GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS…
Today’s podcast is another full-length episode of The Food Fans radio show, which is broadcast by WPVM 103.7fm (Fri @ 5pm / Sat @ 11am). In it I talk about Punk Rock Hot Dogs being canceled, I interview Joshua Heald from Bigfoot Longs, I do a brief bit on birthdays, preview our Hendersonville trip, and offer up a bunch of random reviews at the end. If you have time to listen, I hope you will enjoy!
Today’s Newsletter is a special addition that includes nothing but words & pictures from that same overnight trip to Hendersonville! Spoiler alert: We had a great time!
HENDERSONVILLE VACATION!
Dawn and I took an exciting overnight trip to Hendersonville, NC recently as part of a series of overnight trips we’ll be taking to the smaller towns and cities in WNC that surround Asheville. We had a great time! Such a cute town! We ate excellent & exciting foods, saw fun stuff, touched a horseshoe crab & watched 2 sharks get born (not even kidding!), played mini golf, walked all over the place, and stayed at the lovely and historic 1898 Waverly Inn, which was perfectly located right in the middle of everything we wanted to do! I think I chose wisely for our accommodations, and I highly recommend The Wavery Inn to anyone like me, who loves old houses, antique furniture and super nice people, and wants to stay right smack-dab in the middle of downtown Hendersonville!
We showed up to town hungry, and our very first stop was Arabella - Breakfast and Brunch on Main Street. Dawn had the yoghurt, fruit & granola bowl which she enjoyed very much, and I had an excellent crab cake salad! Both dishes really hit the spot, took our hunger away, but didn’t stuff us until we were miserable. The crab cake was very tasty, and we were both very satisfied and happy with our choices! So far so good, Hendo! ❤️
When I asked on Facebook where we should go on our overnight trip to Downtown Hendersonville, NC, a lot of people suggested that we go to McFarlan Bakery, which has been around since 1930! Wow. This place RULES! We got a wide variety of pastries, cookies, and treats that we ate for days! McFarlan Bakery is absolutely positively without a doubt a MUST go-to whenever you visit Hendersonville! ❤️🔥
The only place we went twice was a really cool cafe / bar called The 2nd Act - Coffee, Wine & Craft Beer Bar. We went in the daytime for coffee, then again in the evening so Dawn could enjoy a pre-dinner drink. It was really nice, and big inside, the service was friendly, the coffee was excellent and Dawn enjoyed her French 75 very much! They apparently have live music and other performances throughout the week, and were gearing up for an 80s dance night when we were there before dinner. Super high recommends for this very cool looking and feeling venue!
After a lovely snack on the porch provided by the Inn, we hit the links, and got in 18 holes of mini golf at Boyd Park, which was right around the corner from the Inn, but will be relocating in the Fall. Don’t worry it will still be in Downtown Hendersonville! After I thoroughly handed Dawn her ass at mini golf in the blazing hot sun, she needed a beer badly, so we went to Umi Japanese Fine Dining, just for oyster shooters, and a Kirin at the bar. Excellent!
For me, the ”Food Fan,” our dinner at Postero was the absolute highlight of our overnight trip to Hendersonville. We ate and ate, and kept eating well after saying “we should take the rest home,” until there was nothing left to take home! We started with a peach caprese salad that was fresh, tasty, delicate & satisfying. The peaches & tomatoes were at the perfect ripeness, and the buffalo mozzarella was soft and creamy, which was contrasted nicely by the crunchy toasted walnuts. The kitchen sent us a bowl of hibiscus raspberry “gazpacho,” which was a delightful and surprising dish. It was fruity, slightly tart, deep, & rich. The thick creamy lebneh added a nice touch of sourness & dairy flavor that we really enjoyed! The main dish was awesome: Crispy pan seared local trout on cauliflower and ginger carrot purée. Scraaaaape… that’s the sound of me getting the very last molecules of this delicious dish onto my fork and into my mouth. The fish was cooked to perfection. I even ate the skin, which I don’t always do. The flavors were subtle but complex. The textures were delicate, in the case of the fish, but also hardy, with the cauliflower hash underneath. The ginger carrots provided a tiny bit of zing, and whole lot of comfort. The golden raisins added a tetch of sweet. It was excellent in all ways. The kitchen also sent out a somewhat humble side dish of deconstructed Mexican style street corn that was actually the flavor super-star of the night! It was very delicious, and I’m grateful that they sent this particular dish our way, we couldn't stop eating it! We were very full and happy after all that, and decided to skip dessert, because we’ve been trying not to eat until we’re stuffed lately, plus we knew we had a bunch of pastries from McFarlan Bakery waiting for us back at the 1898 Waverly Inn. Our meal at Postero was beyond my expectations, which were set pretty high, and I recommend it 100% to all the “foodies” and eaters out there! I’d say that it’s worth a special trip to Downtown Hendersonville, NC just to eat at Postero. ❤️🔥🤘
On our second day in Hendersonville, I ate a quick bite at the 1898 Waverly Inn, and then beat a line to Pops Diner for a traditional American style breakfast & loved it! Very old school and classic! Next I walked to Joey's New York Bagels & Sub Shop to grab some bagels to bring home. They are the best in WNC in my opinion! Then Dawn and I went to Celtic Creamery WNC for ice cream before we took a looong hot walk through William H King Park to Jackson Park. After our walk, we popped into Black Bear Coffee Co. to cool down and perk up. We walked over 30,000 steps on our two day stay in Downtown Hendersonville, NC! I’m gonna gently suggest a few more shade trees, Hendo. ❤️
Our final stop on our super-fun overnight trip to Downtown Hendersonville, NC was from a place called Dandelion, which is a very cool, bohemian style cafe with coffee, hot food, salads, and more! Dandelion is part of a nonprofit called Safelight - hope and healing for families. We had a very fresh, tasty, and satisfying salad with strawberries, avocado, and freshly cooked shrimp. The warm shrimp on the cold salad was great, the flavors and textures were all on point, and the manager came over to our table to talk with us about how the cafe supports the nonprofit and vice versa. When you’re in Hendersonville, be sure to stop into Dandelion! Good people, good vibes, and great food for a worthy cause! ❤️❤️❤️
And thus concludes our trip to Henson! We would have stayed a few more hours, but it was hotter than Hell, and we wanted to get back to our couch and air conditioning at home! Thanks, to all the restaurants and businesses that we went to, and thanks to the Hendersonville, NC City Government for having an excellent web page, and a very cute, clean, fun & friendly town! Hendo rules! 🤘🔥🤘
We’ll do Black Mountain next, so please make your restaurant recommendations below!
— end —
GMF Special Edition: Hendersonville Vacation