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?

The Rail Yard Restaurant foiled my attempts to check off all the Elkins restaurants on the 101 Most Unique Places to Dine in WV list in one fell swoop. It was, inexplicably, closed when it should've been opened, which necessitated another trip to Elkins. Luckily, I was already in the area during lunch time, and The Rail Yard Restaurant happened to be open.

The restaurant is located near the tracks of the Elkins Depot, which hosts a number of train excursions.

Lots of parking is available, which is nice. Once I opened the doors, a sign directed me upstairs. I noticed there was outdoor dining, and I contemplated sitting outside, but it was still a bit chilly. Inside, it was. I grabbed a seat near the windows, at least. A young kid came over to get my drink order after a few moments. There was some subtle jabbing from a manager or owner who couldn't provide a notepad for him immediately and said something to the effect that if he couldn't handle a drink order without writing it down, it's a problem. Poor kid. Maybe don't say that out loud in front of your customers to try to embarrass him.

The menu has a bunch of sandwiches, like turkey and roast beef, as well as hot dogs, wraps, burgers, soups and salads.


If possible, I like to try something made in-house by a restaurant, rather than merely assembled. That, plus I love meatloaf. So, the "hobo" was a natural choice for me. After quite a while, it came out on thick slices of toasted bread and was incredible moist with a sweet tomato sauce on top. I actually really liked it. Like, really liked it. It was ground fine, with lots of herbs and spices and this delicious sauce on top. It is not fancy by any stretch - but it's tasty. The steak fries could've used a few more minutes of cooking so they got crisp.

The sandwich would easily be an A for me, but the fries combined with the manager comments to the server that made me uncomfortable took the experience down a notch for me.

Grade: B

The Blossom Dairy has a storied past. The Charleston Restaurant recently opened at the end of 2015 after being closed for some time.



This restaurant, which opened in 1994, is the last remaining of a few locations in the area. It remained open until 2010. It then reopened a few months later and closed down again in 2012.





I was finally able to check it out recently, and it's such a cool little place. I love the long mirrored bar with red seating all down the restaurant.

The menu features sandwiches, soups, salads and entrees. A big draw is their 10 different slaws (of which I need to try next time), as well as liquor milkshakes. I started off with an Oatmeal Cookie liquor milkshake, which was sooo good.

For starters, we had the loaded mini corndogs - topped with chili, cheese, onions, jalapenos and tomatoes. I don't really know why I thought the execution of these may go well, because the corndogs get almost immediately soggy ... and to top it off, it had a hair in it. That totally throws me. So, I was done with that.

Next up was a cup of Blossom Bisque, with roasted red peppers, bacon and gouda with a touch of cream topped with parmesan and croutons. This is a really good bisque. Like, I wish I would've gotten a bowl because it was just so rich and creamy.

My main dish was the triple threat salad, which features Blossom's classic tuna, egg and chicken salad. This is not something I would typically order, but it is a revival of the restaurant's classic recipes. The egg salad was decent, but the tuna was a bit funky. The chicken was OK, but fell a little short. I tried bites of each, but then mostly pushed it off to the side and ate the salad as is. Overall, it was fine - and the soup and liquor milkshake quite good -- but not enough great to outweight the not so great.

Grade: C

Ridge View BBQ runs the circuit of fairs and festivals in the area, and I had a little sampling of a sandwich at one some time ago. But I hadn't had the chance to visit the actual Dunbar BBQ restaurant until recently.

The first good sign was that this place was PACKED. Nearly all the spots in the parking lot were taken up. And, once I walked inside, there was a hefty line awaiting me. That's OK - more time to check out the menu. Pulled pork sandwich? Brisket? Ribs?

I went with the pulled pork sandwich platter, with a corn muffin, potato salad and macaroni & cheese. Good lord do I love Southern food. Everything is just created to hit those comfort zone portions of my brain and make me happy. The pork was plentiful and perfect with a nice little tangy BBQ sauce. The mac? Super cheesy. And the potato salad was just beyond creamy.



Oh, and I may or may not have also ordered a brownie. I didn't realize it had chocolate chips in it (not my fav), but the brownie itself was pretty good. I think Charleston has quite a few BBQ places at this point that are doing some really good things, and I'd count Ridge View BBQ among them.



Grade: A

The Red Rooster Cafe is a sweet, country French-like restaurant in Gassaway that is so inviting upon entering that I started to rethink my to-go order. That recliner certainly looked like a comfy spot to eat my sandwich.

I had ordered a crab cake sandwich at the recommendation of the 101 Most Unique Places to Dine in WV list. And, the kind woman at the counter greeted me warmly and went to get my order immediately. Taking a look around, lots of country decor and mismatched chairs make up the dining space. In the sweetest way.

But that wasn't even the best part. The food was. Once I opened the takeout box to see my crab cake sandwich, I was excited. The crab cake had a nice crisp on the outside and giant hunks of lump crab meat were sticking out. Yaaas. While you can't see it here, there was a perfect remoulade sauce with just a bit of a kick. The crab cake was so moist, so flavorful, just perfect. I don't know what's with the middle of West Virginia having damn good crab cakes, but I'm all about it.

Grade: A