Out of the Kitchen and Onto the Stage Wolford Rolls out Round Hill Events Venue

BY NORMAN K. STYER nstyer@loudounnow.com

Winners in this year’s Loudoun’s Favorites poll will be getting a bit of a sneak peak at a new western Loudoun dining and entertainment destination.

Joan Wolford, owner of this year’s Favorite Catering Company, Savoir Fare, has spent the past three years converting the former Round Hill furniture factory building into a catering venue. That space soon will offer live music and dinner theater, as well as private events—including the Loudoun’s Favorites winners’ reception next month.

The building was constructed in the 1880s and was first used as a furniture factory, then to build caskets, and as a general store that according to local lore offered traditional supplies along with moonshine and prostitutes. More recently it’s been an arts center and the host site for bluegrass gatherings.

The renovation, led by Rob Gordon of Blue Ridge Remodeling, retains the flavor of those historic uses. Artist Penny Hauffe added some special touches throughout. Wolford even hangs a set of room keys near the stairs as an homage to the upstairs bordello.

“It’s been a really fun project,” she said. “I love this building. I love it here.”

Wolford’s start in the dining industry is rooted in her love of acting. Growing up in New Jersey, her dream was to be on the big stage.

“I wanted to be a Broadway star,” she said. While she was singing with bands and performing singing telegrams in Manhattan, she also waited tables because “that is what you do when you’re doing off Broadway.”

Off Broadway was as close as she got.

In 1984, she moved to Clifton after a visit to see her sister there. “It was a lot prettier here, even if you did have to pump your own gas,” she said of her early impressions of Virginia.

Soon she landed a position at the landmark Clifton restaurant Heart in Hand, mentored by owner and head chef Suzanne Worsham.

She struck out on her own in Loudoun

C’est Bon

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County in 1986 with the Hamilton Garden Inn, a fine dining bed and breakfast. After that venture, she operated the Village Inn in Lovettsville and worked at the Laurel Bigrade Inn in Leesburg before starting her own catering company, Savior Fare, in 1997.

Twenty-six years later, she remains a go-to caterer in the region, handling some 200 events per year.

She also is active in community theater, and met her husband during a Franklin Park production.

But at her new building, C’est Bon, located just across the street from her catering kitchen, Wolford hopes to get even closer to her artistic roots.

An event planned in October is a performance of a murder mystery she has written.

“I want to sing on that stage and I want to do acting on that stage,” she said. Learn more at savoirfarelimited.com. n