About Asheville

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…

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…

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…

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…

I tried Green Sage Cafe back when they had only one location in 2010 (their original location opened in 2008). It’s impressive in the restaurant business when an independent restaurant, especially one with a strong commitment to sustainable and healthy practices, is successful 15 years after opening.  Owner Randy Talley has clearly found a version of the breakfast and lunch cafe that works well for the unique ecosystem that is Asheville, as there are now three Green Sage Cafes, sharing their popular menu items with people all around the Asheville area. One complaint I have with a lot of restaurants is that I often walk in famished, and famished-Laura makes…

I’ll admit that I’m a biased one when it comes to writing about restaurants that have a Spanish influence. I spent two years living in Spain a while back, and even though I can’t remember every or even most of the meals I had there, the diet was supreme. Fresh fruits and vegetables were plentiful and affordable, and so much of the seasoning was light and bright: vinegars, lemon juice, and zesty piquillo peppers brought out the flavors of seafood and veggie dishes.  I still remember my first bowl of salmorejo, a smooth and rich cold soup that is a little thicker and richer than gazpacho by virtue of (of…

My first-ever tapas experience was with five friends in college. At the time, it was the most expensive meal I’d ever had and was a birthday luxury, but it was also a chance to try nearly a dozen different foods – everyone ordered a couple things and we each took little nibbles of it all. It was so luxurious to try so many different items! I moved to Spain only a few months after that birthday, and I learned that tapas aren’t a fancy thing in Spain. I found my favorite local spot that put the Real Madrid soccer matches on their televisions and brought tapas for free when you…