Restaurants in Mount Vernon

Dining & Shopping at Mount Vernon -- Mount Vernon’s comprehensive Shops at Mount Vernon Complex offers a range of books, children’s toys, holiday items, Mount Vernon private-label food and wine, whiskey produced at the distillery, stoneground flour made at the gristmill, and Mount Vernon–licensed furnishings. The Orientation Center and slave quarters/greenhouse hold much smaller gift shops. A food court features a menu of deli sandwiches, coffee, grilled items, pizza, and cookies. Although you can’t picnic on the grounds, you can drive a mile north on the parkway to Riverside Park, where there are tables and a lawn overlooking the Potomac.

At the traffic circle outside the main gate, the charming Mount Vernon Inn serves some of the Colonial-style fare George and Martha provided their guests. It's moderately priced, and the atmosphere is great -- period furnishings, working fireplaces, waitstaff in 18th-century costumes. Lunch is first-come, first-served, but reservations are highly recommended at dinner (if for no other reason than to find out if the inn is closed for a wedding reception or other event).