Coming This Fall: Chase Club, La Caccia Restaurant

By Leland Schwartz 

Before the dust settles, Kevin Ash will have built two hotels, three upscale public restaurants, three cafés and a members-only club in Leesburg, Warrenton and Middleburg, Virginia.

Coming to Middleburg, next to the post office, will be an Italian restaurant, La Caccia. Italian for “the hunt,” the name connects with that of Ash’s restaurant in Leesburg, the Huntōn.

Warrenton will be gaining a brasserie — in other words, a lively, upscale yet casual French restaurant with such staples as onion soup, steak frites and seafood.

“Think of Le Diplomate in D.C.,” Ash suggests. “Not unapproachable, not highbrow, just good French meals.”

In each town, and with reciprocity with each other, the Chase Club brings together members in the club’s space, where one can work, eat and use conference rooms. Members can also take part in 70 year-round social events ranging from fly fishing trips in the region to catered winery picnics.

La Caccia’s sommelier will conduct monthly “Wines Around the World” tastings for 25 club members, with wines from regions of the world that, says Ash, “many people might not be familiar with.”

The Chase Club in Middleburg is working on some level of reciprocity with Salamander. “We are developing a very positive relationship about how the Salamander and the Chase Club could work together in the future,” comments Ash.

Rendering Of “La Caccia” And Its Italian Cafe By Woodworks Architects

Ash is part architect and part builder, not to mention a stone mason, a land planner and an expert in building restoration. But when you ask him what he does for a living, he says: “I manage risk.” He explains: “What I do in these historic communities is very complex. In trying to manage the complexity of these projects, I am managing risk.” He’s also an avid outdoorsman, stating: “I love to fly fish all over the world.”

If you walk by the old Fun Shop — where another developer’s plans to open a steakhouse stalled out and fell through — you can hear Ash’s Clay Construction inside, building out the restaurant downstairs and the club upstairs, along with what Ash calls “two proper bars.”

“The execution of the work is not as seamless as it could be,” he says, referring to the town’s red tape and the fact that the town manager’s position has been vacant. “I wish their development was as simple as the buildings that are there,” he says, describing the one thing that slows him down.

“Time kills deals,” Ash says, every time I see him. Warrenton, on the other hand, “is super-proactive to get downtown development going.”

The Fun Shop was 15,000 square feet (the Middleburg Safeway is 12,500). “I had to clean all of that out and start from a blank slate,” he says. The three single-family houses on the property are getting renovated and updated, a request from Middleburg Mayor Bridge Littleton. 

The historic house will be an Italian café open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What Ash calls a “speakeasy” is tucked away behind the café. Unlike the speakeasies of the Prohibition era, however, this one has its ABC license.