Lightfoot Restaurant

Even though I often write about restaurants on Patch, I'm far from a qualified restaurant reviewer. As a lifelong vegetarian, I'm automatically restricted to only a few things on the menu. However, it does give me somewhat of a different basis on which to judge: if a restaurant can get me excited and I've been able to have more than one dish there (different types of pasta don't count), then it's pretty special. Lightfoot is one of the growing number of restaurants in Leesburg that fits that description.

I've been back in the area for two years now, but I didn't set foot in Lightfoot for at least the first year. Why? I was always told that it was expensive and didn't have anything on the menu that I could have. I didn't bother to check it out for myself, so there it was. Lightfoot remained a pretty building that I passed by on my way to somewhere else.

Then this summer, I ended up there by accident after a bad experience with another nearby restaurant. The beautiful outdoor patio that featured live music and that perfect summertime feeling lured us in.

We were able to order from either the lunch or dinner menu, so while my companion ordered a seafood dish, I was able to find both a wild mushroom and goat cheese appetizer and an open faced eggplant sandwich. Both were amazing, and since the sandwich was from the lunch menu, reasonably priced. Even the items on the dinner menu weren't more expensive than anyplace else in town, and much better than the similarly priced chain restaurants.

I was officially a Lightfoot convert, so when it was time for a special occasion dinner, that was my first choice.

I had actually learned from that the owner and chef, Ingrid Gustavson, was more than willing to accommodate dietary restrictions. Whether you were a vegetarian like I am, or on a gluten-free diet, she was more than happy to "go off book" and make you a special dish. I decided to test that option out, and I was not disappointed.

When I say that she made me a rice and vegetable dish with lemon butter, it sounds boring. However, the dish itself was anything but. She took simple ingredients and made them absolutely amazing. The vegetables were fresh, and everything was perfectly seasoned. I was as happy as a meat-eater would have been with a perfectly cooked steak.

Every now and again when I'm downtown, I'll pop into Lightfoot and order the eggplant sandwich for lunch. It's always amazing each and every time, and it makes me glad that I stopped overlooking Lightfoot Restaurant and just went in.