Category: NC Restaurants Outside of RTP

Lost Province Brewing Co – Boone, NC

I typically focus on local restaurants, but as many of you know, we go to the mountains a lot.  If you have ever been with me, I have absolutely taken you here and I have been known to eat here 1-3 times over a weekend!!  This is one of my favorite restaurants in Boone and there are still a ton of people who have never heard of it (they opened in August of 2014).  Kind of great for me as I can usually always get in without too much of an issue, but I cannot keep this a secret any longer….it is just not right.  It is also a small, family-owned and operated business that does a number of great things for the community.  For those of you who know me and have read past blogs, you know that I stay away from chain restaurants for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that it is so important to support locally-owned and managed restaurants (Ruth Chris is one of those exceptions, which I have blogged about….the other I guess is Chik-fil-a).

Lost Province is located in downtown Boone right off King St. and right around the corner from The Mast General Store (a must see when you are visiting).  I have yet to make a trip to Boone and not stop here to eat for either lunch, dinner or brunch (they have a brunch pizza that is life changing).  They have recently changed their menu slightly (some things they removed made me sad), but there is something for everyone here.  The atmosphere inside is fantastic and they have a great patio seating area for warm days where you can bring your dogs as well.  Oh, and they are a brewery too and I have yet to consume a beer that I did not enjoy.

Inside pic #2 Inside pic

They are definitely known for their pizzas and have an amazing wood fired oven (you can see it slightly above too).  They make all of their crusts and bread from scratch daily too.  I am INSANELY obsessed with their grilled pimiento cheese sandwich on sourdough bread….so much so that the last four times I have been…..I could not get myself to eat something else!  I have had a lot of pimiento cheese sandwiches from many of different places and this is by far the best one I have come across.  The cheese is so flavorful, the texture is so smooth and the way the cheese melts over the bread is dreamy.  The bread itself is also great and it is grilled to that crispy perfection.  Dammit I need this sandwich in my life right freaking now!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beer Oven pimiento cheese Pizza

I mean, come on….check out that cheesy goodness and tell me you could resist such awesomeness!!???  Okay, let me get back to this brunch pizza I mentioned earlier.  First time I ordered it, I have to admit I was somewhat unsure how great it would be, but the description and ingredients on it immediately caught my attention.  It is called their Mornin’ Sunshine pizza and includes Mascarpone, Shaved Country Ham, Slivered Leeks, Sunnyside Eggs & Ashe County “Squeaky Cheese” Curds.  I promise to edit this post the next time I am up there to include a picture as I could not find one and I know I have taken a picture of it many times!!!  This pizza is rich, but goes down surprisingly fast and easy!  First time I had it, I was there for brunch with two of my friends (a girl’s weekend at my mountain place) and we ordered a bottle of champagne with a side of OJ (they fresh squeeze the OJ there, which is amazing….and don’t judge…I like to make my own mimosas as I prefer 3/4 bubbles and 1/4 OJ distribution), house made donuts (I am not sure that they kept this when they dropped the separate brunch menu) to start.  The donuts were great and came with various dipping sauces, but the pizza was absolutely the highlight of the meal and we literally licked our plates.  Just trust me and order it…it is life changing.

As far as other items, my son ordered their beer mac and cheese where you get to choose toppings to put into it like if you were ordering a pizza.  This was not my favorite thing, but could be because it has a very strong smoky flavor (due to the smoked gouda it is made from), which is not my thing.  Also, once you have had Ashley Christensen’s mac and cheese from Poole’s Diner, it is very difficult to be wowed by others’ versions.  I have had other pizzas and always been happy.  Now, my daughter does not like their pizza as she is insane and does not like wood-fired pizza.  However, she thinks their butter pasta is magical…..I keep deleting what I want to write here next, so moving on.  We have had a number of their other sandwiches, specials, etc. and all of them have been pretty fantastic.

Okay, now I need to figure out when I can get back up into the mountains and to Lost Province.  Oh, I forgot to mention….be sure to check their website when you are in the mountains as they often have some decent live music!

#lostprovincebrewingco #boonerestaurants #bestpimientocheesesandwich #poolesdiner

The Surf House in Carolina Beach

So, I was sitting here reminiscing about my wonderful beach trip a few weeks back and my dinner at The Surf House came to mind, so I decided I needed to share it with you all.  This restaurant is on the main drag when you come into Carolina Beach (Lake Park Blvd) and looks like a quaint little shop.  I went there years ago and it was actually a shop and a café, but they have since renovated it and it now just a restaurant.

Outside pic

As many of you know, there are not exactly a surplus of good restaurants in that area.  The Surf House is one of the few that uses local, seasonal and sustainable meat and seafood.  It is quite small with only 40 seats, but they do take reservations.  They are open for brunch on Sundays, lunch on Saturdays and open for dinner Tues-Sat.  I went for lunch a couple of years ago for a light bite to eat (this is when they were open during the week as well since they had a shop attached to it) and remember being very surprised with how good it was.

inside

We went for dinner during our vacation and there were 9 of us altogether, so we had a reservation and were seated immediately at the table pictured above.  It is not an extremely large menu, so many of us ordered the same thing, but we also had some pretty awesome appetizers.  The bar drinks were fantastic and the service was impeccable!

We started with their smoked trout dip and spicy pickled vegetables (I feel like there was possibly one more, but I cannot for the life of me remember).  The smoked trout dip was absolutely amazing (I am pretty damn sure I liked the bowl it came in).  They are not lying when they say spicy pickled vegetables…..holy spicy batman!!!!  I was shocked how how spicy they were.  I had a love hate relationship with them that evening and the kids of course stayed far away, but my mother-in-law who is just spicy herself (she is from Louisiana) LOVED them!!!  Oh, I think the third appetizer was cornbread, which was freaking ridiculous and we all fought over it.

A few of us ordered the Shrimp and Grits for dinner, someone ordered the catfish and I believe the last one was a fish special of possibly trout.  I was weary of the Shrimp and Grits (bacon, squash, red pepper, onion, & bourbon coconut sauce) as I have had some great ones in the past (#brothofthegodshumblepie #nofoatthepig #flyingundertheradarcameronbarandgrill), so definitely had high expectations.  However, I was more than pleasantly surprised as they were delicious!  First and foremost they included one of the key ingredients…BACON and the coconut broth was a perfect blend of spicy, sweet and savory!  I will say that the catfish was another favorite dish (pecan encrusted with mixed bean succotash, benton’s bacon, and a pecan sauce).  The pecan crust was absolutely delicious and added the right amount of texture to the catfish, which some people can find to me somewhat “mushy”.

Trout Shrimp and grits 2 Catfish

Will definitely be back there and I love their rotating menu to keep it fresh and local!!  We were too full to eat dessert….okay perhaps we were saving ourselves for another round of Britt’s Donuts (if you do not know what that is…..I feel very sad for you, but I won’t write about it as I want it all for myself).  However, their chocolate bar with salted caramel ice cream or their bourbon chocolate pecan pie looked amazing and I will definitely try one next time!

 

#shrimpandgritsrock #humblepie #nofoatthepig #carolinabeach