Asheville, NC might have come up on your travel radar thanks to its proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway or due to being home to Biltmore, the largest private castle in the US. While these are two perfectly good reasons to visit Asheville, the best reason to visit the city is because it is undeniably awesome.
My husband and I have already visited twice in the past year, and given that it's close enough to Nashville to make it a weekend trip, we'll probably continue visiting on a regular basis.
The Food
Food is obviously an important part of any trip. I hate to admit this, but the first time we went to Asheville we had Chili's on the first night there because we were tired and stressed from the drive. We've decided that in the future we have to have the first night's meal planned before we even leave the house. Otherwise, we'll end up settling for a place that's just acceptable, but nothing special.
Luckily, Asheville has amazing food options. Like this itinerary for a perfect days of meals.
For breakfast: Vortex Donuts - I take donuts very seriously, and I think these might be the best donuts I have ever eaten. They have a selection of yeast donuts along with an equally large selection of cake donuts.
For lunch: Manicomio Pizza and Food - You might not expect to find good NY-style pizza in the middle of the mountains, but it's there. We talked with the owner on our first visit, and I think the success of the place is due to his insistence on using quality ingredients. Plus, you get to order by the slice and the price is so reasonable.
For dinner: The Admiral - When you walk up to this cinderblock building, you may have no idea of the quality of the meal that is waiting for you inside. This restaurant is doing everything right food-wise. The menu changes often based on what's in season, and the servers are incredibly helpful. If we lived in Asheville, this would be our date night spot.
We plan to try new restaurants each time that we go to Asheville, but we could be perfectly happy just repeating this combination each visit.
The Bookstores
I thought about titling this section "The Shops," and while there are some great opportunities for shopping in Asheville, it has a particularly great concentration of bookstores.
Downtown Books and News - With shelves and shelves of used books to search through, this is a booklover's dream. I could have been in there much longer, but I was trying to limit myself to one book per bookshop.
Battery Park Book Exchange - This store has thousands of used books, but that's not even the best part. It also happens to be a wine bar. Does anyone not want to sit in a cozy nook surrounded by books drinking a glass of wine?
The Captain's Bookshelf - This was my absolute favorite of the used bookstores in Asheville. It's been around since 1976 and the quality of the books available was just perfect. While I don't collect rare books, I got more excited than I expected when I saw some of them.
Malaprop's Bookstore - Imagine your ideal independent community bookstore. That's what this store is. It is so inviting and the selection of books is so well curated for the local readers. I wish that I lived nearby somewhere like this.
Asheville is a great place for booklovers. I can't figure out exactly how the community is able to support so many great independent bookstores when even chain stores are having difficulty other places. Can we please figure out a way to make this happen in every city?
More
Since weekend trips are short, we didn't explore much more than bookstores, record stores, and restaurants. Asheville does have a Pinball Museum that is worth visiting (we spent an hour and a half playing there). There are so many other things that we want to try there - brewery tours, hiking, spas...I can't wait for us to go back. If you haven't been yet, you need to add this mountain city to your travel list.
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