Food

We were lucky to get an advance viewing of PlantPure Nation here at the Asheville Blog and even luckier to land an interview with Nelson Campbell. He’s the figurehead of the film and was kind enough to take a few minutes out of his film tour to speak with me on the phone.

Read More »

Everyone loves Halloween - kids and adults alike can dress up and party for no particular reason, candy is readily available for those who ask, and parents can dig into their child's plentiful stash as soon as they slip into a sugar induced coma. Beer, like wine, can be paired with certain food items to enhance the overall flavor experience, and Halloween is no exception to the rule. Grab your favorite local craft beer, break open that candy stash, turn on your favorite horror flick, and settle back to indulge your senses and prepare for the rush that only comes with pairing alcohol and sugar. 

Read More »

Residents of Weaverville rejoice; a Publix Super Market will be opening in 2017. Publix is the largest employee owned grocery chain in the United States. In April of 2015, the popular Florida grocery store opened their first Western North Carolina location on Hendersonville Road in Asheville. Now out of town residents will be able to enjoy all that Publix offers when the 49,000 square foot store opens in Weaverville. 

Read More »

Saturday, September 19th is the day that marked a shift in the Asheville community for years to come. When the story about Jared Rutledge and Jacob Owens, owners of the former Waking Life Espresso in West Asheville first broke, it was met with a mix of concern, disdain, outrage, and disgust. Concerned West Asheville citizens organized an impromptu protest on the sidewalk in front of the popular coffeehouse at 4 pm. Normally open until 8 pm, co-owner Jacob closed the doors to the store at 4:10. This was the start of the avalanche that suddenly immersed Asheville in a wave of a culture that few knew about: the red pill, pick up artists, and misogyny.

Read More »

Chicken Salad Chick, the nation’s only southern inspired, fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today its first restaurant in Asheville, N.C., will open on Oct. 27. Located in the Asheville Market Retail Center at 4 South Tunnel Road, the new Chicken Salad Chick is owned and operated by long-time franchisee team Michelle Singleton and Julie Beville of Sing Bev Hospitality, LLC. To celebrate, the new restaurant has planned five days of freebies and promotions.

Read More »

Friends Jason Istvan and Caleb Autrey have a few things in common: they love Asheville, and they love ice cream. After two years of planning, they are thrilled to be opening their joint venture, Frostbite Ice Cream in Asheville in October. Located on Patton Avenue in the parking lot of Sky Lanes bowling alley, FrostBite Ice Cream will be 1,000 sq feet of soft serve paradise. Using local ingredients to create unique flavors, Frostbite plans to offer 12 different types of soft serve ice cream and 40 fun toppings. 

Read More »

The Asheville Wine & Food Festival's final phase of their culinary and mixology competitions, The Grand Tasting, will take place this Saturday night at the Civic Center. You may remember my coverage of earlier phases of the competition, AMUSE and ESSENCE, during which one chef and one mixologist were selected by attendees to move on to the next phase. In the Grand Tasting, the final winners will be selected.

Read More »

105.9 the Mountain is getting even bigger on the pig with the 3^rd Annual BaconFest Asheville on Saturday, August 29^th from 1-4pm at the Highland Brewing Company Outdoor Meadow. This year’s event is sure to excite the taste buds of bacon, beer and BBQ aficionados alike with even more bacon-inspired cuisine.

Read More »

Lisa Klepzig was a family practice nurse for twenty years, but has been known for years as the chocolate expert by her friends, showing up to holiday parties and feasts with loads of chocolates to share with her friends. Five years ago, she started The Chocolate Lab, but this year, she and her husband Kier decided to take it to the next level. She worked on her recipes and began to incorporate local beers into her truffles. She was invited to display her wares at the Asheville Wine and Food Festival, where she crossed my path, and this month has opened up her very own chocolate shop in north Asheville: The Chocolate Lab.

Read More »

Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to eat at newly opened Blue Dream Curry House, located in downtown Asheville, to sample their international sampling of curries. Curry and I go way back, though perhaps not as far as those to whom the highly spiced dish is native. As a child, I attended many Thanksgiving dinners at a home belonging to friends of my parents, a nice Indian couple whose children were close in age to my brother, sister and me. We swapped a few Thanksgiving dinners, eating one year at our house with traditional American fare, and the next at their house, with their Indian twists on traditional dishes, plus some family favorites tossed in. I learned to eat Indian curry at a young age, but until I was an adult, I did not realize there was more than one type of curry.

Read More »