COVID CONFIDENTIAL: finding Floozies in small-town Virginia

Serving bliss by the slice: Floozies Pie Shop in Louisa, Virginia
[Photograph by the author]

Is any of life’s most essential necessities more inherently operatic than food? Politics and sports are divisive, but disputes regarding particular singers and souflé recipes are the stuff of fisticuffs and irreparable rifts.

Nearly a year after COVID-19 infections were first reported in the United States, cinemas, opera houses, theaters, and performance venues of all sizes remain closed or restricted to operating with reduced capacities. The resilience of Art is undiminished, but the lives of many artists continue to be direly impacted by the ravages of a virus that has affirmed the importance of togetherness by imposing separation.

Culinary artists are also fighting for their own survival and for the solvency of the projects to which they have dedicated their studies, their time, and their savings. Among countless independent businesses adapting to the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, sister eateries Obrigado Restaurant and Floozies Pie Shop in quaint Louisa, Virginia, approach enduring a pandemic with a chef’s indomitable spirit: adjusting quantities, making substitutions when warranted, capitalizing on successes, and learning from failures, fiscal ingenuity has become an invaluable recipe, perpetually tested and tweaked.

Commonwealth cuisine: Obrigado Restaurant in Louisa, Virginia
[Photograph by the author]

Located at 109 West Main Street in downtown Louisa, directly opposite Louisa County’s historic 1905 Courthouse, Obrigado and Floozies bring sophisticated, cosmopolitan cuisine and ambience to an idyllic rural setting within two-hour drives from Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Washington, DC. Focusing on creating flavorful combinations of responsibly-sourced ingredients that both honor Virginia’s heritage and assimilate global influences, Obrigado offers a vibrant, welcoming space in which buttermilk biscuits and bouillabaisse might be found unpretentiously sharing the spotlight. [The Spanish capital lacks the flair for preparing the dish that coastal towns wield, but paellas enjoyed by the author at Obrigado were superior in composition, preparation, presentation, and, above all, taste to those consumed in Madrid.]

Next door, Floozies prepares pies, cakes, and pastries that infuse the virtuosity of a Parisian patisserie with the soul of a Southern grandmother’s kitchen. Asking which Floozies pie is most recommendable is as futile as asking whether Verdi or Wagner is the better composer of opera. In truth, Il trovatore and Tannhäuser benefit equally from an accompaniment of pie.

Proximity to the shores of beautiful Lake Anna and the Washington metropolitan area makes ordering food and desserts from Obrigado and Floozies ideal for COVID-weary day-trippers seeking respite from suburbia. Even in the winter months, nature lovers can enjoy waterside picnics in the comfort of their cars, safely savoring restorative vistas and unforgettable food.

Neighbor of Floozies: Louisa County Courthouse in Louisa, Virginia
[Photograph by the author]

Like many small businesses, Obrigado and Floozies have been greatly affected by COVID-19. Limits on indoor dining capacities, fluctuating prices and availability of ingredients, strict adherence to sanitation protocols, and total commitment to maintaining relaxed but safe environments for patrons and staff have resulted in modified service hours and menus. Nonetheless, Obrigado and Floozies are open, serving, accepting to-go orders, and tirelessly exploring new opportunities to engage and nourish their community.

Please support those initiatives by planning a hiatus from fast-food drive-throughs and tired take-aways. A drive into the countryside for a date with Floozies will leave every quarantine-fatigued foodie saying, ‘Obrigado!’ Talking with a mouth filled with pie is impolite, even during a pandemic, however.

Louisa is easily accessible from Virginia’s major metropolitan areas
via Interstates 64 and 95.

For more information about menus, hours of operation, and special events,
please visit Obrigado’s and Floozies’s websites.
Please also like and share Obrigado and Floozies on Facebook.