EAT: Cowbell Kitchen
SHOP: Antiquing in Leesburg + Lucketts
One little corner of this tiny shop has an adorable yellow table, set with succulents and a porcelain gray-blue bird, one white chair, one salvaged bench, modern macrame curtains over the adjacent window and a gallery wall featuring prints of women at different ages and in different styles cobbled together. It looks like an Instagram post come to life. This couldn’t be more on-trend, in-style and utterly charming.
When ordering at the cash register, spy the racks of cookie sheets and industrial spatulas. This is a working kitchen. The storefront acts as the hub of cooking prep for Cowbell Kitchen’s output at area farmers markets. The shop’s limited menu consists of a breakfast sandwich (more on that in a second), a vegan and gluten-free smoothie bowl using housemade nut butter instead of yogurt, grilled cheese and quiche.
Before handing over the credit card, glance left for what Cowbell is known for: dessert. There’s a brownie, butterscotch blondie, cookies and a pound cake that will make you believe life is beautiful.
The housemade buttermilk biscuit is a heaping mound surrounding a crepe-style egg, melty sharp cheddar cheese (from Pennsylvania’s Coulter Farms) and bacon from owner Cheryl Strasser’s neighbor in West Virginia, Tudor Hall Farm; it’s the only meat served here as Strasser is vegetarian and her partner Kaeley “KK” Brady is vegan. It’s hard to call this common combination artful or otherwise intriguing, but it’s a testament to craft and sourcing that something so pedestrian can rise above the quotidian to become truly memorable.
But, still, this is a breakfast sandwich. Uncomplicated, filling and something to keep the stomach full for a morning of bopping around midcentury modern finds.
