Mainstreet Maven: Angela Higgs
From German Wine Street to Beverly Street: How a Biologist Became Staunton's Wine Whisperer
PROSPER
Mainstreet Mavens spotlights women who are rebuilding Main Street—one storefront, one bold move, one community at a time. These entrepreneurs transform downtowns from pass-throughs into places that matter, creating jobs and raising the bar for small-town business. Each story features a woman who isn't just running a company—she's shaping her town's heartbeat. Today, meet one of Staunton’s Mainstreet Mavens: Angela Higgs who, with her partner Rob Higgs, runs Accordia and Sama-Sama.
Thank you to Cindy Fellows, October Grace Media (a Mainstreet Maven herself!) for the photos excluding personal photos
Angela Higgs remembers exactly what convinced her she could marry her husband and business partner, Rob.
"That was our first date," she says, recalling a fusion restaurant in New York blending South American and French cuisine. "He didn't order a Coke—he ordered a cocktail. I thought, this is somebody I can relate to." That shared language of food and wine would eventually lead the couple from the trading floors of Lehman Brothers and the research labs of NYU to a charming wine bar on East Beverley Street in Staunton, Virginia. But the path between those two points winds through some unexpected territory: German vineyards, cutting-edge microscopy, the southern Rhône Valley, and a chocolate shop that needed new life.
A Childhood Appreciation for Slow, Delicious, Food
Angela was born in Germany, not far from the German Wine Street. Wine wasn't a hobby in her family—it was simply how meals were done. "We always had wine with our food when we had a good meal," she explains. "My grandmothers cooked at home. My mother cooked at home. We went to a restaurant for special occasions, but we always cooked at home." By the time she arrived in New York at twenty-four to pursue her PhD in biology at NYU Medical Center, Angela already possessed a depth of wine knowledge that surprised Americans accustomed to treating wine expertise as an acquired sophistication rather than a birthright. "People were always surprised that I knew what I was talking about," she laughs. "I said, 'Well, that's normal for us at home.' We had German wines, French wines, Spanish wines, Italian wines. In Europe, if you're interested in wine, you know these things." But she wasn't content to simply know. Being a scientist, she always asked why. Why is that wine made this way? Where does it come from? Who made it? That relentless curiosity would shape everything that followed.
The Microscope Years
Before Beverly Street, Angela's scientific career took her from NYU to Carl Zeiss, the German microscope company. When they asked her to move to Germany to develop a new instrument, she turned to Rob. "Honey, I think I have an opportunity. What do you think?" He thought fourteen years in New York was enough. They moved. Wise man. What followed was one of those projects that reveals how practical innovation happens. Angela traveled the world—India, Africa, the BRIC countries—asking scientists what they actually needed, not what engineers assumed they wanted. In India, she discovered a mundane problem with profound implications: microscope bulbs burned out after two years, and replacement bulbs were impossible to get. Labs went dark. Research stopped. Her solution was elegantly simple: an auto-shutoff function. If no one touched the microscope for ten minutes, it would switch off automatically, extending bulb life dramatically. "You just have to listen to people," she says. "Then you go to your engineers." The team earned a patent. But more importantly to Angela, she had created an instrument that might one day help researchers in remote areas make discoveries. "We will find the cures for our diseases in the jungles," she believed. "They're already there. We just have to look."
Wine School in Provence
The next chapter began with exhaustion. Angela was traveling constantly for a medical device company, sometimes spending only fifty nights a year in her own bed. Rob noticed. "Honey," he said over a bottle of wine, "I think you need to cut it down." "I can't," she told him. "This is how I do my job. One hundred fifty percent." Eventually, she chose to let go. They retreated to a small village in Provence, population 1,500, where eighty percent of residents worked in wine. They were surrounded by vines in the southern Côtes du Rhône appellation, not far from Orange and Avignon. And they decided to formalize what they'd been learning organically for years. The couple enrolled at a local wine university. Angela studied wine tourism and earned her WSET certification(https://www.wsetglobal.com/). Rob focused on wine production—how to grow vines, run a winery, understand the dirt-to-glass journey. They became wine judges, traveling to competitions in Orange, Montpellier, Paris, and Mâcon. "We complemented each other with all these things," Angela says of their tag-team approach to wine education. Then Angela's father-in-law made an offer they couldn't refuse.
Coming to Virginia
Rob's father had started a winery in the Shenandoah Valley twenty years earlier. Now he and his wife were getting older. They needed Angela and Rob to come guide the operation at Barren Ridge Vineyards. So, the couple moved to Staunton—with five cats in tow—and spent three and a half years investing in the operation. But Angela saw a gap in downtown Staunton. She and Rob would go to the theater, then look for somewhere to enjoy a glass of wine afterward. Nothing was open. "I said to Rob, 'You know, I think we need a place,'" she recalls. The opportunity arrived when a landlord called about a space recently vacated by a chocolate shop. He wanted something more dynamic than another retail store—maybe a little wine bar? Angela visited with a bottle of wine. She tested whether it would fit on the shelves. "Fits," she declared. "Let's do it."
Accordia: A Third Place for Staunton
Accordia opened at 114 East Beverley Street three and a half years ago. The concept was simple: great wine, good food, European warmth. The wine selection grew to over 600 bottles, emphasizing natural, organic, and biodynamic producers. Angela added forty beers and ciders, sake, kombucha, sherries, ports, madeiras, and an extensive non-alcoholic selection. The kitchen—equipped with little more than a toaster oven, an induction plate, and a refrigerator—turns out homemade soups, tapas, and pinxtos that have earned devoted regulars.
But what truly sets Accordia apart is Angela herself.
Ask anyone in Staunton about her, and they'll tell you: if you've been there once, she'll remember you. Come back a year later, and she'll greet you and probably recall what wine you ordered. "When I was eighteen, I started working in a pub in Germany," she explains. "You have tables that are ten people deep, all ordering different beers. You have to remember every face, every drink. I started practicing like that." She doesn't just remember faces—she remembers palates. Regular customers don't have to order. "When Roller comes in—he's in his eighties—I don't even ask anymore. 'Roller, a nice big one?' He says, 'Sure, Angela.'" Someone walks in saying they usually drink Heineken? Angela already knows which German pilsner will make them feel at home. "Every beverage at Accordia, I have tasted," she says firmly. "I will not have anything on this shelf that I can't stand behind with my name."
Opening When Everyone Else Is Closed
One of Angela's most impactful decisions was also her simplest: staying open when no one else does. "I said, you know, let's open Monday and Tuesday, because there's nothing else open. People can't find food in Staunton." She also keeps Accordia open until 11 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays—long after the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse, just around the corner, lets out its audiences. "People after the Shakespeare show can come and have a glass of wine and discuss the play," she explains. "That's what you want to do." The ripple effects surprised her. Once Accordia established itself as a Monday-Tuesday destination, other shops on the block started opening those days too. Twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays, Angela and Rob host guided wine tastings from 5 to 8 PM. It's not a passive pour—it's education, with each wine explained, paired, and discussed. Tourists hit the Friday sessions; locals claim Tuesdays.
Growing the Portfolio
Accordia's success led to an unexpected second act. Locals kept asking Angela for a proper restaurant with the same philosophy. In 2025, she and her team opened Sama-Sama at 101 West Beverley Street. The name is Filipino for "togetherness"—that little corner where you like to hang out. The menu features elevated international street food made with local ingredients: crawfish au gratin, Mexican steak tortas, purple sweet potato turnovers. Chef Franz sources from farms like Autumn Olive Farm for pork and local producers for seasonal vegetables. "We want to have no carbon footprint," Angela explains. "Not much, at least. This is why we go to all these local farmers." And now Accordia itself is expanding into the adjoining space, adding an art deco bar with crafty cocktails and top shelf Single Malts and Bourbons. This expansion includes more kitchen space and more space to gather. MoxieTowns is quite excited to tell more about Sama-Sama and Accordia’s expansion in upcoming blogs.
The Third Place Philosophy
Sociologists have a term for what Angela has built: a third place—somewhere that isn't home or work, where people gather simply to be together. "People come to me even when they're just here for the weekends," she says. "They come three, four times because they say, 'We feel like we're in someone's living room. We feel welcomed at somebody's home.’” That warmth is intentional. "If you go out, how do you want to be treated? That's how you have to treat people. As simple as that."
Advice for Aspiring Main Street Mavens
For those thinking about opening their own establishments in small towns, Angela's path offers several lessons:
Start small and grow organically. Accordia began with sandwiches, soups, and a few appetizers from a kitchen with almost no equipment. The menu expanded only when customers asked for more.
Fill the gaps others ignore. Opening on Mondays and Tuesdays and staying open late on weekends weren't glamorous strategies—they were simply responses to real unmet needs. So was eliminating lunch service on slow days.
Know your product intimately. Angela has tasted every single item she sells. That knowledge builds trust and creates the personalized recommendations that turn first-time visitors into regulars.
Build community by welcoming everyone. The friend who became her project manager, the Shakespeare actors who eat before shows, the eighty-year-old who doesn't need to order—these relationships didn't happen by accident.
The European Heart of the Shenandoah
If you were to ask Angela what she misses about Europe, you realize she's recreated it. The unhurried meals. The expectation that wine accompanies food. The warmth of a proprietor who knows your name, your taste, your story. The late nights talking about theater and life over one more glass. Staunton got lucky when that landlord called about an empty chocolate shop. But luck favors preparation, and Angela arrived with a lifetime of it: childhood vineyards, scientific rigor, language skills learned at French dinner tables, and a bone-deep understanding of what hospitality actually means.
One glass at a time.
Two of Staunton, Virginia’s Mainstreet Mavens. Angela Higgs and Cindy Fellows celebrating the impact of women run businesses on our small town mainstreets!
Visit Accordia
📍 114 E. Beverley Street, Staunton, VA
⏰ Closed Wednesdays | Open late Thursday–Saturday
🍷 Guided tastings: Tuesdays & Fridays, 5–8 PM
📞 (540) 712-0224
Visit Sama-Sama
📍 101 W. Beverley Street, Staunton, VA
🌍 International cuisine with local ingredients
📞 (540) 712-0475
The Main Street Mavens series profiles women who are reshaping small-town America—one business, one community, one glass of wine at a time. Know someone we should feature? Contact us and introduce her to us!
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