by Newt Gingrich

Just 70 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, there is a small town named Little Washington nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Rappahannock County, Va. It is the setting of an amazing story of the kind of entrepreneurial achievement that has made America great.

One entrepreneur named Patrick O’Connell has made Little Washington a magnet for visitors from all over the world. In the process he has turned a town of 84 people into a thriving community with more than 300 jobs. This extraordinary achievement is the culmination of O’Connell’s improbable journey from a college drama student to a world class chef and hotelier.

What is fascinating about the miracle of Little Washington’s success is that it was so improbable. O’Connell attended Catholic University where he was a drama major. Prior to college, he worked part-time in a local restaurant in Clinton, Maryland. However, being a chef was not his focus at the time.

After earning his degree, O’Connell went to France where he discovered a passion for fine dining and superb cooking. As O’Connell reminisced “I was supposed to have become an actor but soon found the living theater of the restaurant world more compelling than the stage.”

When I asked him once how he trained the team that sustained such an extraordinary standard of excellence and customer focus, he said he insisted that they see every visit as a performance. His team is taught to focus on each guest with awareness of their mood and pleasure to ensure they leave thinking about how soon they can return. This is a standard I have encountered in few places, and it seems to be true for every person in the O’Connell system.

In 1972, O’Connell came to Little Washington in search of a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way place to live. He began a catering business. The horse country folks around Middleburg, Va. were his major market. O’Connell’s chicken dinners became famous and quite popular.

In January 1978, he moved into an abandoned gas station (Thornton’s Garage) and turned it into a restaurant which became the Inn at Little Washington. In the early years, he found himself in the local library reading every cookbook and trying to master the art of preparing excellent cuisine.

In one of those lucky moments, just three weeks after the Inn’s opening, Washington Star food critic John Rosson came to dine at the restaurant. In April of that year, Rosson wrote that the Inn was “the best restaurant within 150 miles of Washington, DC.”

O’Connell recognized he had to keep learning, and he spent six months working with François Haeringer at L’Auberge Chez François (which is today a phenomenal, world class restaurant in Great Falls, Va.). O’Connell wanted to develop a combined Inn and restaurant of the highest quality and knew that he could with Haeringer’s instructions and inspiration.

O’Connell then turned to London-based stage and set designer Joyce Evans to create the ambiance and experience that has made the Inn a destination for many notable people.

People come from around the world to dine and often stay at O’Connell’s Inn. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell were married at the Inn in 1997. Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife recently had a delightful evening there. Renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber once said, “For my money this little hotel provides the best overall dining experience I can remember in a long while, perhaps my best ever.”

As O’Connell grew as a chef, his fame spread. In 1989, the Inn was the first establishment to ever receive five-star ratings for both cuisine and accommodations from the Mobil Travel Guide (now the Forbes Travel Guide). In 2001, he was named Outstanding Chef in America. Michelin awarded the Inn three stars in 2018, which is the highest honor you can receive from its guide.

O’Connell and the Inn have received six James Beard Foundation Awards for excellence over more than three decades. In 2019, O’Connell himself received the James Beard award for Lifetime Achievement. That same year, O’Connell also received the National Humanities Medal from President Donald J. Trump, who called him “A preeminent culinary artist and trailblazing industry pioneer.” Finally, in 2021, La Liste, a French guide to gourmet restaurants, listed the Inn as the eighth best restaurant in the world – and the sixth best in America.

Last weekend, Callista took me to the Inn at Little Washington as a surprise to celebrate my birthday. It was an incredible experience.

Throughout his remarkable career, Patrick O’Connell has not only created a destination unlike any other but also transformed American gourmet cuisine into an art form – setting a new standard for excellence and hospitality.

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