The Greenbrier Main Dining Room

The Greenbrier Main Dining Room stands as one of America's most historically significant and formally maintained dining experiences, housed within The Greenbrier resort at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The resort, which has hosted every American president since James Monroe, has operated this dining room in various configurations for over two centuries, making it a living piece of American hospitality history as much as a restaurant.

The dining room's physical environment is extraordinary. Designed by Dorothy Draper in the post-World War II era and subsequently updated while preserving her bold decorative vision, the space features the resort's signature color palette, ornate furnishings, and the formal grandeur of a dining hall that was designed to impress heads of state. Tables are generously spaced, linens are pressed, silverware gleams, and the overall effect communicates clearly that this is a special-occasion environment operating at a standard that few American restaurants attempt.

The kitchen produces American and Continental cuisine with a formal, classical orientation. Roasted pheasant reflects the resort's game hunting traditions and its connections to the Greenbrier's rural Appalachian setting. Atlantic salmon is prepared to a high standard, and the grand dessert trolley — a theatrical service element that rolls tableside — has become one of the dining room's most memorable flourishes. The menu changes seasonally, with the kitchen maintaining a commitment to quality ingredients and precise execution.

Dining in the Main Dining Room is included in the resort's Modified American Plan rate for overnight guests, which covers breakfast and dinner. Outside visitors can dine here as well, though advance reservations are required and the full MAP experience is exclusive to resort guests. A jacket is required for gentlemen at dinner, making this one of the few dining rooms in West Virginia — and in the American South — to maintain a formal dress code. Reservations are made through the resort at 304-536-1110.