09/09/2026
As most of you know, my husband Chris and i are the owners of Smokin W***y, Deli South, and Market 93 Provisions Catering. I feel we need to address this article from The Burn to correct some assumptions made by them. I also want to clarify that we were contacted by them on Friday before Labor Day that they had the information on our project from public building permit records. We asked them to hold off running the story but they stated they didn't want to get "scooped" and were running it with or without our permission. I have a hard time believing that a building being considered for a building permit (not a data center) is worthy of the term "scoop" but obviously I am old and out of touch. 🤣
Here are the corrections and how we, the owners, would have liked to announce it.
Deli South is getting a new location with improved building and atmosphere!!
As you have seen, Virginia Village is getting renovated (torn down) in the coming years. We have known about these plans for a number of years and we have been looking for a replacement location. Our landlord, Brian Cullen with Keene Enterprises, has been very supportive and encouraging in this search. He has offered us space in the new buildings and even other property that he owns. He us an exceptional landlord and most definitely not the "norm".
As any family owned restaurant owner will tell you, rent is the single largest expense each month. Food cost can fluctuate with menu items, seasons, volume, etc. Rent ALWAYS goes up. Factor in the cost of installing a hood ventilation system, refrigeration, fire suppression systems and equipment, an owner will easily invest over $500k in a landlord's property when opening a restaurant in a leased space. Due to this, we decided our best course of action was to try to buy a location rather than lease again.
We identified a property that we believed would work well for us in late 2024 at 422 Sycolin Road. This is a small lot behind the Walgreens at the corner of Sycolin and Battlefield Pkwy.
An important note here is that we do NOT have partners or investors. We (Chris and I) own the businesses 100%. We weighed this decision very carefully because this expense and risk is all us. After careful consideration and negotiation, we closed on this purchase in February of this year.
During our deliberations on this project, it was decided that in order for this to make financial sense, we needed to maximize the operation efficiently and combining the new Deli South with Smokin W***y made the most sense.
This new building has been in the design process for almost two years now and I am honestly so excited so show everyone the design we came up with! Deli South and Smokin W***y will each have distinct entrances and atmosphere. We will post pictures once we have the required approvals from the town and county.
Smokin W***y is more complicated. Chris and I live just outside Purcellville town limits and are very proud of the restaurant we have in Purcellville. We love this town and all it has given to us and our family. Our two oldest graduated from Loudoun Valley in 2017 and 2018 and our youngest attends Mountainview. Our back hallway is decorated with a small fraction of the young people we have employed at the "W***y" over the years. There are Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Musicians and even a couple of kids that were inspired to go into restaurant management! Those kids who spend a year or two with us, have left a mark on us and it is incredibly hard to think of missing that.
On a personal level, so many of our customers have become dear personal friends over the years. This is NOT an easy decision....
As of right now, the lease for Smokin W***y will expire in the Summer of 2027. We are still hoping to keep the restaurant open in Purcellville but that is up to the landlord. It all depends on the terms available to us and the financial details. Renaud is the landlord on this location and we will just have to wait and see but we are not optimistic.
The bottom line is that GREAT things are coming and we are thrilled, excited and a little stressed. We want this to live up to not only our expectations but also yours!
Please be patient with us as we will release more information on our timeline when we are comfortable giving you information that we are certain of.
If you want to ask any specific questions, please feel free to comment below for reaching out to me through private message.
Thank you for reading all this!!!
