“Washington’s Little Inn That Could”

Howie Kahn for Wall Street Journal Magazine (May 30, 2021)

Selected quote:

The boxy exterior of the cafe’s building has been updated with crown molding and striped sage-colored awnings. The wild, climbing foliage has been cut down. The once brown facade is now white. O’Connell says he has “softened the old gas station.”

Inside, a stone fireplace anchors the dining room. O’Connell commissioned muralist William Woodward to paint a dream-like scene depicting a joyous barn dance above the bar. “Hopefully after a few drinks, you’ll hear banjo music and feel like you can just enter the mural,” O’Connell says.

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