Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/237615
HOTEL SAKÉ Asheville currently has three saké breweries in the works. I stopped at the Blue Kudzu Saké Company, a small brewery that's learning most consumers think that salé is distilled rice wine. "Our goal is to educate people," says co-founder Mitch Fortune. The good news is, before the place is even open, Blue Kudzu has thirsty consumers knocking on their door wanting to learn. To appease these eager drinkers, Blue Kudzu has more than 50 Japanese sakés to appease them, including the Renaissance Kanazawa Junmai and Tenryo Hidhomare Junmai Ginjo. Saké brewers: Blue Kudzu founders (left to right) Mary Taylor, Cat Ford-Coates and Mitch Fortune. WHISKEY Whether it's the gang at Troy & Sons Distillery or the bourbon-loving staff of Seven Sows Bourbon & Larder, Asheville is a whiskey town on the rise. Somehow, with more than 30 bourbons, Seven Sows is able to get the full selection of Black Maple Hill and Buffalo Trace's Single Oak Project. And Troy & Sons is bottling only the hearts of its distillation, making the whiskey smooth and delicious. Stay tuned, folks, Asheville might just become a whiskey town. Whiskey maven: Amy Cecil runs the bourbon bar at Seven Sows. The Omni Grove Park Inn is the kind of enchanting stone-built hotel with all the amenities, mountain views, fresh air and art that entices you to stay. Forever. With a split between convention-goers, tourists and locals, the hotel's restaurants carry no GMO ingredients and use mostly local vegetables. At its top dining venue, Edison, the menu rotates every two weeks. "That keeps the chefs interested," says Chef de Bourbon fan: Jake Cuisine Jake Schmidt. Schmidt is Chef de Although the menu is always Cuisine of Edison. changing, there are a few mainstays, including whole milk ricotta with sweet peas, chicken cracklins with salt and vinegar dust, Carolina Scotch eggs, fried whole okra, chicken and waffles with local honey, grilled head-on prawns and veal meatballs with toasted pine nuts, gorgonzola and porcini mushrooms. And the view . . . oh my, the view. COCKTAILS One of the leaders in the underrated Asheville cocktail movement is The Imperial Life, a charcuterie and cocktail bar. Imperial makes its own bitters and barrel-ages its cocktails. But its greatest attribute is a seemingly endless supply of fresh herbs. With North Carolina's long growing season, the fresh ingredient list never ends. The restaurant's wineloving owner, Chef Jacob Sessoms, feared craft cocktails would hurt the reputation of his wine list, which stems from his desire to build something for non-beer drinkers. But with a half tourist/half local clientele, Sessoms says, the cocktail menu has done just the opposite: "Creativity is what people are Charcuterie specialist: looking for." Chef Jacob Sessoms owns This Imperial Life. january 2014 / the tasting panel / 105 TP0114_66-108.indd 105 12/19/13 9:48 PM