Ask a neighbor what there is to do in Haymarket in July and you will get one of two answers. The first is a shrug and a mention of the wineries. The second is a longer shrug and a mention of Jiffy Lube Live. Both are correct. Neither is a plan.
The truer answer is that Haymarket runs on two radii this summer. There is a walkable core along Washington Street that has quietly picked up a tasting room and a couple of newer kitchens, and there is an outer ring, roughly fifteen to thirty minutes in any direction, that supplies the weekends. The residents getting the most out of the season are the ones who anchor their week inside that half-mile and rotate one outer-ring destination in on Saturday or Sunday. This post is a working map for doing exactly that.
The Downtown Half-Mile
Historic downtown Haymarket is small enough that you can park once and cover it on foot, which is the point. The block along Washington Street holds the density that makes the rest of the plan possible. A few anchors worth knowing by name:
- Red House Tavern, in the heart of historic Haymarket, runs an ever-changing calendar of onsite events including
