Early Girl Eatery — Restaurant in Asheville

Wishing to experience and support a local eatery, we selected the Early Girl. It took us a few minutes to realize why it was Google didn't actually take us to Wall Street as the restaurant straddled Patton and Wall Streets. We were greeted and seated once we figured out where the restaurant was located. Hubby ordered a diet coke and I had iced tea. Our waitress, Megan, was pleasant and answered any question posed about the menu. Having attended a beef conference for the past few days we were ready to shift to something less bovine in nature. I settled upon a shrimp po boy while my honey stuck with the Southern Breakfast that consisted of 2 eggs, grits, and toast. Oddly enough, and contrary to its name, there was no meat included with the Southern Breakfast (I mean, c'mon, anyone from the South, as we are, knows better). His breakfast was adequate once he added a side of bacon but he said it was nothing special. I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed my shrimp po boy; beautifully and lightly fried shrimp on a bed of lettuce and ripe red tomato slices, topped with wonderful sweet bread and butter pickles as well as a jalapeno tartar on the side. Really delicious. I was completely prepared to sing its praises to our waitress but she never asked how our meal was, she only grabbed my husband's soda for a refill while completely ignoring my 2/5 full glass of tea. After several minutes we were wondering if perhaps the refill was not forthcoming when it did re-materialize (as a glass of ice with a splash of soda)... along with the bill. By this time my glass was completely empty but, alas, it was to remain thus. Defeated we placed our credit card on the mini clip board holding our bill and waited. After another several minutes we suspected that this was a "pay at the front" kind of establishment but asked another waitress before walking it to the register. She graciously grabbed our ticket and handled the payment as our own waitress should have. Overall, we had a hit and a miss for the food but the service was a bigger issue. One should never be expected to pay $2.75 for a single glass of tea (or 2 glasses of ice with a...

We visited this Early Girl Eatery location on May 22, 2024, at approximately 11:50AM. We decided to take a walk over to this restaurant after checking out the Grove Arcade. There are a couple of tables outside the front door that brings an inviting feeling. We did not have to wait and were immediately seated. The first thing we noted was how close the tables were to each other. We were practically sitting at the same table as the couple next to us. We did not want to have a normal volume conversation because the people next to us would have no choice but to listen to us. Our waitress was very nice and actually did not charge us for the diet coke that we ordered because it took awhile to come out initially and they had to change the syrup. I ordered the BBQ bacon ranch chicken sandwich, I requested no lettuce (also note that for whatever reason their sandwiches do not come with a side, so I had to pay more for fries). My partner ordered the Charleston Chicken Biscuit, with the gravy on the side. (Another note is that it seems like the menu they have in person does not match what they have online. For example it states that sandwiches do come with fries.) It took about 25-30 minutes to receive our food. I immediately saw that my chicken sandwich, had lettuce, and tomato on it, which I do not recall being listed on the menu. I am not someone to complain about something I can simply take off myself, so I did just that. My partner received her biscuit and the gravy was actually on the side, thankfully, as that would be a little harder to rectify. My sandwich was very good, everything about it, albeit a little messy. My partner stated quickly that her biscuit was relatively hard, but otherwise enjoyed the chicken. Both mine and my partners fries were very soggy and did not taste very good, both noting that our plates were completely covered in grease from them. Before paying I went to use the bathroom to wash the mess from my sandwich off my hands. I assume that they share a bathroom with the rest of the building they are located in, but the state of the bathroom was horrendous. It was dirty all over and smelled...

We have enjoyed Early girl over the years. We also really really enjoyed king daddy’s, which is no more, but Early girl still keeps some of their chicken on their menu, which is great.

Our last visit, though, held a couple of disappointments. I know everybody is bouncing back from Helene. We are still bouncing back as well; a lot of trees are still down at the house, and this review is not to tell folks not to patronize early girl, it’s just a few suggestions for those who do patronize it and also the management. It certainly is still worthwhile to go to Early girl!

That’s said, here are the few of the issues we encountered on our last visit. First, it was so cold. The interior of the restaurant was so chilly. You know they have metal chairs, and so it was shocking when we sat on them. We all put our coats on our chairs so we weren’t as cold. I know they’ll end up with a giant Heating bill if they turn the heat up too much, but it would be nice to have the heat turned up a little bit when these frigid temperatures hit our mountains.

Secondly, the fries were just tasteless this time. It’s like they had no salt or no flavor. That’s not happened in the past. So they may want to just double check what is happening with their fries. My husband said the same thing of their yam scram. I tasted it, and he was right. My daughter had the veggie breakfast bowl, and she was a bit surprised the spinach was raw. I don’t remember ever having that before, so I don’t know how that is served, but it would be nice if they noted it on the menu.

On the good side, my mimosa flight was delicious. Their mimosas are always a highlight. My king daddy chicken sandwich was very good, per usual. The server was very attentive. I’m just wondering if something was off with the seasonings in the kitchen that day. And, it may be nice to tell folks that the spinach will come raw on the vegetable bowl. That’s a bit unusual.

We do still appreciate and love the fact that they can make things vegan, gluten-free; the biscuits are excellent, they have imladris jams and other...