Come for the Biscuits, Stay for the Meal

The Moose Cafe is always busy

Visitors to the North Carolina Farmer’s Market at Ashville enjoy walking down the long promenade between stalls filled with fresh produce, sourwood honey, country ham and Amish baked goods. They often visit the huge garden center across the road, and if they are in the know, their visit often includes a stop at Moose Café. The café is almost always crowded, so there is usually a short wait. While hanging out and waiting for a table diners can read the glowing reviews from prestigious magazines such as Southern Living, browse the various Moose-related items, or just chill in one of the ample rocking chairs.
Once their name is called diners are likely to be escorted to a table near the huge windows overlooking the pastoral Biltmore Estate. The menu is sparse, just one page front and back, plus a few daily specials written on a white board near the lobby. Their specialty is home style country cooking of the meat and three variety and the prices are very reasonable. The restaurant is owned by the farmer’s market which is next door, so the food is almost guaranteed to be fresh. Tea and sodas are served in one pint canning jars. Once you place your order the waitress disappears into the kitchen and returns in a few minutes with a plate of hot biscuits. These are no ordinary biscuits. These steaming fist-sized wads of perfectly baked dough are the kind that grandmas all over the South are remembered for. Slathered with butter and baptized with the readily available honey, sorghum or he moose Café’s signature home made apple butter, they bring back memories of Sunday dinners long past; a childhood fondly remembered. The food at Moose Café is simple, appetizing and well done. (It's here I learned by eavesdropping on a watress, that the secret to the great flavor of their pinto beans is a timely addition of a dollop of peanut butter. Try it.) But ask anyone who has visited the place and more often than not, the first thing they will mention is the biscuits. Often their eyes will glaze over and they will get that far away look, as if recalling their first date, their wedding, or a favorite vacation of long ago. Yes, the biscuits are that good.
Diner rating: 5