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french broad chocolate asheville

Incredible Foodie Finds in Asheville

Typically we drive our home towards adventure but this small town lured us in with it’s over the top reputation for sustainable, farm fresh food and craft brews.

We hadn’t even heard of Asheville, North Carolina until a few years ago. We were passing through another part of North Carolina and wandered into a pub wanting to try some good NC craft beer.  The gentleman at the pub pointed us towards Highland Brewery’s Gallic Ale.  We thought it was tasty, asked where the beer was made and there began our interest in Asheville.

Since that day we’ve seen the town come up in magazines, online and in conversation for either its beauty, adventure and of course, the food scene.  This is one town we were stoked to explore and that in its self is unsettling.  Nothing like hyped up expectations to ensure an epic travel fail.

Our experience was honestly far better than what we could put together in a single video…but we tried anyway.

There’s definitely some running themes in town like fresh, local, and sustainable.

While the places we’ve highlighted really excelled at all of those, we were fairly hard pressed to find any restaurants or hole in the walls that weren’t participating in at least one of those aspects, if not all.

highland brewery asheville

There are a lot of breweries in this town, possibly more than you can legally fit in one trip.  Highland churns out consistently good brews and hands down has the cleanest facilities we’ve ever seen (have you ever toured Rogue in Oregon, that place is crazy…and awesome)!  And if you’re a fan of the microbrew like we are, you’ll want to also check out Wicked Weed and The Wedge.

french broad chocolate asheville

French Broad Chocolate Lounge is an extremely rare find and if at all possible take the factory tour!  Very few chocolatiers, if any, are also cacao farmers themselves, and we’d venture to guess very few chocolate factories even know the farms from where their cacao comes from.  This is NOT Dan and Jael, they are purists in the very best way.  Not only does the couple have a cacao farm in Costa Rica but they work with small farms all over the world and they pay fair wages to everyone involved in the bean-to-bar process.

In their factory they roast, crack, winnow, grind, conche and temper chocolate in small batches.  

Our taste buds are seriously addicted to this place (we found our way in 3 different times during our 10 day stay)!  At a minimum I highly recommend taking a few bars home (or order online) and please please have a Vanilla Bourbon Caramel Truffle for me, it just might change, and ruin, your chocolate expectations for the rest of your life.

urban orchard cider asheville

We love cider…good cider that is.  Especially the fun, interesting and experimental kind we found at Urban Orchard. Not much beats a nice crisp, cold and just ever so slightly sweet cider on a hot day.  And considering cider used to be more common than wine, we’re obviously not the only ones that think so.  

Apples were one of the earliest known crops in the English-speaking New World and so of course it didn’t take long to start fermenting and making cider.

 The American legend John Chapman aka good ol’ Johnny Appleseed was the American pioneer who introduced apple trees to states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia.  I can only imagine what Johnny Appleseed would think of the fermented awesomeness found at Urban Orchard!

posana cafe asheville

Posana Cafe is one of those places we ventured into with reservations.  You know what I am talking about, that uneasy feeling that tells you, this could either be really good or really bad.  Sure it has great reviews and all the right buzz words on the website, but is it all hype?  Luckily, not at all!

This place whipped up lobster mac n cheese that made me want to melt and bread pudding that was so comforting we practically fell asleep at the table.

And it was all gluten free!  I didn’t even bother to ask what it was made from.  I didn’t want to know.  I am assuming it’s magic or some sort of chef wizardry.  Because while we are not gluten intolerant we do have friends and family that are…and to be honest a lot of the gluten free baked goods taste like corrugated cardboard.

So there you have it, a foodie breakdown of our Asheville faves.  What about you?  Do you have a favorite foodie destination?  We want to hear your stories in the comments below!

If you didn’t catch our Adventures in Asheville – Float. Fly and Forage make sure to click over and check it out.

If you’re headed to Asheville make sure to start your trip by stopping in at the visitors center.  They’ll give you the scoop on what’s going on and can help you plan your trip.  I know we owe a big thanks to Explore Asheville for showing us what foodtopia is all about!

Hello there! I honestly don’t know what to say, so I am going to tell you a bunch of random facts instead. I'm a fish eating vegetarian who hates spiders and loves snakes. I almost never took vacations growing up. I wanted to be Pippi Longstocking (still do). I misspell about every other word I write and still struggle with grammar. I love splurging on a good high tea (which is really hard to find these days). And whatever you do, don’t tell me I can’t do something, because then I'll HAVE to do it!

Comments (18)

  • Brandi

    We spent Thanksgiving in Asheville and due to snow (yippee) we weren’t able to get out much but we did hit Double D’s downtown for coffee and Biscuit Head for breakfast. Double D’s is a double decker bus coffee shop with seating on the second floor and Biscuit Head is a breakfast shop with cat head biscuits. When you get back there try Mama Gertie’s for camping and definitely go to the Biltmore…you will not be disappointed.
    On a side note, my husband and I love reading about all your adventures. In a few months we will be traveling out west with our 12 year old son in our travel trailer and we use your site to get some really good tips. Thank you for sharing all your adventures!

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    • Sadly Brandi, we did visit the Biltmore and although the property and the house is beautiful we did not think it was worth the price of admission.

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  • Joe

    Once again, Awesome Video!!

    Asheville is definitely on our list !!

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  • Paul Van

    Awwwwesome video!! Love the chocolate part! Hope everyone appreciates the hours spent to produce such a creative and smooth flowing piece.

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    • You would just die to see all the chocolate cakes there, everything was so decadent.

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    • Derek

      Highland Mocha Stout Cake @ the Chocolate Lounge! Absolutely amazing!

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  • Thanks for sharing. We are headed that way in a couple of months and you did all the leg work. Now we can make good use of our time eating and drinking.

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    • Please send photos of the chocolate…we’re craving it right now!!!!!!

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  • vern

    this is not about North Carolina but a question about another place you have been do you need a passport into Mexico for dental work. I live in a 34 foot Airstream hand spend 6 months in Arizona and six months in Iowa . VernpS I follow your blog very closely

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  • Amanda

    Asheville is my home away from home so I’m excited to see this post. It’s very different than it used to be, a little more touristy/yuppy hipster in some places, but that’s not always a bad thing. It’s still very much a nice mix of west-coast crunchy types and down-home country types. This video was a great one even for people who have been there a lot. I especially loved the part where Jason wanted your truffle and you didn’t want to share! So funny. Your videos get cuter and cuter.

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  • mary van

    Love Asheville! NC is a beautiful state with lots of hidden treasures.

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  • Bill

    Did you make it to the Moose cafe?
    Very good country cooking.

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  • Posana Cafe is amazing and French Broad Chocolates … just incredible. We camped near Black Mountain and there was a little tea shop there that used FBC ganache to make their hot chocolate. I take my chocolate seriously and FBC is the best I’ve every had!!

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