Where to Buy Premium Wagyu Beef

The sunset’s gold and magenta haze hovers on the horizon at Ovoka Farm in Paris, Virginia. Karen Way, an attorney who bought the Fauquier County property with her husband, Guy Morgan, in 2010, is showing off her herd of 389 beef cattle—many the progeny of 100% Black Wagyu embryos she imported from Japan that same year. 

“We raise mostly F1 Wagyu—a 50/50 Angus and Wagyu cross—by breeding Wagyu bulls with Angus heifers,” she says. That mix provides the best of both worlds: bold beefy flavor from the Angus and interstitial fat marbling from the Wagyu.   

Way originally intended to raise Angus cattle, until a 2009 meal at a San Antonio restaurant changed her mind. “The taste [of Wagyu] blew me away,” she says.

Today, the 700-acre farm sells F1 Wagyu to about 30 restaurants in the DMV, including The Pinemoor and Copperwood Tavern in Arlington, as well as The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia. 

Ovoka also sells its beef at area farmers markets, including the FreshFarm market at Mosaic (Sundays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.), and from its own picturesque property on Paris Mountain.

The premium product comes at a premium price, from $10 (per pound) for ground beef to $69 for New York strip and $100 for tomahawk steak. Way says the lavish marbling means that even braising cuts, such as chuck roast ($19 per pound), can be prepared as steaks. 

The farm offers tours, as well as a charming three-bedroom, 1 ½-bath log cabin with a full kitchen that can be booked for $685 a night.