Biscuit Head

Things in the this world to love: family, travel, food, wine. Over the last couple days, I got to have them all. My sister was in Asheville for some biz meetings and invited me and the little foodie to come share the hotel room.  We have had an action-packed couple of days including Sliding Rock, Biltmore House, Looking Glass Falls, Grove Park Inn and chillin' in downtown Asheville.

Since K was involved in meetings all day, Viv and I had all the time in the world to do whatever we wanted, including seeking out good, eclectic A-ville food.  At my sister's recommendation we followed our noses and our GPS to Biscuit Head.  We went to the newer location on Biltmore Avenue.  It's a small, cute space with a really friendly and close-knit atmosphere.  You order at the counter, fix your drinks, make your selections at the (extensive) jam, jelly, butter and honey bar and then the staff delivers your food to the table.  At first, Viv wanted to sit at one of two cool terrarium tables that were fashioned out of old windows over table tops to create living terrariums.  Very cool touch.  But, she changed her mind and chose a small table for two that appeared to be made of one slab of hand-hewn wood.  

Viv has a tendancy to be a purist.  She asked for some milk and then blew my mind with this line:  "I was noticing that "got milk" mug hanging in your window."  So, the lady says, "would you like to use it?"  and there you go.  Probably got her twice the milk of a regular order.  She wanted just a plain biscuit with honey, so learning about their honey bar was quite a plus.  She tried clover, wildflower and sriracha honey.  The wildflower won out as the favorite.

Their whole deal is about making biscuits the size of a cat's head

 I chose the fried green tomato biscuit.  In a word(s)?  Holy mother of all that's put on a biscuit with smoky, creamy, brie-y, what-what????

Holy biscuit Bat Man!

 First of all, it's humongous.  Way bigger than your average bear can consume alone.  So, unless you're a lumberjack sort, I'd recommend splitting this with a friend.  It's a cat-head biscuit (of course) split and each half topped with a fried green tomato, a slab of fresh tomato, brie, a poached egg and smoked tomato hollandaise. The only hiccup at all was the the poached egg was a bit over cooked, but if you've ever tried to make poached eggs, you know this can happen in an instant and until chickens start laying transparent eggs, you just don't know. The tomatoes were fresh and wonderfully flavorful but man! that smoked tomato hollandaise was a creamy nectar of the gods.  So perfectly smoky that it lingers with you, in a good way. Add all these strong flavors with the creaminess of brie and you're in a culinary tongue twister. 

 Now, we Southerners can consume iced tea in volumes to rival all the tea drinkers in China.  Unfortunately, that volume leads to some weak, mediocre tea that in some cases ends up just being overly sweet brown water.  I ordered tea at Biscuit Head and it was RIGHT.  Good flavored tea, brewed properly, sweetened to my specs and was an awesome glass of iced tea.  Any more, I think it's of note when a restaurant is actually brewing a good batch of tea because too many aren't.

Take a look at the menu.  These are some really innovative preparations that elevate the biscuit to new heights.  Those of us in the South have always known the pristine beauty of a perfect biscuit, but now with these creative variations, even a Yankee tourist can get in on the game and realize the true culinary aristocratic nature of a proper biscuit! 

The original Biscuit Head is located at 733 Haywood Rd and the newer one is at 417 Biltmore Ave.  Click the link to their site and check out the menu.  Oh, by the way, the coffee rocks as well!

Asheville Eats

I hope this post finds you all well and happy after celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah.  I'm sure everyone has had their fill of other people's holiday tweets, Facebook posts and photo sharing, so I'm not going to do that to you.

Instead, I want to tell you about a little restaurant we checked out while in Asheville over the holiday.   My sister Katherine took us to Universal Joint.  What a cool, cute, funky little place!  It's totally got the kind of vibe that gets me and Neil going.  It's an old gas station building that has been turned into a local microbrew and sandwich shop.  There are photos of what the place looked like in the old days as a gas station and the garage's roll-up doors are still in place.  The garage contains a bar, tables and displays a chalkboard with a pretty extensive list of microbeers.  We chose to eat in the garage.  There is also outdoor seating available.

Modesto is a No-Go

The Vivver and I took a couple of days to visit my little sis in Asheville. Ok, here's a confession...I took my mom up on her offer to borrow her Honda Odyssey (that's a mini-van, for those of you who don't know.) Yes, I did it. Know why? It has the super duper ultra DVD system. Anyway, it does make for a much more pleasant trip for a 4 year old.

So, upon arrival yesterday, Katherine & her husband Darren and we decided to head out for some lunch. Since the weather was perfect, we clearly needed somewhere with outdoor dining. Enter MODESTO.

Now, let me be clear. The menu is really cool, different and creative. We ordered a quattro formaggio panini, lamb panini and an apple, pecan, chicken and taleggio pizza. The food was wonderful. I'd visit this restaurant again....depending on who's working...

Our waiter really needs to re-think his line of work. First of all, although Katherine is the only one out of all of us who saw it, apparently, every time he walked up to our table, he had a seriously runny nose which he then sucked up in order to talk to us. Tending to a 4-year old, I was rarely looking up at the guy. Then, I asked if they had a kid drink such as lemonade. He responded "yeah, but we make it from scratch (wrinkles nose) and most kids think it's 'too lemony'." Ok, do you have orange juice that is universally acceptable? Fine. Then, after perusing a very adult, involved and borderline ridiculously expensive lunch menu I asked Snotty, "Can you make a simple grilled cheese for her?" Here's the response: "Well, our chef is pretty particular and I don't want to annoy him." Ok, sure...he can decide what we're going to have, based on his whim and mood, and I'll happily let his arrogant ass pick up the tab.

Then, Slurpy suggests that I order the $8 Quattro Formaggio panini for Vivian. "Yes," I say, "That is in fact a grilled cheese, isn't it?" So, I told doofus to bring it. It came with "homemade chips" which were so overcooked that even a kid rejected them. The side car of tomato soup was good, but since they sent it out to (again, to a four year old child) with a spoon that you'd use in a serving bowl of mashed potatoes, she had difficulty appreciating it. I'm sorry...you don't have to have kids to know that a child can't cram a serving spoon into her/his mouth.

As I said earlier, the food was quite good, but the service sucked tail pipe. For those of you who know me personally, I will pay for good food, but I will become enraged by crummy service. Slurpy, as I like to call him, was pleasant enough, but was a POS waiter. I asked him for Splenda; had to get it from another guy who I caught passing by later. Asked for to-go boxes, took about 10 minutes for that to materialize. And, then getting the bill. Let me tell ya...nothing agitates me more than having to wait for a bill in the first place and then having to wait to PAY it. Don't leave me sitting there trying to desperately pay and get the hell outta here, while you wander around doing who knows what? This guy was so non-present on the floor, I can't even imagine what he was up to. I guess sucking up to the temperamental chef so he wouldn't piss him off. Don't worry about the people out front who are going to (or not) tip you, Drippy.