This is the first installment of my annual Food Fan Awards for the year 2021! Scroll down to see & read about the nominees in the categories of Breakfast, Lunch, Fancy Dinner of the Year, Meal of the Year, Food Event of the Year and Food Competition of the Year!
The Food Fan Awards aka “The Stoobies” are entirely the opinion on one person, me, Stu Helm. You may or may not agree with my choices, as your experiences and personal tastes, may differ from mine. The people, places, and things featured in this, and the following installments of these nominations and awards were the most notable of the previous year to me.
EVENT OF THE YEAR
For obvious, pandemic-y reasons there weren’t a ton of big food events in 2021, and I myself only went to two, Goombay downtown, and Grindfest in the River Arts District.
Grindfest AVL / Black Wall Street AVL
Grind AVL is Asheville’s first black-owned cafe, located in the South East part of the RAD, and they sponsor a lot of cool stuff in that neighborhood, including Grindfest and Black Wall Street AVL. I live close by, and it’s great having such an active business doing fun events here! They opened in 2020, so their events are in their infancy, but they’re already off to a great start, and I can’t wait to see what they build into as the years go by.
Goombay
Goombay has been around for 40 years!!! It happens every year for three days in a row, right downtown in Pack Square and Pack Park, and is one of the most bangin’ events this town ever sees! There’s music, comedy, and speeches from the public stage in the park, and more food trucks than the last food truck rally I went to!
FOOD COMPETITION OF THE YEAR
There were a decent number of food competitions this year, though they were smaller than usual, and unfortunately I was not able to judge at, or even attend them all. I did my best, though, and even hosted two events myself, which I will include here, even though I’m not about to hand an award to myself, because they happened and I was there.
Cue for a Cause BBQ Throwdown
My friend and frequent podcast co-host Rick Crelia and I were asked to judge an amateur BBQ contest / fundraiser out in Leicester, and boy howdy, it was frickin’ great! There were several home-cook teams submitting a variety of meats and sides in various categories, and a really fun panel of judges. It was a great time and they raised an assload of money for veterans.
Bring Your Heat, Asheville
My buddy Luis from Descubre Asheville took on his first food competition this year with his “Bring Your Heat, Asheville” hot sauce and salsa competition, and even though he didn’t follow even one word of my advice, and he himself was stressing the fuck out the entire time, the event was great and a total success! The sauces were HOT and so was the sun, so I was in Hell, but also having a great time!
Dinner Impossible Food Truck Throw Down
I was tapped by Carey Harnash to judge desserts at a very strange and unique event that involved celebrity Chef Robert Irvine (above) competing with local food trucks. He had his own truck, and then Bun Intended, Asheville Tacos and Root Down Food Truck were there to represent Asheville. Irvine won the main competition, which again involved raising money for veterans, and Bun Intended won the dessert portion, which I was the sole judge of. It was hot as fuck that day, and I was just about as miserable as a person can be, but I put on a brave face, and somehow managed to have a great time! I even made the cut for the episode of Dinner Impossible that was made from this event!
Punk Rock Hot Dogs
I organized this one and produced it with Shay Brown Events at the Masonic Temple downtown. Ten competitors, no rules, VIP tickets, a people’s choice award and a judges’ panel. Bear’s BBQ made a hot dog that you could smoke weed through, and also provided the weed. (100% legal dDelta 8, Y’all. C’mon, now!) Cultura said “no rules?” ditched the hot dog, and submitted an octopus leg on a black ink bun and won hands-down with the judges. The Malvern won the People’s Choice, the DJ was frickin’ awesome, and we raised a bunch of money to help repair the Historic temple. Even Puke was there!
Duke’s vs Blue Plate
I kept seeing Blue Plate ads in my FB feed, so I wrote to them and said, basically, “I live in Duke’s Country, but if you send me some mayo, I’ll do a blind taste test. They did! So I did! Chef Jamie Wade from Sand Hill Kitchen was my fellow judge, both of us literally blind-folded, while my mom provided the samples in three categories: A blob on a spoon, in a deviled egg, and on a tomato sandwich. Conclusion: They about the same. And it was super fucking fun.
BREAKFAST OF THE YEAR
I will usually only eat breakfast if someone else is making it. Otherwise I drink coffee until lunch, when I stuff myself like a ravenous hyena. On those occasions when I did go out for breakfast in 2021, I had some mixed experiences, some good, some bad, some great. Below are the great ones…
Abeja’s House Cafe
This is my mom’s favorite place to go for lunch, and sometimes she’s ready for lunch when I’m just ready for breakfast, so I go to Abeja’s House Cafe for breakfast a lot. My go-to breakfast at Abeja’s is their chilaquiles, which are corn tortilla chips simmered in red salsa, served with two eggs, any style, refried beans, taters, pico de gallo, avocado cream sauce, and queso fresco. Above is a picture of their heuvos rancheros, which are also excellent, as is their NOLA style chicken ‘n’ shrimp. Good god, I’m hungry right now just writing about it!
Sunny Point Cafe
I love what they’ve done with their outdoor seating, and I love the whole experience at Sunny Point Cafe these days. They certainly rolled with the punches in 2021 and even retooled their menu a little bit. They added steak ‘n’ eggs, which is one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast, and Sunny Point did not disappoint with their version of this classic dish!
Sawhorse
I went to Sawhorse with my friend Mike. We’re both from up North, so this Northern comfort food restaurant and menu have a lot of things that appeal to us. The meat pie, the big breakfast, the salt potatoes, and of course their award-winning maple eclair are all right up my alley, and the friendly, homey service, in a family-style diner atmosphere, enhances the experience!
Doc Brown’s BBQ
Doc himself likes to drop food off at my house, just so that we can catch up a little bit, and he can get me hip to what he’s offering. One lucky morning, he texted me and asked if he could bring me breakfast. Holy moly, Y’all. Biscuits ‘n’ gravy, a huge egg sausage biscuit sandwich, & tallow fries. All cooked to Doc-Brown-Perfection & packed with tons of flavor, as always. I am never not impressed with Doc’s food, and dang it if he doesn’t do a great breakfast on top of it all!
LUNCH OF THE YEAR
Lunch is the most important meal of the day. (Don’t tell Breakfast I said that.) I eat more lunches than any other meal of the day, unless you include “snacks” as a meal, which I don’t. Snacks are the mortar between the bricks. Meals are the bricks. Well, hopefully not! Here are my top three nominees for Lunch of the Year 2021…
Nani’s Piri Piri Chicken née Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken
Mmmmmmmmmm, chicken. I could eat chicken every day, Yo, and sometimes I do. I love chicken as much as I love lunch itself, and y’know what I really love? Chicken for lunch. Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken (now called Nani’s Piri Piri Chicken) has some of the best chicken-for-lunch offerings in town right now! My go-to is the breast and wing plate, with two sides. One side will definitely be their savory corn pudding, the other side I reserve for a wildcard, choosing something different every time. It is a lot of food, enough to save some for later, but not so much that you can’t power it all down if you want to.
Ziggy’s Bakery & Deli
Ziggy’s. Holy shit, Ziggy’s. People have been telling me that I have to check out Ziggy’s ever since they opened, but I have not had a chance to get out there myself until 2021, and wow, everything everyone ever told me about Ziggy’s is true and more! I still don’t get out there as much as I’d like to, but whenever I have a chance to go, I jump on it! The meatball sub, the Reuben, and of course, their authentic Philly are my three favorite things on their menu.
WakuWaku Japanese Eatery
Y’all. Do you even know what a hidden gem we have here in Asheville in the form of Chef Naomi Mikami and WakuWaku Japanese Eatery? She reached out to me in 2021 to let me know that, although her brick and mortar was closed, she is now selling her amazing food exclusively through her newsletter and website for pick-up several times a week at various centrally located spots. She was kind enough to drop off more than a couple lunches for me at my house and I really loved them! She features the food of her region in Japan, which is a little different in form and formula than what I have experienced from other Japanese food makers, and you even get to learn about Japanese culture from her and her newsletter! I recommend that interested eaters should subscribe.
FANCY DINNER OF THE YEAR
I went to exactly three fancy dinners in 2021, because… again… thanks covid! Dick. All three events were at Cultura, one of them was a Chow Chow event. They were all excellent and are my three nominees for 2021 fancy Meal of the year…
OaxaCalifornia Dinner at Cultura
This awesome 8 Course meal was part of a series of dinners Cultura is hosting called Cultivated Community, that feature Chef Eric Morris and his staff working with other, perhaps lesser-known guest Chefs, to shine a light on them, feed the foodies something fun & different, highlight the Cultura/Funkatorium/Vidl Wines beverage train, and raise money for charity. This one featured Chef Luis Martinez and raised money for Desinos, and it was fucking impressive. It was my first fancy dinner in a LOOOONG time, and it was fantastic.
Swine’d Sustainably at Cultura
This time, it’s 7 courses, featuring Chef Jonathan Pridgen and raising money for ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) and was, like, a non-stop meat-parade. We were told about the specific pig, from a local farm, that all the food came from at the beginning of the meal, and then we were treated to many parts and pieces of that same pig. From the fancy slim jim (slender james?) appetizer, to the delicious mocktails, to the divine pana cotta at the end, this dinner was extremely delicious and superbly enjoyable.
Food Stories / Chow Chow
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the very last Chow Chow event. I could have gone to more, but I had a lot of schedule conflicts and transport issues. I was sad because I was starting to think that I would be SOL and miss them all, so I was pumped that I was able to attend the final night, which was a “storyteller” night, featuring several chefs, making dishes that were inspired by the stories being told by the storytellers. Each course was accompanied by an onstage interview with both the chef, and the storyteller who inspired their dish. The seating was banquet style, so I got to meet some nice new people, and see a ton of old friends that I hadn’t laid eyes on in a long, long, way too long time.
MOCKTAILS OF THE YEAR
I have made it public knowledge that I don’t drink. I original came out with that info so that people wouldn’t send me drinks! For real, when I first started writing food reviews, people started to send me drinks, which I had to turn down and send back. Now everyone knows I don’t drink, and they STILL send me drinks… non-alcoholic drinks! AKA mocktails. Everyone seems to be stepping-up their mocktail game, and the three nominees below are the most impressive mocktails that I had all year…
Sovereign Remedies
One of the things that makes a really great mocktail is how grown-up it looks and tastes! There’s a tendency or temptation to make a really fancy mocktail, that starts to look and taste more and more like it’s for little kids. Sweet, colorful, loaded with fruit, flowers, a piece of candied ginger, it can get pretty dessert-y, which I don’t mind too terribly, but with right before or during dinner, I just want a nice, clean, simple-but-interesting beverage that is crisp, dry, and bright. Sovereign Remedies serves the most grown-up mocktails in Asheville. They taste like cocktails, sans the booze, and I appreciate them for that!
Cultura
I went to three fancy dinners at Cultura in 2021, each of them was six or seven courses, and a totally different mocktail came with every single course. Wow! Atsalotta mocktails! They were all unique, complex, beautiful to look at and sooooo awesome to taste. They also paired the mocktails with the food, which is not always easy, but they nailed it! From dry to sour to slightly sweet, they covered all bases and showed what can be done to make interesting drinks that do not contain alcohol.
Session Cafe
Dawn and I popped into Session Cafe at Citizen Vinyl for a quick bite and cocktail / mocktail to start one of our “snack and saunter” nights downtown. We typical make three stops, with bites & drinks on those nights, and we started with Session. You can see in the picture above that there was very little space between my drink and Dawn’s, which is nice right there. One f the weird things about not drinking booze, is that your drink usually looks different than everyone else’s. Not so at Session!. Dawn loved her cocktail, and my mocktail was insanely delicious! They have a menu of non-alcohol beverages, and I’m very much looking forward to watching their mocktail program grow along with their cocktails!
Buxton Hall
Now, this one was kinda sweet, but I ain’t compainin’, because it was fucking awesome! It was early in the day, when sweet drinks go down a little better, and boy howdy! This one was working! I loved it and I want to encourage Buxton Hall, as well as everyone else out there, to keep on pushing your mocktail menu! I love it that this one-time laughable category of drinks is finally getting some respect. Thanks, Buxton!
SWEET TREATS OF THE YEAR
I do like my sweets! Just because I enjoy a dry drink, doesn’t mean I don’t want three pieces of cake, 24 popsicles, a box of chocolates and some edibles! Below are my three nominees for the best sweet treats I had all year…
Buggy Pops
I’m new to Buggy Pops, and an instant fan! I love popsicles anyways, and I have very fond memories of the Mexican-style popsicles from when I lived in Chicago. Coconut, Mango, Horchato, Pineapple and more! Well, Buggy Pops has ALL of those and many more! From golden milk, to sesame, to watermelon mint, these popsicles are fun, flavorful, refreshing and delicious!
Old Europe
So, one day I realized that I could get caked from Old Europe delivered to my house via KickbackAVL, and I may have gone a little nuts. Good lord, people. How amazing is Old Europe? I mean, c’mon, Asheville. They’ve been here for 25 years, and they have been serving soem of the best sweets in all of WNC. I know that y’all love them as much as I do, and there is almost nothing better in this world than a box full of their sweets delivered straight to your door!
Marble & Steel Craft Chocolates
These were some of the prettiest chocolates i’ve ever eaten, and the flavors were just as lovely.
Bhumi Chocolate
Bhumi Chocolates are the very first “edibles” to ever be nominated for a Stoobie Award. For those of you who may not know, “edibles” usually contain marijuana. Here in NC, where weed is still illegal (c’mon, y’all. Let’s fix that) the edibles contain what’s know as Delta 8, or sometimes Delta 10 THC, derived from hemp, which is legal in NC. (If you wanna learn more, come on one of my dispensary tours!) These legal edibles are a relatively new field, and I’m on top of it! Bhumi chocolates stand out to me in the field due to the fact that the chocolate itself is excellent! Mint dark chocolate, tiramisu dark chocolate, and white chocolate chai are among the flavors they offer, all with Delta8 THC. Tastes great. Gets you high. Mission accomplished.
MEAL OF THE YEAR
The Meal of the Year award is typically saved for the one meal that was the my personal favorite eating experience. It doesn’t matter if it was breakfast, lunch, dinner, fancy, plain, part of my job, or just something I grabbed along the way. Two of my four nominees for 2021 are “tastings” at which I was fortunate enough to enjoy as a food writer, so they may not be typical of most folks experiences, but the quality of the food can’t be denied, and is available to the public, so I still feel as though the recommendations are valid. Anyhoo, here they are…
Odditorium
The Odditorium is a dive bar on the way way west end of Haywood Ave in WAVL. Although I had been there in the past, I don’t go to a lot of bars anymore, so I was completely unaware that they had a new kitchen and that Chef Ben Hester (Cultura, Tod’s Tasties) is the man behind the menu. He invited me in to try some food, and good lord almighty, he laid out such a FEAST of heart attack food (my favorite kind) that I was in hog heaven. Burgers, fried chicken, cheesesteak, deep fried stuff, boom, bang, bam, pow. I was dead by the end, but smiling ear to ear.
Griff’s Kitchen & Bar
Adventure Dining is my new thing! Actually, it’s just a new name for an old thing: Eating at a restaurant outside of my usual circle of walkability. This was the case when my friends Jill Worthy and husband Jimmy picked me up and drove me waaaaaay the fuck out to Griff’s Kitchen & Bar in Candler, where I ate one of the most bangin’ meals I’ve ever had, anywhere. We shared incredible appetizers that were delicate, creative, tasty and satisfying, and I ordered the pork shoulder, with pepper jelly, creamy succotash, Roma tomatoes, and crispy onions at the Chef’s suggestion, which turned out to be exquisite. If I could walk to Griff’s, I’d be there all the time.
Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse
I went to Ukiah for the very first time on my birthday, which is dicy AF! I usually go to someplace time-tested-and-true, and order something I’ve had before and already know that I love on my birthday. I don’t fuck around on that day, it’s too crucial. Buhhhht, in 2021 everything was already a mess, so nothing mattered anymore, and I had a feeling that Ukiah would not disappoint. Aaaand they did not. They sent a juggernaut of food to our table, and Dawn and I loved every bite. Plus, just about every person working there came by and said “hi” at some point. Yes, I was there as a writer, and we got the royal treatment, but that’s part of what makes this meal a contender for the meal of the year award: It was special! And you can do a tasting menu at Ukiah any time you want, for a similar experience.
Zambra
Zambra was the winner for “Dinner of the Year 2019” and a contender in 2020 for “Meal of the Year,” and here they are again! Zambra turned 20 years old recently, and it’s as good as it was the day I first ate there, over a decade ago. They’ve had some of Asheville’s top chefs working there over the years, and the chef responsible for serving my friends and family one of the best and most notable meals of the year was Chef Ryan Kline, who I have known for years, and admire very much as a person and as a chef. This was the first meal Dawn and I ate out with friends after all the big shutdowns of 2020. It happened post-vaccinations, but pre-Delta-variant, when we all first felt like it was safe to dine-in at restaurants again, which made this meal even more special on top of the sheer tonnage of delicious foods that we placed on our table. Ryan has since moved on to do his own thing, keep an eye out, and in the meantime, the menu is in the very capable hands of Chef Nick Hane (Cucina 24), so go say hey!
Thanks for reading this far! There are many more categories to come, so please sign-up for my FREE newsletter and follow me here on Ashvegas for the next three weeks while I announce the rest of the nominees and then the winner!
RECAP OF CATEGORIES & NOMINEES
Food Event of The Year
Grindfest AVL / Black Wall Street AVL
Goombay
Food Competition of the Year
Cue for a Cause BBQ Throwdown
Bring Your Heat, Asheville
Dinner Impossible Food Truck Throw Down
Punk Rock Hot Dogs
Duke’s vs Blue Plate
Breakfast of the Year
Abeja’s House Cafe
Sunny Point Cafe
Sawhorse
Doc Brown’s BBQ
Lunch of the Year
Nani’s Piri Piri Chicken née Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken
Ziggy’s Bakery & Deli
Waku Waku
Fancy Dinner of the Year
OaxaCalifornia Dinner
Swine’d Sustainably
Food Stories / Chow Chow
Sweets
Buggy Pop Popsicles
Old Europe Cakes
Marble & Steel Craft Chocolates
Bhumi Chocolate
Mocktails
Sovereign Remedies
Cultura
Session Cafe
Meal of the Year
Odditorium
Griff’s Kitchen & Bar
Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse
Zambra
coming soon….
Deep Fried Thing of the Year
Taco of the Year
Wing Maker of the Year
Philly / Cheesesteak of the Year
Burger of the Year
Sandwich of the Year
Just Meat of the Year
Ribs of the Year
Meatloafof of the Year
Mussels of the Year
Chicken Salad of the Year
Shepherd’s Pie of the year
Sides of the Year
New Restaurant of the Year
Restaurant of the Year
Food Truck of the Year
Chef of the Year
— TO BE CONTINUED —
Stu Helm is a writer, blogger, and social media personality living and working in Asheville,NC.
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