ASHEVILLE DAY 2 – THE VANDERBILTS, THE ELKS, THE EUBANKS AND THE KATZMANS

Thursday starts at All Day Darling, a tiny breakfast joint in the Montford Historic District of Asheville, a beautifully preserved area featuring some 600 buildings built between 1890 and 1920. From there, it’s just a 15-minute ride to that other, slightly more popular 1890s attraction, The Biltmore Estate.

Built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895, the 250 room mansion is a testament to exactly how much fu you can have if you’re born stunningly rich (and no, that’s not a typo!) Before you even step inside, it defines grandeur. The driveway is a full 15 minute ride from the entrance gate, meandering through a bit of the 8000 acres. The massive front lawn, officially called the Esplanade cause that’s fancier, stretches hundreds of yards and serves to set expectations. The footprint of the house itself covers four full acres.

We arrived at 9am so we can explore the grounds during the nice light of the cool morning hours before our house tour at 11:45. We start in the Italian Garden and have fun shooting pictures of the exotic water lilies and curious and colorful koi. The varieties of the lilies are changed each year, but the koi endure, some believed to be at least 50 years old.

Then it’s down to the Walled Garden to see the geometric beds resplendent with thousands of richly hued mums among other fall plantings and perennials.

From there it’s through the Rose Garden and into the Azalea Garden. To our surprise, some of the azaleas have a second bloom in the fall, a nice burst purple among the fall shades. One stunning tree stops us in our tracks. We check the tag and discover it’s the biggest blue atlas cedar we’ve ever seen. No wonder it caught our eye—it’s a favorite of ours, but we had no idea they could grow this big.

We continue all the way to the Bass Pond, then double back to check out the Conservatory, that stunning building at the end of the Rose Garden. Inside is a series of greenhouses, each with a different climate to host everything from cacti to orchids. As William Cullen Bryant said, beauty is it’s own excuse for being.

Inside the house is equally as impressive. From the glass domed Winter Garden room at the entrance to the intimate billiards room to the massive formal dining room, it’s got everything you told your realtor was a “must have” when you were looking for your first condo. Here’s way too many pictures of it.

Leaving the estate, we try the River Arts District for lunch, but that neighborhood is more of a happy hour kind a place. We end up downtown at Daddy Mac’s Down Home Dive. Despite trends saying beer is going out of style, Asheville’s microbrew scene is absolutely thriving and our waiter knows just what to bring me. We’re starving so we order the Pimento Cheese to start, a bright red dip also called the Caviar of the South served with Ritz crackers and toast points. We absolutely cannot resist ordering the Bar-B-Cue-Terie board – if we ever had you over for dinner, you know why. It’s a delish combination of Daddy Mac’s most popular items, plied high for your munching pleasure.

As proud members of the Beneficial and Protective Order of the Elks (Lodge 2428, Brigantine, NJ) we have taken to stopping into other Elk lodges when we travel across the US of A. This afternoon we have the pleasure of visiting Lodge 608, just a few minutes from our hotel. We’re greeted by Karen, the very friendly bartender, Crystal, the lovely House Chairperson, and a few of the members sitting at the bar. It’s a warm welcome and conversation flows naturally as soon as we sit down. We get some great local tips and eventually the conversation turns to the hurricane. They share first-hand accounts of weathering the storm, the loss and devastation, the chaos of days immediately following, and the victories of the ongoing recovery. I don’t know of somewhere else that people would be so willing to open up to us. It’s amazing to walk into a lodge as a stranger and be immediately taken in as a brother.

We find ourselves walking downtown and pick the cute outdoor space at Mostrado, an Italian affair on the outside of the Grove Arcade. In short, good concepts, but too heavy handed in the execution. Then it’s just a few blocks to Fitz and the Wolf to catch the Alex Eubanks Band. Alex is a Carolinian cross between Jellyroll and Luke Combs, with a bellowing voice and soft handed guitar style. His take on Folsom Prison Blues brought the house down.

We are spent and headed home when we walk past the marquee of the Asheville Music Hall. An unusually hot goth/Harley Quinn girl having a smoke out front just about drags us in to catch the end of the Theo Katzman show. Theo is best known as the founding member of the funk band Volfpack, but not by us as we have never heard of him or the band. Mandy’s kids, however, are pretty impressed that we are here. Theo is doing a solo gig and there’s under a hundred people in the room, another point that impressed Sam and Andrew via text. What we did know, and right away at that, is Theo Katzman is an incredible talent and performer. With just a guitar or little keyboard, he had a huge presence and everyone in the room hung on each and every note. Once again, we somehow found ourselves exactly where we were meant to be—and this time, our unexpected detour introduced us to an entirely new world of music.