THE CHOCOLATE CAFE IN WINCHESTER, VA - PART 1

A couple of weekends before last we had an all-ladies stay-over at our house.  Gregg is a good sport about it and doesn't mind tucking himself away upstairs when he wants to retreat from all our chatter.  He is content going off to whatever place he enjoys for some alone-time, enjoyed a nice long bike-ride among other things, and in the evening watches baseball and other shows in our bedroom. Our bedroom turns into his retreat at such times, when he is outnumbered by us females.  All joking aside he enjoys my friends and having a chat with them, but a lot of the time he is in his, what do they call it these days, his "man-cave"?

I didn't take many photos of our time together, just this one before Gregg's bike ride.  All the flowers I am sharing came from a friend's garden when we dropped her back home a couple of days later.  She has a magic touch.

The weekend was over all too soon but the one friend mentioned above stayed a day longer, the friend who has a magic touch in her garden.  Before we dropped her off at her home, she treated us to lunch at a place in Winchester called The Chocolate Cafe.  (I like to mention that I am not getting anything for this free advertising, but if I find a place we truly enjoy, I like to mention them on my blog.  We will be going back.)

When we walked in I looked around and knew we had come to a neat place.  I asked the manager if I could take photos, and she very kindly gave me the okay.

We ordered our sandwiches and I forgot to take photos of those, but we all enjoyed them.  I had a pastrami on rye and it was the best sandwich I had had in a very long time.  If I don't take a photo I can't remember what anyone else had, but they all agreed their choices were excellent, which included a small side dish of orzo pasta salad which was my choice.

As you can see from the photo below there is a definite connection to furry friends.  The tip jar contents go to their local rescue shelter.

There is even an adoption wall.

Hopefully you can enlarge all the photos and have a better look.  In the sign below it says the walls are covered with photos of rescue animals from a no-kill shelter that they support.  This cafe definitely has a big heart.

Attached to the cafe is a place that sells all kinds of chocolates, and I will share photos from there in another post, but here is a 'taste' of what to expect.