Halfway There

Historic Chesterfield County restaurant has been a popular destination since Washington’s days.

Photos by Ken Newman / Southern Sharp Photography

Long before vegan delights were a glimmer in anyone’s eye or fusion restaurants were as ubiquitous as fondue, even long before there was a United States of America, there was the Half Way House in Chesterfield County.

You can call it classic, you can call it old, but no matter the semantics, the Half Way House has stood the test of time, linking and nourishing generations. The building has been home to a bar since before Virginia became a state—historians estimate it was originally built around 1760. According to legend, it hosted a range of founding-era luminaries, from George Washington and Patrick Henry to the Marquis de Lafayette, and it served as headquarters for Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler during the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff in 1862. “Anyone who came through this area would have stopped at this place,” says Rick Young, who has owned the business since 1982. He and his wife, Sue, purchased it from Fred and Dorothy Bender, the couple who had continuously owned and operated it since the early 1940s.

Located on Jefferson Davis Highway in North Chesterfield, the Half Way House is a colonial-style, two-and-a-half-story structure that derives its name from its location midway between Richmond and Petersburg. Before the construction of the Manchester and Petersburg Turnpike in 1816, the forerunner of what is now U.S. Route 1, travelers between Richmond and Petersburg expected to be on the road for up to five hours. In those days, the tavern was a popular stopover where weary travelers would eat, rest, and feed their horses.

Williamsburg surveyed the building and learned that it was originally located a few miles farther north. Their findings correspond with letters by the Hatcher family, one-time owners, indicating that “the old tavern” had been disassembled and moved to its current location in 1820. “We think it was where Falling Creek is, near a ferry landing or a highway,” Young says. “It was a big, big mystery for us.”

When the Bender family purchased the building in 1941, they initially intended to open a museum to take advantage of the traffic on Route 1, a busy thoroughfare before the construction of Interstate 95. “This road was just packed with travelers. But Pearl Harbor changed everything,” Young says. The Benders decided instead to open a restaurant to cater to soldiers posted at nearby Fort Lee. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

The Half Way House’s detached kitchen building.

When the Youngs first looked at the property in the early 1980s, little had changed since the Benders opened their business 40 years earlier. “It didn’t look like it does today. There was plaster on the walls; we took all that down,” Young says. “We didn’t know what we were going to do, so we decided to just leave it like this,” he says, referring to the exposed brick walls.

Today, the building retains an authentic look and old tavern feel unique among the state’s restaurants. Upstairs, guests and larger groups can enjoy a candlelit fine dining experience, while the restaurant area in the basement, with its charming and rustic décor, seats about 40, forming a more intimate setting where guests relax by a cozy log burner perfect for winter evenings. 

The kitchen is located in a detached log cabin set apart from the main building and presided over by chef Raymond Allen, who has been there since 1984. (“He’s like our son, he has grown up here,” Young says.) Offerings include fresh from-scratch classics like Chesapeake crab cakes, fried shrimp, filet mignon, and rack of lamb, as well as chef’s daily specials; main course prices range from $40 to $50.

While the food’s quality has remained consistent over the decades, the menu has evolved. “We used to have chicken livers and frog legs, and we had very little seafood,” Sue Young says. “We always had the fried shrimp; they have always been the most popular item, but as people got more interested in seafood we have expanded the seafood section of the menu.”

The Youngs respect the tavern’s history, but refuse to employ historic gimmicks. “We are not following any concept or philosophy other than that this place never closed, it just evolved,” Rick Young says. “We don’t do costumes or reenactments; this is a real tavern from the 1700s, serving real food. We still have a real function.”

Liess van der Linden-Brusse with the Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia says the fact that the restaurant is still in use after hundreds of years is a “testament to the will and passion for history of its owners,” including the Bender family and the Youngs. “The Half Way House is living history,” she says.

The combination of service, food, and homey feeling prompts many patrons to come back, sometimes for decades. “There are families who come here for every special occasion, every holiday or birthday,” says Kat Taylor, a server who has worked at the restaurant for seven years. 

But above all, what’s important about this restaurant isn’t the food or the staff, says Young. “It’s what’s going on at the tables. Do you have any idea how many engagements have occurred in this building? And we have yet to have a ‘no.’” The Half Way House, he says, is a “place where life happens. There isn’t another place like this.” HalfWayHouseRestaurant.com


This article originally appeared in our April 2020 issue.

Markus Schmidt
Markus Schmidt is a former associate editor of Virginia Living and Virginia politics reporter for Cardinal News. A native of Germany, he is now the Virginia politics reporter for the Virginia Mercury.
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