Fed well, pointed up the mountain
A wood-fired restaurant downstairs, proper coffee in the sunroom, and a front desk that hands out trail maps instead of brochures.
Hearth & Laurel
Chef Wren Aldana cooks Appalachian food over a wood hearth — sunburst trout from up the road in Canton, heirloom Cherokee White Eagle corn ground into grits, and whatever the farms in Fairview brought in that morning.
Thirty-eight seats, a short menu that changes weekly, and a bar pouring North Carolina spirits. Hotel guests always get a table; everyone else should book ahead.
Dinner
Wed – Sun, 5:30 – 10 PM
Breakfast
Daily, 7:30 – 10:30 AM
included for hotel guests
The Bar
Daily from 4 PM
Short, seasonal, wood-fired
The menu turns over weekly with the farms. A few dishes that rarely leave it:
Breakfast worth setting an alarm for
Every stay includes a full breakfast — buttermilk pancakes with sorghum syrup, eggs from Leicester, biscuits that have their own following. Take it in the dining room or out on the porch when the fog is still sitting in the valley.
The Conservatory coffee bar opens at 6:30 for the early hikers: single-origin pour-overs, proper espresso, and a thermos filled for the road if you're chasing sunrise on the Parkway.
Breakfast
7:30 – 10:30 AM daily
Coffee Bar
6:30 AM – 2 PM daily
The Chef's Table
Once a month, Chef Aldana hosts twelve guests at a single long table beside the hearth — six courses built around one Appalachian ingredient, paired with mountain wines and stories about where every plate came from.
The table can also be booked privately for anniversaries, small weddings, and the kind of dinner that needs a closed door.
Chef's Table
First Saturday monthly · $145 pp
Private Events
Up to 12 guests · inquire at the desk
Asheville, the way locals do it
The front desk keeps a short list of things worth your time — booked, mapped, and timed around the mountain weather.
Parkway sunrise drive
We'll pack the thermos and mark the pull-offs — Craggy Pinnacle for the 360 view, Mount Pisgah if you want the longer walk.
Self-guided · maps at the deskRiver Arts studio crawl
Take the house bikes down to the French Broad and wander 200+ working studios. We'll point you to the potters worth the detour.
House bikes · freeSouth Slope brewery walk
A hand-drawn map of the breweries within stumbling distance of each other — and our honest ranking, updated quarterly.
12 min by car · walkable loopBiltmore, before the buses
We hold a small block of early-entry estate tickets for guests. See the banquet hall before the crowds find it.
Book at the front deskCome hungry. Leave slower.
Rooms include breakfast at Hearth & Laurel — and the front desk will happily build your whole weekend around dinner.