Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown, West Virginia

After nearly 50 years, the Bavarian Inn has become a beloved fixture in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
In the spring of 1977, the Munich-born chef Erwin Asam and his English wife, Carol, from Sheffield, purchased the former Greystone Manor. They had previously run the Piccadilly Restaurant in the capital, but hoped to open something smaller and more personal: a restaurant serving food from Erwin's homeland. Erwin became the chef, Carol the hostess, and the pair got by using the mansion's living room as the restaurant's dining room. According to one account from son David, the setup was lean at the start — their father cooking out of a modest two-car garage, one waitress on staff, and the family living upstairs.
The setting made this grand experiment particularly curious. The manor sits high above a bend in the Potomac River. Originally known as Greystone Manor, it was built in 1930 as a private residence and converted into a country inn in 1962, before the Asams took it over and gave it an extensive renovation.
Shepherdstown already had deep German associations: the town's original name when it was incorporated in 1762 was Mecklenburg, and its main thoroughfare is still called German Street. But the Asams spun that historical thread into something far more impressive.
As the restaurant prospered, the property began sprouting its own miniature Alpine settlement. In 1981, Alpine-style chalet buildings were added, each with a balcony overlooking the Potomac River bend. The Schwarzwald Haus, named for Germany's Black Forest, followed in 1994, bringing the property's total to 72 rooms.
The inn has continued to expand its German theme in other directions. In 2019, the Asams opened the Bavarian Brothers Brewery, converting a former garden patio and part of the fine-dining space into a brewpub. The beer names double as a family scrapbook: one flagship brew, Carol's Royal Stout, honors Carol's English heritage and her role as "Queen of the Bavarian Inn," while a Mecklenbrau German pilsner nods to the town’s old name.
The combination of half-timbered facades, steep roofs, German cooking, a working brewery, and Potomac views can feel like a geographical mix-up — Bavaria by way of the Eastern Panhandle. Yet the place is not a prefabricated theme resort; it is a family-run hospitality business. Erwin and Carol's sons, Christian and David, grew up on the property and gradually took over its operations, continuing the grand Bavarian experiment into a second generation.