- Chocolate Fetish
The first stop on the tour may have been the best. The daughter of the owner of the shop, who is the head chocolatier, gave us a great tour and really went into detail about how their chocolate was made (including where it came from and behind-the-scenes views of the chefs in action), her education at the famous pastry school in Chicago under French pastry chefs, and the story behind the shop. We each got a sample of a truffle and a sea-salted chocolate-covered carmel. All of that fancy training the chocolatiers have paid off because those chocolates were amazing.
It was great to see to the effort this restaurant is putting in to sustainability and environmental responsibility, but the food was nothing special and not to mention almost killed boyfriend by serving him nuts even after he told them about his allergy.
Fiore's is a quaint, family-owned Italian restaurant that made quite a tasty pizza. With the Neapolitan pizza craze in Atlanta, it was a nice, and frankly a little relieving, to be served just a normal, well-made, and delicious pizza.
This shop offered a unique experience with its sole purpose being olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings. One of the owners was very hands-on and was clearly very educated in her craft of oil and vinegar. For those not as educated with oils and vinegars or those that just need some help, Olive & Kickin' sells bottled pairings that they put together.
This restaurant was not engaging as a tour stop and the food was forgettable.
Woolworth Walk is an old school soda shop inside of a huge art gallery. It is a really interesting place and features only local artists. They served us strawberry ice cream with lime soda that didn't do anything for me.
The last stop on the tour at the Spice and Tea Exchange was both engaging and very cool. The store was walls full of...wait, can you guess?...spices and teas. They had anything you could possibly need. We came home with their Italian mix which is recommended to soak in olive oil or toss in pasta.
Surprisingly, we weren't stuffed after the tour and were very hungry when it came time for our late dinner at Curate Tapas Bar. The chef here is Katie Button who studied under Ferran Adria of the very famous El Bulli and additionally studied under Jose Andres. Man, she was well-trained and it showed. This meal was one of the best I've ever had. Yes, I did say that about The Admiral, too. But really they were both that amazing.
Curate, in comparison to The Admiral, had a feel much more like a typical Atlanta restaurant i.e. loud and a lot of wood and metal. The bar was obviously the loudest area, but we were seated in the back, which was significantly quieter.
We started with the Pan con Tomate with Manchego Cheese. I've never had a better piece of dressed up, savory bread in my life. I could have eaten just this for dinner.
Next was the best salad I have ever had. I know it's getting redundant that I'm constantly saying that something is "the best I've ever had", but it's true. This Ensalada de Verano was a salad of watermelon, la serena cheese, and heirloom tomatos drizzled in a honey sherry vinaigrette. Just typing that has my mouth watering. The combination of textures was amazing and the cheese added just the right amount of saltiness and nuttiness to the sweet watermelon and dressing. It is the perfect summer salad, but I could eat it every day of the year.
Following the salad we had the Patatas Bravas. For me, the potatoes would be the perfect breakfast potatoes if the sauce was left off, but for dinner I enjoyed the sauce...and that's coming from a girl who is very picky about condiments and sauces. I admit that I did find that there was a little too much sauce.
The finale of our meal was the Gambas al Ajillo (sautéed shrimp and sliced garlic), called the number one tapa in Asheville according to the menu, and the Setas al Jerez (mushrooms sautéed in olive oil with sherry). Both were really, really delicious, but I'm a total sucker for mushrooms of almost any variety. You would be seriously missing out if you went to Curate and chose not to get the Pan con Tomate, the Ensalada de Verano, or the Gambas al Ajillo.
I was told that going to French Broad Chocolate Lounge was an absolute must. So despite there being no room left in stomach for anything else, I sucked it up to indulge in some chocolate. We took a short walk and prepared to complete the day of stuffing our faces.
I got the Highland Mocha Stout Cake with Coffee Buttercream. All I can say is wow. It was so creamy and moist and all around delicious. I really truly wish I could have enjoyed the whole thing, but I could only conquer half of it.
Per the recommendation of Emeril (he kindly responded to my tweet to him), we brunched Sunday morning at the famous Tupelo Honey Cafe. For the most part, we both found the restaurant overrated. They serve a biscuit with their namesake honey as an appetizer. The biscuit itself was very dense, and I have had better in several Atlanta restaurants, but their honey was really special. They chose a nice product to name the place after or most likely vice-versa. I got an omelet that was nothing special, but we shared the famous sweet potato pancake sans pecans, of course (thanks, Boyfriend). This was one delicious pancake. Even without the nuts it had so much flavor. It was very fluffy and cinnamon-y. I don't think it's a place that needs to be on an Asheville bucket list if you're only there for a short time.
That concludes the weekend-long constant face-feeding. A week later and I'm still recovering (and dreaming of eating at The Admiral and Curate again).
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