Gay couple sells Virginia restaurant at center of small-town dispute
In December, corporate officer Dan Myers decided that the Front Porch Market and Grill should close at the start of the new year. It was just a matter of convincing owner William Waybourn, a longtime gay-community activist, to raise the surrender flag at the restaurant in The Plains, Va., which has been in a years-long conflict with neighbors on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
After factoring in legal fees, the Front Porch was losing tens of thousands of dollars a month, said Waybourn and Myers. What's more, they added, after months of relative calm in the wake of a July 2023 article in The Washington Post about the conflict, the Front Porch was once again experiencing tensions with its next-door neighbor, ICS Financial, a family-run company led by Mike and Melissa Washer, self-described conservative Christians. Waybourn and Myers say the tensions resumed Nov. 8, the day after the Washers' son, Regan, won a seat on the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors.
"I put my foot down and I said, 'We're done,'" Myers told The Post. Myers said he told Waybourn, 76, who had suffered a mild stroke last year while dealing with the conflicts, "I need you to take a couple of days and just wrap your mind around that, but that's going to happen."
But a surprising thing happened on the way to shuttering the Front Porch: Almost a year after Waybourn and his husband and co-founder, Craig Spaulding, put the restaurant on the market because of the conflict, a buyer came along and purchased it. The sale closed on Dec. 26, although the staff wasn't told until Tuesday.
Shawn Malone, a chef and restaurateur with decades of experience in the industry, plans to reopen the business in February under the name Bistro at the Porch. He also hopes to fix the broken relationship with the Washers, who have sued The Plains over its decision to allow the Front Porch to operate under its existing permit. Over the years, the Washers have also raised protests over the restaurant's trash, deliveries and customer parking. The owners of ICS Financial and the previous owners of Front Porch had filed no-trespassing orders against each other. While Waybourn and others at the Front Porch have alleged the Washers have been motivated in part by homophobia, the Washers have denied any such motivation, saying politics and ideology don't have anything to do with their complaints.
"I don't think it'd be right for me to talk too much about this as an outsider coming into this," Malone said of the conflicts. "But what I can do is to meet with people, sit down with people and find out what the issues are. And like I've done my whole career, if there are concerns that anybody in the community has, we want to address those concerns to the best of our ability."
When told that Waybourn and Spaulding had sold the restaurant, Melissa Washer texted back a single word: "Interesting." She declined to comment further.
"You and your article have caused mor [sic] than enough turmoil in our life," she texted. Neither Mike Washer nor the couple's attorney, Whitson Robinson, responded to an email seeking comment.
The former and current owners of the restaurant hope the sale ends the tensions that have roiled this rural hamlet, population 250, situated in the horse-and-hound environs of Fauquier County. The sale would appear to make moot a lawsuit the Washers filed in June, looking to overturn a decision from the Board of Zoning Appeals, which sided with the town's former and current zoning administrators who said the Front Porch was in compliance with its operating permit. A hearing is scheduled for July on the complaint.
Malone, the new owner, will have to apply for his own business license and zoning permit, which probably will go through the usual process, including a public comment period. The Washers would have a chance to register any concerns during this period.
But Malone and his business partner, Ginger Green, hope they can smooth things out with the Washers. A veteran chef and manager who has owned and operated restaurants in Northern Virginia including Magnolias at the Mill and Fireworks Pizza, Malone describes himself as a political moderate who wants to "create a place where everybody feels welcome."
Green also has decades of experience in the hospitality business. She is director of sales for the East Coast for BauscherHepp, a company that specializes in high-end flatware, dinnerware and glassware. She once worked for the State Department as a community liaison officer, helping diplomatic families settle into their new posts. Green said her unofficial title with State was "chief morale officer."
"I learned a lot about protocol, a lot about politics and how to stay apolitical and diplomatic, and all of those things," Green said. "Some of that will come into play in our new venture."
Both Myers and Waybourn think the new owners will be able to set a new course for the restaurant. "He's very laid-back," Waybourn said of Malone. "I don't think he's going to personalize the Washers' antics as much as I have."
It became clear to Waybourn that, if he stayed in The Plains, the strife would only continue. The frictions between ICS Financial and the Front Porch date back to 2019, not long after the Washers bought and renovated a building in a commercial district that allows for heavy traffic, noise and "congestion of people and passenger vehicles," according to The Plains' codes. When they arrived in town, the Washers used the building for both their business and their residence, living in an apartment above their offices. Some of their windows were over the restaurant's trash bins. The Front Porch had already been in business four years before the Washers came to The Plains.
The Washers soon became regulars at the Front Porch, spending between $30,000 to $40,000 in meals there, according to figures cited by their attorney. But the couple was also registering complaints about the restaurant, whether to the owners about early-morning deliveries or to local authorities about whether the Front Porch had enough parking spaces to satisfy its operating permit. In public hearings and after on-site inspections, officials continually sided with the Front Porch, saying the restaurant was in compliance with town codes and permits.
But the Washers pushed back against the rulings, culminating with their lawsuit last year against The Plains, which claims the decision by the Board of Zoning Appeals was based on "political bias rather than the law." (The Front Porch is listed as a third party in the complaint). The couple also responded to the no-trespassing orders by installing signs in the shared parking lot behind the two businesses, prohibiting restaurant customers from using spots owned by ICS Financial. The couple's attorney sent letters to the restaurant's suppliers threatening legal action if their trucks continued to "trespass" in the lot.
The Washers said their actions were more aimed at the town - and how it unevenly applies its laws - than at the Front Porch.
"We, a conservative family, the Washers, are subjected to a set of rules that's the by-the-book rules," Mike Washer told The Post last year. "But if you're not conservative, you are subjected to the town council letting you have special-use permits that accommodate whatever they want. That's why we're doing what we're doing. It's not right."
If there were questions in The Plains about what was driving the conflict - ideological and political differences? town codes? homophobia? pandemic stresses? - the two sides soon become lightning rods after their story became national news. People appeared to pick sides based on their politics: Those on the right supported the Washers, who had pushed back against government mandates during the pandemic. They, along with their son, were also outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the building to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. Melissa Washer said they never entered the Capitol.
The divisiveness affected sales at the Front Porch, Myers said, as some conservative diners never returned to the restaurant. "We don't have the local support we used to," Myers said. "They don't know what they're going to walk into."
Those on the left supported Waybourn and Spaulding, who have been a couple since 1973 when they worked at the Dallas Times Herald. Among other things, Waybourn was president of the Dallas Gay Alliance when it sued Parkland Memorial Hospital for failing to provide readily available medicines to AIDS patients. In 2022, the Dallas Voice called him a "living legend." The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors named Waybourn as one of its citizens of the year during a December ceremony.
Front Porch supporters contributed about $30,000 to a GoFundMe campaign, which Waybourn channeled into Grace Episcopal Church's LGBTQ+ ministries. (Another $25,000 came from a matching grant from the JDMCL Foundation.) But the restaurant's supporters also reportedly harassed the Washers.
In a letter to the Fauquier Times, the couple wrote, "Since the article was published, we've been overwhelmingly harassed, our lives have been threatened, our family doxxed, and our businesses have been falsely spammed with thousands of negative reviews, emails, voicemails and hate letters."
The tensions between the businesses appeared to die down in the months leading up to the November election. But Waybourn and Myers said the conflict resumed on Nov. 8, the day after Regan Washer won his seat on the Board of Supervisors. They say that Mike Washer resumed efforts to deter delivery drivers from idling in the parking lot, where both businesses own spaces, long enough to drop off beer and wine to the restaurant or to refill its propane tanks. Neither recalled Washer stopping trucks in the months leading up to the election. The Washers did not respond to texts and emails seeking comment.
Waybourn said he became convinced it was time to leave The Plains. He had already spent more than $90,000 on legal fees to deal with the situation, he said. Malone, the new operator, has signed a five-year lease with an option to purchase the building from Waybourn and Spaulding.
Both Waybourn and Myers say the departure is bittersweet. "I just can't continue to have the emotional turmoil of owning a business that I can't enjoy," Waybourn said.
A few days before Waybourn publicly announced the sale, he sent The Post an email about it with the subject line "Not the happiest of endings."
"On some level, I know I am disappointing many people, especially those who have stood by us these past three years, many of whom I have never met from places I've never heard of," Waybourn wrote.
"In the end, the decision was easier to make than I expected," Waybourn continued. He had become weary of the fight. He added, "I also believe that my presence became so personal with the Washers that removing myself would give the new owner and the restaurant a fresh start."
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