Restaurants

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There's a new restaurant on Caroline Street in Downtown Fredericksburg, nestled between a beauty salon and a home decor store.

Maggie's opened on New Year's Day,  but it has been in the works for the last two years according to owner Benjamin Culwell. Culwell and his father began the construction of Maggie's in March 2021, all the while documenting their road to opening the store on social media, announcing such things as the arrival of the store's uniforms and showcasing their outdoor dining area.

Though they were putting the shop together in the latter days of the coronavirus pandemic, Culwell and his father worked to make sure everything came together with the way they wanted it.

"We didn't have any major setbacks during construction and COVID didn't really affect us since we were the ones doing the work," says Culwell.

When Maggie's opened on January 1 they offered up a selection of sandwiches, such as the Bromo, thinly sliced London broil on a Baltimore baked Kaiser roll, two types of sauces, and thinly sliced onion. Maggie's also makes its own root beer, cream soda, and orange creamsicle soda.

Maggie's also has an interesting sense of decor of various objects placed around the restaurant which according to Culwell each have a story of their own.

"Being born in Fredericksburg and growing up here, the history of this town is extremely important to my father and I," says Culwell. "This is a common theme through Maggie's. Every piece of decor has a story and we try to showcase that here."

One object that will catch attention is called the "Kaempffer's Corner Sailor," an artifact left over from when Culwell's family owned and operated a produce stand and landscaping store in New Jersey in the 1950s and 1960s called Kaempffr's Corner. The corner used the sailor as its mascot.

Other objects include boat paddles that were used to traverse the Rappahannock River and an old telephone pole dating back to the 1930s that would have been used across Virginia for both telegraphs and telephones.

In spite of having to deal with the recent snowstorm in early January, Culwell has had a great response to Maggie's grand opening. Not just from customers but also from the surrounding downtown business community, calling the response extremely kind and welcoming.

Maggie's is located at 820 Caroline Street in Downtown Fredericksburg, their operating hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

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