Ashburn Village Inn, a sequel to the long-established South Riding Inn, opened just before the pandemic hit. If not a death sentence, such timing has at the very least been inauspicious for many restaurants. But on a recent Sunday, a full dining room at the Ashburn sports bar proved that folks are indeed dining out again, perhaps with a preference for places where they can do so with both hockey and jockeys on the televisions that line the interior.
To say that I, who neither drink nor watch real sports (I’m aware that professional wrestling and spelling bees don’t count), was more than a bit out of my usual milieu. But I had reasons. Reasons like the Porky Pig, a Belgian waffle with thick-cut bacon cooked inside, as well as ham, eggs, and cheese. Luckily for my arteries, it turned out that I had missed the 1 p.m. end of brunch. But I still wanted waffles. And I realized that I was also craving house-breaded fried chicken. The solution? Some version of chicken-and-waffles.
Yes, there is more than one way to get the dish at Ashburn Village Inn. There’s the basic version, which boasts a “four piece fried chicken tower” on top of a freshly made waffle. But I’m no traditionalist. I wanted all the advantages of chicken-and-waffles, only bite-sized. Hence, my order of the sliders.
It turns out, the dish isn’t so much a plate of sliders as a full-sized sandwich cut into four pieces. But who was I to complain? I had crispy chicken waiting between two layers of waffles. The malted pastry was as it should be: tender and light within, crisp enough outside to withstand a downpour of both savory country gravy and sticky maple syrup. The chicken, though not as juicy as I’d hoped, was far from dry and matched the waffles in crunch.
For $10.95, the chicken-and-waffles was well worth dipping a toe outside my comfort zone. Just don’t ask me who won, other than me.
20020 Ashbrook Commons Plaza, Ashburn; 43090 Peacock Market Plaza, Ste. 110, South Riding
Feature image by Alice Levitt
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