Who knew we had pork roll in WV?
 

I'm all about a weird, whacky West Virginia festival -- like the Roadkill Cook-Off. I had put the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Festival on my calendar some time back to make sure I could check it out at some point.

It's the world's largest water tasting competition, and judges taste municipal, bottle, sparkling and purified water in February for the past 25 years. Berkeley Springs touts their natural springs, which have national received attention from visitors - including George Washington in his day. So, it makes sense to have a water tasting festival in a place known to have some of the best water.

While the judges are the ones with the biggest tasks, there is a bit of fun for those in the audience. You get to judge some waters, as well as the design of bottles. But the most fun part? After the awards have been announced, the audience is invited up to the main stage to snag one of the display bottles of water. This "water rush" gets a little crazy, as people run up to take all these bottles of water. I was lucky enough to swoop in and snag a cool glass bottle of Justa.

It was a nice little event and something unique for our state. Anyone else snag a cool bottle?

Chef Damian Heath first popped up on my radar when I began looking into the James Beard Foundation awards. He has been nominated for years now, and he's the only one from West Virginia in recent memory to do so. So each year I saw his name and his restaurant, Lot 12 Public House, come up, I rooted for him. And while he hasn't made it past the semifinalist round (yet!), he's definitely made an impression on the culinary scene in the Eastern Panhandle.

I made a trip out here to talk with Chef Heath and his wife, Betsy, for a story for Taste WV Magazine. The restaurant is in a historic building, which is where its name comes from. I was super fortunate to try many of their menu items. Which, really, were all amazing.

The crisp roasted duck is a house specialty with rosemary potato cake, pear chutney and bourbon pan juices. Because of the way it's cooked, there's no real layer of fat. It's perfectly moist duck with a crispy skin outside. Just incredible.

Another great dish was the shrimp and grits with tasso, andouille sausage and bell peppers in a cream sauce with creamy garlic cheese grits. Amazing. Plump shrimp, a delicious creamy sauce, huge chunks of tasso and sausage. Plus a nice little piece of toasted bread to soak up all the extra sauce.

A few more that I didn't get to taste, included toasted gnocchi with roasted garlic, sauteed mushrooms and parmigiana reggiano; a quail and waffle dish and a cheese appetizer.










The food at this restaurant is some of the best I've had in West Virginia. It rivals Cafe Cimino as one of my all-time favorite restaurants here, I think. Go in, enjoy a bit of luxury and taste some of the best food in this state.




Grade: A

Berkeley Springs Brewing Company is a newcomer to the craft beer scene in West Virginia. The bathwater brewpub, as it's affectionately called, was created by Karl and Denise Wagenbrenner out of what started as just a home brewing shop + classes. It still has the Mountain Man Brew Supply products on one part of the brewpub.

I went out here to talk with the owners to learn a little more about what they do for a future issue of Taste West Virginia Magazine. So, I won't get into too much here, but I do want to touch on the super delicious beer and food I had.

I was able to try a full flight of beers, which included their caCapon Kolsh, American Amber and Berkeley Brown. Plus there was an apple butter beer, and oh my gosh. He was also working on a pawpaw beer, which resulted in me taking home a fresh pawpaw.


I also ordered from their menu their specialty "tater waffle," which is just what it sounds like - a bunch of tater tots placed in a waffle iron so the entire outside gets perfectly crispy. Their weekly special tater waffle was a "south of the border" edition with chili, sour cream, tomatoes, cheese and onions.

This is so good! It's so simple, but it's awesome to have this super crispy tater waffle. Perfect pairing for the beer, too.

Stop through, get a tasty beer and a quick tater waffle to fill you up.

Grade: A