CURATE TAPAS BAR - ASHEVILLE

Asheville is very much a foodie town - full of amazing local restaurants and breweries. Every time that I visit I make sure that I do not go to a restaurant that I've already been to - and honestly, it's really easy because there are so many to choose from. 

As a big fan of tapas (and all Spanish foods and wine) Curate Tapas Bar has been on my list to try for a while now - luckily we were able to get a reservation last weekend on our last evening in Asheville.

I didn't look at the menu while we were waiting to be seated, simply because I love studying the menu at the table with a nice of glass wine - it's all a part of the dining experience that I enjoy so much. But once we finally sat down and I ordered an amazing Tempranillo (a 2017 Emilio Moro, Ribera del Duero), I knew just in one glance of the menu that I wanted to order all the things.

First up was this delicious salad of endive, Spanish blue cheese, candied walnuts, fresh grapefruit and orange slices, with a champagne vinaigrette. Honestly, this could have been my entire meal if I wasn't so greedy. One of the best salads I've had in a long time and I really want to try and remake it a home. I've never had citrus in a salad, but I'm now a big fan.

Next up was a galician style octopus served warm with sea salt, olive oil, Spanish paprika (which I will have to pick some up the next time I'm in Barcelona for work), and a yukon gold potato puree. I wasn't sure if I was going to love this or not because typically I only like octopus grilled - but this….this was really good - so tender and buttery. And that little sprinkle of sea salt at the end, made for the perfect bite.

And then came these roasted red peppers stuffed with Spanish goat cheese and drizzled with a little pesto, ya'll. Soooo good. I can actually still tastes these, and I can say hands down this was my favorite dish. I feel like I could probably recreate this - but a part of me doesn't want to ruin it and instead will always remember how amazing these were. I know I said my rule was not to go to the same restaurant twice - but I might have to make an exception for these.

Finally, we ordered the patatas bravas, because it's the one staple that you have to always order when dining at a tapas restaurant. My friend said that she heard you can judge how good a tapas restaurant is all by how good their patatas bravas are. And in this case they were excellent. By the time these came out, we were already pretty stuffed, so we decided to take them back to our Airbnb, and cooked them up the next morning and put a fried egg on top for breakfast - and they were just as delicious as the night before.

If you ever travel to Asheville (and everyone should absolutely travel to Asheville at least once in their lifetime) I highly recommend making reservations to Curate. You'll want to make reservations early because they book up quickly. Oh one note to mention - their desserts are just meh….so I would skip the dessert course and instead walk across the street and grab some ice cream from Marble Slab, or around the corner to the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. You're welcome!