Flavor: Tastes like summer on a plate Ambiance: Laid-back (surprise!) I’m sure the owner of One Love Jamaican, the sunny eatery that set up shop in Hendersonville late last year, is trying to do right by his family by pressing pamphlets for his uncle’s resort hotel in Montego Bay on customers. But if the fellow […]

Fans of Season’s at Highland Lake Inn will have to go elsewhere for their trans fats, which were recently banished from the restaurant. Trans fats, which have been linked to heart disease, have become the nutritional cause du jour, with New York City last year becoming the first city to enact a near-total ban on […]

It didn’t long for the tens of thousands of Yankees who have relocated to this side of the Mason-Dixon line to realize all that was charming about the South—stately Magnolia trees perfuming the humid air, sweating pitchers of ice-cold sweet tea and rocking chairs on the front porch—might just go well with a bagel and […]

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, as the terrific new barbecue book by Raleigh News and Observer columnist Fred Thompson proves. The cover of Barbecue Nation: 350 Hot-Off-The-Grill, Tried-And-True Recipes from America’s Backyard features a gorgeous USA-shaped steak on a grill. And since Thompson will be at Malaprop’s this Friday, July 6, […]

Flavor: Pell-mell preparations of pan-Latin ingredients Ambiance: High-wattage little cafe On a recent visit to Chorizo, our server had us all aglow with excitement about chocolate-milk fritters. We eagerly placed our order, anticipating the interplay of warm, crispy fritters with a silky milk sauce. Chorizo offers just one dessert each evening, and we spent the […]

According to the company’s Food Philosophy, the folks at Earth Fare believe food tastes best in its natural state—but even they aren’t so curmudgeonly as to disdain the grill. In celebration of summer, the grocery’s South Asheville location at 1856 Hendersonville Road is hosting an all-natural grilling contest on Saturday, June 30, from 11 a.m. […]

Flavor: Erratic interpretation of all-American fare Ambiance: Family-friendly casual dining When places like Harvest, the restaurant which opened earlier this year in the Eastwood Village space vacated by Trillium Bistro, are touting their copper-penny carrots, it’s clear that local (or at least local-sounding) foods are having a moment. The tailgate market—and the chi-chi supermarkets that […]

The Grove Park Inn recently held a series of gala events to introduce its new branded wines: a crisp, oak-free 2005 chardonnay and a richly berried 2004 cabernet sauvignon, developed by Grove Park in partnership with master winemaker Kerry Damskey of Sonoma County. Speaking at a dinner last Friday night, Damskey took pains to distinguish […]

I usually rely on a menu to guide my wine selection. But those of us living in North Carolina can now track down better-than-decent wines with the aid of a map. North Carolina, which led the Southern march toward Prohibition by banning alcohol in 1908 (“The sun will rise tomorrow on a state redeemed from […]

Seven new farms have joined the roster of participants in this year’s Mountain Farm and Garden Tour, the 12th annual edition of the two-day event sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. The self-guided tour runs from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24, and costs $25 per carload. For […]

The Grove Park Inn, which has been the backdrop for plenty of wine drinking over its century-long history, is getting into wine-making with the creation of its own private label. The first two wines—a 2005 Grove Park Inn Chardonnay and a 2004 Grove Park Inn Cabernet Sauvignon—will debut at a Thursday, June 14, dinner featuring […]

Flavor: Steak, seafood and Italian standards Ambiance: Upscale hotel restaurant with great background music Publicists for Frankie Bones’ Restaurant and Lounge—the self-consciously swanky steak-and-seafood joint that recently took up residence on a busy stretch of Hendersonville Road that downtown Asheville denizens still consider the Deep South—touted the restaurant as the sort of place Frank Sinatra […]

Barbecue lovers, rejoice—but with restraint. Asheville’s 12 Bones Smokehouse is finally staying open for dinner, but only at its brand new Kingsport, Tenn., location. The restaurant, slated to open next month, represents a partnership between 12 Bones owners Tom Montgomery and Sabra Kelley and Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria owner Doug Beatty. “Doug has a fair […]

This is what punsters call egg-citing: The Inn on Church Street have won the “Inn-Credible Breakfast Cook-off,” sponsored by Select Registry: Distinguished Inns of North America, and Eggland’s Best eggs. The Hendersonville inn’s smoked mountain-trout cakes were judged good enough to win the grand prize: a C3 Turbochef oven. Asheville restauranteur Eric Scheffer has transformed […]

Flavor: Pan-Southern ‘cue and matching sides Ambiance: Friendly counter service for folks on the go Other than an unwavering commitment to coleslaw, America’s two great contributions to the lunching scene—the Northern delicatessen and the Southern barbecue joint—have very little in common. Indeed, the two establishments are so fundamentally different that ticking off their characteristics sounds […]

Every week, Mountain Xpress navigates the sometimes-tricky waters of the local food scene. The Asheville area is home to an ever-growing number of restaurants to suit every taste—and Xpress has taken on the task of giving readers “the straight dish” about what’s out there. Now you see her … : Anonymity is part of our […]