A few months back, we were out with some close friends when the topic of “the next trip” came up (as it often does). Each year, we try to plan something for New Year’s Eve that is not too small, but not too grand (think an in-between staying at home and going to NYC for the ball drop). The wives had recently talked about being real interested in seeing a Downton Abbey Exhibit at the Biltmore in Asheville - being a big craft beer fan, I was well aware of what Asheville had to offer in the fine arts of craft beer. Ultimately, we decided that North Carolina was the spot for our New Year trip. Since I always do a lot of flight research and comparisons, we decided to fly into Charlotte, NC for New Year’s Eve and then we’d make the two hour drive over to Asheville on the 1st.
The Trip
Even though we partied a little too hardy on New Year’s Eve at a rooftop bar downtown Charlotte, we still somehow managed to check-out of our AirBnB by 11a. We had a quick hydration session and Chinese food recharge and made the small trek to Asheville. I’ll be completely honest, I was in and out of sleep on the road as Jesus took the wheel (not Christ, my buddy Jesus was driving), but for the fraction of the drive that I was awake was a beautiful drive through the mountains. Alright, now let’s talk Asheville! Asheville was a beautiful and quaint city that is still barely holding on to its “small town” feel. To me, it really felt like a small town Denver (CO) or Portland (OR) with condos and apartments being built throughout the city, craft breweries on every block, multiple art studios and installations, and “free range” or “farm to table” on every restaurant menu. But damn ... with all that being said, I really enjoyed this city! It had a few main areas we visited which were all in very close proximity including the RAD (River Arts District), South Slope Brewing District, Downtown, and the Biltmore Village.
What to eat
We had the opportunity to checkout a handful of restaurants during our short stay and not a single one let us down. After realizing most places were closed on New Year’s Day, we did some ‘googling’ and found the French Broad Chocolate Lounge which was Downtown and had a long line outside of the building (not bad though, only took about 10min). As we waited in the chilly weather, a warm drink sounded great. The menu was filled with delectable desserts and when I saw “liquid truffle”, I just assumed it was a fancy way of saying hot cocoa - PERFECT! When they served my drink in a tiny doll-house mug, I was a little let down as I was expecting a normal human sized cocoa for my $4.75. To my surprise, it was about as thick as syrup and one of the most amazingly rich sweets I’ve ever had!
Despite being a little pricey, French Broad Chocolate Lounge is a must with their chill atmosphere and long list of desserts. They also have great a great selection of boxed and bagged chocolates, so be prepared to bring some home for friends and family! There are multiple shops, we went to the downtown location.
If you google food in Asheville, you’ll surely find Easy Girl Eatery as a popular breakfast spot. Since most restaurants were closed or packed on New Year’s Day, we went to Easy Girl Eatery for dinner (it was almost empty). Unfortunately, they were out of multiple items and Megan was not super friendly (not her fault, seems like no one wanted to work on New Year’s Day), but the food was really good. Out of all of our meals (we share and just pretend every restaurant is “family style”), the southern fried chicken was the best, but the grilled pimento cheese sandwich was a close second.
Whether you are a fan of donuts or not, you should absolutely try Hole Doughnuts. This tiny donut shop had a bit of a line and hard to find parking, but they have a whole other take on donuts that they make by fresh, by scratch, and in-house. The dough was very different from your run-of-the-mill donut, they're crunchy and airy like an apple fritter without the apple (or fritter). These imperfect pieces of art are formed, fried, and topped right in front of you. I'm no food critic, so I know I'm not doing this place justice, but it's a must visit for sure. I don't even like donuts - but I could not believe how delicious these donuts were. Do yourself a favor and stop by, they're generally open from 7a-2:30p.
Another great spot was Curate, a small tapas restaurant downtown. We attempted to go at one point, but there was a 2+ hour wait, so we set up a reservation for the following night at 9:30p. After some late night drinks, we had an amazing table at Curate in a little nook near the window. Since it was tapas, we each ordered one plate to start and shared them all (roughly $10 per plate). Either we made amazing decisions (likely), or everything at this place is amazing (also likely). I definitely made a great decision with the pincho moruno (lamb skewers), but the pimientos de piquillo rellenos (peppers stuffed with goat cheese) absolutely took the cake ... in fact, we ordered a second plate just to make sure it was that good.
Earlier that day, while the girls were at the Biltmore (for 8 hours), Jesus and I wandered around town visiting the breweries. For a late lunch, we decided to stop at the White Duck Taco Shop. They have a HUGE menu that takes a couple of minutes to scan, but luckily there wasn't a line behind us mid-afternoon. Coming from Texas, I'm generally not one to stop at a taco place unless it's in Mexico or somewhere that borders Mexico, but I was blown away by one taco in particular - the duck with mole taco. Don't get me wrong, all of the tacos (and chips/queso) were good, but that duck taco has me looking up one-way flights to Asheville just thinking about it.
Our last stop in our quick tour of Asheville was a little brunch spot called Over Easy Cafe. Since they focus on seasonal ingredients, they always have an updated menu on their social media page. I'm going to be real with you, I was real hungry - looking at the menu, you could assume that this is the type of place you pay $14 for a small plate and leave hungry. That couldn't be further from the truth! Yes the plates were $14 on average, but the plates were massive and so good. Again, we all shared each other's food and all of us made great decisions. The brasstown steak melt was so massive, you had to eat it with a fork and the lamb and goat cheese eggs benedict were out of this world. The side of cheese grits were not amazing as the cheese was just set on top of the grits, but the roasted potatoes were a meal in themselves (I'd highly recommend the potatoes as the side). They also had fresh squeezed juices which were a little pricey ($8 per glass), but after drinking a lot of craft beer the previous day, it seemed necessary. The detox juice with beets, orange, apple, lemon, lime, and ginger was probably the best juice I've ever had and the color was amazing.
What to drink
Oh, where to start - we were lucky enough to choose a really cool AirBnB that was walking distance to about a dozen breweries which was amazing (which was not on purpose, but worked in our favor for sure). Currently there are about 12 breweries in Asheville clustered in a square mile which are really all within walking distance from each other including Burial, Green Man, Hi-Wire, Twin Leaf, Wicked Weed, and Bhramari to name a few.
Our first brewery stop was the Wicked Weed Brewpub which I was extremely excited about because our Wicked Weed beer selection in Texas is extremely limited. Wicket Weed actually has two brewery spots in Asheville - one being the clean beers (your 'regular' stouts, IPAs, etc) and one being the Funkatorium (primarily focusing on sour and wild beers). The brewpub is a beautiful location and is a little closer to downtown than the Funkatorium. They have a restaurant with beers on tap, a downstairs beer bar with indoor/outdoor seating, and a bottle shop. We ended up hanging out downstairs in the outdoor area because most of the place was packed, but despite it being cold, they had a great heating situation outside. I often start with a flight of beers to try a bunch of stuff out before I jump in to a pint, and everything on the menu sounded great. I ended up getting the "Weed Brownie" which was a chocolatey stout with dank notes from the hops which was very interesting. All of the beers we had were really good (and the free pretzels were a nice treat, too).
The Funkatorium was closer to the cluster of breweries in the brewing district and was a little more 'fancy' on the inside. The beers were not cheap, which is what you expect for high quality sour and wild beers, and they did not disappoint. They have prearranged flights for you to try, which I did, that give you an idea of some of the complexities between their beers. I tried to order two additional tasters (which is technically just half a flight), but they had some weird rule or law saying that they couldn't serve me two beers at one time. We laughed because I literally just had a flight with 4 tasters, but I know how weird some beer laws are in different states.
If you have a car and want to take a short drive to a massive brewing facility, go to the Sierra Nevada Brewery location at Mills River which was only about 20-30min drive from Asheville. I've been to a lot of breweries (I mean, a LOT), but this place was insane - it was absolutely a Goliath. The parking lot a lone felt as big as the entire brewing district in Asheville and the brewery itself would probably take half an hour or more to just walk around the facade of the building. Their taproom was so insanely packed that we each got a pint and decided to take the "self guided tour" which is just a walk way that allows you to see the huge brew kettles, hop room, historic references, and the ginormous packaging facility where they were bottling and canning two separate cans. I know that I have used words like massive, Goliath, huge, and ginormous - but those do not really do it justice. Besides the wallpaper not tasting like beer, this place is basically like Willy Wonka for beer lovers and worth the trip.
If you're looking for an interesting spot, I would recommend the Asheville Yacht Club which was a "Tiki Bar" with crazy cocktails and playing heavy rock music. The place had the ambiance of a tiki bar, but definitely not what we expected. The drinks were pretty good, but not the best I've had at a Tiki Bar. I ordered the Ku's Jalapeño Cuccumber which was a spicy tequila based drink while someone else ordered The Donald which had a tagline of "We don't know what's in it, but it's gonna be good, so good it'll make your head spin and Mexico is gonna pay for it.....NOT!". Again interesting spot that I'd recommend checking out, but probably not your all-night type spot. Something we found weird is that you have to pay a dollar and join their club before entering the bar. This had to be a North Carolina thing, because it wasn't the last time we ran into this (just be prepared).
If you are looking for a classy cocktail or really cool place to try out, check out Antidote next door to the Funkatorium. This was another spot that you had to join a club and pay (but it was only a penny), but they had a long list of cocktails that were mostly gin-based, but some were not. Antidote is a dark lounge that has an old school pharmacy feel with tinctures and decor like it was from the roaring 20's. I wish we got their a bit earlier because we made it only an hour before closing and only had a couple of drinks. Unfortunately, I did not take a lot of pictures of how classy these drinks were, but you can check them out for yourself on their Instagram page.
What to do
Besides eating and drinking (which we did a lot of), we also did some driving around, checked out some of the local shops, and did a little bit of hiking.
One of the first spots we checked out the first day was the ZaPow Gallery which was across the street from the Antidote and Funkatorium. They were an art gallery showcasing various artists that had all sorts of neat artwork for any art lover, we each ended up leaving with an artwork or print purchase. They also have a bar that serves snacks, fresh coffee (pour-over, pressed, etc), and local beers on tap. We all got a cup of pour-over coffee when we made our purchases and sat in their neat chairs that looked like dragons until we finished our delicious coffees.
Everyone and their mom are going to tell you to check out the Biltmore Estate, and I'm no different. Driving on this estate is basically like you're driving in a whole other city because the property is so huge. We only went to drop the wives off at the estate, but just driving through was really cool. On the property there is a winery, various tours, and multiple restaurants which can all be found on their website. They also have shuttles that will help you get around while you're there. I would plan at least a full day if you are visiting the Biltmore - the girls were at there for 8 hours, but wished they had more time. They took a ton of pictures of both the Downton Abbey exhibit (which is only there for a limited time) and of the estate itself with all of it's grand rooms. All of their pictures were beautiful, it's really hard to believe that someone was (or is) that rich to own such a huge property like this.
If you have some time on your hands, you HAVE to take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since it was rainy and foggy, we were able to drive a portion of it, but they blocked off the road at one point because of the weather. Luckily, we were able to get some really cool pictures of the ominous fog that was looming around us on our drive. If you stay on this road, it'll take you will into Virginia, so I'd plan on how much time you want to take on your drive before you turn around (or just go all the way into Virginia if you've got the time). We did not do a lot of research before we went and just winged-it, but I'd recommend checking out the Blue Ridge Parkway website for map and additional details.
The Wrap-Up
Ultimately, we had a wonderful time on our short stay in Asheville. If you like good food, breweries, scenic views, art, and shopping, you have got to go to Asheville, North Carolina. Now it's time for the Quick Travelingo 3x3!
Travelingo 3x3
Where to eat:
Curate
White Duck Taco
Over Easy Cafe
Bonus: Hole Doughnuts
Where to drink:
Wicked Weed
Antidote
Asheville Yacht Club
What to do:
ZaPow Gallery
Biltmore Estate
Drive the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway
Below are some products that I used during this trip and highly recommend:
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