To bring in Christmas break I took two trips to Asheville- for the day last Saturday with Andrew, Matt and Kathryn, and for a few days last week with Lydia.On Saturday the four of us meandered through downtown and stopped in to see the Coen Brothers' new movie, A Serious Man at the Fine Arts Center. It was incredible. Halfway through, Andrew had to nudge me and tell me "it's supposed to be a comedy" because I was nearly in tears. Well, having seen it a second time, I have found more humor in it but it is undoubtedly a dark comedy. Caricaturizing the messiness of family life in a midwestern Jewish town (probably 50s or 60s, we guessed) and the passivity of the father role, it was ridiculous, hilarious, and sad. I think it was not so much a caricature as it was a pretty accurate depiction of what we are capable of.
Andrew and I showed Matt and Kathryn The Admiral, our favorite restaurant, which I went back to a few days later with Lydia and Megan. Both times were almost as good as our first back in October. They always impress me with their menu, their service, and the way it transforms from older patrons dining out to dirty, hipster, dance floor late at night.
On Saturday we stopped into some art shops including the Earth Guild- there I bought an amazing book called The Backyard Homestead. It literally has everything you could ever need to know to get started on raising livestock, planting vegetables, brewing beer, making cheese, making butter, making wine, picking out chickens for eggs, picking out chickens for meat, so on and so forth. The editor, Carleen Madigan, has compiled the information with the assertion that you can produce everything (and more) that your family will ever need on a quarter of an acre. I recommend it for curiosity, which is where I am, and for a place to get started to figure out what few tasks you might want to take on next.
Asheville with Lydia was much different than Saturday- less walking and more eating and shopping! HA! We had 5 meals to narrow down our restaurants for and we chose: The Laughing Seed. We split roasted red pepper & artichoke dip and mushroom enchiladas. Everything was incredibly fresh and our enchiladas had fresh avocado and a little kick to them. For brunch the next morning, Early Girl Eatery. I love this place- they make everything from scratch and offer breakfast all day and serve a variety, from shrimp and grits to an alfalfa & black bean hummus sandwich, and they do it well. Some of my favorite details (details sell me on a place, totally) are - they only serve raw sugar with coffee and provide cream in the cutest little dishes, hardwood floors and incredible sunlight, spunky waitresses (and only waitresses. I have never seen waiters. True to their name, I suppose), homemade biscuits and raspberry jam.
Of course we stopped in at the Double Decker Cafe which after Andrew asked me if they "already put cream in my shot of espresso" I realised they knew how to pull a good shot and I plan on stopping there every time I am in town. For dinner, The Admiral and we ate a lot of meat that night. Megan and I shared pork loins over blue corn grits and collards (we devoured the grits and collards. Meat was good but I think we didn't want it as badly as we thought) and I finally got to try the Grilled Romaine hearts with a creamy caesar dressing, homemade croutons and three little anchovies on the side. It was INCREDIBLE. Lydia got some local sausage over a root vegetable mash- I think it was parsnips, sweet potato, and beets maybe? mash. Finally, for our last meal (initially planned to be breakfast but of course it turned into brunch) we drove back to West Asheville to go to Sunny Point Cafe. This was my first time there and I was so impressed. If I have a breakfast place, Sunny Point will be a huge source of inspiration. Lydia got Huevos Rancheros that had chorizo in it, fresh avocado and a fresh cilantro sour cream. I got a BLT with a garlic aioli and bacon that was maple-basted and locally raised. Megan got gouda pimento cheese sandwich- you have to go there if you are ever in town.
On the inedible side, we made several purchases from Harvest Records. Harvest probably beats almost all of the record stores I have been in (besides our own Papa Jazz, of course) - from Atlanta, Austin, Columbia and Voltage in downtown Asheville, Harvest has the biggest selection and totally reasonable prices. The guys there seem so sincerely nice and also did not charge us for sleeves. Custom was a cute and reasonably priced boutique right beside Harvest. I like it because it is just my perfect balance of cute and edgy. I bought a beautiful purple felted coat and a long-sleeve dress with a black solid top and a navy blue print on the bottom (I LOVE clothes that mix taboo color combinations). Kress Emporium always has some vendors who are incredible and for her Christmas present I bought Lydia a necklace with her favorite animal: a teal seahorse. Literally the cutest thing I have ever seen. The pic of the alpacas carrying the sleigh of yarn was taken outside Purl's Yarn Emporium, on Wall Street right by Early Girl. They usually have a cute little rat dog that sits in the window but he was MIA this trip. We stopped in at Bruisin' Ales and bought some Lambic Frambois for Meg, and some of Sam Smith's organic hard cider for ourselves (Sam Smith you never let me down) and spent our nights knitting & crocheting, watching The September Issue (fascinating) and sleeping early.
The best and most enviable thing to me about Asheville is that everywhere you go, whether it be food, clothes, music, crafts, coffee, art, everything is done with such excellence. I can say that after years of visits and I am always blown away by how nothing is half-assed or put-on. It raises the bar for me in thinking about entrepreneurship. All in all, Asheville is becoming a home away from home for me and most definitely a source of encouragement for seeing places I dream about creating not just survive but thrive. Columbia has a drastically different culture and feel than Asheville, but I still think there is huge potential for seeing niche markets thrive here...I want to see it happen! And I hope my long-winded reminiscence makes you want to see Asheville for yourself.
