The Gideon Ridge Restaurant was in the inn of the same name in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  The inn has about 10 rooms which have priority in getting restaurant reservations.  The menu changes with the season and a couple courses changed over the 2 nights we were there.  It took 2 (1939-1941) years to construct the personal home that later became the Inn in 1982.  The Milner family purchased the place and restored the building which also created 10 guest rooms and the restaurant.  Originally the restaurant just served the guests but later it opened to the community.  A really pretty spot with lots of fireplaces and a full bar, both of which are great for the cooler weather.  Great views are from all the windows that surround the dining room but the sun goes down early in winter so we snapped photos in the daytime.  The slate floor and stone walls made me think it was probably a porch area at some time.  A nice living room area was where the bar was if you wanted to wait in there or have drinks before or after dinner.  Music was in the background and the lighting was well lowered.  Service was friendly but not worldly.  If you want a break from whatever, this is a place I would recommend.  The menu is a la carte so it makes it easy to spend a couple nights and vary the menu, which we did.  Our server pushed us to order from all 3 sections of the menu, saying the chef scales the portions.  Three was too much, especially if you wanted dessert.

Set-Up

 

Food

Bread service was a slice of multi grain sourdough with softened butter.  They only served one slice at a time and it was made by a local bakery, not in-house.  The interior of the bread was moist and the crust had some crispness.

 

Bison Meatballs were served on Futzu Squash puree and topped with cranberry, Marcona almonds and black garlic demi.  They came 3 to an order and were decorated with corn shoots.  The meat was ground fairly fine but did have an okay flavor.  Nice.

 

Escargot were served on puff pastry with a cognac mushroom cream sauce, leeks, garlic and a balsamic reduction.  It was a very dark plate with a fairly thick sauce.  The plump escargot were good with the tasty sauce and mushrooms but the puff pastry suffered under the heavy sauce and lost all its crispness and buttery flavor.  It was decorated with pea shoots, which although added green, they seemed to show up too many plates.

 

The Farmers Salad contained Sumac sweet onion, roasted turnips, toasted pine nuts, shaved XO Gouda cheese, and roasted tomato with a smoked tomato vinaigrette.  It was very mildly seasoned and the roasted turnips were almost raw.  The tomato vinaigrette tasted of balsamic and some greens had dark ends.  It was fine but not great.

 

The Brussels Sprout salad had arugula, pickled red onions, smoked blue cheese, and candied pecans in a hot bacon vinaigrette.  It was not what I expected as the sprouts were halved and heavily sauteed rather than leaves wilted by hot bacon dressing.  The dressing was heavy and pretty sweet.  The blue cheese was a mild variety with no hint of smokiness.  Despite all this, it was tasty, albeit a sweet salad.

 

A 10 oz Australian wagyu ribeye was plated with roasted mushrooms and shallot demi, pomme puree, asparagus, baby carrots peperonata and crispy leeks.  The meat was tender, cooked nicely and flavorful.  It had a good sear on both sides of the meat.  The rest of the plate was a mess with too many things (including pea shoots) and ordinary mashed potatoes.

 

North Carolina duck breast was served with local oyster mushrooms risotto, baby carrot, broccolini, blueberry horseradish gastric and crispy parsnips.  The meat was cooked perfectly but I couldn’t find the crispy skin the server mentioned.  The crispy portion was the parsnip shreds on the top which were also tasty. The meat sat on the mushroom risotto which was good but not runny and otherwise this plate also had too many things to deal with including the pea shoots.

 

The Sorghum Cake was on caramel, accented with fresh cream and vanilla gelato. It was a dense and moist cake with great flavor.  It was perfect with the ice cream and caramel or caramel and cream.  It was decorated with 3 massive blackberries which were fine but seemed out of place on the plate.  At least they weren’t pea shoots.   It was a really good cake.