(June/July 2008)

By Warren Rojas

Whether you choose to start or end your exurban Virginia dining tour at Spelunker’s is clearly a matter of personal preference.

Then again, you could hit it BOTH coming and going—making sure to alternate between devouring hot-and-juicy cavern burgers and old-fashioned frozen custard to break up the monotony.

This venerated burger shack bears some unlikely aesthetic touches (landscaped koi pond, anyone?) but otherwise keeps things simple. The signature burgers are the stuff of legend, yielding burly homemade handhelds—grilled beef patties are piled high with American cheese, crisp bacon and a smorgasbord of fixin’s (ketchup, pickles, mustard, onions, mayo)—that are unapologetically sloppy (the flimsy paper wrappers can only hope to contain the beefy goodness within) and undeniably delicious.

Meanwhile, an old-school Electro Freeze machine cranks out rainbows of fabulously creamy and silky-smooth frozen custard. Chocolate and vanilla are standard, while the flavor of the day rotates between frosty temptations like coconut-cream pie, coffee chip, chocolate-Bavarian torte, black raspberry and spumoni.