Pit Stop in Asheville
Alex and I went down to Clemson this weekend for a football game (with our N-95 masks)! We stopped by Asheville on the way back for just about a day and tried quite a few new-to-us places so I thought I would share our experience. FYI, there is a county-wide mask mandate for all indoor spaces at this time.
Rosetta’s Kitchen & The Buchi Bar
I had Rosetta’s Kitchen bookmarked on Yelp for the longest time because we love The Buchi kombucha. So when my friend Nicole suggested Rosetta’s Kitchen for lunch, I said yes immediately! Rosetta’s has vegan soul food made with locally sourced ingredients. We started with Vegan Queso Basket per our friends Nicole and Kennedy’s suggestion and they did not steer us wrong!!! The bean-y, spicy queso pairs perfectly with well-seasoned tortilla chips. For entrees, I had the Family Favorite (Peanut butter-baked organic tofu, sautéed kale, and smashed potatoes with Granny’s Gravy) and really enjoyed it. Very generous portions too!
Last but not least, get some kombucha or a whole flight! If you haven’t had Buchi kombucha, they are the best kombucha I have ever had. All of their flavors taste distinctly different (all delicious); it’s almost as if they injected some flavors to kombucha (I am making this up). We opted for a flight (comes with all six on tap) and highly recommend it.
Bless Nicole and Kennedy for helping us make another great life decision! Downtown location of Dobra Tea is a block over from Rosetta’s Kitchen, and it’s the perfect place to just hang out while sipping on tea. They have an extensive selection of teas to choose from (literally ~70 pages) so it might not be a bad idea to look up the menu ahead of time. With their snacky food menu, you can spend a whole afternoon here. They do slightly different presentations depending on which tea you order (so fun!) and have different seating areas to suit all your moods (do young people say vibes?).
We were looking for a dinner place between out airbnb and downtown Asheville and decided to try Pizza Mind. I would say it’s pretty good/decent pizza but not mind-blowingly good. We shared a medium-size pizza and could barely finish it (honestly, we would’ve taken some leftovers to go if we were not going to stay out the rest of the evening). We had The Doctor, which wasn’t as different as expected but hit the spot for us salty carb lovers. They do have a few interesting sounding options like the Jambalaya. The service was fantastic.
If you love sour beers like me, check out DSSOLVR! Located in the heart of downtown Asheville, DSSOLVR has a great selection of sour and light beers. We tried a few of the sour beers and particularly loved the Evil Engine (strawberry cheesecake sour ale) and Pleasant Murmurs (fruited marshmallow sour that tasted like pineapple upside down cake)! The layout of the taproom is long/deep. They have garage doors on one side (which were kept open until close) that takes you out to a patio. They’re dog-friendly too!
The Front Bottoms, which is in Alex’s top five favorites, was playing at The Orange Peel, which was the primary reason we decided to spend a day in Asheville. It was my first show at The Orange Peel and I am sad to say that I was a bit disappointed. In accordance with the county mandate, The Orange Peel requires everyone to wear masks; it wasn’t well enforced though because I saw AT LEAST 10 people not wearing a mask from where I was standing near the back. (I probably shouldn’t even draw this comparison but I went to a show at the Cat’s Cradle a few months ago and saw only one person who did not keep their mask on throughout the show.) They do require either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR within the last three days but neither is as effective as preventing the spread of COVID-19 virus as wearing masks indoors. I realize it’s a huge (and definitely not fun) task to enforce this policy but I was too uncomfortable to enjoy the show.
Okay–Biscuit Head is not new to us but we have hard time not going to Biscuit Head whenever we’re in Asheville (same goes for Hole Doughnuts but they’re not open on Mondays so we just cried). Maybe it’s a tourist trap but Biscuit Head has yet to disappoint us so we keep going back! I had the Filthy Animal biscuit (buttermilk biscuit, fried chicken, pimento cheese, bacon, scrambled eggs smothered in gravy), and Alex had the gravy flight. All so delicious and satisfying. Currently, they have lavender honey latte as one of their seasonal drinks, and I kid you not when I say it tastes like lavender macaron. If you like sweet coffee, give that a try!
Already looking forward to our next visit to Asheville!
You May Also Like
Park’s Food St. – Durham’s Korean Food Hall
Durham Date Night: Gocciolina
