Tupelo Honey Cafe
Our initial hope was to share a conversation about Tupelo Honey Cafe, but JZ was distracted and didn’t prove to be much of a conversationalist:
EZ: We had heard about this restaurant for a long time, and I have been in Asheville for work, but we never had the time to wait for a table (they do not accept reservations, and are pretty much always busy).
JZ: I never realized there would be no Tupelo honey at Tupelo Honey Cafe.
EZ: There was Tupelo honey.
JZ: Well I couldn’t taste the difference, but I wasn’t really trying. I should have eaten it alone instead of slathered on biscuit.
So we return to our normal writing style…
We walked up to Tupelo Honey Cafe around 11 on Sunday morning, and the line outside indicated a significant impending wait. Fortunately, they send a text when the table is ready and give you five minutes to claim it. Even better, we had coffee and bananas at the hotel to stave off any hunger pangs, and were content to explore downtown in the gorgeous, summertime weather. We requested first available seating, and spent the hour+ at our disposal perusing the neighboring shops and Wall Street.
After careful consideration, EZ ordered their famous sweet potato pancake with goat cheese grits, and I went with the daily special, blueberry granola pancake with locally sourced breakfast sausage. Both pancakes were incredibly light and fluffy with a nice, toasted edge, but EZ’s sweet potato pancake won us over with it’s delicate flavors balanced to be warm, inviting, and not too heavy. The pancakes were huge and very filling, and EZ will tell you that for the first time she witnessed me not clean a plate of breakfast. However, she chooses to ignore that I threw in the towel because I ate so much of her sweet potato pancake. As for the sides, my locally-sourced sausage was among the best either of us ever tasted, and the goat cheese grits added a new flavor dimension to an old favorite.
In short, the food was incredible, and we both appreciated how well Tupelo Honey Cafe handled the extremely high patronage for Sunday brunch. Despite the eatery being quite busy, our service did not suffer at all. We never felt rushed despite long wait behind us and the lunch transition starting. As we left, we overheard the host quoting someone a two-hour wait, and believe it or not, they smiled and added their name to the list.
If you are ever in Asheville, we highly recommend a trip to Tupelo Honey Cafe, and we can’t wait to try the new location when it opens here in the Queen City.
