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Welcome to Road to the Eater Awards, in which the Indiana band Houndmouth chronicles the good eating along the Southern leg of their "From the Hills Below the City" tour, culminating at Eater Eve and the Eater Awards. This series is presented by Canon PowerShot, makers of the PowerShot S110 and SX280 cameras that captured all the action.
Lexington, KY is not far from where we grew up, so we talked (over Subway sandwiches in the van on the way from Nashville) about how we all expected to see lots of friends and family for our show at Buster's in Lexington on November 9.
Still, the huge crowd that came to support us there was mind blowing. Unfortunately, even after finally overcoming the Hattie B's hangover, we did not have time to venture out and explore any cool local Lexington restaurants. However, we did have some local Lexington delicacies make their way backstage.
Before we arrived to the venue, we had gotten word from the guys at West Sixth Brewing Company that they wanted to have us over for a tour. Due to timing, we couldn't pull an actual visit to the brewery off, but we did invite the West Sixth guys over to Buster's to share a few brews. They brought some of their IPA, their amber, a growler of their wheat, and a growler of their saison. All were delicious. Unfortunately we didn't have any Houndmouth Ale with us to reciprocate the favor back.
And after consuming a few, it seemed like a great idea to order pizza. We kept it local and went with Goodfellas Pizzeria. We first became acquainted with Goodfellas after visiting a bourbon bar, Wiseguys, on top of their Covington, KY location (across the river from Cincinnati). They have your traditionally topped pies, of course, but Goodfellas is known for venturing off the beaten path and getting creative as well. Our second time around didn't disappoint.
Despite the amount of food/drink consumption before the show, the crowd was so packed and wild and we had so much adrenaline going for the performance that we probably sweated out most of the calories.
We woke up the next day and kept it healthy by stopping at Whole Foods for breakfast on the way out. We didn't get very Southern foodwise in this city, but there was definitely some Southern hospitality going on that night.
From Lexington, we ventured onto Asheville, NC. We'd heard a ton of incredible things about the Asheville scene - from the food to the music to the culture to the breweries. However, we arrived in town late without much time to spare on a Sunday. From what we could tell, the city had a ton to offer, but our time here was limited.
We wanted to check out a nice Van Morrison-esque place called Tupelo Honey Cafe, or maybe check out the gravy train at Biscuit Head. We'd also heard a lot of great things about Asheville Brewing Company, including talk about their infamous jalpeno pale ale.
Alas, we were only able to eat food at the venue, which doubled as a food joint. The Grey Eagle ended up having some delicious food, including one of the best burritos we've ever had. We'll have to make sure to clear our schedules next time we hit Asheville, because we definitely left a lot to explore on the table.
Check back tomorrow when the band files from a stop in Charlottesville, VA.
· Houndmouth [Official Site]
· All Coverage of the Eater Awards [~E~]