Paving crews were still on Warrenton's Main Street at about 6 a.m. on Friday, September 25. That left roughly 12 hours before Mayor Carter Nevill was due to count down the ribbon cutting. Rain and contractor interruptions had pushed the work to the last minute. The street was done in time anyway, and a few hundred people came downtown that evening for the block party. According to the Fauquier Times account of the celebration, it was the first time in about six months that Main Street and its sidewalks were fully finished for pedestrians.
The town spent that summer, plus a few parking spaces, on one thing: more room to sit outside. The coming weeks will be the first real use of that room. October brings the last Friday evenings of the season, a long-awaited brewery reopening a short walk off Main, and the last stretch of patio weather before winter.
What Actually Got Built
The project is older than most people remember. Town leaders said at the ribbon cutting that it was conceived in 2017. Town Council approved applying for VDOT revenue-sharing money in 2019, and VDOT awarded funding in 2020. The original plan ran from Courthouse Square to Calhoun Street. Rising construction costs later cut it back to Court Street through Fifth Street.
Inside that shorter stretch, three changes matter on foot:
- Wider brick sidewalks from Culpeper Street to Second Street. The old brick was replaced, and the added width is what made room for bigger outdoor dining areas.
- New brick-lined crosswalks, with one move. An April 2026 town update moved the Main and Culpeper crossing to Main and First and removed the crossing at Main and Second after a utility conflict turned up. So the walk across now lines up with First Street.
- First Street as a pedestrian plaza. At the ribbon cutting, Nevill called the expanded dining and gathering areas, along with the First Street plaza, among the project's "greatest improvements."
The mayor also said what the town was choosing between:
"We have just made the heart of our town of Warrenton a much more pedestrian and people-friendly place. We have put patrons first and put cars second."
He didn't play down the cost to businesses either. "There is no way to sugarcoat it. Construction is hard on businesses," Nevill said. He described months of noise, dust, blocked sidewalks and customers deciding whether the trip downtown was worth it, while shops kept their doors open.
The Parking Math
"Patrons first, cars second" comes with a real number. In an August update, Fauquier Times reported that once curbside parking returned after paving, Main Street would have nine fewer on-street spaces. A planned redesign of the public lots behind Town Hall was expected to add five back. That would leave Old Town with four fewer spaces overall, "at least for now."
Those figures were a plan, not a count. No public update yet confirms that the Town Hall lot work is finished. On a busy Friday this fall, the street may be short all nine spaces until it is.
Four spaces is a small number. Still, the trade happened block by block. The width once used for parked cars along the Culpeper-to-Second stretch now holds tables. Seating that used to be squeezed onto a narrow brick walk has real space. During construction, several downtown businesses turned to social media to remind customers they were open. On ribbon night, restaurants were mostly full, and much of that crowd was in the new outdoor seating.
Where the Extra Sidewalk Goes
Old Town's restaurant row sits in the low-numbered Main Street addresses. For an October evening, here they are from one end to the other:
- Frozen Yogi, 11 Main Street. Frozen yogurt and soft serve, boba, espresso and paninis, plus a cocktail and mocktail list and an event space.
- Deja Brew Cafe, 22 Main Street. A cafe that also hosts weekly literature, music and art events.
- Ellie's Place, 26A Main Street. A family-owned, dine-in or carry-out restaurant that also scoops 32 flavors of Hershey's ice cream. Its own site lists hours Tuesday through Sunday.
- Denim & Pearls, 29 Main Street. A Modern American restaurant with a wine and whiskey program, indoor seating and an outdoor patio. Its menu also features specialty whiskey in the Akoya Lounge.
- Licorice Pizza, 32 Main Street. Wood-fired pizza with gluten-free options, two indoor bars and a covered, heated patio, which counts for more each week into fall.
- Molly's Irish Pub, 36 Main Street. A traditional Irish pub and family-style restaurant that is open seven days a week.
- Altered Suds Beer Company, 36A Main Street. A small-batch brewery and tasting room focused on hop-forward beer.
Denim & Pearls has the longest history with the First Street corner. In November 2024, FauquierNow reported that the restaurant had been using First Street for extra outdoor seating. The town manager described taking out the restaurant's gate, fencing and some tables to return the space to public use, with gathering tables or open walk-through space as possible options. The plaza that opened in September builds on that earlier decision. Nothing published so far describes a regular event schedule for it.
The same building also has the newest public art downtown. Fauquier native Taylor Boyd painted a sunflower mural on the Main Street side of Denim & Pearls for owner Jennifer Robinson. A Fauquier County facade-improvement grant paid for it. Boyd started at the end of June and finished in early August, so the mural went up while the sidewalk below it was still torn up.
Two October Dates
Old Town After Hours, the Friday evening series of live music and food, starts at 5 p.m. and runs from spring through October. That leaves only a few Fridays on the finished street before the series breaks for the season.
The bigger date is the weekend of October 9 and 10. Silver Branch Warrenton Station, at 56 East Lee Street, holds its grand reopening that Friday from 3 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The brewery has been closed since an early-morning fire on December 23, 2024, which badly damaged its kitchen and storage areas. Investigators traced the fire to an "accidental catastrophic electrical event" in the ceiling of the adjoining Fletching Building. By that Friday, more than 21 months will have passed.
Silver Branch was founded in Maryland in March 2019 by Christian Layke and Brett Robison. It came to Old Town in fall 2023, in the former Wort Hog Brewing building. This summer it ran a pop-up outside while renovations continued. Mosaic Pizza returns as part of Warrenton Station. On the practical side, drinks during the reopening weekend are sold by token, and Silver Branch's event page encourages buying them ahead on Eventbrite.
Silver Branch is also opening a Loudoun location at Village at Leesburg and plans to welcome guests there by the end of the year. For now, the reopening on East Lee Street is the one on the calendar. It lands about two weeks after Main Street's ribbon cutting, on what will likely be the first full weekend crowd the new sidewalks have seen.
The Next Buildings on the List
Two Old Town buildings just off Main Street are next in line. On September 8, Warrenton's council rezoned the former Town Hall at 18 Court Street, which is proposed as a restaurant and members-only social club. The Warren Green Building at 10 Hotel Street is proposed as a boutique hotel. Developer Kevin Ash's company, Madison Dale, is behind both.
According to Rappahannock News, a county tax-incentive agreement and historic-district approvals were still outstanding as of September 9. For this fall, what's ready is the wider sidewalk between Culpeper and Second and the First Street crossing, with the brewery on East Lee Street reopening on October 9.
Some buyers in Fauquier want acreage and an easy drive to a downtown with tables on the sidewalk. At Horse Farms & Country Homes, we know the farms and country homes within reach of Old Town Warrenton, and how a Friday evening on Main Street fits into life on that land. Book an appointment and we'll walk you through the properties that make that drive part of your week.
