Fork Lore — Restaurant in Asheville

Like arctic wolves, fighting over the only rabbit left in the tundra.

My new fiancee and I wanted to go to a place to celebrate our engagement before some dancing. We decided to just get a nice beverage. We made a reservation and showed up a couple minutes late.

This restaurant located at the base of a hotel in beautiful Asheville, NC, was empty. I thought they closed and didn't let us know! Then there was movement behind a retaining wall in the bacl. "Someone's here," I heard one person say - though I do not believe I ever saw a second person. After waiting a few more minutes (and discussing with my fiancee the prospect of leaving), the desk manager for the hotel walked around from a glass wall to apologize and say someone would be with us shortly. Not wishing to be a rain cloud, I figured we'd roll with it, and wait.

We were led to our seat by a kind woman, who gave us menus, chatted with us, and walked away; the usual routine. It was then that the bartender of the hotel, who could see us sitting at this restaurant across from him, came over to greet us. It became a battle of who could take our order and check on us, several times resulting in a conversation between the four of us as they stood around our table! The drink was good, we grabbed a very pretty pair of desserts, and asked for the bill. The bartender took it upon himself to inform us at some point during our stay that the woman wasn't even a waitress for the restaurant!

All in all, the people were pleasant and it was quite the ride. I like the bartender. I like the woman. I like the conversation. But overall, it was not the experience I was expecting from a restaurant like "Roux." It reminded me of the experience I would get from the staff and short order cook when I have a fun conversation with them at a Waffle House - just with fancier decorations.

I hope it was...

I posted the following on my FB page and it deserves to be here too. Cudos to the excellent staff, in and out of the kitchen. Bravo! So this is a first for us, we ate every meal of this trip at the same restaurant and we are doing it again tomorrow. 🤯 Breakfast, lunch and dinner, phenomenal. Even more mind blowing, it's in our hotel! We had a late lunch right after we checked in. Just a simple bacon cheeseburger and a southern fried chicken sandwich. One bite is all it took to know this place is special. There's really good food and there's really good food that is perfectly balanced - exactly the right amount of everything that when put together - chef's kiss. I only remember having food like this perhaps four or five times in my life, and always at very expensive fine dining restaurants. We had to try it again. We weren't hungry for dinner so we went for breakfast. WOW. Again, perfection that is hard to describe. Seriously, it was breakfast elevated, with the same ingredients we all use to make breakfast. The kitchen is full of well trained magicians! Back again for dinner tonight. Hit it out of the park with a black eyed pea hummus and homemade corn chips, a perfectly dressed arugula salad and Lee had tonight's chef's special, beef tips and gravy on basmati rice with mushrooms and shishito peppers. I can't get enough of this place. I want to hug everyone in the kitchen. Going back for the broken yolk egg sandwich on perfectly toasted sourdough bread tomorrow morning. Or maybe the eggs benedict. If I am in Asheville ever again, I will come here for a meal no matter where I'm staying. It's only 4 miles from the airport, in the Hilton at Biltmore Park. Locally owned. I wish we had room...

This was an odd experience. I'll start by saying we paid over 100 bucks with tip. That's fine, I'm totally okay with paying well over $100 or more for a great experience. The problem is, it wasn't great, we only ordered an app, a salad, and 2 drinks each, and you're sitting in a hotel lobby! If they want to be fine dining (and based on the prices, they do), then wall off the restaurant from the lobby and improve the drinks (see below).

So, normally the cocktail menu wouldn't effect my rating. But, they didn't have one. When we asked, the server said that they can make anything, just name it. Okay, cool. So my wife ordered a Painkiller. What we got was like red Hawaiian Punch! Yuck. She sent it back and just ordered a chocolate martini. Before it arrived, the server brought her something to try. It was basically a Painkiller. Not sure why they brought the red thing earlier. And, immediately thereafter, he brought the chocolate martini! So, now she has two full drinks.

She's usually good for 2, and that's it, so I figured 2 at a time would do her in. Nope. Couldn't even tell she drank anything. Clearly, these were pretty light on the alcohol. And, they were just okay.

So, at this point, I'm thinking she basically ordered one drink (sent one back, got one to try, and got one she actually ordered), I ordered 2 beers, and we had one app and one salad. So, I'm thinking 50-60 bucks. I already gave away the punch line on the price. Either they charged her for 3 drinks, or they're just charging extra for the hotel...