Hey – it’s me (as always) Lesley Salman with Salman Home Realty and your host of Going Gainesville here with my first-time co-host, Nicole Burgos, owner of Fit4Mom (Gainesville/Bristow/Haymarket)!

Like they say, the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round and we’re grabbin’ our rounds to Johnny Monarch’s, an adorable “bustaurant” in Marshall, Virginia!

Randy Williams, the owner of the Cambridge Winery, tells us a little bit about how this unique dining experience found itself parked in our neck of the woods.

“We went to England looking for a bus and we thought that would be a good way to do that. Didn’t find it in England, but we found it in Florida! …I was driving through Marshall one day and I saw another British double-decker bus similar to ours, so I stopped and met Brian and I said ‘Well you can do the food, I’ll do the wine.’ And we specialize in sparkling wine so we call our bus the “Bubble-Decker” – the roof raises up four feet and it’s open air – it’s pretty unique. We grill everything we make – so we farm 25 acres of grapes and my job is to turn that into great wine!”

The 16-ton, 15 feet high bus is completely self-contained with water, gas, and anything else you do.

Brian Lichorowic and Lorrie, owners of Johnny Monarch’s, also grabbed a bus seat with us to walk us through the menu and their story behind what has got to be the most one-of-a-kind location we’ve featured on Going Gainesville yet.

Finding old-school double-decker British busses isn’t an easy task as both Randy and Brian found out with Brian traveling to Poland to get his ride. The bus took 8 months to restore, but as you can tell, was worth it.

So what’s the number one seller at Johnny Monarch’s? The number one dish is the “Steak Me Away” – that’s almost 3/4th of a pound of shaved ribbed eye packed into a sandwich.

Runner up – the tomato pie which most people haven’t had. It’s definitely NOT quiche. The pie consists of three types of tomatoes the owners grow themselves on a bed of greens complimented with Johnny cakes aka lazy cornbread.

Things we tried:
– Tomato Pie (detailed above)
– The County Fair Footlong (locally made Italian sausage)
– Steak Me Away sandwich (detailed above)

Want to have the most unique date night on record? You’ve GOT to check out this place! Here are the details:
🚌 Address: 8374 W. Main St., Marshall, Virginia 20155
🚌 Phone: 540-878-3555
🚌 Email: needtheinfo@feedbagfoods.com
🚌 Website: http://johnnymonar.ch/

Special thanks to Joe Brown at Calibur Home Loans for being our sponsor!