All aboard! Java Depot lays tracks

The Java Depot in Nellyford, which happens to be a restored train depot, opened in June last year.
PHOTO COURTESY JAVA DEPOT

In our yearly round-up of openings and closings, Dish missed one opening on the road to Wintergreen–the Java Depot and Caf©. As co-owner Nancy Kern, who runs the place with her husband, Richard Boyd, wants to remind folks, the Java Depot opened in June last year.

“Our place is unique with terrific coffee and homemade food,” says Kern.

Boyd, an architect, actually designed the Java Depot in 2007 using the old Arrington railroad depot, which was built in 1870 to replace the old depot which was burned down during the Civil War. Before being dismantled and moved to its current location along Route 151 in Beach Grove, it housed the Arrington Post Office from 1961 to 1982. Originally, the restored building opened as Sparrow’s Cafe a little over a year ago, but that business only lasted about five months. Kern, a lawyer, says she and Boyd, who only live about a mile away, kept driving by the building and were struck with the restaurant bug.

“We decided I could keep my job to put my salary into the Depot and work mornings and weekends,” says Kern. “Richard is in charge of the kitchen, me the barista and coffee. It’s so much fun. It’s not lucrative yet, but there is no better way to spend my salary.”

Kern says Nellysford needed a coffee shop, and that she loves the idea of making people happy with homemade food and coffee.

“I'm a coffee snob,” admits Kern, “so I shopped around and settled on Shenandoah Joe roasters–- more expensive but better than others I found.”

The Depot is opened for breakfast and lunch from 6:30am to 2:30pm every day except Tuesdays, and on Friday nights from 6pm to 9pm they feature live music, dessert, and light dinner fare.

As for the food, look for treats like roasted tomato soup, butternut squash and shrimp bisque, smoked turkey and bacon club, homemade applesauce, sweet potato pancakes, and chocolate almond pie.