"When ya opening?" Tucker Withers asked as he walked into the old store building at 39285 Little River Turnpike in December 2025, according to Middleburg Life. Christian Puccio, the restaurateur behind the space, told him January 2. Withers, whom the magazine called the unofficial mayor of the unincorporated village, liked what he heard. "Sounds like he's got a good product… We're looking forward to it."
Ten months later, that exchange marks the year's real change on the short run of Route 50 between Gilberts Corner and Aldie Mill. For a long time, nearly everything worth stopping for along this stretch ran on weekends and in daylight. The farmers market sold on Saturdays and Sundays. The mill opened its doors on weekend afternoons. The best-known meal in the village was breakfast at the Little River Inn. In 2026 the stretch picked up a dinner room open Wednesday through Sunday evenings, and its tables book weeks out. The older anchors kept their weekend rhythm. So a Creighton Farms household now has two versions of Aldie to plan around.
The Store Building at 39285 Got a Dinner Hour
The black-painted building in the village was once the Aldie Country Store, Northern Virginia Magazine noted in its October 2026 review. Its previous tenant, The Black Market restaurant and gourmet market, closed in September 2025, as The Burn reported. Puccio, who opened Puccio's New York Deli in Leesburg at 25 and ran it for seven years, signed a turnkey lease that November and opened Oak & Ember Tasting Room and Market at the start of January.
You can use the place two ways. You can stop in for ready-made sandwiches, salads, charcuterie, ingredients or a bottle to take home. Or you can sit down for shareable small plates and entrées, either indoors or on the patio. Middleburg Life put the indoor capacity at more than 40, and Northern Virginia Magazine counted 50 seats, "most are usually full," with prime-time reservations booked weeks in advance.
The menu is built on a supply chain that stays close to home. Puccio buys from Village Cheeseworks in Upperville, Chilly Hollow Farm in Berryville and Misty Meadow Mushrooms in Leesburg. He jokingly calls the style "Modern American Appalachian," with an emphasis on pasta that reflects his Italian heritage. Head chef Tarek Kipriy and executive sous chef Chris Barette make the pastas, the charcuterie from local animals and the $5 plates of focaccia in-house, and they dry-age rib-eyes in a refrigerator set aside for the purpose, according to the magazine's review.
The wine list matters most if you already know the tasting rooms nearby. Puccio is a Level 1 Sommelier, and he skips the wineries around Aldie and Middleburg on purpose. He pours bottles from elsewhere in Virginia, other states and other countries. Northern Virginia Magazine credits a wine club and lunches for visitors to area wineries and breweries with building the restaurant's following.
Here is the weekly schedule posted on the Oak & Ember website:
- Monday: closed
- Tuesday: lunch only, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Wednesday and Thursday: lunch, then dinner from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: lunch, then dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m.
- Sunday: dinner from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
- Ember Hour: daily specials, Wednesday through Sunday, 3 to 5 p.m.
The restaurant has also promoted weekly Tuesday wine tastings from 4 to 8 p.m., each featuring a different vendor, with no reservation needed. Reservations for regular service go through Tock. Confirm both before you drive over, since a small kitchen's schedule can shift with the seasons.
The Village's Morning Tradition, and the Neighbor Who Asked
The man who asked when the doors would open had kept a very different kind of hours. For 44 years, Tucker Withers rose before dawn, rode his bicycle a few hundred yards to the Little River Inn, the bed-and-breakfast he and his wife, Mary Ann, own across the street from their Aldie home, and cooked breakfast for overnight guests, his obituary recalls. Middleburg Life remembered his banana bread and cottage fried potatoes.
A few doors along, the Aldie Peddler carries on the village's long habit of browsing by daylight. A May 2026 Visit Loudoun feature describes its Amish furniture and broad wine selection. Aldie's 25-mph limit through the village keeps the pace slow enough to notice these places from the car.
Gilberts Corner Kept Its Weekends and Lost Its Namesake
Two miles of change in twelve months, in order:
- September 2025: The Black Market closes at 39285 Little River Turnpike.
- November 2025: Puccio signs the lease on the same building.
- December 2, 2025: The Piedmont Environmental Council begins taking apart the 1927 Gilberts gas station at the Routes 15 and 50 intersection.
- January 2, 2026: Oak & Ember opens to the public.
- September 2026: PEC reports the Gilberts Corner market now accepts SNAP, and Loudoun County awards a roundabout contract a short way east.
The station that gave the corner its name is gone, though the market around it still operates. William Augustus Gilbert built the 22-by-40-foot stucco station in 1927. It became better known for thick ham sandwiches and milk than for its 12-cents-a-gallon Sinclair gasoline. In 1956 the building was moved back eight feet to make room for a traffic light, and it closed for good in 1982, according to PEC's announcement. After nearly three years of study, restoration specialists and engineers concluded that saving it would have meant replacing almost every original piece. Crews removed the millwork, glass, light fixtures, doors and transoms for preservation, then took down the weakened shell for safety, Loudoun Now reported. PEC documented the building in logs, photos and schematics in case anyone ever wants to reproduce it.
The market that grew up around the station kept going through the work and still runs on Saturdays and Sundays year-round, per Visit Loudoun. Its one 2026 change widens who can shop there. Customers can now use SNAP dollars at the weekend market, PEC wrote in the fall 2026 Piedmont View. Market Manager Jen Wilkins told the publication, "We're delighted to provide this benefit to our customers, making it easier for members of our community to enjoy fresh, local food while supporting our market vendors."
Behind the stalls sits Roundabout Meadows, PEC's 172-acre property at the intersection. PEC has opened its section of the Old Carolina Trail there to walkers. The 8-acre Community Farm on the same land has donated more than 265,000 pounds of produce over the past eight years. This year PEC added weekend volunteer days so people who work during the week can take part, and 257 volunteers have logged 1,415 hours so far this season.
Aldie Mill Has Two Weekends Left This Season
At the west end of the village, the mill sticks most closely to the old daytime calendar. NOVA Parks opens Aldie Mill Historic Park on weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 1 through November 1. Free guided tours run Saturdays and Sundays through October. As of Thursday, October 22, that leaves October 24 and 25, then the closing weekend of October 31 and November 1. The twin wheels, restored in October 2010, turn for milling demonstrations on weekends when the water level allows, so the creek decides whether you see them grind.
One program falls after the season ends. Monroe at the Mill returns Sunday, November 15, from 1 to 2 p.m., with a session on James Monroe and Charles Fenton Mercer.
After November 1, the mill's regular season is over and the market stays on its weekend schedule. The one place on the stretch posting Wednesday-through-Sunday dinner hours is the store building at 39285.
The Everfield Drive Contract and the Drive Home
The road itself is next. On September 10, 2026, Loudoun County awarded M & F Concrete a $5,181,844.41 contract to turn the unsignalized intersection of Route 50 and Everfield Drive in Aldie into a single-lane roundabout, according to the county's Notice of Award and bid posting. The county's description says the intersection "serves a growing residential area and is experiencing increasing traffic volumes." The work includes realigned and widened approaches, drainage upgrades, pedestrian facilities and a multi-phase traffic management plan. The posting gives no construction schedule. Farther east, VDOT's separate Route 50 project between Pleasant Valley Road and Tall Cedars Parkway was still in design as of September 24, 2026, with construction estimated to start in summer 2027.
If your route to Aldie for a weekend market run or a Friday dinner reservation goes through that intersection, factor the roundabout work into your timing once crews mobilize.
Suzanne knows this stretch of Route 50 the way Creighton Farms neighbors do, from the market stalls at Gilberts Corner to the mill wheels at the west end of the village. If a change in how you use your corner of Loudoun has you rethinking your home or your next move, Suzanne Ager would be glad to talk it through over coffee in Aldie. Book an Appointment whenever the timing suits you.
