It was a dark and stormy night . . . but totally worth battling wind and rain from the edge of Hurricane Nicole to celebrate a birthday at Milton’s in Black Mountain.
I first met Executive Chef Edwin Bloodworth eight years ago when he was running the kitchen at Lex18, a N. Lexington Ave restaurant (no longer in business) in Asheville. He served up one of the best meals I’d had to date!
It wasn’t until we chatted with Chef Edwin this time that I realized he’d been at Gamekeeper Restaurant & Bar in Boone during the time I was producing the High Country Small Plate Crawls. If you’ve never been to Gamekeeper, you must go. Their food is interesting and fantastic. They’ve done some major remodeling since I’ve been, so I also need to get back up there.
This is the second time my husband and I have been to Milton’s, in the historic Monte Vista Boutique Hotel. Both were the type of dining experience you can’t stop thinking about. Chef Edwin has been at the helm of Milton’s Black Mountain in the The Monte Vista Hotel for about 8 months now, and he’s knockin’ it outta’ the park! Feast your eyes on some of what’s coming out of his kitchen now, as well as what’s to come on his soon-to-be-finalized new menu in the Gallery below.
Every, Single, Dish was presented beautifully and was absolutely delicious! Flavors were balanced, yet set each other off perfectly.
We were there for dinner, not a media preview, but Chef didn’t let that stand (smile). As we were about to give our most fabulous server, Jennifer, our order, she looked me directly in the eye and said, “you’ll get what you get.” Oh, okaaay . . . We did eventually get what we were going to order, but before that happened, a “new menu preview” tasting parade happened. Do. Not. Get. Me. Wrong. We loved every minute of our evening! It was a completely fun, magical way to celebrate Bill’s birthday! Especially as we’d had to cancel the original date due to a family emergency.
NOTES:
As you look through the Gallery at all the lusciousness, keep in mind some of the tasting dishes – marked as NEW MENU COMING SOON – are still in the process of being tweaked, so they might look/taste a little different when finalized. Read “finalized” as “Chef’s best and most delicious take on the dish”.
Pictures from our first meal at Milton’s are marked PREVIOUS MEAL in the Gallery.
If you haven’t been to the historic (National Register) Monte Vista Hotel in a while, things have changed. A few years ago, Southern Proper Hospitality (Atlanta), “together [with] a few other Black Mountain partners acquired the hotel and redesigned the accommodations to create a comfortable and classically hip boutique mountain oasis.”
It’s lovely inside and out! In nice weather, it’ll be hard choosing between cozy inside dining, and dining on their pretty back patio. Both have fireplaces.
Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails
308 West State Street
Black Mountain, NC 28711
828-669-8870
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