Asheville in review

We just received our final bag of beverage and are a mere half hour from our final gourmet and terribly decadent breakfast at the 1900 Inn on Montford. This has been hands-down the best B&B experience Rob or I have ever had. The owners of the Inn, Lynn & Ron Carlson, are founding members of the Asheville B&B association and it shows - for room rates just barely higher than a Marriott, we not only were treated with the aforementioned bag of beverage and amazing breakfast, but also wine hour on the porch every night, snacks and beverages galore, AsheCashe (they're one of 10 participating lodgings), live music from a pseudo-professional and incredibly charming trio Thursday night and innkeepers who even anti-social travelers like Rob and me enjoyed spending time with.

Last night, there was a drum circle in the city park - dozens of people drumming, dancing and watching, with drummers coming and going, even a guy in full spandex biking gear standing at the top of the hill playing recorder to the beat. It was multi-generational, multi-cultural and downright wonderful.

Of course, Rob and I are incredibly food centric, so I must wrap up with the restaurants we visited, in order of eating, not necessarily preference.

Chorizo (they don't appear to have a Web site) - our friend Chelsea is a die-hard Salsa fan and Chorizo is owned by the same chef. Unbelievable entrees and mojitos, and really good starters. I had a pureed gazpacho with a tomato foam on top that tasted like it was plucked straight from the vine. The walls of the restaurant open so you can eat outside even if you're inside - there's a lot of that here and I love it!

Fig was recommended by the innkeepers as a local foods-oriented restaurant where we could wear jeans (being the fanciest clothes we brought). Again, patio seating in the court-yard of an upscale shopping & living center. Again, exquisite food and service. Everything was beautifully plated and perfectly cooked, with lovely straight-forward flavors - the kind of stuff you can only cook if you start with the best ingredients.

Nona Mia is a restaurant we stumbled across after coming off the Blue Ridge Parkway with grumbling stomachs. Located in a strip mall in a congested part of town, this was a surprise find. The menu was made of standard Italian-American fare, like chicken parmesan and calzones, but done wonderfully with what tasted like homemade sauces and crusts, and amazing ingredients like whole roasted cloves of garlic and piles of sauteed fresh mushrooms.

Zambra - we stumbled across this tapas restaurant while wandering the downtown and had to go back for dinner - we didn't realize until after we got there that it is also focused on local ingredients. We sat in a covered patio while a storm whipped the wind around in the most pleasant way. With the small size of tapas (literally "little plates") we were able to order just about everything the waiter recommended and were thrilled with the outcome: succulent tuna, beautifully prepared local wild mushrooms and, for dessert, homemade maple and oatmeal cookie dough ice cream!

Even more than the amazing foods we were served, we found that the waitstaff at every restaurant we visited was knowledgeable, friendly and truly enthusiastic about the food - waitstaff everywhere should be trained in Asheville!