Hearth and Herron - A Hendersonville, NC Experience

There are reasons for choosing to have a meal at a restaurant bar instead of a dining room table. It’s easy conversations with people in nearby seats. Same with the bartender. View and vibe can be very different, also.

Love the warm, cozy feel in Hearth and Herron’s bar. There’s probably 10 to 12 seats. Walls are exposed historic brick. The lit shelves of bottles in front of exterior windows make a big impact. Haven’t been during the day, but I’m guessing those shelves would look great then, too.

Hearth and Herron Bar

Prime example, dinner at Hearth and Herron this past Sunday. People on one side of me were visiting from near Fort Mill, South Carolina. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on Hendersonville and which restaurants they’d tried. On the other side, a woman who lives in Hendersonville and her friend visiting from Tryon. They told me which dishes they’d had and what they though about them.

The friend was raving about the Wood Roasted French Feta, with market vegetables, orange marmalade, and grilled slices of Underground Baking Co Sourdough Bread.

Hearth and Herron

He made it sound so delicious, I had to order it, even though I planned on dessert and could have stopped after the dish I will forevermore rave about – Flying Cloud Farms Winter Squash Salad with freekeh, parmesan aioli, arugula, and pumpkin seed gremolata. What’s “freekeh”, you ask? It’s “a cereal food made from green durum wheat that’s roasted and rubbed to create its flavor”. It’s crunchy and delicious! See image at top of article.

Biggest personal takeaway after chatting with the two bartenders is that they make their own Limoncello. I’m a Limoncello fan. We almost always have a chilled bottle of Limoncello on hand at home. They were kind enough to give me a taste. I’m still shaking my head at how good it was. Clear, smooth texture, and great lemon flavor!

The other takeaway is what the lead bartender said about staff. “We’re a small crew, we all like each other, and work well together.” As far as I could tell, watching interactions, all of that is true.

Oh! Speaking of bartenders, the lead bartender said he’s really getting into the finer points of wine and is looking into starting Sommelier courses. Hope he does well and brings that knowledge to H&H.

Hearth and Herron

From the beginning, Owner Chef Bradley has said this would be a Mom & Pop/family restaurant. After meeting and talking with his wife, Marisa (sweetest ever), I can share that their young boys also help out doing things like stacking old brick kept after demo and buildout of the 1930 building’s interior, and stacking firewood. Marisa went on to say “as soon as they’re 14, you can expect to see them working in the restaurant.”

Chef Brad Herron

This landed well with me because our three children started doing chores when they were toddlers. Things like setting the table, bringing milk in from the front porch milk box, getting the mail. Easy, but a responsibility and something that helped the family. When they got older, they each had a cleaning caddy and were responsible for various rotating chores around the house: cleaning bathrooms, washing floors, vacuuming, dusting. Ready for life after they went off on their own.

Hearth and Herron has been open a few months now and are consistently busy. Chef Brad mentioned that some folks come in a little warry, but as soon as they see the menu, they visibly relax.

Speaking of their menu, it changes daily depending on market availability. Some items change, not the whole thing. Where’s the menu? If you’re having trouble finding their menu, they post it daily as a Story on their Instagram account. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, comment and I’ll explain. If you don’t have an Instagram account and can’t view their account/menu, take a chance and go. I’m confident you’ll be glad you did.

Sunday, November 2, 2025 Menu

They don’t have a website as of now, and may or may not have one. Even if they did have one, it would be pretty tough (possibly expensive) to change the Menu on a website every day.

Dessert: daily dessert, that’s right, one dessert is offered each day, and might not have an official name. When I said I’d like to order a dessert, they did a good job describing it to me: “it’s like creme brulee meets flan topped with an ice cream quenelle, with baked apple and nut halves in a light caramel sauce”. Take a leap. Whatever it is, it’ll be good!