I am starting to think “The Straight Dish” ought to change its name to reflect the nature of the column. Perhaps something like “The Partial Dish,” “The Opinionated Dish” or “The Straight Dis”? Mark Williams’ review of the North Star Diner [“North Star Diner: Restaurant Tackles Workaday Classics,” April 4] was so incredibly shortsighted and narrowly opinionated that it makes me wonder what qualifies one to write this column?
It is far too easy for Mark Williams to let fly his questionable opinions. How effortless—nothing, compared to the incredible risk North Star has taken in locating themselves in a strip shopping mall in Weaverville, or the effort and length North Star has gone to in providing fair-trade coffee, local eggs, local sausage and antibiotic-free meat (this is Weaverville, not Asheville), yet Mark fails to mention any of this.
I personally have never had a bad meal at North Star, and I have dined there numerous times since their recent opening. I do not agree with his assessment that their vegetables are overcooked. I love their greens because they actually cook them long enough to release the minerals from the greens and make them digestible. Their beets and apples are my favorite high-quality comfort food. I love that I can get my daughter a burger with meat I feel good about, topped with grilled onions on a freshly made bun, at an affordable price to boot. I love the mix of people that attend North Star … they are embracing the age-old tradition of diner, yet they are doing it the way it used to be done—with clean, local ingredients, freshly made and affordable.
Thank you, North Star, for doing it right, and I am sorry, Mark Williams, that you just don’t get it.
— Jennifer Lapidus, owner
Natural Bridge Bakery
Marshall
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