About Asheville

Cat cafes satisfy two of the most basic human needs: coffee and cat cuddles. Originating in Asia, they are now spread worldwide. They are an excellent opportunity to share the love with kitties while having a cozy beverage. They are also purrfect places to bring your computer and work (playful interruptions are guaranteed!). Hanging out with cats has many health benefits: it’s relaxing, lowers your stress and anxiety, and, according to scientific research, cat owners tend to be at a lower risk of suffering heart disease. It’s a fact: the company of cats makes us happier and healthier! Cats are mysterious, fascinating creatures and were considered sacred by many ancient…

Work as a remote, flexible-schedule worker for long enough while parenting a toddler, and you’re simply going to have favorite coffee shops. While I think most of them want to be known for their flavorful drinks, tasty snacks, and soulful ambiance, many of us simply need somewhere that serves up caffeine while not kicking us out for tapping out a few emails while we sip.  I have reviewed a few places in Asheville that don’t offer public Wi-Fi, and I can’t blame them at all – there is something really lovely about a space that is entirely focused on connection and food and drink.  However, when I can find a…

We’ve seen what a craft beer scene can do for a city, and at its heart is a tourism rooted in what you cannot get anywhere else. After decades of finding reliable chains for everything from hotels to restaurants, many tourists are now craving the hyper-local, the well-thought-out, and the totally unique. For craft breweries, making their own product on-site gives them this assurance, but it turns out, you can do something similar for wine. The owner and team of plēb urban winery have set out on a frankly audacious mission: in an area that doesn’t have hundreds of years of winemaking history, they are working with all the growers…

In the “Harry Potter” books, there’s a magical element to the wizard school called the Room of Requirement. If you run down a particular hall while really needing something quite badly, you’ll find yourself face to face with a door that wasn’t there before.  When you open it, the room provides what you need: a broom closet if you need to hide, a training room if you’re trying to defeat a dark wizard’s long-term plot for world domination, etc. I like to think that PennyCup in Asheville is my Coffee Shop of Requirement. It seems to always be located right where I need it. They have a shop located right…

One of the things I love about Asheville compared to where I used to live is that there is more than one of most everything. There are multiple restaurants for Indian food, Thai food, Mexican food, and even multiple top-notch pizzerias within 5 minutes of my house. Spoiled for choice, we are here!  Nowhere are we more blessed than in the fact that we have multiple high-quality dessert shops here in town, offering everything from ice cream to cake to sweet beverages… and at Asheville Chocolate, you can get all of the above. My journeys around Asheville take me down Broadway frequently, and I’ve often admired the beautiful sculptural details…

I’ve only been to one original Melting Pot restaurant, as part of a huge group for a bachelorette party. I remember the multiple large containers of cheese and chocolate, the variety of dippers, and the fun and interactivity of the experience.  It was a big, rich meal and a memorable way to celebrate our friend getting married, especially when we all got to laugh about a dipper taking the plunge off someone’s fondue fork into a melted pool of goodness. So when I realized there was a similar but distinct restaurant in Asheville called Melting Pot Social (or MeltSo, for short), I was intrigued – from what I could see…

The story of me in Asheville mirrors me and this one pizza place in North Asheville on Merrimon. Early in my relationship with the man who would become my husband, he and I and his mom needed to while away a rainy afternoon, so they checked what was showing at their favorite mini theater.  We’d all seen Despicable Me, the kid cartoon with the yellow minion creatures, before, but they assured me that seeing it at Asheville Pizza and Brewing, complete with their far-superior movie snacks, was the way to spend an afternoon.  They weren’t wrong. Everything from the movie scene murals and eclectic decor to the simple seating and…

It was inevitable that I’d write about All Day Darling – after all, one of their popular salads is literally in my bio for this website as my favorite dish in the city. Obviously, there are a million other amazing dishes, but at the intersection of affordable, ambiance, flavorful, and nutritious, that salad really checks every box.  From salty and chewy halloumi to lentil fritters for a great crunch, this salad mixes greens, seeds, and a great honey-tahini dressing to make a salad that is a real meal while also filling me up with good nutrients and fiber.  But let’s not start there. Let’s start with the concept of All…