Between the Blue Ridge and Allegany Mountains is Montgomery County, in Virginia. It’s a pastoral region that celebrates its agricultural roots and the long history of Virginia Tech University. Two of its most unique towns, Blacksburg and Christiansburg, have many stories to tell and many things for visitors to experience. A late-fall visit left me with so much to share with Real Food Traveler readers, from time spent on the peaceful land to the energetic vibe that comes with a “college town,” to some great backstories of area businesses. Here are my Editor’s Picks for where to eat, stay and play in Montgomery County, Virginia.

Save this article to Pinterest to help you plan your visit to Montgomery County, Virginia. Photos and graphic by Courtney Drake-McDonough for RealFoodTraveler.com.

Discovering Fun & Stories in Montgomery County, Virginia

Where to Eat and Drink in Montgomery County

Bull & Bones Brew Haus & Grill is the oldest brewery in southwest Virginia and serves wood-fired BBQ including ribs, seafood, steak and chicken. Specialties include the “Smoke Alarm Burger” with jalapenos, pepper jack cheese and spicy ranch. “Game Day Mac & Cheese” has pulled pork and melted cheddar jack. Their ten-barrel brewhaus generates six craft beers they are very proud of. The owner, Jon, was a medical device rep selling pacemakers and defibrillators even through the first three years of his business. There are college bars a-plenty but no breweries nearby. Jon saw microbreweries and pubs in other states and knew it was only a matter of time before the trend reached Virginia. He saw the market need and went for it.

A BBQ platter from Bull and Bones Brew Haus & Grill shows off some of the best of the best.

Beliveau Farm Winery is owned and operated by a husband-and-wife team (Joyce and Yvan) with other members of their family. She’s more the self-described “desk person” and he’s the winemaker. Some 25 years ago, the couple started contemplating what to do after retirement. Formerly a professor at Virginia Tech, Yvan had always wanted to make wine, seeing it as “art versus science,” because it’s the art of manipulating yeast and other elements that create the wine. The winery officially opened in 2012 and, seven years later, they added a brewery that produces the state’s only gluten-free beers. They pride themselves on only using Virginia grapes to make their wine.

Up the hill, next to one of the expanses of vines, is the Sugar Shack where they do food and wine pairings and multi-course dinners. Cozy inside, there’s a huge patio outside, affording sprawling views of rolling hills. Just stunning.

Beliveau Farm Winery offers wine and food tastings, lodging, an events venue and beautiful scenery.

Blacksburg Wine Lab specializes in cheese and charcuterie plates, fresh-baked, local breads, crackers and pastries from around the world. They are known for their tinned fish and the house-made pimento cheese and spicy Tasso ham grilled cheese. Owners John Boyer and Katie Pritchard incorporate education in wine tasting that draws on John’s years teaching a wine geography class at Virginia Tech. Reflecting on the cultures from which the grapes are grown and harvested before becoming wine, there’s much to learn and pass on to eager diners.  

Hungry for more? Read about the Blacksburg Wine Lab experience.

Iron Tree Brewing in Christiansburg was started by three friends who met at Virginia Tech and were all homebrewers. After a decade of lots of home brewing practice and growing their brand, they opened the tasting room. The name comes from one of the owners, Seth’s, brewing with water from his home well which had a lot of iron and lent a flavor they all loved.

Enjoy a flight of beer or a pint at Iron Tree Brewing in Montgomery County’s Christiansburg.

Rising Silo Brewery is a delightful surprise just about a mile out of town. The farm-based brewery is in a large wood building with walls decorated with old doors. It’s rustic, casual and super-charming. The beers are brewed using their own well water. They take advantage of a ready supply of local ingredients to brew some core beers but also seasonal beers with tongue-in-cheek names like Udder Chaos Milkshake IPA with pawpaws (described as mountain mangos), a Sasquash beer made from squash and their popular Apple ‘Atacha Pale Ale with Red Delicious apples. They use only organic grain and grow their own barley hops. Because the operation is small, they can get creative in having different grains and yeast which wouldn’t be successful on a large scale.

On the food side, their Farm & Forage Kitchen operation, they have a seasonal menu that rotates weekly, using local ingredients. They are best known for their pizzas made in the oven built right in the dining room.

Rising Silo makes creative beers and great food like the Silo Burger with Silo Sauce, in their casual and funky setting.

Hungry for more? Make iconic Virginia Brunswick Stew.

The Blacksburg Tavern is a standout dining experience in Montgomery County, which is saying a lot. Located in the oldest house on Main Street (circa 1892), it is owned by Daniel Riley who purchased the property in 2007, converting the former home into the restaurant. Guests cross the grand porch into the foyer where the host, likely Daniel, welcomes and seats them in one of several rooms of the home. The menu is a hearty, regional farmer’s menu like was undoubtedly served by the family who originally lived in the house. Chicken, beef, ham, veggies, biscuits with apple butter, pie and ice cream fill up the table like a holiday feast. While there, enjoy Appalachian bluegrass music and wall murals hand-painted by Virginia McLaughlin, the owner’s great aunt when she was 91!

The setting and food are really special at Blacksburg Tavern.

Zeppoli’s Italian Restaurant & Wine Shop opened in 1996 by Cody Thompson and Chris Mullens, specializes in made-from-scratch cuisine and recipes handed down from their Italian mothers. Spinning from that with their own creations, favorites include Smoked Salmon Bruschetta, Bacon Florentine Aglio and Vodka Crab Rigatoni. The pasta and bread are all made from scratch and fresh pasta can be purchased by the pound. Shop bottles of wine off the shelf to take away or to have opened to accompany dining in.

Scratch-made Italian food and a world of wines make Zeppoli’s a great place to dine.

Hungry for more? Read about another university town, Columbia, MO.

Where to Play in Montgomery County:

Hahn Horticulture Garden, which celebrated 40 years in 2024, is on Virginia Tech property but is supported by fundraisers and volunteer helpers. The six-acre gardens’ goals are 1. To be a place of teaching and learning (art, plants, insects and poetry); 2. To provide community outreach with schools, garden clubs and community in general with opportunities to learn wreath making and flower arranging; 3. To offer a place to relax especially for students and staff. There are hammock stands so students can bring their own hammocks, string them up and relax. Teachers come to grade papers there. One joked he gives better grades when he’s grading from the garden. Get a glimpse of one of the waterfall features in our video below.

Jefferson & George Washington National Forest offers a network of trails spanning 17 miles that local volunteers have designed and maintained. Within the area is the eight-acre Pandapas Pond that has a one-mile loop trail around it, going around wetlands, over boardwalks and bridges and among a wide variety of plant life. A trio of people, bundled up and looking through binoculars on the early November morning we were there, said it’s a great area for bird-watching. We certainly enjoyed seeing the reflection of fall colors in the glassy water, a thin layer of frost around the edges, and evaporation fog rising as sun warmed it up. It was a very serene place.

Pandampas Pond is a great place to stroll to enjoy one of many of the area’s nature trails. See the morning fog rising in our video below.

Hungry for more? Read about more ways to explore nature in Montgomery County.

Montgomery Museum of Art & History in Christiansburg is housed in an old bank building that dates back to the 1800s. Many structural elements remain and are celebrated like the giant safe and safe deposit boxes. As a museum celebrating the towns, communities, industries, long history and agriculture, it’s the cultural and community hub, offering something for everyone in exhibits and programming. The museum is viewed as an excellent example of reuse and is an anchor for the improving downtown area.

Moss Arts Center, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, was created to provide programming bringing an arts presence to the university’s science-technology-engineering focus for which it is known. The dramatic building opened in 2013 and hosts 28-30 performances each year. Artists typically spend several days there holding master classes, free mid-day concerts and outreach to schools. Community engagement is very important to the Moss Center and to the artists who visit. For visual arts, exhibitions are swapped out every semester but are planned 2-3 years in advance. Art talks and exhibits are free to the students and public. Check out their schedule and plan ahead to see performances and exhibits.

The Moss Center on the Virginia Tech campus benefits students, residents and visitors alike with arts and culture happenings.

Sinkland Farms, on 125 acres of rolling hills, gardens, meadows and farm fields in Christiansburg, is home to the popular Pumpkin Festival which runs six weeks in the fall, celebrating the region’s agriculture. Once a dairy farm, Susan Sink and her husband bought it in 1989 right out of college. They tried to keep it a dairy farm but it wasn’t doing that well because there was already so much supply out there. So they turned it into a pumpkin farm. Tragically, Susan’s husband was killed in a motorcycle accident leaving her with three kids and a large business to run. She decided to expand the pumpkin farm, began offering school field trips and added an events venue. In a happy turn of events, Susan remarried her husband’s best friend around six years ago. She said he came around to check on her and never left! Together, and with the help of the kids and grandkids, they’ve made Sinkland Farms a successful community venue in Christiansburg. In addition to the pumpkin festival, they host a wine festival, an art in the barn event, a Sunflower Festival in July and have local live music and other activities throughout the year.

The pond area at Sinkland Farms is the site of many weddings and other gatherings. The resident geese might join in.

Where to stay in Montgomery County, Virginia:

The Inn at Virginia Tech is an ideal home-away-from-home when visiting Blacksburg and Christiansburg. It’s certainly a favorite of parents in town for Virginia Tech events and to visit their kids. And its where performers for the Moss Center are likely to be staying – I met several musicians who were in town for concerts.

The Inn is the only hotel on the Virginia Tech campus and offers specious rooms, nice in-room amenities, flexible meeting spaces, Blacksburg’s largest event venue and Preston’s restaurant with delicious food (their plentiful breakfast buffet was one of the most varied I’ve experienced).

The Inn at Virginia Tech offers comfortable lodging and a convenient location for enjoying Montgomery County.

For more information about Blacksburg & Christiansburg in Montgomery County, Virginia, visit gotomontva.com.

-Story and photos by Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher & Managing Editor of Real Food Traveler

Please note, as is common practice in this industry, this was a hosted visit, however, all opinions are honest and based on the author’s opinion for the purpose of informing our readers.