Our story · Paris, Virginia
The Ashby has stood at the foot of the Blue Ridge since 1829. What happens inside it now is the work of a small team who care a great deal about what lands on your plate and in your glass.
How it started
The house at 692 Federal Street went up in 1829, when the Blue Ridge foothills were a long day's ride from Washington. Since 1984 it has been a restaurant with rooms upstairs, and the drive out has become part of the evening.
The church next door was built in 1891. Its stained glass and barrel ceiling are still intact, and today it is where couples marry and companies gather. Behind the inn, a kitchen garden grows a good part of what the dining room serves.
None of it has been smoothed over into a hotel. The floors creak, the fireplaces work, and the view from the window has not changed much since the house was built.
1829
The inn is built on Federal Street, at the foot of the Blue Ridge.
1891
The church next door goes up. Today it is the Reception Hall.
1984
The dining room opens, and people start making the drive.
2015
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, and every year since.
2026
Northern Virginia Magazine names The Ashby one of the region's Top 10 Best Restaurants.
The garden
Behind the inn is an organic kitchen garden, and the seasonal menus are written around what is coming out of it. When the garden cannot grow something, local farmers grow it for us, often to order for a dish that is still months away.
This season that has meant:
The kitchen
Executive Chef
Carlos came to The Ashby as Chef de Cuisine and spent more than a year cooking alongside the former executive chef before taking over the kitchen. Before that, he ran the kitchens at Palio Ristorante and Casa Nostra in Leesburg.
His menus begin in the garden and then travel, course by course, from the Chesapeake Bay through Asia, France, Latin America and Italy.
On the menu
Smoked duck breast on brioche with duck rillettes, plum mousse and beet gastrique.
“Virginia's bounty never looked so delicious.”
Northern Virginia Magazine · No. 5, Top 10 Best Restaurants of 2026
The cellar
Sommelier
Stephen is a self-taught sommelier, certified through the Court of Master Sommeliers, with a particular soft spot for Burgundy. The cellar he oversees has held Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence every year since 2015.
His aim at the table is to make wine approachable and memorable, and to find the bottle that changes the meal.
“There is always a new region to explore, a vintage to evaluate, or a story to share with a guest.”
Stephen Elhafdi and Carlos Leon in the dining room.
How they work
Carlos and Stephen write the menu together. A sauce gets a little more acid, a garnish changes, a pour moves up a course, until the plate and the glass make sense together. Most guests never see that part. They just notice that it works.
The meal ends with Maria Delfin, who has made every bread and dessert at The Ashby for more than twelve years. The brioche that comes to the table before dinner is hers, and so is whatever you finish with.
Executive Chef
Carlos Leon
Seasonal menus from the garden, by way of the Chesapeake, Asia, France, Latin America and Italy.
Sommelier
Stephen Elhafdi
Court of Master Sommeliers certified. A Wine Spectator awarded cellar, every year since 2015.
Pastry Chef
Maria Delfin
Every bread and dessert at The Ashby for more than twelve years.
Come and see for yourself
Dinner Wednesday to Sunday from five, Sunday brunch from eleven, and ten rooms upstairs if you would rather not drive home.
