home-made potato chips that lacked saltiness. 

Judy got a warm goat cheese salad with added chicken and we shared some potato salad. The potatoes in the potato salad were not cooked sufficiently, they were still semi-crisp, and the dressing on it was more the consistency and taste of sour cream than mayonnaise, so I was not impressed with it. 

Almond-crusted goat cheese bookends the salad.

Very mediocre potato salad.

However, the sauteed garlic spinach was the best spinach I've ever eaten - anywhere. The spinach was wilted, but not a clumpy mass of greens, and the broth had a significant savory garlic flavor that I absolutely loved. 

Fabulous sauteed garlic spinach.

Anytime I get a meal where two or three items are outstanding, even though other items may be mediocre or sub-par, I feel like we've done well. 

The meal capped a very nice visit to Mt. Vernon and contributed to our over-all good feelings about the visit.