Barstro in Virginia Beach combines best of dining, drinking

VIRGINIA BEACH

When it comes to restaurants, Don Stull has owned quite a few, but with his latest – Woody McGees Barstro – Stull is ready to make it his last and best.

Stull and his wife, Deb, opened the eatery in October in the Holland Plaza Shopping Center.

Throughout the years, Stull’s name has been associated with various local bars and restaurants including Bobby McGee’s, DB Cooper’s, Smackwater Jack’s, Baker Street and Deuce McGee’s.

Stull created the name “barstro” by combining bar and bistro. The restaurant offers an upscale, yet casual, family-friendly dining experience – and a smoking bar area with pool tables, disc jockeys, an Internet juke box, NFL Sunday Ticket, 2010 Golden Tee Golf and more.

“This is like going back to the future with restaurants,” Stull explained. “Back in the early 1970s lounges and dining areas were separate.”

Stull saw the opportunity to create two types of places and enable patrons to experience one, the other, or both as they desire.

A native of West Virginia, Stull has been in Hampton Roads since the mid-1970s. His journey to the area started when he switched gears from becoming a minister into the restaurant industry.

“Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to affect people in a positive way,” said Stull, who lives in Chesapeake Colony. “People identify the name McGees and know that in all of my bars I’ve had quality products with both service and food.”

Ken Melton said those two factors are what keeps bringing his wife, Garnet Moses-Melton and him back to Woody McGees.

“He runs a good ship,” said Melton, “which is why I’ve heard from people that they’ve been following Don around for years.”

Stull’s chef, Travis Lindblad, is someone he looked for his entire life in the restaurant business.

“I wish I’d found him a long time ago,” Stull said.

Stull credits Lindblad’s creativity for great dishes and their ability to fine tune and tweak each other’s menus as a real benefit to what Woody McGees can bring patrons.

The menu includes she-crab soup, 50/50 burger (beef and bacon) served on a pretzel roll, shrimp tacos, waterman’s clams and stout marinated pork porterhouse.

Joe Adkins of Lake Shores has been a regular at Stull’s previous establishments.

“He’s always got the best place in town,” Adkins said. “And now with Woody McGees it’s the best of both worlds with the bar and restaurant sides.”