MAY 7, 2009 ISSUE
Serving Up Success
Three Blowing Rock Restaurants Reach Best Dish in N.C. Finals
Three of the nineteen finalist restaurants competing for statewide Best Dish in North Carolina honors are located in Blowing Rock. Two restaurants—Crippen’s Country Inn and Restaurant, under Chef James Welch, and The Table at Crestwood, under Chef Chuck Nelson—are finalists in the Fine Dining category; Storie Street Grille, under Chef Andrew Long, is a finalist in the Casual Dining category.
“We’re pleased to have so many restaurants as finalists in the competition. It’s one of the reasons that Southern Living readers named us as one of the Best Small Towns in the South, and one of the primary reasons people travel here,” said Tracy Brown, executive director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority.
Finalists were chosen based on menus that include a combination of dishes featuring North Carolina products. Menus for the Blowing Rock finalists—offered for at least a four-week period in May, June or July—are as follows:
Crippen’s Country Inn and Restaurant: North Carolina shrimp & vodka martini, spicy tomato bisque, chocolate salad, Vietnamese marinated pork tenderloin, North Carolina apple tart with cinnamon ice cream
The Table at Crestwood: Sweet potato spring rolls, sweet potato tasso soup, chocolate ginger duck, Cheerwine ice cream Napoleon
Storie Street Grille: Fish & chip salad, North Carolina mountain trout mates, mountain blackberry cobbler
Crippen’s Country Inn and Restaurant and Storie Street Grille are no strangers to the competition. Crippen’s won first prize in the Fine Dining category in 2006 and Storie Street placed third in Casual Dining in 2007.
Restaurants in each category will be judged by an anonymous, three-member panel that will sample the entries and evaluate menus based on use of North Carolina products, creativity, presentation, taste and promotion. First-, second- and third-place winners will be announced in August.
The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Goodness Grows in North Carolina program and Our State magazine sponsor the Best Dish in North Carolina competition.
For a complete list of finalists, restaurant information, entered menus with pictures, chef bios, judging criteria and contest information, click to www.BestDishNC.com.
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