We'll be driving south from Delaplane, VA to Richmond on a weekday in October. Figuring we'll be in the vicinity of Fredericksburg on I-95 about lunchtime. If anyone knows of a good place to stop for lunch, please report in. We'll want to avoid fast food chains, but a good deli or someplace with good sandwiches would work. I did check the archives but anything that might be relevant is several years old.

I'd recommend getting off I-95 and driving into downtown Fredericksburg for lunch. There's a city parking garage at the corner of Sophia and Wolfe Streets that offers free parking for the first 3 hours and this puts you in close walking distance to the many restaurants along Caroline Street.

Here are five restaurants along Caroline Street that you could check out:
Fizzlebottom's
Soup and Taco (where I ate last time I was in Fredericksburg)
Bangkok Cafe
Sammy T's
Capital Ale House

I also recommend Capital Alehouse, downtown, though one of you may have to stop with one beer! Pretty much something for everyone on the menu.

For dessert
http://www.virginia.org/Listings/Din...FrozenCustard/

Carl's Frozen Custard is a Fredricksburg institution. I haven't been for a couple of years so call to be sure they are still in operation.

They are

I used to work across the street from Carl's.

Thank goodness, Janet. I would hate to see it close!

Thanks, everyone. We'll choose one of your recommendations, maybe the Ale House. No worries, DH will be the designated driver. We stopped at Carl's the last time we drove through Fredericksburg, eons ago, based on the recommendation of Fodorites, i think. Good to see it's still open.

Thank you, Longhorn55 and akislander. DH and I were looking for a place to stop for lunch on our drive up I95. I remembered this thread so we stopped at the Ale House. Downtown was busy with Fourth celebrations but we were able to find a parking spot and only had to wait 15 min for a table. I can recommend the Rauchbier cheese dip.