Food & Drink

Asheville is no stranger to top “foodie” destination lists. It repeatedly appears in Trip Advisor and Yelp’s top 10 and “Travel and Leisure” magazine recently awarded it the #8 spot on their best cities to eat in the U.S.  They cited the city’s multiple James Beard Award-winning restaurants in a cozy mountain town and were taken with the impressive variety of not only food, but venues too. From the historic Flat Iron building to a former bus depot, the city has a colorful culinary landscape that caters to a broad spectrum of tastes.

The Asheville food scene has also been recognized by Bon Appetit, Food & Wine Magazine, Saveur, The New York Times – and the list goes on. A quick Google search will leave you reeling…and hungry for more! 

Asheville Restaurants

Asheville has dubbed itself – Foodtopia and Asheville Independent Restaurants, locally known as AIR, is a good place to get to know more about some of these top-ranked eateries. Looking for a French bistro or some Indian Street food? How about tapas, gluten-free or vegan? Maybe Latin fusion or good old southern home cooking are more your jam? Whatever your preference, you’re sure to find something to whet your appetite.

Food Tours and Trucks

Food tours and food trucks are great way to sample our local flavors. Eating Asheville and Asheville Food Tours will help the undecided sample cuisine from many of the city’s best restaurants while exploring the streets of Asheville.

Cocktails, Breweries and Wineries

We’re a thirsty group here in Asheville. From fancy cocktails and craft beer to cozy wine venues, there are many choices to wet your whistle. Many places also cater to the non-alcohol crowd and offer alcohol-free and even gluten-free beer and fancy cocktails – hold the liquor. Take a rooftop bar tour or hop on a brewery tour. We have more than 50 breweries! Sample wines in the shadow of the Biltmore Estate at the Biltmore winery or for a more rustic experience, take a beautiful drive to Addison Farm Vineyards where they’ve been making small-batch wines for four generations. Enjoy a creatively-concocted cocktail at one of Asheville’s many high-end cocktail bars. For example, Cultivated Cocktails sells a range of “Imbibe boxes” so you can re-create your cocktail experience at home and Antidote boasts the “cure for the common cocktail.”

Sweets, treats, coffee and tea

For the sweets lover, Asheville offers up hand-dipped chocolates at the Chocolate Fetish, The French Broad Chocolate Lounge, and Asheville Chocolate. Some also have homemade gelato and other treats. Tea shops such as Dobra Tea and High Climate Tea cater to the non-coffee drinkers and European-inspired bakeries such as Owl and Old Europe serve every type of cake and sweet imaginable. Need coffee? We’ve got no shortage of caffeine stops. At Vortex, located in the city’s South Slope, you can grab a delicious doughnut too, and a visit to the Ultra Coffee Bar, a local favorite, sits in the center of the River Arts District. You can also get a sandwich, salad, or glass of wine there.

Fun foodie finds

For a quick bite in some nostalgic settings: 

• The Soda Fountain at Woolworth Walk offers up 1950’s lunch counter fare surrounded by original artwork and crafts in the rededicated building. 
• The Tastee Diner in West Asheville serves up “comfort food for the curious and adventurous” and dates back to the 40s. 
• Leo’s House of Thirst in West Asheville features a small hyper-local, hyper-seasonal menu. Ask our local Chefs where they like to eat and many will mention this place.  

Forestry Camp is hidden just outside Biltmore Village in Burial Beer Co.’s complex. The business is housed in the carefully preserved 1930s-era wooden building where members of the Civilian Conservation Corps lived during the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. They have a killer brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Tailgate markets and farm tours

If you’d like to pick up some goodies to go or visit one of the area’s farms, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) has many listings and resources for times and locations.

Cooking classes

If you’d prefer to learn a little while you dine, there are several spots in Asheville where you can take a fun cooking class. Cottage Cooking, the Asheville Kitchen and Asheville Mountain Kitchen are all good spots to try your hand at a new recipe.

Recommended Asheville resources

We’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg with our recommendations, so we encourage you to explore on your own. The following websites should give you all the information you need to plan a perfect Asheville getaway. And, don’t forget to ask your local innkeeper for tips on things to do too. 

• Asheville Independent Restaurants (AIR)
• Romantic Asheville
• Explore Asheville