Asheville Adventure: My Ears are Burping

Last year's vacation was a bit involved for a family with two small kids -- several days in Puerto Rico and a cruise to the southern Caribbean. It was lots of fun, but this year we wanted something simpler and something with mountains, so we decided to go to North Carolina. We started our trip with a quick, three hour drive from Atlanta to Asheville, arriving about noon. As we drove up into the Blue Ridge Mountains, our ears begin to pop and Ethan announced that his ears were burping, thus creating the first family joke of the trip. We had rented a cottage from Asheville Cottages (ours was called, appropriately, Blue Ridge) and our check-in time was not until 4 pm, so upon arriving in town, we headed straight to lunch. A friend had recommended the Mellow Mushroom downtown as interesting for the kids because it had a tree growing up out of it, so we headed there. We didn't see a tree actually in the building, although there was one in an outdoor waiting area. It was a bit more authentically funky than most Mellow Mushrooms, with bowling balls embedded in the outdoor rock fencing, day glo painted dough makers (retired from the kitchen?) as sculptures, and so on.



Ethan and Katie enjoying some chips and the view

We had seen The Gourmet Potato Chip Company on the walk to the MM, serving homemade kettle chips with a variety of tasty toppings, so we decided for a post-lunch chip treat. Jerome had the Southern BBQ which had a 12 spice barbecue seasoning. Like a good barbecue sauce, it was spicy and sweet and yummy. I had The Italiano, with chips coated with sun dried tomato, pecorino romano cheese, fresh chopped basil, toasted garlic, and sea salt. The counter attendant upsold me to their basalmic reduction as an extra topping and boy was she right. It was very tasty. I was a little concerned about the basil overwhelming things but it was perfectly spiced and the freshness add a very nice layer to the flavors. We offered our chips to the kids but they are not adventurous eaters so they stuck with their plain chips.



Beautiful house with a great story (a faked death)

Rome and I like to get someplace new and get the overview before jumping in to specifics. So next we took a quick drive up Broadway, into Biltmore Village. After getting a sense of the place, we went to -- where else? -- the very nice Asheville visitor's center to take a Grayline Trolley Tour of Asheville. It took a couple of hours and the breeze kept us pretty cool in the open air car for most of the trip. Asheville has some lovely old homes in the Montford neighborhood, with those sleeping porches you see in gracious old Southern homes. We saw a lot of Queen Anne architecture, with a good amount of Italianate and even a couple of English stone manor-styles, and of course many had interesting stories attached, with a liberal sprinking of F. Scott and Zelda Fitgerald lore sprinkled in. In the "who knew?" category, we learned that the actor who played the judge on Night Court lives in Asheville, although his historic house is not on the tour.


English stone manor-style house


After we finished the tour, we checked into our cottage and were very happy with it. Since we have kids, we usually rent a condo or small house when we travel. Most hotels don't seem to have adjoining rooms anymore and houses provide you with a kitchen, a washer/dryer, and (usually) quiet neighborhoods. It's usually cheaper or the same cost as two hotel rooms, believe it or not. This one was no exception and I highly recommend it. It's spotless, newly updated, attractively decorated, and the owners have really put a lot of thought into the details. There are thick robes, a great hot tub, incredibly soft sheets on the king-sized, Sleep Number master bed, a breakfast basket for the first day (coffee, tea, muffins, oatmeal, etc.), and toiletry packages for each bathroom with nice products. It was not centrally located but Asheville isn't large and most of the things we're doing are out in the mountains, so that's no problem.

Dinner was at the highly touted Tupelo Honey (actually their "south" location). The atmosphere felt like a chain restaurant, which is OK, except we were looking for local color. I had a local craft beer (Wee Heavy-er Scottish Style Ale by French Broad Brewing Company) that was good. Jerome's Firecracker Pale Ale was much hoppier than promised and only OK. The food was overpriced ($75 for two adults and two kids) for the quality. They make a big deal of their fresh, farm to table fare -- you hear a lot of that in Asheville, and we were looking forward to it -- but mine sure didn't taste fresh. Jerome had the rootbeer and molasses pork tenderloin and it was tender but had none of the flavor you'd expect from the title. My vegetable bowl -- goat cheese grits, blackeyed peas, sauteed greens, fried okra, and some chopped vegetables on top, was only OK and very small. The service was wonderful: personable, knowledgeable, and attentive. Oh well...every meal can't be fabulous.

All in all, we had adjusted to the ear burping and had a lovely start to our trip.