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While many may argue about what constitutes a proper diet and which foods are needed for adequate nutrition, few would argue against the experience of eating a delicious meal at a great restaurant. Whether you enjoy dining out for the ambiance, because you just can’t hide that you’re not a good cook, or simply because you look forward to not having to do the dishes, like Martha Stewart says, restaurants are “good things.” But what happens when you feel strongly about the foods you put in your body and pay close attention to how those foods are prepared? Not to worry. The greater Asheville area is brimming with dining locations that cater to a wide variety of food lifestyle choices. Whether you choose what you
eat for health reasons, ethical reasons, environmental or spiritual
reasons, the following area hot spots share that passion for food
and concern for its journey to your table. “From the very beginning, we wanted to support local farmers, which is part of the reason we’re in Asheville and not anywhere else we might have lived,” says Julie Stehling, co-owner of Early Girl Eatery in downtown Asheville. Her husband, John, is also a founder of the restaurant. “So much exists here that doesn’t really exist that many other places,” Julie says of the local “agricultural scene.” Early Girl has been serving up “healthy comfort food” with a Southern and Appalachian flair for the past five and a half years. As for utilizing local ingredients to carry out the restaurant’s mission, “I make everything from scratch,” says Julie. “The first step is knowing what it is you’re making and what ingredients you have; often people can’t even break it down that far.” Early Girl’s use of local ingredients has increased since they first opened. This year, the restaurant has three CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture memberships), and their evening chef heads to the farmers’ market to choose ingredients. The menu changes twice a year, with five specials daily for each different menu: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Specials change based on what’s in season and accompany menu staples, which Early Girl sources locally as much as possible. Mark Rosenstein, chef and owner of The Market Place Restaurant & Wine Bar, also knew from the beginning that he wanted to highlight local ingredients. Mark opened his first restaurant in Highlands, NC in 1972. “My interest in food was grounded in the history of cooking,” Mark says. “I read about these guys who every day went to the market and bought their ingredients, and that’s how they made their menu.” When Mark opened The Market Place, he looked to that same inspiration. “Some things always change and some things never change. The dedication and attention to local, regional, seasonal and organic will never change. And over the past 28 years in operation, it hasn’t. I have always worked directly with the farmer and gardeners and have done that my whole life,” he says. Mark’s menu features classic foods in mostly European flavors and fresh, local seafood, including trout, as well as local meats and cheeses. In season, from May to November, all produce used to create Market Place’s menu is locally sourced. Recently, the restaurant hosted a slow food dinner, for which all foods served came from within 100 miles of Asheville. According to Mark, this may just be a prototype for things to come. The Market Place also serves wines with flavors that clearly represent the region in which they’re created. Like Mark, the team at Table, including co-owner and co-chef Jacob Sessoms, his wife and co-owner Alicia and co-chef Matthew Dawes, had some knowledge of the local farming community before opening the restaurant two years ago. All three attended Warren Wilson together, and, after college, Matt went on to work at the farmers’ market off of Brevard Road. “We look for sourcing local ingredients and for doing with them much what chefs in Europe and in other, older parts of the world have been doing forever,” Matt says. The ingredients serve to create the offerings of Table’s California cuisine or new American-style menu, which changes daily. About twice a week, the chefs head to area tailgate markets, and, in the summer, farmers come by the downtown Asheville location nearly every day to drop off their products. It’s during summertime when their use of local ingredients is at its highest: at least eighty percent of products, if not more. To help ensure that the offerings stay as local as possible, Table limits the use of non-regional foods like pineapples. “They don’t reflect the terroir (French for ‘terrain’ and ‘earth’),” says Matt, continuing, “and you should respect the terroir of your own environment.” Exective chef of downtown’s Zambra, Adam Bannasch, also frequents the tailgate markets for products to feature on his eclectic menu of mostly small plates or tapas. Adam usually heads to the market two days a week, where he can buy from as many as ten farmers in one day, depending on the restaurant’s needs. Some local ingredients are consistent, with field greens and half of their meats coming regularly from nearby farms. They also use a local seafood purveyor and use regional, hormone-free chicken and North Carolina butter in their dishes. Zambra’s menu changes often; the set, seasonal menu changes four times a year, and they offer no fewer than eight specials a day on weekdays and no fewer than twelve specials on weekends. These specials are likely places to find local meats. Jen Pearson, owner of Guadalupe Café in Sylva, uses local meats in her dishes, as well, although not what you might expect: goat. Guadalupe’s menu also features pork from Bryson City, as well as, of course, local goat cheese and local feta. Jen also highlights the work of local artists in her restaurant, which serves up tropical fusion cuisine as healthful and local as possible. At Guadalupe, you’ll find two menus: a simple taqueria/burrito menu and a menu featuring entrées, which change daily, allowing Jen to “showcase what’s in season.” In order to do so, she has developed relationships with farmers in the Sylva area who bring her the surplus of their trips to markets. Since Guadalupe is relatively small, Jen also has the ability to use the produce of farmers who have limited quantities but come to her with an interest in the restaurant. “Some people care about having the certified organic label, and I think that’s great, to have certification for things so that you know what you’re getting is what you’re getting. But, I think insisting on it too much kind of cuts out these people who are doing the right thing, and they’re growing right here in our backyard! I don’t want to shun that produce.” The restaurant also serves a locally brewed beer. Like Guadalupe, the Cellar Door Restaurant in Black Mountain also features the work of local artists. The restaurant offers a new-American menu with a heavy emphasis on freshness and quality. “We want to get the best products that we can get but still be approachable and unpretentious,” says executive chef Jesse Kishbach. Jesse hand picks produce when in season and is always working to develop relationships with growers. Currently, the restaurant features meat and seafood from neighboring locations: trout from Canton, pork from Boone and chickens from just outside of Charlotte. Both Jesse and owner Sandra Ewing are ecstatic about a farm stand opening up literally in their backyard and imagine a skip over to the stand to pick up just what they need for the menu. They’re also both equally excited about summer, when they feature items like mustard greens and baby vegetables. Ingredients also come from Sandra herself and her home garden, on which she grows herbs and raises chickens that provide fresh eggs. She also grows a bit of asparagus and has been listening to requests from her kitchen; this year, she’s hoping to grow cucumber. The restaurant also carries local wines. Equally as important to many as the use of local foods is how those foods are grown and produced. Many local farmers use pesticide- and chemical-free practices, and local restaurant owners hear diners’ desires to eat organically. Clean eating is the focus of Savoy, located just north of downtown Asheville, whose kitchen is around eighty percent organic. “My focus when opening the restaurant was to deliver the best possible, high-quality product available in the marketplace,” says Eric Scheffer, Savoy’s proprietor. To carry out his mission of serving fresh, clean and humanely processed foods, Eric instituted a no-freezer policy right off the bat. He was the first to bring fresh seafood from Hawaii to Asheville after finding a company with strict criteria, including that all fish was line, not net, caught and that the fish was processed and shipped the same day it was caught. Savoy serves local and humanely raised pork, free-range chicken and a hormone-free Certified Angus Beef® (CAB); they also serve local, grass-fed beef when available. In fact, a big change regarding beef was made to the menu recently with the addition of a steakhouse menu, which features the highest grade of CAB, grass-fed beef. Savoy sources organic vegetables from a distributor, and Eric and the chefs also frequent farmers’ and tailgate markets. Another change at Savoy involves Eric’s breaking of his own no-freezer policy in order to allow one small chest freezer for storing in-house ice creams and sorbets, made with organic milk and fresh fruits and herbs. Savoy’s dishes are also served with wines made by small, boutique wine makers, of whom at least eighty percent practice organic farming methods. Heiwa Shokudo in downtown Asheville is an authentic Japanese restaurant that uses organic and natural ingredients. Since soybeans are a staple of Japanese cooking, owner Kanji Ueda is sure that the soybeans and their products—tofu, miso and tempeh—served in the restaurant are organic. He also aims to use organic vegetables as much as possible and orders them through an organic foods distributor. The name “Heiwa” means “peace and harmony” in Japanese, a feeling Kanji hopes visitors experience when dining there. “My intent by serving this food is to make people happy,” he says. Kanji also hopes by serving organic and naturally produced ingredients that people will feel as if they’re healthier after eating, not the opposite, which can happen often when eating out. “I want people to experience from the food that their daily life has changed and feel the health benefits,” he says, noting that when eating organic soybeans and vegetables, customers can distinguish an obvious difference from conventionally grown items. But what if it’s not
just where your food was produced and whether it was produced
organically that concerns you? What if it’s about what foods
are left out of your diet and the relationship you have with the
natural, medicinal side of food? There are dining out options
for you, too. Rosetta recognizes that different people require nourishment from foods in different ways, noting that what a father and a nursing baby need are not the same. While the restaurant offers many different types of food, Rosetta uses inspiration for all of her dishes. “I look to what people have eaten throughout time and throughout the world,” she says. You can also find wheat-free and sugar-free options on the menu, as well as unpasteurized sauerkraut that is fermented right on Rosetta’s premises. She and her staff also make all of their soups, sauces, dressings, gravies and most breads in-house. In the future, Rosetta hopes to be able to cater to those following a macrobiotic or living foods/raw foods diet. “We’re always open to following the ideas of people that are trying to improve their health. We’re not interested in following restaurant trends; we’re interested in following health trends.” To create nourishing dishes, Mary Lane, chef at Twig, draws on her background in Five Element Nutrition and her ten years under the guidance of a shaman, years that provided her with a deep understanding of the importance of right relationship with the natural world. “There’s an intelligence that nature has,” Mary says. “We cannot figure out better than nature what we’re supposed to eat and when and how. What I’m weaving together is the intelligence of nature, the medicine of food and the respect for the Earth and her gifts.” Twig’s fine dining and even sensual offerings serve to align with the natural world, and Mary’s dishes include humanely raised, seasonal, wild and fairly traded items. “When people eat this way, they’re literally woven into the fabric of the world around them,” she says, noting the difference and connection that can be felt by diners. “Because of the way that foods are processed, they’re hard on our bodies. Then we find that we have allergies and sensitivities or that we can’t eat this or that. But, when we eat according to the intelligence where we live and we feel that connection, that’s the foundation of health and nutrition.” So, next time you reach for that quick meal off the shelf or out of the freezer, or worry that a restaurant may not honor your health-, environmental-, social-, or spiritual-based food choices, snap out of it! Asheville’s restaurants are right there with you. For more information on all of the restaurants featured in this article, including locations, hours and local menu favorites, you may want to try see the index below. From
the Kitchen of The Market Place From
the Kitchen ofºEarly Girl Eatery
The Cellar Door Restaurant Early Girl Eatery Guadalupe Café
The Market Place Restaurant & Wine Bar Rosetta’s Kitchen Savoy Table Twig Zambra
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