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The 13 Best Restaurants in Asheville for Thanksgiving Dinner
Spending Thanksgiving in Asheville is a popular choice for families who use this time of the year for traveling and exploring a new place together. Fortunately, our city has everything to make the sweetest holiday memories. Think about cozy bed and breakfasts and boutique hotels, beautiful scenic drives and hikes, fun experiences on a cold, rainy day, a vibrant shopping scene, excellent food and drinks, and dozens of unique opportunities to volunteer and give back during the holidays. Turkey Day is centered around family and sharing delicious meals that reflect the abundance of the season’s harvest. So, finding the right place to eat on Thanksgiving in Asheville is key to…
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The 17 Best Vegan & Vegan-Friendly Restaurants in Asheville
Becoming a vegan at many times in history and places in the United States was daunting. Choosing to get all your protein and other key nutrients from plant sources was always possible but not always highly varied. This is why it is so great to be an Asheville resident or visitor. Here, you can sample the best vegan food in town, whether you’re a vegan or not, because the vegan food in Asheville is so great that everyone wants to eat it! The options are great, too, since many of the best restaurants in Asheville that serve meat also include vegan, vegetarian, and other options, like gluten-free food. When choosing…
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The 23 Best Brunch Spots in Asheville According to a Local
Our brunch scene is so abundant and diverse it can be challenging to figure out where to eat in Asheville. We want to make it fun and easy for you, so besides offering a list of the best brunch places in Asheville, we’ve grouped together our favorite off-the-tourist-track brunch spots for your dining pleasure! From Mexican and Argentinian to Southern and Canadian, there’s something to suit all tastes. Locals love them. They all serve great food. And experiencing them will give you a glimpse of how Ashevillians roll (did you know that our unofficial slogan is “Keep Asheville Weird”?). So enjoy your brunch (always call the restaurant first if you’re…
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The 14 Best Restaurants in Black Mountain, NC
Being so close to Asheville proper, it’s no surprise that Black Mountain has way more wonderful restaurants than you might expect of a similarly-sized town elsewhere. Set in the beautiful mountains, Black Mountain boasts multiple breweries, a distillery, and even a cider/mead purveyor, bringing tourists in for the craft beverages, and you know how a drink might get you hungry. You’ll also find incredible hiking, all of which makes it a great place to grab a bite to eat alongside a local brew after a big adventure. As a result of all this tourism, the places to eat in Black Mountain, NC, run the gamut, and you’ll be pleased that…
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A Guide to Highlands, NC: Events, Attractions, Restaurants, and Shops
Whether you’re drawn to the nearby national forests, the surprising variety of cultural arts, or the tasty restaurants available, Highlands, North Carolina, is a picturesque mountain town. The locals are ready to show you an amazing time as you explore Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, golf at the Highlands Country Club, and luxuriate at the Old Edwards Inn. Located just 90 to 120 minutes from Asheville (depending on the route you take), Highlands is only a stone’s throw from both South Carolina and Georgia, in the far western portion of the state. Not only do you get incredible views here, but you’ll also get away from the city environment…
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The 7 Best Places to Try Pie in Asheville
“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” – David Mamet Pie is my favorite dessert. I love its simplicity, the fact that it’s been traditionally made with seasonal produce, its sweet and comforting smell, and how even the sound of the word “pie” makes my heart sing! I must confess that, since becoming an adult some decades ago, my dinner choice has often been a generous slice of pie. Pie is perhaps the most traditional American dessert and is invited to every holiday meal throughout the year. The idiom “as American as apple pie” confirms it. Although pies originated in ancient Egypt and…
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Strada and Social Lounge Review: Making Your Night Out Memorable
I used to live in a town with a three-story restaurant that I was impressed managed to have such a different atmosphere on every floor. There was a boisterous brewery first-come-first-served area on the first floor, an intimately quiet dinner date-style seating area on the second, and an open patio with a bar on the third that was a little bit between them, part sweet and whimsical with a view of the river and partly a nice area where you could talk loudly without contributing to an indoor roar. All things to all people, but nicely achieved (though I think the servers had some serious stair-climbing to do!). Head up…
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White Duck Taco Shop Review: The Go-To Spot
I began my journey of eating my way through Asheville by eating at a wide amount of restaurants, and truly, it’s a good strategy – you could eat at one or two restaurants a week in this town and be unlikely to truly run out of options for first-time visits before new restaurants pop up! However, way faster than I expected, I found myself heading back for a second, third, and fourth time to one place because of a few factors. White Duck Taco just checked a lot of boxes, so many that I wanted to understand why I find myself drawn back so much. First, location. Everyone wants to…
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Avenue M Review: Combining Fine Dining with Cozy Camaraderie
The building at the corner of Gracelyn Road and Merrimon Avenue has had quite a few lives. Built in the 1940s, its most recent lives have included being a bar-restaurant known as Usual Suspects, as well as its current occupant for 13 years, Avenue M. Co-Owner Ralph Lonow recalls his decades in the hospitality industry and how people used to meet at Usual Suspects, a bit of an industry haunt. This was long before it became Avenue M in 2010 and, in 2019, the labor of love of both Ralph and Co-Owner Tony Creed. Avenue M’s heart is as a neighborhood eatery, but the last few years have seen it…
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Battery Park Book Exchange Review: Books and Bubbles!
Many of the shops in the Grove Arcade have found ways to rise to the occasion of their ornate digs. From the beautiful Wake Foot Sanctuary spa to lovely jewelry and artisanal craft shops, the Grove Arcade is just so lovely to look at that it makes sense to put luxurious products into the shops inside. The name is famous for a reason: the same E.W. Grove who brought his tonic fortune to Asheville and created the Grove Park Inn commissioned this large building to begin construction in 1920. When Charles Parker first designed this opulent space, he envisioned a five-story base and a 14-story tower, a true testament to…
