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Asheville The Market Place Chef-owner Mark Rosenstein and his wife Kim have been producing "nationally recognized creative cuisine" since 1979. They also are known locally for the most consistent food in town. Their urbane restaurant derives its name from its original location on North Market Street. The larger quarters here include a black and white dining room in front and, our choice, a multi-colored, curving rear dining room with a high ceiling. Cushioned rattan chairs at well-spaced tables, glass oil lamps and delicate pink-stemmed glasses convey a sophisticated look. The menu follows suit. Mark is known for such dishes as oven-roasted salmon with red onion and apple crust, pan-seared duck breast with sundried blueberry sauce and roasted rack of lamb on a bed of zucchini, rosemary and goat cheese. Several of the main dishes can be ordered in light portions at about half the price. One of us made a satisfying dinner of a pair of appetizers: grilled shrimp with a crispy herbed polenta and a duck and sundried tomato ravioli with a white wine and leek reduction. The other enjoyed a spinach salad with olives and feta cheese prior to digging into the grilled trout stuffed with spinach, lime, dill and capers. Dessert was a refreshing port wine shortcake with cinnamon plums. (828) 252-4162. Entrées, $14.95 to $27.95. Dinner, Monday-Saturday 6 to 9:30. Possum Trot Grill One of the most memorable meals we’ve had in a long time transpired at a weekday lunch in this somewhat funky haunt. Roland Schaerer, a classically trained Swiss chef who formerly cooked at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn, returned in 1994 from a stint in New Orleans with a new lease on culinary life. From his open lunch-counter-style kitchen here come a variety of treats in the refined New Orleans – as opposed to assertive cajun – idiom. Specials here are truly special. Two appetizers, a roasted sweet onion and goat cheese bouché and the signature black bean and crawfish cakes, made a dynamite lunch for one. The bouché, presented like the other dishes in the architectural style, came with two chives as ears and was one of the tastiest dishes we’ve ever had. A main-course special of penne with crawfish tails and andouille left the mouth on fire, and the smoky sauce was good to the last bit of penne. Cheesecakes, the dessert specialty, are not to be missed. The mango cheesecake, with a chocolate doodle on top and swirls of mango coulis beneath, was so light and ethereal it spoiled us for any other version. A washboard and musical instruments in the front window and the lineup of hot sauces at the entry set the stage for the treats beyond. (828) 253-0062. Entrées, $11.95 to $15.95. Lunch, Tuesday-Saturday 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday from 5:30. No smoking. The Bistro The three restaurants spread across the far-flung Biltmore Estate each have their devotees. The casual Stable Café is located in what was used as the stable, adjacent to the courtyard shopping area outside the mansion. Deerpark, the lovely, breezy courtyard restaurant with a California look and feeling, pleased us at our first visit with a couple of exotic salads. It now offers luncheon buffets for $13.95 and Sunday brunch for $15.95 from 11 to 3, April-December. As of our last visit, we’re partial to the Bistro. The newest restaurant, it’s a joy to behold: a rustic yet elegant, high-ceilinged space with a variety of dining areas around a central open kitchen. You could easily imagine you were dining in the countryside of Tuscany. Wood-fired pizzas, homemade pastas and Biltmore-raised beef and trout are the stars. After a morning’s tour of the Biltmore Estate, the Bistro makes a perfect stop for lunch. Sensational herbed focaccia bread was served with help-yourself bottles of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The Blue Ridge pizza with wild mushrooms, garlic, spinach and goat cheese was a huge and gooey, knife-and-fork extravaganza. A cup of the day’s roasted garlic and eggplant soup and a bruschetta with gorgonzola also went down well, as did a glass of the Biltmore riesling. Dessert could have been a vanilla bean crème brûlée, flourless chocolate torte with white chocolate mousse or the Bistro apple cake, but we couldn’t manage any more. (828) 274-6340. Lunch entrées, $8.25 to $14.95; dinner entrées, $11.25 to $19.95. Lunch daily, 11 to 5. Dinner, 5 to 9. Restaurants open to paying Biltmore Estate visitors and twelve-month passholders only. Flying Frog Café The chef is in the kitchen and his father out front in this unlikely looking hole in the wall at the edge of downtown. This was once the home of the Windmill European Grill, which provided our best meal during an Asheville stay a decade ago. Praised by natives, the Flying Frog makes up in gutsy food for what it lacks in ambiance. From an open kitchen, Vijay Shastri offers an extensive repertoire of French, Cajun and Indian fare. Expect worldly renditions of bouillabaisse and chicken française, jambalaya and cajun filet, coconut curried shrimp and lamb korma. The Flying Frog is many people’s favorite for a reasonably priced dinner now that the Windmill has gone suburban. (828) 254-9411. Entrées, $14 to $20. Dinner, Wednesday-Monday from 5:30. Other Choices. Asheville has more than its share of interesting restaurants. A few others often recommended include 23 Page at Haywood Park, a fine dining establishment with a new upstairs French bar and patisserie. It is said to have slipped following a move to the Haywood Park Hotel and a change in ownership since we first reveled in its new American cuisine at 23 Page Ave. The Savoy at 641 Merriman Ave. is a noisy neighborhood Italian haunt favored by Montford folks for heaping pastas and seafood. Café on the Square at 1 Biltmore Ave., known for contemporary fare and great people-watching, helped spark the rebirth of Pack Square. Salsa, a casual Mexican-Caribbean eatery, is decked out in tropical colors and sidewalk tables at 6 Payton Ave. The famed Laughing Seed features a huge vegetarian menu and juice bar in a sleek, high-ceilinged space at 40 Wall St. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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