A TASTE OF CELEBRITY AT 'NEW' RAIL STOP

It's midday, lunch time, in The Plains. People are hungry. The kitchen staff of the Rail Stop restaurant on Main Street scurries about while customers they know by their first names gossip, catch up, wait for their sandwiches and coffee.

(Don't look now but) there, at the counter, off to the side, sits Robert Duvall, thespian, consiglieri, Fauquier County's newest restaurateur.

Naturally, no one gawks. It just wouldn't be Plains-like. This is, after all, still your mother's Rail Stop -- sort of . . . almost . . . well, maybe not quite so much anymore.

Recently, Duvall, film star, and his partner, chef Tom Kee, took over the beloved diner just west of Prince William County where since 1982 bib-overalled farm hands have sat next to blue-blooded heiresses for short-order fare.

In a region built on tradition, where change is viewed skeptically and simplicity is a virtue, the new celebrity pedigree has caused some excitement, some whispers and some groans. For the last year, the Rail Stop was the only operating restaurant in town, the unofficial municipal cafeteria and quasi-community center of The Plains. Now that Duvall is here, can limousines, velvet ropes and Arnold and Maria be far behind?

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No way, the actor said.

"We're going to take our time and study people and see how we're going to develop things," said Duvall, 65, who lives on a 360-acre farm near The Plains. His father was from Virginia, and Duvall used to have a farm between Middleburg and Purcellville in Loudoun County.

"We'll still have very simple food but with a touch of sophistication. Once in a while, maybe, we'll still have barbecue on a certain night. But I think we are probably going to start getting a little bit different clients now. Before it was more of a common place."

No matter that one woman drove five hours last weekend to visit Duvall's new bistro. In a town of 250, Planet Hollywood Fauquier is an unlikely scenario. But traditionalists point nervously to early signs of change: cafe latte is now on the breakfast menu, but country ham and hash browns have disappeared. The "Club Car" special, which once featured items such as "fish on a kaiser roll," has been replaced by grilled salmon.

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Over the years, Duvall has become the Piedmont's resident celebrity. But his seems just the brand of fame that subdued Fauquier suffers gladly: He doesn't act in B-movies, he shows up quietly at horse shows and he unassumingly patronizes local businesses. As Fauquier becomes more and more like home, Duvall said, taking over the restaurant with his girlfriend -- Luciana Pedraza, 25, who will manage the operation -- seemed a logical next step. They ate at the Rail Stop almost every night anyway. "People just have to accept that there's change, but that it's a good thing that we're keeping this restaurant alive. We'll have good wines and a private dining room where people can come after Great Meadows events," Pedraza said.

About six months ago, Kevin Whitemore, former owner of the Rail Stop and resident hash-slinger for the last 16 years, decided to sell. For his years of early-bird service, a banner, "Thanks, Kevin," now hangs prominently on the town's firehouse.

Duvall and Kee bought the business and building for "about $300,000," Kee said. Duvall's initial interest grew out of his gastronomical appreciation for Kee, 45, former chef of the now-defunct Fiddler's Green restaurant, also in The Plains.

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For the last three years, Kee, who has cooked at acclaimed Washington restaurants such as Cafe Nora and I Ricchi, has presided over the Rail Stop's kitchen at dinner only. Each day about 3 p.m., Kee began crafting meals of fresh herbs, organic vegetables and hand-cut meats.

Both shifts had their following, but the Rail Stop at night soon gained a reputation as the place to go for simple, gourmet fare. Now, Duvall, Kee and Pedraza are offering continental breakfasts and a lunch menu of made-to-order salads and sandwiches. Entree prices top out at $15.75. Brunch is served on Sundays.

In January, the restaurant will expand next door, allowing for more seating and a private dining room suitable, Pedraza said, for fabulous dinner guests from the West Coast. Some neighboring merchants are considering keeping longer hours, hoping to siphon off overflow business. Others are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

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"People should just relax and see what happens. Duvall has always said he wanted to do this, God bless him. But we all miss Kevin. That was the last of the good diner food, really, an end of an era," said Sally Guthrie, proprietor of the Farm Store, a gourmet food and wine shop across from the Rail Stop. "For my business, it will be good. It will bring a more broad, upscale group who are likely to come to a place like mine. I'm just afraid that The Plains is going to get too cute. Middleburg used to be real. Now it's too cute."

The end of an era, perhaps, but also a new beginning, Kee said, adding that lunch traffic has been down slightly in the first few days.

"We are going to keep experimenting. We'll try to have a balance, keep it simple like pork chops and steak, but you can't please everyone," Kee said. "There's been a change, and I think some people are upset because all the people love Kevin and love the food. But there's a lot of people shifting out from the city and that sort of helps." CAPTION: Chef Tom Kee, above left, and his brother, Bill, work together in the Rail Stop kitchen. Tom Kee and his partner, actor Robert Duvall, above, took over the diner, a popular Main Street feature of The Plains. Many diners have crossed the front porch of the Rail Stop restaurant, left, a place to meet, gossip, catch up and eat. ec

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