I spent this past weekend in Asheville with six awesome girls for Susan’s bachelorette party. We lucked out with great weather and had a wonderful time exploring the city, enjoying some incredible meals, and — most especially — hanging out together. (While we were in Asheville, Marty and the guys were busy celebrating in Charlotte and they had a great weekend, too!)
On Friday, we started the weekend off well with a delicious dinner at Cúrate — an incredible tapas restaurant. We ordered several dishes to share (everything from lamb skewers to patatas bravas to sauteed shrimp and garlic), all the while sipping on sangria that was mixed right at our table. Yum! Afterwards, we headed around the corner for coffee, dessert, and conversation at French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Yum!
On Saturday, we ventured back into downtown Asheville for some shopping. We started at an art fair and then checked out several shops featuring work from local artists. My favorite art was a collection of remarkably luminescent photos by Walter Arnold. He prints photos on aluminum and then infuses the metal with dye to make the color pop in a way I’ve never seen. Seriously incredible stuff.
Following a great lunch at Twisted Crepe followed by a visit to The Chocolate Fetish for a little something sweet (there really is way too much amazing food in this town), we headed back to the hotel for Susan’s lingerie shower (no details here — sorry!) 🙂
Then it was off to Highland Brewing Company, Asheville’s first craft brewery. We made it just in time for the 4 p.m. tour, and got to get a behind-the-scenes look at the brewery, try some of their small batch brews, and hear about how Highland got started. (We had to wear goggles for the tour. Safety first!) Highland is tucked away near downtown in a beautiful hilltop area. In addition to the brewery itself, Highland has an awesome porch area outside — perfect for sipping on a beer — and an area they call the meadow, which they use for festivals and the like.
We went back to the hotel to rest up a bit, and then ventured back into downtown for what ended up being a late (but SUPER delicious) dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe. The biscuits they passed around as an appetizer were the best I’ve ever had, and my nutty fried chicken and brown butter brussels sprouts were incredible.
Once we were nice and full (too full, actually — we were so hungry!) we hit the town for a few more festivities before calling it a night.
I’m so glad Kaeli, Keri, Amy, Kathleen, Lauren, and — of course — Susan got to be a part of the weekend. I had a great time with each of them and look forward to spending more time with them all in July!
