Whether you’ve lived here for three months or three years, everyone has a favorite local restaurant that is relied on for birthday dinners, family visits, and game-day lunches. While it is always important to have tried and true preferences, Boone has perhaps one of the best small-town food resumes in North Carolina. Most of us are here for four years, some for even longer than that, which means you have more than enough time to take advantage of all the mouth-watering locales that surround ASU’s campus. This by no means suggests that you give up your perfect attendance record at Macado’s wing night or the Saloon’s Taco Tuesday, but gives you a few new destinations to add to your list of go-to places in Boone.
1. The restaurant you’ve seen and heard about but haven’t gotten around to trying yet: Hot “Diggidy” Dog
Student-owned and located right across from the Turchin Arts Center on King Street, Hot “Diggidy” Dog offers fast, dependable classics with a state fair spin. Try a grilled burger topped with chili and slaw, made in-house, with a focus on using as many local ingredients as possible—you won’t be disappointed.
However, perhaps the most distinct reason that Hot “Diggidy” Dog deserves your regular business is simple: their deep fried staples, better than the NC State Fair itself. It sounds blasphemous, yet I can safely assure you that after trying both (multiple times) the thin, crispy batter that surrounds each Oreo at Hot “Diggidy” Dog and the doughy, thick radius of batter covering the state fair version, Hot “Diggidy” Dog’s is infinitely better. Also on the menu are deep fried oatmeal crème pies, which may not have been your favorite growing up, but completely deserve the second chance.
For the even more daring eaters, a burger with glazed donuts for buns and a deep fried hot dog wrapped in bacon are also options, along with a highly intimidating eating challenge, “Devin’s Deathburger.” Late night hours are offered for the bar crowd, but really, burgers and deep fried desserts taste good at any time of day.
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2. The best restaurant you may not have realized existed: Crave
(www.craveboone.com)
Slightly hidden off of 321 in Boone Heights shopping center, Crave is a tapas-style restaurant that offers more than sixty small dishes, all priced from $3.75 to $11.10. Diners can choose to progressively order as many dishes as they want, allowing each person to try something new in a smaller portion that they may not have ordered otherwise. The vast array of choices makes ordering somewhat hard, as it’s almost impossible to choose when everything on the menu is so different and equally appealing. Once you’re seated, the contemporary interior feels more big-city than Boone, and you can order urban dishes like fish tacos with mango-peach salsa, mushroom risotto, and baked brie all in the same meal.
Crave is an ideal place to head for a friend’s birthday dinner, especially her 21st, considering their exclusive list of 25 signature martinis and a decadent dessert menu. With choices like fried cheesecake with caramel and a chocolate pyramid that looks almost too good to eat, this restaurant has established itself as the perfect spot for a night of indulgence, yet it is completely doable for us college students. The nature of tapas-style eating also allows each customer to spend as much or as little as they want, making this a prime choice for those of us who may or may not be on a budget.
Don’t know where to start? Try the: fried goat cheese, bacon wrapped scallops (with plum bbq glaze), or Crave short ribs with gouda mac and cheese.
3. The restaurant that you will start visiting weekly before you even realize it: Proper (www.propermeal.com)
It is not often that you find one restaurant that has it all: a cozy, unique atmosphere, huge portions of outstanding food, and sweet tea served in mason jars. But the most surprising reason why you should try Proper? You can have it all for $7.95 per plate. Located on Water Street right where Howard Street ends, Proper is housed in the old Boone jailhouse and boasts an eat-in porch, mismatched artwork, a fireplace, and worn wooden tables. The main dining room is small, with only a handful of tables, creating a welcoming, personable environment unlike many other high-traffic, fast-paced restaurants. The emphasis here is the daily menu of Southern home-cooking with gourmet flair.
Menu staples include an array of sandwiches such as pimento cheese, as well as a catfish po’boy and fried chicken salad. In spite of these though, plates featuring the daily selections are what really define this restaurant as a model for Southern dining in town. Each plate comes with two sides and a choice of biscuit or cornbread, and once you’ve read the menu, it’s easy to see how hard of a choice ordering becomes. Rotating main dishes include pulled pork, fried chicken, and a 5 oz. strip with crab cakes served exclusively on Fridays. The selection of side items is exactly how it should be in the South: mashed potatoes and gravy, collard greens, sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, and braised cabbage, to name a few. You can’t go wrong with any of the options, but there are two very distinct stand-outs on the menu. The meatloaf with homemade ketchup may quite possibly become the only meatloaf you’ve ever tried and/or liked. It shatters every stigma that typical meatloaf has created up until now and is especially good next to the buttery mashed potatoes and gravy. On the other hand, make sure you ask what the ziti special is. If the friendly server informs you that they currently have the butternut squash ziti with rosemary: get it. Incredible is just about the only word for this dish that is packed with soft ricotta cheese and gives you the perfect taste of fall in the mountains. And if you happen to still want macaroni and cheese despite your pasta choice for the main dish, have no shame in getting that too.
Even though you’ll be pretty certain that it is not humanly possible to eat any more after your dinner, Proper’s dessert case lined with pecan pie and a slew of other comfort food essentials will make you think twice. Bring your family for lunch, dinner, or Sunday brunch, and you can be sure that they will make their next trip to Boone a little sooner than you’d normally expect.