Front Royal has no shortage of burger joints lining its streets, but only one has locals driving from miles away just to sink their teeth into juicy, handcrafted burgers that drip down your sleeves with each bite. 🍔
Spelunker’s Frozen Custard & Cavern Burgers has transformed from a humble converted Long John Silver’s building into the town’s most beloved food destination, where teenagers hang out on weekend nights and families make regular pilgrimages for that perfect burger-and-custard combination.
The restaurant manages to be both a fast-food spot and a local gathering place where the energy buzzes and the aroma of freshly ground beef sizzling on the griddle draws you in from the parking lot.
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How Spelunker’s Won Locals’ Hearts
When Steve and April Antonelli opened Spelunker’s in 2002, they brought a vision inspired by Steve’s childhood memories of eating frozen custard with his father at Falls Church’s Frozen Dairy Bar.
The couple transformed the location with a simple yet powerful philosophy: use only the freshest, finest ingredients and make everything from scratch daily. 🌟
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The restaurant’s signature approach involves hand-trimming and grinding premium USDA Choice and Prime beef in-house twice every single day, creating a custom blend of chuck steak and brisket with no additives or preservatives.
This dedication to quality means each burger contains a slightly higher fat content that creates those impossibly juicy patties that literally drip down your sleeve with every bite.
Within just a few years of opening, Spelunker’s had become such a phenomenon that it earned features in Northern Virginia Magazine in 2005 and a glowing Washington Post mention in 2008.
The restaurant’s popularity continued to soar even through the challenging COVID-19 pandemic, when their drive-thru became a lifeline for the community.
While many restaurants struggled with massive revenue losses, Spelunker’s only saw a 20% decrease thanks to their efficient drive-thru operation and employees taking orders with portable tablets right in the packed parking lot.
The Washington Post’s food critic Tim Carman visited during lockdown and declared it one of the best burgers he’d ever pulled from a bag, cementing the restaurant’s reputation far beyond Front Royal’s borders.
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The business became so successful that the owners added more parking spaces in 2021, and by 2022, Washingtonian magazine listed it as a “destination burger” worth the drive. 🚗
Perhaps the most telling sign of Spelunker’s dominance comes from an abandoned McDonald’s next door that now houses an axe-throwing business—even the Golden Arches couldn’t compete with what locals call the best burger in Virginia.
The restaurant’s success stems from maintaining that original commitment to quality while creating an atmosphere where everyone from preschoolers enjoying kid’s meals to couples on date nights feels welcome, all while the bustling kitchen churns out made-to-order perfection.
Food Highlights
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Cavern Burger: The flagship burger that built this empire features a quarter-pound of premium beef ground fresh in-house, served on a buttered and toasted three-piece bun with lettuce, pickle, onion, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. This burger consistently ranks as one of the best in Virginia, with the high-quality buttered bun providing the perfect vessel for those impossibly juicy patties that have customers driving hours for another taste.
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Bacon Cavern Burger: Everything that makes the original Cavern Burger legendary, now elevated with strips of hickory smoked bacon adding a savory, smoky dimension. Reviewers describe this as one of the best bacon cheeseburgers they’ve ever eaten in their entire lives, with the crispy bacon complementing the butter-toasted bun and that signature dripping-with-juicy-goodness beef patty perfectly. 🥓
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Double Cavern Burger: For those with serious appetites, this monster contains more than half a pound of beef with two hand-formed patties stacked on that same buttered bun foundation. The double patties deliver twice the juicy, beefy flavor that made Spelunker’s famous, creating a burger so substantial it’s become a local challenge for first-timers visiting from out of town.
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Spicy Chicken Sandwich: This house-breaded fried chicken sandwich comes with zesty house sauce and pickle, offering four spice levels from Mild all the way up to “Hotter than Hell” (which the menu warns is “not recommended”). Fans claim this sandwich makes Chick-fil-A look like cafeteria food, and the Hotter than Hell version has earned legendary status as the spiciest thing some people have ever eaten. 🔥
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Philly Cheesesteak: Featuring freshly sliced steak with grilled onions and melted cheese, this sub has earned devoted fans who call it the best Philly cheesesteak they’ve ever eaten. The freshly cooked cheesesteak on a toasted bun delivers that perfect combination of tender meat, caramelized onions, and gooey cheese that keeps people coming back.
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Frozen Custard: Served at approximately 18 degrees Fahrenheit for that perfect thick and creamy texture, the custard comes in vanilla, chocolate, or the daily rotating Flavor of the Day (popular flavors include Banana Pudding with banana custard, banana slices, and crushed vanilla wafers). The silky smooth custard can be topped with everything from hot fudge to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and reviewers admit they only stopped eating it because it was gone. 🍦
Atmosphere
Spelunker’s delivers a bustling, energetic fast-food environment with a distinctly local small-town charm that makes it feel more like a community gathering spot than just another burger joint.
The 100-seat restaurant features an open kitchen where guests can watch their burgers being made to order, filling the space with tantalizing aromas of sizzling beef and toasting buns.
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The interior has a casual, retro-inspired setting with tables adorned in lively setups perfect for families, groups of friends, or teenage hangouts on weekend nights.
Despite being crazy busy most of the time with drive-thru lines wrapped around the building, the staff maintains friendly, helpful service with young employees earning honest livings while efficiently managing the constant flow of customers.
Bottom Line
Spelunker’s delivers an unforgettable burger experience with hand-ground premium beef that creates those legendary juicy patties, served on perfectly buttered, toasted buns.
The thick, creamy frozen custard with daily rotating flavors provides the perfect sweet finish.
Everything is made fresh to order, from the twice-daily ground beef to the fresh-cut fries.
The friendly staff and bustling local atmosphere create a genuine small-town experience that feels authentic and welcoming to everyone who walks through the door. 🌟
Address: 116 South St, Front Royal, VA 22630
📞 (540) 631-0300
🕐 Open Daily, 11:00 AM–10:00 PM