Sunday ride to Stoney Knob Cafe

July 29, 2019

I had a wonderful ride yesterday with friends that I hadn’t ridden with in a while. We met up north of Gastonia NC and rode some lovely country and foothills roads northwest to a favorite brunch stop, the Stoney Knob Café, near Asheville. If you have never been there, it is a foodie haven. It was opened in 1962 by Gus Dermas, who emigrated from Greece in 1947. After working in the restaurant growing up, and then traveling the world, his two sons, John and Yotty, inherited the restaurant and transformed it beginning in 2000 to an award-winning, eclectic, five-star food epicurean delight. The parking lot is always packed. At 11:30 am on a Sunday, we had a 20 minute wait for a table. All of us had the special: Shrimp Benedict over asiago cheese grit cakes with chips of bacon and creole hollandaise sauce. It was so tasty, it couldn’t have been good for us. We held ourselves back from licking our plates. Oh, and our server, Jenny, was very easy on the eyes.

After dining, the temps had started to rise, so we headed up into the Smokey’s on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The 62 degree temps near Mt. Mitchell became 92 by the time we came down off the mountain on the way home. By the time our 325 mile day was done, we had also seen lots of farm animals and wildlife, including: a turtle sunning in the road, a Canadian goose doing the same until we raced by and it lumbered off, several dogs (including one racing alongside us in the grass), cats (one dead), horses mingling with cows in the shade, Alpacas, goats, donkeys, and wild turkeys.

All in all, a great way to spend the day!

https://www.stoneyknobcafe.com/drama/index.html