Snowshoe to eat

[wcmckinney]

Am going up to Snowshoe this weekend to play in the snow. Are there are preferable spots to get a bite to eat in the area? Alternatively, is there anywhere good to eat on the way out to Snowshoe coming from Raleigh-Durham?

[Gifted Gourmet]

dining at Snowshoe

Arbuckles Cabin

Bear's Den

Black Run Sugar House

Boat House

Brandi's at the Inn at Snowshoe

Cheat Mountain Pizza Company

Foxfire Grille

Cornerstone Steak and Pasta Company

Junction Restaurant

Pizzazz Pizza

Red Fox Restaurant

The Boiler Room

Shavers Centre Food Court

Starbucks Coffee

The Village Bistro

[Darcie B]

On the way to Snowshoe: I’m not sure what route you are taking, but you will probably pass through Lewisburg. It’s only about 45 minutes from Snowshoe, but there are some decent places to eat that are probably better priced that the resort restaurants. The downtown is very quaint, lots of little antique shops, etc. It’s a real arts town, with several galleries.

General Lewis Inn

I have eaten here several times. The General Lewis is pre-Civil War hotel, complete with ghosts. I really like their cream of celery soup. Serving three meals daily. Specialties include country ham, chicken, steaks and mountain trout. Homemade pecan pie and fruit cobblers. 301 E. Washington Street, Lewisburg, WV, (304) 645-2600.

Del Sol Cafe & Market

This is a pretty good deli for WV. It’s great for grabbing something on the go. Their hours are erratic, though. Deli sandwiches, specialty coffees & cappuccinos, and desserts. Outdoor dining and gift shop. 206 W. Washington St., Lewisburg, WV, (304) 645-5515

Food & Friends

The food here is good but not exciting. It’s across the street from Del Sol.

Casual dining, moderately priced American and Italian dishes. 213 W. Washington St., Lewisburg, West Virginia WV, (304) 645-4548

At Snowshoe: The list that Melissa provided is comprehensive. I have only eaten at the Foxfire Grille (I don't ski). It was noisy, cramped and the service was slow. The food was OK, but overpriced (like most resort food).

I dug around and found some additional information about a few of the restaurants. Your best bet for fine dining is the Red Fox (several of my friends recommend it), for country cooking I think it is Brandi’s.

Foxfire Grille

(304-572-5555). Views, blues and barbecue co-exist at the laid back Foxfire Grille. Foxfire specializes in fruit-wood smoked meats with an extra kick for lunch and dinner.

Brandi's at the Inn at Snowshoe

(304-572-1000). Brandi's offers all kinds of favorites at reasonable prices. Mountain breakfasts and fulfilling dinners abound.

Restaurant Critique: The Red Fox (from Ski Magazine)

Snowshoe Mountain Resort, W. Va.

If there's anything that Margaret Ann Ball loves more than cooking, it's being "up on the mountain," where, for the past 20 years, she and her family have run The Red Fox restaurant at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. "When I first came up here, it was May and it was snowing," she recalls. "I took one look and said, 'Why would anybody want to be here?' But I haven't left since."

It was a natural fit for the West Virginia-born-and-raised chef, whose globetrotting grandfather encouraged her to push at the walls of her culinary world by eating exotic dishes, such as brains and tongue. "He'd say, 'Try it, and if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it,'" she remembers. "Well, I found out I did like it, and everything else, too."

You're not likely to find brains or tongue at The Red Fox, where the most popular dishes on the menu are red meat and wild game. The restaurant's setting is well-suited. It features rustic brick archways, timber ceilings, hand-carved furnishings, country antiques and 18th-century prints. Guests enjoy dinner in the cozy tavern (Ball's favorite room), the greenhouse, which has a view of passing snowcats, or the convivial main dining room.

To each, Ball sends plates of dynamic alpine cuisine prepared with classic European techniques. The "Huntsman's Grille"-venison, pheasant and wild boar sausage dressed with a maple sauce-is a favorite, as are noisettes of buffalo and barbecued quail. Ball also encourages trial of her favorite Chilean sea bass, halibut or the ahi she has flown in fresh from Hawaii. For dessert, it's tough to beat her miniature bundt cakes, filled with chocolate mousse and topped with homemade caramel ice cream and "wet walnut" syrup.

The topper? The Red Fox wait staff is required to attend a 10-day "boot camp" to learn European-style service. "Our guests travel through little two-mail-pouch towns and up a mountain to get here," Ball says. "To find a restaurant with world-class food and service really shocks them."

If you want to make a side trip to Charleston WV (2 hours away), I'd be happy to whip something up for you! (BTW - don't come to Charleston looking for a great restaurant--but there are several "country cookin" places).

Edited to fix glaring errors.

Edited January 20, 2005 by Darcie B (log)

[wcmckinney]

Lewisberg sounds like it may be the winner here, thanks for the info. Hopefully I can get by the General Lewis Inn, which sounds remarkably similar to the Daniel Boone Inn in Boone, NC...minus the ghosts.

[Darcie B]

You can check out the restaurant here: General Lewis restaurant.

You may drive by a quaint looking little restaurant called Julian's. AVOID IT. I got food poisoning there a few years back. To be fair, that could be an isolated incident. However, I still can't eat clams.

[kitchenbabe]

Unfortunately, I had the same opinion about Foxfire Grille last summer. After dinner, my husband and I went to the Bistro there for a nightcap, and were impressed with the menu when we looked at it out of curiousity...

A bit more upscale, a quieter atmosphere. It was too late to try anything out of the kitchen, but if you're looking for a more upscale meal, give it a try. We didn't venture much out of the village, so I'm not sure about the other restaurants on the mountain. The Junction that's near the ski lifts puts out a good breakfast, and the coffee is decent...they also serve a local brew (Black Mountain, I think is the name), it's a mom and pop brewery in the state that only distributes to a very few restaurants, it was really good with a plate of wings for a midafternoon bite.

In any case, enjoy your trip...my cousin is chief of security, so stay out of trouble!!