2023 ASHEVILLE FOOD FAN AWARDS AKA “THE STOOBIES!“

ALL WINNERS IN ALL CATEGORIES!

Alrighty, Y’all! It’s time for me to name the winners in every category of the 11th Annual Food Fan Awards aka The Stoobies!

When it comes to choosing winners, sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s a no-brainer, and on rare occasions I add a new category just to honor a particularly awesome food experience. Again, as always, please keep in mind that the winners below represent the best of what I personally ate all year long in 2022. Try as I might, I just can’t eat everything in WNC, so please forgive me if your favorites didn’t make it onto my list of nominees or winners. As always, I encourage you to suggest venues for me to try in 2024 in the comments section here. If you’d like to see the list of 2023 nominees, please click HERE. Otherwise, scroll down to see this year’s winners in ___ categories!

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The Odd – Smash Burger Trio
The Odd fucking crushes it. I don’t get out to tThe Odd to just sit and eat and enjoy myself as often as I’d like, but they are always gracious enough to invite me and the other food writers in town to their epic tastings, so I have tried just about every single item on their dang menu, and I can tell you that they never disappoint! Chefs Ben Hester & Tami Rukman and their crew are making some of theee tastiest food on this planet! It ain’t for weight watchers, or calorie counters. Keep Jenny Craig far away. But I like to eat what I like to eat, and one of the things I like to eat is smash burgers. The smash burger trio that the kitchen presented to us for their lunch tasting was just outstanding. Smashed to crispy-edged perfection, topped with the basics, plus some zhuzh on two of them, and served on a soft bun that’s been grilled in butter, also until the edges are crispy. One word, three letters: Gah. Thank you to the cast and crew at everybody’s favorite “totally Asheville” nightclub restaurant bar, The Odd, you are my Smash Burger of the Year winners!

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Storm Rhum Bar & Bistro – Surf ‘n’ Turf Burger
It came with a paper umbrella, so it already had an advantage in this contest. Storm Rhum Bar & Bistro has long been one of my favorite places to eat, and I have handed them many of my awards over the years, especially if you factor in the Stoobies that I gave to the owner Chef Jay Medford when he was still running The Underground Cafe, which I also loved. Chef Jay and the crew at Storm never seem to run out of creative ideas, and even their burgers can skew a little wild and crazy, such as the Surf ‘n’ Turf Burger, which not only had that cute little umbrella, but was a fat patty made with Waygu from Carolina Bison, remoulade, havarti cheese, cabbage, onion, tomato, and of course, the coup d’gras, fried oysters. It was a big beautiful burger that was as fun as it was delicious, and it is the hands-down winner of my Big Burger of the Year award!

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Manicomio – Corned Beef Reuben
After just one bite of this sandwich last Spring, and I said to myself, “this is the sandwich of the year,” and then I ate a lot of great sandwiches after that, and it ended up being a really tough decision, but in the end, this was my baby all year long. Not only did I eat a bunch of them, but I recommended them to every person I know, and I fed it to hundreds of people on Food Tours, so yes, I love it, but I also know that many other people also love it. It’s a perfect Reuben, made with insanely good house-cooked corned beef that is chipped within an inch of it’s life, add kraut, Russian dressing, and Swiss cheese that gets melted into a sauce by the piping hot corned beef, and then hot-butter-grill the whole thing before it hits the plate. Oh, and it’s all served on Mother Bakery marble rye, and comes with a half-sour pickle, just the way a Reuben should! Good lord, it might be the best Reuben I’ve ever had, and I think deep down inside I always knew it was gonna be my Sandwich of the Year winner, and it is! Thanks to all of my friends at Manicomio for doing such a great job bringing us the food we love in downtown Asheville. Y’all are the best.

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Asheville Pizza South – Pizza of the Month
If you follow me on social media at all, you know that once a month Chef Drew Peterson from Asheville Pizza South brings me his Pizza of the Month to try, and after more than a year of eating his crazy specialty pies, I can say with 100% conviction, this guy is a fucking genius. He’s bold, he’s brave, he’s fun, he’s irreverent, he has a great palate, a fertile imagination, and most of all, he loves pizza! The way he talks about his own pies, the way he looks at his own pies, is with nothing but pure love. I had favorite pies along the way… the Korean Bulgogi pie, the “Go Home Pizza Your Drunk” pie, The Saucy Hawg, but this year, I’m giving Chef Drew and his crew at Asheville Pizza South my Pizza of the Year award for all of the specialty pies! All. Of. Them. I should also mention that the crusts are part of why I love every pie. When these get dropped off at my house, every piece, ever crust, every crumb gets eaten. Thanks, Chef Drew! Not only for the awsome pies, but also for being a nice person, and having an excellent collection of T-shirts.

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NEW CATEGORY!

Twisted Laurel Downtown Asheville – All Pasta
This is one of those categories that I initially made up, just so I could hand it to one restaurant, Twisted Laurel, but when I looked at the competition, the decision was harder than I thought it would be, because lots of people seem to be doing house made pastas right now! But in the end, I ate more of pasta at Twisted Laurel last year than anywhere else, and loved it all. I ate a lot of different shapes, with a lot of different sauces, and a lot of different proteins, and there was not one clunker not one dud. To be clear, the other nominees in this category did not serve me clunkers and duds either, but Chef Tom LaFauci and his crew at TLDA really went above and beyond, expanding and improving their pasta program, and making it one of the strongest sections of their already strong menu, and among of the best pasta programs in the whole city. This restaurant never stops surprising me. I had zero expectations when I first went there, and I was disappointed. Over the years I have watched them go through several chefs and many menu iterations, until they finally dialed it all in about four years ago, and they continue to get better and better with each passing month. The house made pastas is just the latest ting to wow me, and I’ve handed them several awards in the past years, and I’m very happy to continue their winning streak this year by naming their pasta my first-ever House Made Pasta of the Year winner!

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Rankin Vault Cocktail Lounge – Kimchi Bacon Hot Dog
So, one day… I was walking down rankin Avenue, when I bumped into two of the best Chefs in downtown Asheville enjoying a beverage on the patio of The Vault, so I stop to chat, and knowing that I like hot dogs, one of them asks if I’d tried the one at The Vault. When I answered in the negative, they both told me that they think it’s the best hot dog in town. I need no more prompting to eat a hot dog than two fancy chefs enthusing about it in front of the bar that serves it, so I went back the very next day, and boy howdy, they were not wrong. This is a Nathan’s 1/4 pound dog, with bacon, kimchi, onion, cilantro & spicy mayo. It’s big, so for me, it’s lunch, and it’s just exotic enough that I can tell myself, “Yes, you’re eating a hot dog for lunch, like a child, but the kimchi & cilantro make it a healthy salad, and the spicy mayo makes it for grown-ups… right?” Yeah, I tell myself a lot of things, but the fact is, The Rankin Vault makes a killer fuckin’ hot dog and it is my Hot Dog of the Year winner!

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WHITE DUCK TACO – The Whole Menu
Sometimes, when it comes to these awards, I gotta give it up to the classics. Those Asheville spots that have been with us, serving us great food for ages, never letting us down, going through the same shit we go through as a city, and as people. Through the good times and bad, White Duck has stuck with us, bringing us amazing, creative, “hippy” tacos the likes of which I had never seen or tasted before. Along with 12 Bones, they were restaurant pioneers in the River Arts District, and they have expanded ever since, even opening locations in Johnson City, TN and Greenville SC. It’s their downtown location that is closest to my heart, though, in no small part because I go in there with food tours several times a week and have become friends with the staff there, whom I respect and admire very much. One of their managers asked me last Spring if I had eaten every taco on the menu, and when I said, “no,” she gave me a look. I knew that look. I started eating all the tacos. I ate my way through White Duck’s entire menu, over 20 tacos, and I can say with 100% conviction: Not one turd. Every taco I ate won my heart, surprised me, satisfied me, made me smile, made me full, and made me want to eat it again. I found, like, three new favorite tacos on my journey, and even the ones that I didn’t think I would like, I did like, and one of those became a favorite! White Duck has been around forever, and this is the 11th year of these awards, but I’ve never handed them my Taco of the Year award, until now! Thanks, White Duck, for being Asheville’s friend. Your tacos rüle.

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La Bodega – Costillas
Y’all… ribs. What is it about ribs that makes them so dang delectable? Is there anything more satisfying than eating a bunch of perfectly prepared ribs, and leaving nothing but bare bones behind on the plate. There’s something primal about a plate of bones. I kinda wanna make a necklace out of them. Well, maybe not that primal, but to this meat-eater there is almost nothing quite like throwing etiquette to the wind, gnawing on animal bones, family-dog-style, caring not how sticky my muzzle or paws get, and laying waste to some damn good motherfuckin’ RIBS! YOM! I got excited. I ate a bunch of different ribs from different places last year, but the ones at La Bodega by Cúrate really took me by surprise! Although, I should never be surprised by the cast and crew at La Bodega, because these amazing people make & serve award winning food. Hello? Ever heard of James Beard? Yeah, no, me neither. I’m talking about STOOBIE awards, Y’all! Weather it’s Cúrate, Nightbell (RIP), La Bodega, or Chef Katie Button herself, I think I’ve handed more Food Fan Awards to the folks at Heirloom Hospitality Group than just about any other organization, venue, or individual in WNC. Dd I ever think I’d be handing them one for Ribs of the Year? Nope. But as soon as I tasted their Glazed Pork Costillas with kalimotxo sauce, and blistered peppers, they were a contender. Kalimotxo, BTW, is a drink consisting of equal parts red wine and a cola-based soft drink, so think of this as the worlds fanciest, Spanish version, of like, a Cheerwine BBQ sauce. The peppers on top add a little heat, but these were mostly sweet, and perfectly cooked, fall-off-the-bone ribs. Thanks, La Bodega! You = Best. ❤️

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Neng Jr’s – Kwek Kwek
Dawn has us on some sort of standing waitlist for Neng Jr’s, so we’ve had the extreme pleasure of eating there several times, and we always have a very exciting meal, that is equally satisfying on an emotional level, as it is on a gastronomic level! The atmosphere is homey but hip, service is professional & friendly, the music is always nice, the vibe is always good, and of course, the food and beverages are super delicious and, for me at least, very different! The menu is ever-changing, and when I read the description of a side-dish called “kwek kwek” one evening, I knew I had to pounce, so pounce I did! Kwek kwek are boiled quailed eggs coated with batter and deep-fried until crispy. That night at Neng’s they came with blistered sugar snap peas, flower pedals, and of course, like just about everything at Neng’s, fish sauce. This was my first time eating quail eggs, and Dawn doesn’t really do deep-fried stuff, so I ate, like, a half dozen or more of these things, and would have eaten 100 if they were in front of me. Soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, flavorful, cute, and, again, for me, something different! This dish turned me on to quail eggs in general, and now I am a big fan, occasionally even cooking them at home. Anyhoo, kwek kwek. New to me. Super fun & delish. It is my Deep Fried Thing of the Year winner! Thanks, Neng’s!

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Tastee Diner – The Big Tastee
I ate so many great breakfasts last year, and this was THEE hardest category of them all to pick a winner in. I almost declared a tie, but these are the finals, Y’all, and there ain’t no tie games in the finals. Some of the breakfasts I ate were pretty  to look at, delicate, delicious, and nothing short of fancy, but in my world view, almost nothing can compare to a giant pancake, covered in meat and taters, and topped with 2 perfectly fried eggs. I know it’s basic. I know I’m basic. The folks at Tastee Diner know I’m basic, and now you know it too, and I’m okay with that. So, yes, while I ate wonderful preparations of french toast, crab cakes, eggs Benedict, and other more refined, more complex, and definitely more sophisticated breakfast items than this ridiculous pile of carbs, fat, and protein, but when I scrolled through all of my pictures from last year, I kept going back to this meal, until my Eater-self finally clubbed my Foodie-self over the head and took over, and the decision was made: This unholy stack of giant-sized fuck-yeah is my Breakfast of the Year winner! Thanks Tastee Diner! PS – Your biscuits and Gravy and French Toast were also among the contenders, so if you could just, y’know, pile those two dishes right on top of this one for me…

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The Times Bar & Coffee Shop

I spent a lot of time at the The Times last year. It’s got a classic vintage Asheville Art Deco look inside that I love, the vibe is mellow, the music is great, it’s warm in the Winter, cool in the Summer, the folks who own it and the people who work there are super nice, and the coffee is excellent! I usually get a cappuccino or a cortado and the baristas pull a perfect shot of espresso every time. Never bitter. Never sour. Also, it’s a full bar, so it has a gown-up feel to it, and drinks are available for those who want them, so it’s a great place to meet friend who drink or don’t! Although it can get packed on busy weekends, if you hit it at the right time, there’s usually a seat, either inside, or on the patio, which offers some of the best people-watching in downtown Asheville. I’ve seen some shit sitting on the patio of the times bar! LOL Downtown Asheville is never boring, and the Times Bar & Coffee Shop is one of the reasons I love hanging out in our city, and they are my Cafe of the Year winners! Oh, and I forgot, they added some really nice little food items by Batter & Whisk Baked Delights recently, like coffee cake and apple cider doughnuts, so now I love The Times Bar even more. Yes, my quantity of my love is directly tied to the availability of doughnuts.

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French Broad Pantry
I’m so psyched that the weekly Downtown Farmer’s Market exists, and that they host some of THEE best food growers and makers in this part of the state. It’s a real boon to anyone who lives or works in or near downtown, as well as something very unique and special for anyone visiting our city to stumble upon on any given Saturday morning. So, yeah, I’m a fan, and I go as often as I can, and when I go, I go straight to the French Broad Pantry table. I walk past all of my friends’ tables, giving them quick waves and lame platitudes, “Hi, sorry, can’t talk, pastries…” The truth is, in those moments I’m having severe Food FOMO right up until the I see with my own eyes that their table is still full of yummies, and only then can I begin to relax and enjoy life again. Aaand then I buy more pasties than any human being can possible consume, bring them home and consume the shit out of them until there’s nothing left but flakes. Then I dab my index finger on my tongue and use it to pick up every flake until there’s only memories left behind. In fact I eat these things so fast and furious that I don’t even have any pictures of my own to show you! I got the pictures below from their Facebook page, and I think you can see for yourselves that the the gah-factor on these very European style pastries is just through the roof. They all taste as incredible as they look, and everything I’ve ever bought from them has been pastry perfection. Ain’t no doubt about it, they are my Bakery of the Year winners!

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Green Tea Sushi
My awesome mom and I went to Green Tea Japanese Restaurant, just off Patton Ave in West Asheville, where we had a wonderful lunch together! Last year I discovered how much I love deep-fried, shrimp shumai, which look like scallops, but are little balls of shrimp ‘n’ stuff,a nd I also rekindled my love of cooked sushi. Yes, I love raw sushi too, but I got started with the cooked stuff, and then eventually felt kind of shamed out of it, but last year I reclaimed my power, and started eating deep fried sushi rolls!. The shumai were super yummy, with a nice texture, and a mellow, comfy flavor. My mom loved them too. She ordered a sushi lunch special for herself, which is a sushi roll of your choice, plus a California roll. She got the tempura shrimp (a soft spot for cooked sushi runs in the family!) and she devoured it. She saved her cali rolls to take home for later. I got the Spider Roll, which has deep fried soft shell crab & asparagus, and it was exactly as de-frickin-licious as I thought it would be! Crunchy, flavorful, filling, and deeply satisfying. I never wanted it to end. Then we both got mochi iced cream for dessert and that was great too. All in all, food, service, ambience, etc, this was another outstanding lunchtime experience at one of my favorite restaurants in Asheville, and at the time it was an instant contender for my Lunch of the Year award, and looking back over my pictures and memories from last year, the deal was sealed. The combination of being there with my mom, indulging ourselves in our fave stuff, in the lovely green-house-esque atmosphere of Green Tea’s big dining room, with great, and outstanding food made this a very special lunch for me! Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Green Tea!

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Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse – Avocado Salad
My family loves Ukiah, especially for brunch. We are frequent flyers on their front patio when weather permits, or we take up one of the big tables when it’s too hot or cold for the patio. We all have our go-to items; Biscuits ‘n’ gravy, breakfast ramen, the scallion pancake, but my bro-in-law likes to mix things up by throwing a curve ball at us, like the time he ordered the avocado salad. He let us all try it, and now we have another go-to dish. It’s essentially a pile of fresh avocado with micros, crispy leeks, and a light tangy dressing. It sounds simple, but it has a lot going on flavor and texture-wise. The smooth avocado, the subtle crunch of the leeks, the punchy earthy micro greens, and that bright zesty dressing make this salad more than just a salad, and although my family likes to share things, this is the kind of salad that I like to crush all on my own, and feel just full enough, without being stuffed. Plus, avocado lowers cholesterol! So when I eat this salad, I do something good for my body, as well as my tastebuds, right? Right. All those reasons are all the reason why this lovely avocado salad is my winner for Salad of the Year! Thanks, Ukiah!

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Altamont Deli & Grill – Cabbage & Ham
Brown & beige are the most delicious colors in the culinary rainbow as far as I’m concerned, and one day I ordered an incredible feast of brown and beige foods from the Altamont Deli & Grill on Montford Ave in the Montford Neighborhood to eat for days at home. A burger, a cheesesteak, a fried egg and bacon sandwich, a Reuben-hot dog (yesss!), and… “hmmm…. I need a vegetable” … I sez to myself, so I ordered the cabbage & ham on a whim. Wellllll, I’m telling you what. All of the food was great, I loved it, and gave it a great write-up, but it was that humble cabbage and ham that kinda blew my mind. When I order a ton of food all at once like that, I use a knife to cut off a portion of each item, and put the rest away to reheat over time. So, this time I ate a 1/4 of a cheeseburger, a 1/4 of a cheesesteak, a 1/4 of a fried egg sandwich, a 1/2 a hot dog, and… ALL of the cabbage and ham. It was soooooo dang good, I couldn’t stop eating it, and eating it, and eating it. Gone. Sad. Want more. When I asked the Chef at Altamont Deli & Grill what made his cabbage and ham so tasty, he thought for a moment, and then he said those three little words that mean so much, “butter and love.” And now I am the world’s biggest fan of cabbage and ham and it is my fucking Small Plate of the Year winner! ha! Who could have guessed? Thanks, Altamont!

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Leo’s House of Thirst – Bucatini
My friend Rick was raving on Facebook about a bowl of bucatini that he ate at Leo’s House of Thirst, and I’m thinking to myself “Rick knows good food, but c’mon, Rick, how fuckin’ good can this bowl of pasta really be? I’ll be the judge of that.” Well, I have judged. Rick was right. This shit was fucking good, and it’s my ding dang Entrée of the Year winner. I mean, my gahd. Tender smooth yet toothy house made bucatini pasta with red shrimp, fennel, saffron, bacon, Parmesan, cilantro, warm, creamy, hardy, deep, flavorful, fresh, complex, and comforting, this is the kind of dish that I’ll be thinking about for years and years. A dish so good that Rick described feeling a “sliver of grief” when eating it, because he knows that one day it will come off the menu, perhaps never to be seen or tasted again. Well, that happened, it was off the menu the very next time I went to Leo’s and I felt Rick’s sliver of grief for sure. Who knows if / when it will ever come back… well, I suppose the folks at Leo’s might know, but for now, this one is just a memory. A beautiful saffronny, memory. If you happen to be at Leo’s one day in the future, see it on their menu, get on the hot line and let me know! Thanks, Leo’s, your food rules, and this dish was a fucking superstar! PS – That day I came back and the bucatini was off the menu, Dawn and I shared a 1/2 chicken dinner that was to die for!

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The Hop – Chocolate Mayo Cake Ice Cream
When Tubby, the Duke’s Mayo mascot was in town, the amazing folks at The Hop Ice Cream made a very special small batch of ice cream just for the occasion that featured Duke’s! Yes, you heard right: Ice cream with mayonnaise. Sounds gross? Nope. Frickin’ awesome. Turns out, you can substitute Duke’s for the eggs in a chocolate cake recipe, and it’s super rich and tasty, with a slight tang to it. It’s an old Southern recipe, and you can actually find it on the Duke’s website. So The Hop made a bunch of the chocolate mayo cake, then crumbled it into a vanilla ice cream base, that also had a small amount of dukes in the mx. It was only available while Tubby was in town, and The Hop generously gave it out free to anyone in attendance! It was so damn fun, and tasty, and surprising, and on-point with Tubby’s visit, that I just loved it, and it’s still making me squeeee as I write this six months later! It would be awesome if Tubby came back to Asheville, and The Hop brought this flavor out of retirement, or even added it to their regular rotation, but for now, like so many other things on this list, the Chocolate Mayo Cake Ice Cream is just another memory, as well as my Sweet Treat of the Year winner! Thank you, Greg & Ashley & the whole crew at The Hop! You are truly and Asheville institution!

 

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Devil’s Foot Beverage Company
WNC, we are truly fortunate. We’ve got mountains, clean air & water, cute wildlife, wonderful food, fun pop-ups, big festivals, great art, music, drag shows & live comedy, a baseball team, zip lines, waterfalls, a big ol’ river to float down, and… Devil’s Foot. Yup. I mean that 100%. We are so fuckin’ lucky to have Devil’s Foot Beverage Company right here in these mountains, making an ever-expanding line of low sugar sodas and non-alcoholic beverages for us. It’s increasingly difficult to keep up with everything these local soda pop moguls are doing, their line of sparkling lemonades alone is extensive, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Root beer, ginger beer, and even N/A drinks inspired by classic cocktails, like  Negroni & Dark & Stormy. I had a great conversation with co-founder Ben Colvin for my poscast, and speaking on behalf of his partners, he let me know that their enthusiasm for their own product, the pride they take in their sourcing and production standards, and the vision they share of their future remains as fresh and exciting today as ever. There’s no plateau in sight for these local, home grown entrepreneurs. My conversation with Ben certainly made my decision for this year’s N/A Beverage Maker of the Year a lot easier. Thanks, Devils’ Foot, you’re a big fuckin’ deal in my book.

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Pure & Proper – Black Mountain Staycation date Night
I usually eat two or three meals a day, which equals just a little over 900 meals consumed over the course of an average year. Atsa lotta meals! So, I’m sure you can imagine that it’s difficult for me to choose just one meal to be the winner in this category every year, and you’d be right. It’s really tough! How do I winnow it down? First of all, meals come in different sizes and varieties, but a snack is not a meal, so all those go to the side. I also don’t think one hot dog, or one taco, or for the purposes of these awards, even a sandwich might be lunch, but they’re not really a proper meal. A true meal has a defined start and finish, with several dishes along the way to act as milestones. An appetizer, a salad, an entrée, a plate to share, dessert, and drinks, preferably at a table, and when dining out, with a server. That’s a true meal to me. All that in mind, Dawn and I had a true, and truly lovely meal at Pure & Proper when we were in Black Mountain for a three day staycation.

The building, an old Pure gas station, is really cute, and so is the interior design. We sat at the chef’s table, which is a small bar for two right in the kitchen window, facing the magic. The food was super high quality and high end. It was fancy, but accessible, and had flavors that appealed to my gourmet side, and well as my ”dang, that’s good!” side. We started with an arugula Caesar salad with cucumber, pickled red onion, roasted corn, liege waffle breadcrumbs, pecorino, and a light Caesar dressing. It was one of the best and more interesting Caesar salads I’ve ever had. Next we got shrimp aguachile, which was marinated shrimp, avocado crema, cucumber salad, cotija, & tortilla chips. It was insanely good. Punchy flavors, great textures, fresh & refreshing. We loved it. Next we got the griddled asparagus, with miso glaze, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, nori & sesame crumble, & chili crisp. This seemingly humble dish was a bit of a superstar. The flavors were complex and the presentation was lovely. Pure and Proper was batting 1,000 so far, and it just got better from there! Our main course was the braised pork cheeks with charred leek grits, pickled pear, and spicy cabbage slaw. Pork cheek is one of my fave hunks of meat, and this cheek was freakin’ perfect. Perfectly cooked, perfectly prepared, perfectly paired with the other ingredients on the plate, and beautifully presented. If the asparagus was a superstar, the cheek was a mega-super-duper-star. Eyes were rolled in ecstasy, utterances of pleasure were made, and stomachs were held in fullness and total satisfaction after eating it. Then the kitchen sent out some gnudi. Dawn & I looked at each other and there may have been mention of a to-go box. Nope. Didn’t need it. Crushed those gnudi, and loved every single bite. They came prepared with crab salad, celery root, meyer lemon, shiitake mushrooms, and pumpkin seeds. They were soft, tender, creamy, inviting, and super fucking delicious. Everything was high stylin’ super-tasty goodness, including Dawn’s Manhattan, which she enjoyed very much. Service was excellent, and even the bill came inside of an old car manual, harkening back to the original Pure gas station. Pure perfection from from start to finish, end to end, from Chef Jake Whitman & crew at Pure & Proper in Black Mountain, and for all those reasons, this meal is my Meal of the Year winner! Thanks, Y’all!

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NEW CATEGORY!

TASTEE DINER – Epic Dinner Tasting
In 2023 I formed a group called AFWBIMP.  That stands for Asheville Food Writers Bloggers & Independent Media People, and I formed the group so that we could spend some time together, get to know each other better, and do some tastings together. The restaurants were very receptive to our group, and we did a ton of really great tastings together, including two at Tastee Diner. We met once in the early part of the day for a Breakfast tasting, and then later in the year we met again for a dinner tasting. Both were incredible, but it was the dinner tasting that was the most memorable of the two, not just because of the incredible food, but also because of the vibe, the company, the conversations, and even the weather which was perfect. Chef Steven Goff and his staff set up a long table outside and kept bringing out food. From nuts, oysters, mussels, & caviar. to fried fish, fried chicken, and deviled eggs, and even dinks & dessert. That list and these pictures do not even convey the enormity of this tasting. If you’d like to see all of the pics and read my full write-up, you can click HERE. Every single aspect of the evening was the absolute epitome of food & beverage hospitality, and the memories of this night will live with me forever. I’ve had the extreme fortune to be invited to a LOT of wonderful tastings in the past 10 years of writing about food in this town, and this tasting will forever stand out as the pinnacle of such things, not just for last year, but ever since I started doing this. So, it’s pretty clear to me that it needs to be, and so it is, the first winner of my brand new Tasting of the Year award!

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Little D’s
I’m so old that when I say “I’m old school” it pretty much just means “I’m old.” And one thing about getting old is that I’m getting more and more nostalgic for the experiences I enjoyed in my younger days. Lately, that’s been manifesting itself in the form of seared meats, surf ‘n’ turf, taters, sauces, but entrées with sides on big plates, and what I would generally call “1970’s Steak House fare.” When I was a kid we didn’t have a ton of money, but when times were good, or we had a real reason to celebrate, we’d all load into AMC Pacer, and head to the local steak house, where someone would ask me, a child, “how would you like your steak cooked, Sir?” And then it came to the table with a tiny sign in it that said how it was cooked! Squeeeee! Best thing ever. Anyhoo, back to the present, where lately I’ve been getting that same squee feeling from the parade of food that I’ve tried so far from Little D’s up there on Merrimon Ave in North Asheville. I’ve only been twice, but on those two visits I’ve tasted 13 different dishes, including steak, shrimp, duck breast, ribs, pork loin, mahi mahi, tuna crudo, and three desserts! Everything… EV-ER-Y-thing… was delicious, perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. It’s old school, with out being old, because there are creative set-ups & new flavors, contemporary plating & techniques, farm to table ingredients, and the look, feel & taste of Asheville’s current food scene. I always say that the best things in life combine the familiar and the different, and Little D’s is certainly doing that, and hitting all the nostalgia nails on the head, while staying fresh and exciting in our cutting edge culinary scene, and I’m happy to name them the winners of my New Restaurant of the Year award! Thanks, Little D’s!

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Rakim Gaines – Capella on 9
He’s only 33 years old and he’s been cooking in professional kitchens for nearly a quarter of a century. Chef Rakim Gaines did his first stage (pronounced stahzh), which an apprenticeship in pro kitchen, when he was just 9 years old, and he’s been a rising star ever since. He literally rose in footage to the tallest rooftop restaurant in Asheville, but he has also risen in rank, position, and responsibility at a steady pace from his staging days as a child learning the chops at Yoshita’s Express, to his first paid job at the Lobster Trap, to his position as sous Chef at Capella on 9, atop the AC hotel, to his current position of executive Chef at Capella, as well as setting the menus for the entire South East AC hotel restaurant group. Now, if you’ve never been to Capella on 9, or have never met the chef or the crew up there, you might be thinking, “Isn’t that a major hotel chain restaurant? Isn’t it the furthest thing from local?”  Answers: Yes, and no. While the restaurant may not be locally owned, and is part of the Marriotts Hotel chain, Chef Rakim, and his kitchen staff are Ashevillians, locally born and raised. Chef Gaines is very humble about himself, but when he starts bragging about his kitchen crew, he doesn’t hold back. According to him (and to me, since I’m a fan of the food they make!), they are some of the best cooks he ever knew growing up in Asheville, who learned at home, by their parents’ and grandparents’ side. Whether it’s a take on Japanese food, Spanish Tapas, or fried green tomatoes, the love and experience that go into the food that comes out of this kitchen, can be felt in every bite. Because he’s a super nice person, because he’s an amazing chef, because he’s good to his friends and kind to his staff, and because he took one of the most prominent non-locally owned restaurants in Asheville, and made it totally awesome, Chef Rakim Gaines is my Chef of the Year winner! Thanks, Chef, it’s been nothing but a pleasure to know you and get to know your staff and your culinary creations!  Follow Chef on line as he seeks out a space for his own soul food restaurant!

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Rhubarb
You know what? I fucking love Rhubarb. Last Fall I was invited to their 10 year anniversary dinner, which made me realize that we are the exact same age! I started writing about food in October of 2013, the very month that Rhubarb opened their doors, and as a brand new food blogger, I was super excited to check out all of the cool, fancy, interesting restaurants in Downtown. I went to Rhubarb for the first time on June 13th, 2014. I had a cup of coffee and an oatmeal cookie woopie pie on the patio, and there must have been quite a scene that played out in Pack Square that day, because in my write-up I simply said, “Coffee and cretins in Pack Square. There was a full blown psychotic super show. It made an old lady scream. True story.” Ha ha! I wish I could remember what happened, but whatever it was, it didn’t deter me from going back the very next evening for a full-blown tasting. In fact, looking at the pictures from that night, I kinda feel like Rhubarb might have been the first tasting I ever did. Awwwww! From that great tasting from so long ago, to the anniversary dinner just last Fall, and every bite of every thing I’ve had there in between, Rhubarb has been one of my solid, super-high-brow-but-somehow-still-totally-accessible go-to restaurants. Dawn & I like to sit at the bar for small bites. I like to go in on my own when I feel like spoiling myself. I bring food tours in as often as they’ll let me, and I’m constantly suggesting it to locals and visitors alike. As the international food scene in Downtown gets stronger and stronger, it’s more and more difficult to find a great Southern meal. Rhubarb has that covered. As the chains and franchises start to creep into our city, Rhubarb is still the most farm-to-table restaurant in Asheville. As downtown changes, Rhubarb stays the same, only it just keeps getting better. I’ve been going for so long, that I have developed friendships with the staff, and with the 7-time James Beard recognized Chef John Fleer, whom I love and respect very much. (Also, he’s tall, I’m short, so when he hugs it’s like a free chiropractor appointment.) The restaurant space is big, but cozy, and homey AF. The open wood-fired oven gives off warmth and comfort, the classic rustic chic decor feels like old WNC, the wine, drinks & n/a beverages always pair nicely with the food, the service is super-professional, and I’ve seen a bunch of young chefs & entrepreneurs launch their careers from either Rhubarb, The Rhu, or Beenne on Eagle. Rhubarb has always held a spot in my heart, and you know what, last year, I kinda fell in love with it all over again. Thanks, John, Chelsea, Davis, Michelle, J, and the whole crew at Rhubarb for what you do, and for ten years of awesomeness! Y’all’re my Restaurant of the Year winners!

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And there you have it! The 11th annual Food Fan Awards are in the bag! I hope you enjoyed them, and that some of my favorites from my experiences in 2023 are among yours as well, and will be on your list for 2024! Thanks for reading, and if you’re in the F&B industry, thanks for all you do! You fucking ROCK!

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Stu Helm is an artist, writer, and podcaster living in Asheville, NC, and a frequent diner at local restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and the like. His tastes run from hot dogs and mac ‘n’ cheese, to haute cuisine, and his opinions are based on a lifetime of eating out. He began writing about food strictly to amuse his friends on Facebook.

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