This Morning's Cup of Coffee (.
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A testament to Southern elegance, culinary soul, and the beauty of an unhurried evening.
There are places you visit for dinner, and there are places, rare places, that remind you why we gather at a table at all. Ashten’s is the latter.
From the first step inside, the atmosphere draws you in: crimson walls, warm lamplight, rich wood, and a quiet hum that invites you to slow down. It feels less like a restaurant and more like someone’s cherished parlor, curated with history, warmth, and intention.
Service, led with care by Maddison, set the evening’s tone. Neither rehearsed nor distant, she moved with an intuitive grace, offering guidance, honoring silence, and treating the meal not as service, but as hospitality.
The evening opened with The Original Reuben Eggroll, familiar in spirit, inventive in form. It was the kind of appetizer that tells you, quietly, you are in skilled hands.
For the main course, the 12 oz. Brasstown Beef NY Strip, a dish grounded not only in flavor, but in place, an homage to North Carolina’s farms and fields.
Across the table, the Ashten’s Asher Blue Burger with Bacon, stood as proof that comfort food, when respected, can rise to something unforgettable.
To accompany it all, the Apple Cider Margaritas, rimmed with five-spice salt and garnished with thin ribbons of Granny Smith apple, echoed the season. Crisp, spiced, reflective, a drink meant to be sipped, not simply consumed.
And then came reverence in the form of dessert, Ashten’s Signature Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake, a decade in the making. Tall, dark, unapologetically rich. Each bite layered with the balance of sweet and salt, memory and indulgence. A finale that does not exit quietly.
What sets Ashten’s apart is not only culinary excellence, it is the respect for presence. This is a place that understands that dining, at its best, is an experience of connection. A meal not rushed, a table treated as a moment in time.
Five stars without hesitation.
For the food, yes. But more importantly, for the artistry of feeling.
-❤️TMCoC