Asheville Food Reviews #01
Good morning! I hope the weekend went well for you.
Did you know that Figs is based out of our home in Asheville, NC. Have you ever been to Asheville? If not, you should. If yes, then I hope you enjoyed your visit.
Sky Bar at sunset
I learned about Asheville (Avl) back in my first semester of school. (I transfered colleges 4X!) When I learned of Black Mountain College I became somewhat obsessed. Once Elijah and I were married, we took a road trip from Boston down to my mom in Fayetteville, NC around Christmas and made the extra 4.5 hour day trip to Avl. It was amazing!
It was perfect hoodie weather, blue skies, a super charming mountain-townish city center, and frigging amazing food. We happened to find one of our still favorite restaurants on that first visit, the ever popular Early Girl Eatery, located on Wall St, right downtown.
{Images are property of Early Girl Eatery}
Wait: You can expect at least a 15 minute wait during the normal rush hours, but you can be seated immediately often off rush hours . Friday-Sunday the wait can get up to several hours. We try to go off hours, usually after 2pm and before 6 pm Mon-Thu.
Atmosphere: You can’t see the seating area when you first walk in, but once you walk by the delicious cakes and friendly kitchen staff you’ll enter the back room. This has tables scattered all around, so they can accomodate large parties fairly easily. They have plenty of seating for the kids, and they provide crayones so you can draw on your Kraft paper table cloth. If you draw something extra pretty for them, they may even stick it on their wall. It gets pretty loud during rush hours, but in the “I’m so happy I’m eating such delicious food” loud. Early Girl is not a fancy place, but a good casual place to try with family, friends, or co-workers
Service: It’s a hip, young, friendly waitstaff. Occasionally, some of the girls that work there can sometimes seem a bit, not rude, but curt? (They deal with a lot of tourists I’m sure) After being here 5 years though, those are always the waitstaff that don’t stick around very long. The owners are there quite frequently, and as we’ve become regulars we can strike up short conversations with them, or certain waitstaff, which makes us feel cool. Our water or sweet tea is always quick to be filled up, and the food comes out pretty fast.
General Food: They say it pretty well on their site: “Made from scratch with many ingredients acquired from local farmers, our menu reflects the creative diversity of true southern cooking.” Early Girl is always fresh. Their lunch and dinner are my favorite (only because nothing can beat Cafe Ello’s Breakfast for me- that will be the next review) but lots of locals think they have the best breakfast in town.
Favorites:
Veggie Breakfast Bowl$9.00Black-eyed peas, spinach, scrambled eggs and farmstead cheese smothered in herb cream gravy
Fried Green Tomato Napoleon$9.00Fried green tomatoes layered with fresh basil and herbed goat cheese, topped with salsa and balsamic dressing, served over grits
Vegan Bean Burger (v)$8.00A multi-bean bbq patty with avocado relish, lettuce and tomato
Pan-fried Free Range Chicken$15.00With herb cream gravy WITH any combo of 2: mac & cheese, french fries, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad
Pan-fried Catfish$14.00Topped with pear chutney
Strawberry Sunflower Seed whole wheat pancakes – there are only a special, but I could eat them every other day.
Dessert: We really, really, really loved their Red Velvet Cake. If it’s on the daily dessert menu, you should try it. It’s pretty authentic, super sweet, and always moist.
Drinks: Best Sweet Tea in town! We don’t drink coffee, but our friends who do looooove theirs.
Thanks for reading! Let us know if you have any questions about Early Girl! If you stop by, tell them the folks from Figs+Ginger sent you! xox-rhonda
