Last weekend I decided to surprise my husband by whisking him away for a quick overnight trip to Asheville North Carolina!  We hadn’t been away without our son in a long time and truly needed some adult time.  Some people when they do this kind of a trip like to fly by the seat of their pants, but not me… I plan!  I researched all the best restaurants because after all I am a self proclaimed foodie and found the one gallery I had to go to!  Here is my rundown and observations on Asheville:

1. Love the look of town, reminded me a lot of college.  I went to a school in Upstate New York called SUNY New Paltz that had a very similar vibe.
2. A lot of beggars on the street and in the squares, not thrilled with that.
3. Fantastic shops, one in particular I really liked was Embellish, they had an amazing mix of beautiful unique jewelry (which, yes, I did buy a new piece), amazing handbags and wallets and some great lotions and potions!
4. A few amazing Chocolate shops, we stopped into Chocolate Gems for some gelato and a few little bites to take home with us and wow, I had chocolate blueberry gelato that was amazing!
5. Being that my client base right now primarily revolves around artists and I have always had a huge love for art, it should come as no surprise that I hit up some of the galleries!  The one gallery that I loved the most was Lexington Glassworks, watching these guys create work was incredible!  I did get to take home this beautiful piece:
6. Curate bar de tapas – OH MY WORD!  Like I said before, this was a last minute trip, so I could not get a dinner reservation, but the lovely women at the restaurant got us in for lunch and it worked out perfect as they have the same menu lunch and dinner.  First off, tapas is one of my favorite style of foods.  Second, Curate does it right!  We had the tabla de jamón, followed by, mariscos en escabeche, pulpo a la gallega, pincho moruno, chistorra & chips josé’s way and setas al jerez!!!!  It was all amazing, check out their menu for the details! And of course, I took no pictures because we ate it all too fast, but trust me, it was amazing and we will be back!
7. The Lobster Trap – I moved to Charlotte a year ago and I never thought to research their restaurant scene.  One of things that is MAJORLY lacking in Charlotte is seafood!  I crave seafood all the time, I want it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so when reading up on restaurants in Asheville and I found The Lobster Trap and then found out it has been in business for 11 years… Well I knew I had to go and we did!  We went for dinner and we stuck with a classic, we both had the Wicked Good Maine Lobster and WOW did we make the right choice!  It was possibly the best lobster I had ever eaten, the meat was so sweet with just the perfect hint of saltiness, it was so good I barely even touched the butter!
8. Last amazing meal was a great breakfast at Early Girl Eatery!  We got there a bit after 9am on Memorial Day Monday and we had about a 20 minute wait, which I thought was perfectly reasonable for a holiday weekend and I was ready to wait!  I had been eyeing something on their menu that I knew I had to have!  The hubs saw on the specials they had Banana Walnut Pancakes and he was sold on that, which made me happy because I knew I needed a taste and they DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!!!!  But I am more of a savory breakfast girl, I went for the Local Sausage and Sweet Potato Scramble, which is Eggs scrambled with local pork sausage, shiitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, bacon and green onion, served a homemade biscuit! Whoever the genius is who created this, I send you massive kudos because there was not a morsel left on my plate!  It was incredible and I have dreams about going back and asking for seconds!

So overall, we had an amazing, albeit, quick trip to Asheville, with amazing food and amazing company, my husband!

#Asheville #ParentTime #Foodies #PersonalAssistantCLT #ilyssajane