The Lobster Trap: One of 16 finalists for the third annual “Best Dish in North Carolina” competition is now on offer at The Lobster Trap. Chef Tres Hundertmark’s Mountain Trout Osso Bucco, available at the downtown-Asheville restaurant through Sept. 23, features a braised and glazed Sunburst Farms trout. (That’s Hundertmark, making the dish, in the picture above.)
The Best Dish competition, sponsored by a division of the state’s Department of Agriculture, was designed to reward chefs for using local products. Winners will receive cash prizes and advertising in Our State magazine.
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Hundertmark is competing in the casual-dining category, pitting him against seven chefs, including Scott Adams of Blackwater Grill in Hendersonville, who’s entered a mountain-style rabbit. Three more Western North Carolina restaurants are fighting for the fine-dining win: The Inn on Church Street and La Riserva Ristorante in Hendersonville, and Balsam Mountain Inn in Balsam. All finalists are required to serve their dish for at least four weeks this summer. To learn more, visit goodnessgrows.org.
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Growing Young Café: Parents who complain that café society isn’t hospitable to children are likely to be overjoyed by the arrival of Growing Young Café at 611 Tunnel Road. Part play space, part eatery, the café‘s Web site promises “a kid-friendly, safe and enriching environment for the whole family,” complete with “great coffee and healthy snacks.” Growing Young was the brainchild of teacher Tonya Clayton, who’s planning tutoring sessions and art classes for her mini-patrons. The café is set to open on Aug. 1; visit www.growingyoungcafe.com for more information.
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Williams-Sonoma: The trick to managing a garden’s late-summer bounty is mastery of the right cooking techniques. Williams-Sonoma in Biltmore Village will be tackling that topic at a free workshop on Sunday, June 27. To register for “Summer Fruits and Vegetables,” call 277-3707.
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Stoney Knob Café: It’s now easier than ever to get a Stoney Knob Café fix. The Weaverville restaurant began staying open seven days a week this spring. Hours are Monday to Friday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. and Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. For information, call 645-3309.
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State Strives For Food Safety: The goofy glitches that surface on restaurant health reports—like the dirty apron found behind an ice maker or the ripped screen on a kitchen window—will no longer preoccupy food-safety inspectors, the head of the state’s food-protection branch said last month. North Carolina’s new inspection form instead emphasizes the potentially deadly errors restaurants might make. The form, which debuted July 1, lists 30 “good retail practices”—including the ever-popular vermin assessment—and 18 critical-risk factors associated with food-borne illness. If restaurant employees are spotted undercooking meat, sneezing in the food or failing to wash their hands, the given eatery will now be subject to stiffer penalties. “The new form encourages focusing on those things that will have the greatest impact on food safety,” Bart Campbell, chief of the division’s Environmental Health Services section.
The Lobster Trap is one of the most overrated restaurants in town. The lobster is tiny, overcooked, and was served with a hunk of uncooked broccoli the size of my head.
Terrible.