Forlano's Market, a deli, butcher and bakery in The Plains, Virginia, quickly became popular with locals as a place to meet and eat good food made fresh from the bounty of nearby farms. In fact, it became so popular that owner Nick Forlano changed his focus a little, to serving more meals on site than he originally intended.

“People started bringing in plates, glasses, silverware and stuff,” he explained. “My original idea was to do catering, offer dinners to go, along with the fresh bread, bakery and cooking classes. But the locals wanted to eat in, so they started bringing in place settings. I didn't really have any here, just what I used in the cooking classes,” Forlano said.

Celebrating its two-year anniversary this month, Forlano's Market is no longer the Hunt Country's best kept secret. People told their friends, who came, ate and told more friends, and suddenly the little local market became a destination for people from the Washington D.C. area. Forlano's Market still caters events, prepares take-out meals and tailgates and the market offers fresh homemade goods for sale and cooking classes are also offered. But you can also eat lunch and dinner there, or pick up homemade bread, pasta, pizzas, stromboli, lasagnas and quiche.

“My specialty is whatever the farmers bring me,” Forlano says, but admits his fondess for Italian food. His market offers local naturally raised and hormone free beef, pork, turkey and poultry, and he makes his own corned beef, pastrami, beef hotdogs and an array of natural sausages, and also offers fresh fish when he can get it. He's a firm believer in the concept of a truly local market, with homemade food “the way it should be, by supporting local farmers and community vineyards.” His beef comes from nearby Martin's Angus Beef in The Plains, and he gets his poultry and pork from Dayspring Farm just down the road. Dairy products come from Over The Grass Farm in The Plains, and of course all produce is fresh and local as well.

Nick Forlano and his wife Molly relocated to the Virginia hunt country from Kennett Square area of Pennsylvania, the horse country outside Philadelphia five years ago. Forlano never had any identity crisis about what he would do for a living. “I've known since I was 15,” he said. “Other than a few years in the Air Force, cooking is all I've ever done.” His first Virginia job was at the nearby Ashby Inn, but he always had a vision for what he wanted: a place where he could take pride in offering only the finest products made with local ingredients, homemade bread baked daily, a butcher case filled with corn finished Angus beef, free range poultry and hand-crafted charcuterie along with sandwiches made to order, daily soups, lunch and dinner.

Local landowner Mary Forte Goodman is a regular at Forlano's Market; the llama breeder enjoys the meals as well as the cooking classes. “This is how everything in America should be,” she said. “Warm, friendly, highest quality local ingredients. I make new friends every time I come here.” The market is open daily for lunch 11 to 3 and for dinner Wednesday through Sunday with seatings at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. For catering or cooking classes, visit them online at forlanosmarket.com or better yet, stop by and grab lunch on your way to the horse show in Upperville (see From the Blue Ridge for information on the show).

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