Archive for Asheville Food
August 10, 2009 at 4:15 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville Food, Asheville activites, Asheville restaurants, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville restaurants, Lovers' Loop Retreat
Over the years, we’ve known the bliss of sampling many of Asheville’s wonderful restaurants. One of our favorites is Zambra, a Spanish eatery on Walnut Street downtown, just around the corner from Malaprops, the popular bookstore and café. When you visit our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, Zambra is an easy 10-minute drive.
Zambra serves tapas, which are appetizer-size dishes. For us, eating at Zambra is like visiting an art museum—the range of flavors and ingredients is amazingly refreshing and creative, as if each item on the menu is its own miniature work of art. On the menu, you may find pomegranate with pork; scallops with grapefruit, avocado and fennel; octopus with pesto, feta and cherries; quail with dates and onions; pork with cucumber-watermelon salad; veal with apricot, feta and mint; mussels with coconut and mango. It’s a real circus for the taste buds. And Zambra always offers tasty vegetarian choices.
Treat yourself to a mouthwatering meal with creativity at Zambra when you stay at our Asheville vacation rental.
Lovers’ Loop Retreat offers an option that some of our guests enjoy – cooking in our guest suite or ordering take-out and enjoying your meal in your own private dining area, complete with kitchenware. So, whether you’re geared up for a night on the town, including dinner or not, or after a long day of seeing all there is around Asheville you just want a quiet evening at home, Lovers’ Loop Retreat can meet your needs.
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June 19, 2009 at 6:01 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville Food, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville breweries, Asheville NC, Lovers' Loop Retreat, restaurants
One of the popular downtown restaurants is the Lobster Trap. You can enjoy specials on raw or broiled oysters, a delicacy for us, and other seafood treats at this Asheville institution.
When you visit our Asheville vacation rental, Lovers’ Loop Retreat, you can cook and prepare your own meals if you wish, and that’s one way we offer an affordable vacation. Many of our guests also love to cruise the delicious diversity of Asheville’s restaurants. When we have a seafood hankering, we head to the Lobster Trap. The restaurant now houses one of Asheville’s newest breweries and offers up its tasty beers for your pleasure.
If you love fresh seafood as we do, there’s a seafood market just down the road from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. Just ask us about it when you get here, and we’ll direct you to it. You can buy what you want there and come back to our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative to cook it up - and live it up in a great city.
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June 3, 2009 at 5:34 am
· Filed under Asheville Food, Asheville activites, Asheville art, vacation rental ·Tagged Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville NC, Lexington Avenue, Lovers' Loop Retreat
One of the newest quirky additions to the fun collection on Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville is the Bizarre Bazaar, a craft show and sale.
This event is different from most others because it’s ongoing, the first and third Saturday of each month through Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The market features local artists, crafters and designers. If you’re familiar with the huge and thriving arts scene here in western North Carolina, you know that promises great artwork. Jewelry, photography, pottery, painting, fashion and more will be offered. Food and live music sometimes, too.
The Bizarre Bazaar (you have to love the name) is worth exploring when you stay with us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental. And while you’re on Lexington Avenue, there are plenty of funky businesses to visit and some good restaurants, too.
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April 10, 2009 at 5:27 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville Food, Asheville activites, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat
It’s one of Asheville’s most popular crops—tailgate markets. These markets are cropping up like daisies in the area. Of course, you can find much more than daisies at the markets.
If you want to cook for yourselves when you visit our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, Lovers’ Loop Retreat, you can bring your fresh goodies here to prepare and eat.
Starting in April, you can visit the Asheville City Market downtown, the French Broad Food Coop market downtown, the North Asheville market, which is at UNC-Asheville north of downtown, and the West Asheville market west of downtown.
In May, more markets open, among them the market at Greenlife grocery just north of downtown.
The Western North Carolina Farmers’ Market in Asheville is open year-round.
For people who love fresh food from asparagus to zucchini, visit Asheville’s farmers’ markets, meet the growers and enjoy local goods.
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March 23, 2009 at 5:48 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville Food, Asheville activites, accommodations, vacation rental
The fifth annual Asheville Artisan Bread Festival is March 28, this coming Saturday, at Greenlife Grocery near downtown. We’re not talking Wonder bread here. Organizers say artisan bread is made by craftspeople who use baking methods that were used before manufactured yeast was available. That means the kind of bread our grandmothers made.
Asheville has a number of artisan bakeries that make breads, including whole-grain and organic. And they produce some interesting varieties: black bean bread, potato, multigrain, spinach feta, sunflower.
Asheville has some great bakeries, artisan or not. City Bakery has two locations near downtown, and Filo is a Greek bakery with a nice ambiance east of downtown. The West End Bakery and Café is in West Asheville west of downtown.
See our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com for more information about the bread festival. We hope you’ll enjoy some local bread while you’re staying at our vacation rental, Lovers’ Loop Retreat.
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March 13, 2009 at 6:40 am
· Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville Food, Asheville activites
Many people remember and revisit Asheville for its great food culture. Downtown Asheville alone has a wonderful multitude and mix of restaurants that offer varying fun, funky and intimate dining experiences. Vegetarian, Thai, Spanish, French, Middle Eastern, down-home Southern, tapas to tortillas to tortellini and beyond, what a selection! It can make for difficult— though delightful—choices.
Guests who stay at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, appreciate that our guest suite provides the opportunity to cook and otherwise prepare meals. On the other hand, when our guests want to dine out, the options are awesome.
The culture of food is so important in Asheville that a group is promoting the city as a Foodtopian Society, with the message that food is more than just, well, food. The Foodtopian Society encompasses the farms, farmers’ markets, independent restaurants, breweries and cooking classes that make people remember and revisit Asheville. The society, at www.Foodtopiansocietycom, offers information about wine and beer tastings, food events, foodie souvenirs (like specialty food products and handmade kitchenware), even such food adventures as forest-to-table mushroom hunting.
So when you stay with us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, bring your appetite!
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