Benne’s menu, and its concept — as a restaurant rooted in a specific place and culture — has turned a spotlight on Asheville’s culinary scene, past and future.
At this 1870 farmhouse turned inn and restaurant surrounded by Ashe County countryside, sip a pre-dinner cocktail on the front porch, which overlooks the North Fork New River.
The chef infuses dishes with Southern and Appalachian elements, but it’s his love for Louisiana that enlivens the table: fresh oysters Bienville, crawfish crepes with tasso cream, Brie en croûte with Ponchatoula strawberries.
Walk through Postero’s glass door, and you’ll enter a space that’s modern and open and minimalistic. But there are also subtle reminders of the building’s past as an early-20th-century bank: Edison bulbs strewing soft light upon exposed brick, and a bank vault door standing wide open in the back — displaying wine.
A glass of wine and an elegant meal at this 1915 home feels like having dinner at your fanciest friend’s house — if your friend hand-cut and aged their own filet mignon.
Dark wood paneling; a long, tall bar with glassware that picks up the dancing light reflected off of the French Broad River just beyond the tracks; and tables laid with thick white linens create a mood both classic and intimate. The menu features classics such as aged beef tenderloin crowned with both bordelaise and béarnaise sauces; steak aux champignons; brown butter local trout; and saltimbocca made with a Southern fried chicken breast instead of veal.
A majestic box canyon — the largest one east of the Mississippi — serves as the soaring backdrop of this restaurant, which is open seasonally from May through November and serves farm-to-fork fare inspired by the landscape.
The former summer lodgings for railroad employees now house The Orchard Inn and its on-site restaurant, where a glassed-in dining porch offers a breathtaking view of the mountains — and an unforgettable Sunday brunch.
You can’t just drive by the plain little building and understand the pull of Beef ’N Bottle. You have to go inside, past the framed photos of celebrities from the golden age of Hollywood. You have to walk into the dim front dining room, where it takes a reservation well in advance to score a booth on a Saturday night.
This pink-and-purple Queen Anne-style mansion once belonged to Victorian-era Charlotte mayor Sam McNinch who, in 1909, even hosted President William Howard Taft there. Inside, discover perfectly plated dishes that are as exquisite as the exterior.
Since Chef Joe Kindred and his wife, sommelier Katy Kindred, opened their restaurant, it’s turned the quiet college town of Davidson into a culinary destination, where artful dishes like squid ink conchiglie and wagyu beef tartare have earned Kindred national recognition.
Steam pots, shrimp and grits, and Calabash platters are all elevated by an extra, inspired flourish. Even saltines, the sidekick of every smoked-fish dip, arrive at the table seasoned and fried. There’s plenty of New Durham sensibility, too: in the daily crudo, the oysters baked with bone marrow, the octopus with avocado.
This prestigious hotel offers weekend brunch and an upscale dinner menu — as well as an afternoon cuppa. Order a pot of tea and an array of sweets, scones, and dainty tea sandwiches, and put your pinkie up.
The couple behind the Burke Manor Inn and its restaurant, Saint Jacques, whisk their guests away for classic French fare and Old World elegance — all without leaving Guilford County.
Chef Bennett’s twist on time-honored Southern cooking is one of many ways that the inn’s new owners are celebrating its legacy in this small Triangle town: Built in 1838 by Isaiah Spencer, the two-story building initially provided food and lodging to travelers.
A Kernersville chef brings the intimacy and familiarity of a local diner to high-end entrées — and even a fancy burger — that defy small-town expectations.
Don’t let the name fool you: When it comes to pairing sips and savories, Old North State Winery offers so much more than cheese and crackers. The plates are so beautiful, so interesting, that it feels almost disrespectful to disturb them.
Locals flock to Elliott’s for upscale dishes, from rabbit-pistachio sausage with Welsh rarebit-style grits, to Cheddar waffles with spicy fried shrimp and zucchini pickles.
At this award-winning restaurant in a 1927 Colonial Revival farmhouse, you’ll know you’ve arrived when you spot the black-and-whites — the famed Belted Galloway cows lounging in the shade of a silo.
This famed steakhouse seats almost 1,000 people, who flock there for juicy grilled steaks and chocolate chess pie.
Make sure to look up from your meal to notice the original heart-pine floors and red-brick masonry walls in this ornate 1879 Victorian-era home downtown.
For more than 20 years, before “local” gained a name, much less a movement, Ashten’s has been sourcing its menu ingredients from area farms.
Feasts at Spoon River combine gourmet dishes, views of the Pungo, and an ever-changing art space that would rival any meal at Tiffany’s.
Watch the sun set over the water — and dig into jumbo lump crab, oyster stew, and seared sea scallops — at this seafood restaurant perched on the edge of Currituck Sound.
In 2006, Chef Vivian Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, opened their hugely successful fine-dining restaurant in Howard’s native Kinston. Fifteen years later, it remains a foodie mecca.
There’s a lovely balance to everything in this easygoing space where meals are special enough to linger in memory.
The Beefmastor serves rib eye — only rib eye — up to 700 pounds a week. Each customer makes their selection and explains exactly how they want their steak cooked. Then the server slices the properly sized hunk of rib eye and takes it to the grill.
To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
