From Foster Harris to . . .

It’s too soon to say for sure, according to Foster Harris House B&B and Restaurant owners John and Diane MacPherson, but they’re hoping that after settlement on the sale of their Main Street business — a day scheduled for the end of January, to retired California-based hotelier Klaus Peters — their next step might be clear by the end of February, and it won’t take them out of Rappahannock County, either.

The next step, the couple says (and I mean that literally; John and Diane don’t speak in unison but they do finish each other’s sentences), will be what they began doing three years ago at their B&B: Operating a small, fine-dining restaurant. Minus the B&B part.

“We’re hoping, but we really don’t want to say anything specific,” says Diane. “But all of our friends are here” — “and all of our customers,” interjects John — “and all of the farms, and vendors and other local businesses we’ve come to work with . . . . ”

Once the sale is done, the MacPhersons will move into the house at the other end of Main Street that they bought a few years back; son Finn, a fifth-grader at Wakefield Country Day School, will continue on at WCDS, and the family will still live in the town of Washington.

“It’s been really hard to identify a place in the county where we can do what we’d like,” says John. “Very small overhead, very small staff .

. . so we can get through the winters, through January, February and March, without too much worry.”

“We hope to have news by the end of February,” says Diane.

Meanwhile, if you’ve been meaning to but haven’t yet, the MacPhersons’ last dinner, with chef John in the kitchen of Foster Harris House, is Jan. 28. As always — and as scheduled to continue when Peters takes over the B&B next year and brings in his own chef — there’s room for just 10. Call 540-675-3757 to make a reservation.