A Warm, Well-Fed Evening at The Press Room in Shepherdstown

A former newspaper office is an unusually good setting for dinner, especially when the room has brick walls, books, artwork and the gentle glow of candles. The Press Room in Shepherdstown puts those ingredients together without turning the evening into a historical reenactment. It is polished, intimate and comfortable enough to settle into for a long meal.

The restaurant has the useful flexibility that many special-occasion spots lack. It works for an anniversary or date night, but it also has room for a work lunch, a relaxed dinner with friends or a solo meal at the bar. You can arrive dressed up, or show up in neat everyday clothes and still look right at home.

Large pothos or philodendron plants in the entry provide a cheerful welcome before the brick-and-candlelight mood takes over. Inside, the volume tends to stay in the quiet-to-moderately-lively range, allowing conversation to remain part of the evening.

The Press Room starts with familiar American dinner territory—steak, chicken, pork, duck and a broad range of fish—but the plates do not stop at the expected formula. Sauces, sides and combinations give the menu more personality than a standard grill menu, while still keeping the choices easy to understand.

Seafood provides plenty to explore. Oysters appear in several varieties and may come with vinegar, pickled onions and horseradish, a bright trio of accompaniments that lets diners season each one to taste. They make a fine opening move, particularly when dinner is going to stretch through several courses.

The seafood theme continues beyond the raw bar. Oyster stew has been a favorite for diners who prefer their bivalves in a warmer, more substantial form. Fish selections have included salmon, swordfish, cod, haddock and rockfish, along with scallops served over risotto.

Some dishes arrive as specials, so the particulars can change. A baked fish special has appeared as a thick, flaky fillet in cream sauce, and another version used a crumbled Ritz-cracker topping. Parchment-baked rockfish is another example of the kitchen giving a simple fish dinner a little extra interest.

Fresh-baked bread with olive oil is a gracious beginning. It is the sort of table detail that helps a meal ease into its first course rather than rush straight toward the entrée.

For an appetizer with a less predictable profile, grilled calamari offers an alternative to the usual fried basket. A burrata salad has also made a shareable starter, while shrimp with cannellini beans brings a hearty, Mediterranean-tinged combination to the table.

The fig appetizer takes a more indulgent route: goat cheese-stuffed figs paired with bacon. It is a compact little sweet-salty-rich idea, well suited to splitting before moving on to a larger main course.

Meat eaters have more than one reason to linger over the menu. A 16-ounce ribeye special, paired with red wine and ordered medium-rare, has the sort of steakhouse appeal that suits the room's grown-up but unpretentious character.

Hanger steak and pork chops provide other substantial options, while duck has appeared in multiple forms. One preparation paired grilled duck with confit hash, giving the plate a deeper, more composed feel than a routine poultry entrée.

That range matters when a table includes people with different ideas about dinner. One person can make an evening of oysters and fish, another can order a steak, and nobody has to compromise on a menu that seems built around only one thing.

The Press Room offers the same menu in its dining room and bar room, so the bar is not a lesser version of the restaurant. It is a full-service place to have dinner, from oysters or an appetizer through an entrée and dessert.

That makes the bar especially useful for solo diners, spontaneous dinners and evenings when a dining-room table is unavailable. Bar seating has operated on a first-come basis, while the dining room is more often the choice for a planned occasion.

Reservations are a good idea for dinner, particularly for celebrations. The restaurant has hosted plenty of anniversary meals and date nights, and advance planning helps preserve the unhurried tone that suits them.

The service style is welcoming and knowledgeable, with servers able to explain menu offerings without making the interaction feel like a lecture. Attention is well timed rather than intrusive, a meaningful detail in a room where people come to talk as much as they come to eat.

For celebrations, the staff has added small gestures such as placing a candle in dessert for an anniversary. It is not a grand theatrical flourish, and that restraint fits the restaurant well: thoughtful, warm and not overly formal.

Lavender crème brûlée is a recurring favorite and an especially fitting finish for a restaurant that has a little more imagination than its classic foundations might suggest. The floral note gives the familiar custard a distinct identity without sending it into novelty-dessert territory.

Panna cotta, tiramisu and traditional crème brûlée have also appeared among the dessert choices. After a dinner built around oysters, bread, a composed appetizer and a substantial entrée, dessert is not an afterthought here.

Nearby street parking includes spaces in front of the building, though busier events can make the search less predictable. Once inside, the pace changes: a candlelit table, a plate of oysters or a bowl of soup, then the pleasant question of steak, duck or fish.