After our Norfolk time, we started the long-haul part of our trek. We made the push to Asheville, which we were very excited to visit. A lot of people have raved about it and even though our stay was going to be short (a recurring theme!), we were excited to check it out.
For lunch, we stopped at BOJANGLES! Our brother-in-law often mentions it in relation to the South so we thought we should check it out. The only other reference I have is recently overhearing a very large man lament to a friend over lunch, “I know I should diet but then I go to Bojangles at lunch and their biscuits are so delicious.”
So, in the spirit of delicious biscuits, I ordered the chicken and biscuit while SMS got the biscuits and gravy. I’m going to go out on a tiny limb and say that my lunch was way better. The gravy was pretty mystery-like to me, but SMS liked it well enough and we were happy to have checked out what we considered a Southern fast food institution.
We pulled up to the Princess Anne Hotel and checked in just in time for the end of happy hour. Afterwards, we headed into town. Asheville is known for its breweries so we decided to check out the Wicked Weed. The building is set into the hill so there’s actually a “downstairs” beer bar that you access either through the restaurant or walking down a driveway and around to the back. We headed there since there was no line to get in there. We bought our beers and asked if we could sit across from a couple at one of the community picnic tables. We had the best time talking to them! They were so nice and smart. They were in between conferences where they were presenting some of their work as Ph.D mechanical engineer students. They were also, apart from SMS, the most good-looking mechanical engineers I ever met. Seriously, if they weren’t so nice, I might have disliked them a little bit!
At Wicked Weed, I tried the Pernicious IPA (recommended on a podcast), Beets Within and one of the Funkatorium Sours. They were all quite good.
After Wicked Weed, we left to eat dinner and came across Calypso, a St. Lucian Caribbean Restaurant. It looked inviting and I guess we had Southern food-ed ourselves out with Bojangles earlier in the day. SMS and I split a salad and goat roti. Everything was delicious and I recommend! We headed back to hotel and researched hikes for the next day before our next drive, ever Southwards!