ASHEVILLE
A WEEKEND IN
A Three-Day Itinerary for a Place Where Mountains Meet Indy City
By Eric Barton | March 25, 2025
Asheville is the kind of place where a guy with a beard down to his chest might sell you homemade kimchi at a farmers market before heading to his metal show.
The air smells like hops and mountain breezes. There’s kombucha on tap and biscuits the size of a toddler’s head. Spend a weekend here and, if you’re like me, you’ll start to wonder whether you should just move here permanently.
If you’re coming to Asheville for a long weekend, here’s how to do it right.
Friday Evening: Get Radical
Check into The Radical
It used to be a cold storage warehouse. Now it’s a hotel with high-end cocktails, a tattoo studio in the lobby, and bedrooms that look like the set of a very stylish music video. The Radical is right in the River Arts District, which means you're close to breweries, excellent pizza, and graffiti-covered underpasses that now pass for public art. In other words: perfect. Yes, this is the neighborhood hit hardest by Helene. But it’s also the neighborhood that has seen the most recovery—and still represents the Keep Asheville Weird slogan you’ll see on bumper stickers of sticker-covered Subarus. Drop your bag, take in the weird art, and try to avoid raiding the minibar too early.
Dinner at Golden Hour
In the basement of The Radical is Golden Hour, which, like most places in Asheville, is somehow both a nice restaurant and a place where nobody blinks if you wear Carhartt. James Beard finalist chef Jacob Sessoms runs the show here, which means there’s duck with ginger and shiitakes and trout that looks like it should be in a museum. The lighting is moody, the cocktails are dangerously good, and afterward take the elevator up to the rooftop bar for just one more as the sun dips behind Mount Pisgah.
Saturday Day: Waffles & Biltmore
Breakfast at Early Girl Eatery
This is where Asheville locals go for breafkast before a hike or to recover from a Friday night that got a little too enthusiastic. The vibe is pure Appalachian comfort food, with enough veggie options to keep your yoga teacher happy. Don’t overthink it: fried chicken over waffles with plenty of syrup.
Tour the Biltmore Estate
At some point, someone will tell you that you “have” to go to the Biltmore, like it’s a rite of passage. They’re not wrong. It's a chateau built by a Vanderbilt in the 1800s, complete with 250 rooms and an entire winery. Think Downton Abbey, but with more taxidermy.
Lunch at Cúrate
Cúrate is where you go to feel like you’re in Spain without leaving North Carolina. James Beard winner Katie Button turns out tapas that are somehow both authentic and Instagrammable, which is no easy feat. The jamón ibérico will ruin you for all future ham. The pan con tomate is life-changing. You will spend too much. You will not regret it.
Art Crawl (with Beer) in the River Arts District
This neighborhood is Asheville distilled: part gritty industrial, part painter’s paradise. You can buy a $12 enamel pin or a $12,000 oil painting. Pop into Wedge Brewing for a beer brewed ten feet from where you order it. Stand next to someone in overalls talking about fermentation like it’s a religion.
Saturday Night
Dinner at Wildwood Still
This is one of those restaurants where everything feels like a low-key flex. It’s on top of the Moxy hotel, which means rooftop views, bartenders in cowboy hats, and a drinks list that reads like a whiskey dissertation. The food is Japanese-ish, Southern-ish—tempura shishitos next to pork belly bao. It works. Don’t question it.
Catch a Show at The Orange Peel
Some nights it's indie rock, some nights it's hip-hop, sometimes it’s that artist you heard about from the dude at the coffee shop with piercings in his piercings. The Orange Peel is Asheville’s go-to venue for bands who played Coachella and tours in an offroad Sprinter van. Grab a beer and stand near the back where you can take in one of the finest people-watching spots in the city.
Late-night slice at PIE.ZAA
You could call it a night. Or you could join the line of tattooed 20-somethings outside PIE.ZAA, where the slices are as big as your head and weirdly perfect at midnight. This is the drink-absorbing pizza you need right now.
Sunday: Biscuits and Forests
Breakfast at All Day Darling
Join the locals from the historic Montford neighborhood, who smartly start their day lounging in the chairs surrounding this cafe. You’re ordering an egg and bacon biscuit sandwich and maybe a side of the patatas bravas for good measure.
Hike the Bent Creek Trails
Drive out to the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, which sounds like a research site for woodland elves but is actually one of the best places to hike near town these days. Some of the most visited hiking trails, like Mount Pisgah and Craggy Gardens, remain inaccessible thanks to fallen trees and closed roadways from Helene. But volunteers chainsawed their way along Bent Creek’s maze of pathways to open up this expansive area. There are loops for every level of ambition—easy strolls, lung-busting climbs, and everything in between. Bonus: actual forest, minimal crowds, and the possibility of seeing a mountain biker fly off a log bridge.
Lunch at Mother
What was once a simple bakery in the RAD has now expanded to a restaurant on the South Slope, where dishes are constructed with things made entirely in-house. Salads and sandwiches on sourdough reign here, especially what might be the world’s best egg salad. But the daily specials are what really show off the talents of the kitchen, like this fried quail with sourdough bread crumbs and grits.
Coffee at High Five
Before you head home, stop at High Five for one last jolt. It’s strong, locally roasted, and served by people who understand that you’re trying very hard to act like you’re not about to nap in your car.
That’s Asheville. Quirky. Buzzed. A little dirty from that hike earlier. Just the way you want a weekend in the mountains to feel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who spits his time between Asheville and Miami. He has a secret spot for taking his dog for a hike and he’ll share it with you if you promise to keep it secret: the UNCA trails on Lookout Mountain. Email him here.
