Monday, February 8th, 2010
Come stay at Blake House for 2 or more nights, between 2/15 – 2/18 and receive a FREE student spa service at Privai Academy (up to $30 value). Students will be close to the end of their training program and are just about ready to go out on their own. However, all are fully supervised and quite capable.
My mother and I have both received facials and have scheduled more services. If you don’t mind a 10-minute drive from the Inn, you will be surprisingly pleased. While all the spa services are performed by students, you will be pampered during your appointment and in some cases, a one-hour service may stretch into an hour and twenty minutes of sublime treatment.
Here is the list of student services:
Let me know when you make your reservation what service you would like and the day you prefer. I will try my best to get your day and time, but these student slots fill up quickly so make sure to provide me with a couple of options.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Asheville is slowly becoming a foodie’s paradise. From restaurants that embrace the Farm to Table concept, to vegetarian restaurants, to eco-conscious cafes, this city is on the verge of something great. Already known as an artist’s city and home to the grand Biltmore Estate and Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa, Asheville can now add food city to its resume.
Within the past several months, one of my innkeeping comrades, Chris Ortwein, has started offering food tours in downtown Asheville & Biltmore Village. There are three different tours, each with between six – nine restaurants or shops where tour goers get to taste test foods, wine, local beer, spices, chocolate, and just about anything food-related. In December, my mother and I went on the Biltmore Village Tour and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as well as stuffed ourselves with everything from calamari to beet soup to chicken skewers.
Today, we braved the chilly and sometimes rainy weather, to go on one of the two downtown tours. I enjoyed myself even more, if you can believe it. Everyone met at the Grove Arcade at 1:45 and off we went at 2:00. Our first stop was the Flying Frog. I had eaten lunch there several times, but had never been downstairs where they serve dinner. The Chef at the Flying Frog, I learned, is German and Indian, so his menu combines dishes from both cultures. We sampled some duck breast over sweet potatoes and arugula with an apple butter sauce. I had never tried duck before and was pleasantly surprised.
Next, it was on to The Chocolate Fetish, my favorite place. I already buy chocolate truffles from there for our Romance Packages, but I got to try something new today. They were serving dark and milk chocolate truffles topped with two different types of sea salt. Salt, you ask? Yes, a very fine and expensive type of sea salt. The combination of chocolate and salt was surprisingly delicious. I will definitely try those again.
Stop 3 was the Spice & Tea Exchange where we got to sample some run-of-the-mill pork rinds sprinkled with a spicy salt mix. Again, surprisingly good. Mom vowed to come back after the tour to pick up a pitcher they had that had a small canister-type thing inside where you can put lemon, lime, orange slices, or whatever you want. Fill the pitcher with water and the juice from the fruits will seep into the water to taste it without the seeds getting into the water. There was also a spice she wanted to get. But since we had to keep moving with the tour, we had to come back afterwards.
Stop 4 was the Green Sage Coffeehouse and Cafe. The owners of the Green Sage are the same people who started Earthfare. After it became successful, they sold them and started the Green Sage. It calls itself the greenest restaurant in Asheville, and for good reason. Just about everything they use, buy, sell, whatever, is produced locally, recycled, or composted. The restaurant produces so little trash that it only needs one small trash bin. There was a line to the door of customers waiting for coffee, tea, smoothies, or other quick-make foods. Our group got to taste some delicious tomato soup, a quiche, turkey sandwich, and a veggie burger of some sort. The drink was a red berry sparkling cider that I had never seen before. Everything was delicious!
Next, we were off to Fiore’s, an Italian restaurant with a Tuscan flare. Here we got to sample some beer from local brewery, Asheville Brewery, called Old School Pale Ale. Delish! Along with that was a small caesar salad and a New York-style pizza with tomatoes, garlic, and spinach. i don’t typically like thin-crust pizza, but there was something about the crust. While it was thin, it tasted fluffy. Very good pizza.
Then, we walked several blocks to the Soda Fountain inside the Woolworth Walk. The Woolworth Walk is “store” with artist booths throughout and a small soda fountain off to the side. Here we had a root beer float which really hit the spot. Afterwards, we crossed the street to Mayfels and got to sample a binette (sp?). It was a puffed, warm, doughy pastry shaped like a small square and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Served fresh out of the oven, they were wonderful after being out in the cold.
I had always heard good things about Cucina 24, but had never been until today. Located on Wall Street, the backside overlooks the intersection of College Street and Patton Avenue. It’s owned by two brother chefs and they serve upscale Italian food. Chef Brian demonstrated for us a crepe filled with a cheese mixture (with a bunch of other savory seasonings which I can’t remember). Rather than roll it up like a traditional crepe, he rolled it into a ball, then baked it in the oven for about 5 minutes. It came served with a slightly spicy chunky tomato sauce, just the way I like it. I definitely will be going back there!
Our last stop on the tour was Carmel’s, a restaurant I have been to many times. It’s located omn one of the corners of the Grove Arcade, where we first met for the tour. This place is great, especially during the summer when you can sit outside and people watch to your heart’s content. Today, Chef Sugar (as she’s called) demonstrated a tuna, avocado, cucumber dish that was topped with a sauce mixture that I can’t remember. I am not a fan of raw tuna, but was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it when it was paired with all the other items.
I had not been to most of the places on the tour so I am extra glad to have been able to go today. Thanks again to Chris for opening the tours up to innkeepers (at no charge) as he gets them going. I was able to pick up menus from most places for the menu binder I keep at the Inn for guests and now I can recommend some of these places. Plus, there are a couple I definitely want to return to. One of the benefits of attending the tours is that you receive a passport afterwards that can be used for up to 5 days after the tour at all of the places on the tour. And you receive a discount, typically 10%, when you present the passport for a future meal.
I hope to be able to go on the other Downtown Tour before the end of February since it also has several restaurants I haven’t been to. Right now, I am offering 2 FREE tour tickets to guests when they stay 2 or more mid-week nights (Mondays – Thursdays) in February. This is a $50 value and well worth the ticket price. Biltmore Village tours are on Tuesdays, Downtown Tour 1 is on Wednesdays & Fridays, and Downtown Tour 2 (the one we went on today) runs on Thursdays and Saturdays. All tours start at 2:00 and last about 2 1/2 hours. Walking and eating, a great combination!
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
I can only resist change for so long. It first started when CD players first came out. I liked my cassette tape players and I just didn’t see the need to buy a very expensive CD player and have to replace my tape library with costlier CDs that I didn’t think sounded any better. But, eventually, I folded and got the CD player several years after it had come out. Then it was the DVD player. Again, I refused to see any difference in quality and really hated having the replace all the VHS movies I had with more expensive versions. Again, I finally fell and 4-5 years after it came out, I bought a DVD player. Now it’s the flat screen TV, and I am slowly replacing all the big, heavy bubble TVs with flat screens. The real benefit for me there is the size and weight of the flat screens. They are easier to move and mountable on the wall out of the way, opening up shelf space in the guestrooms. But, I still refuse to pay for HDTV as I see no visual difference on the TVs. But, hey, that’s just me.
In running a business, I am confronted with so many different things that are beneficial and not so beneficial in staying viable. Even a bed and breakfast must move forward or there is a good chance it will not survive. Especially in a city like Asheville where there are a large number of bed and breakfasts competing for guests. Which brings me to this world of social media. What exactly is social media?
Social Media Defined
According to Wikipedia (a great source for information on just about any topic you can think of), social media is a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. That means that you and I create stuff (or content) and share it with others, through various means of Internet applications. In laymans terms, instead of me reading what other people write, social media allows for me to be the writer and to disseminate whatever stuff I’m writing out to many people through various sources. It also allows me to interact more with what other people are writing or posting, through reviews and other forms of online conversations. I can share as much or as little about myself, my life, my business, my knowledge as I want and anyone, anywhere can access that information (depending on how I set up the sources of information – public, private, or maybe to just people I designate). Social media can also generate revenue so it has become a business for some. I’m sure there is more to it, but this is how I understand it.
Social Media Forms
I admit that I am still new to the idea of “doing” social media so there’s a lot I don’t know. But here are some of the more common forms of social media that I have started using:
- Blogging – Probably the most common form of social media, the blog (or web blog) comes in several forms. Most people use a blog to write about there personal life, to share pictures, videos, commentaries and information. I started the Blake House Blog just under a year ago to provide information about the Inn and what stuff is going on here. For me, it allows guests and potential guests to meet me before they meet me in person. They can see the trials and tribulations, special events, renovations, and general goings on here. While I update the website constantly, the blog makes it more personal for the reader, as if I am talking directly to them. So, in my case, my blog is a business blog, but it has a real personal element to it. There are also professional bloggers who blog for a living, and make money from it! One that I follow is called ProBlogger and he offers tips to other bloggers on making a career and money from blogging, even listing blogging jobs on the site. Another blog-type option for people who have a voice is called HubPages. On HubPages, you write Hubs (blogs) on whatever you want. You can follow other Hubbers and they can follow your hubs. This is just another mechanism to create a web presence for yourself and/or your business. I have posted recipes, craft projects, and information about Asheville and the Inn. I’ve also picked up information from other Hubbers on energy conservation and greening actions that I can use at the Inn. It’s just another pond to fish from.
- Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn – This is another thing I resisted as long as possible. I saw MySpace being used at work constantly and I thought it was a time sucker, taking away from the job, and that it was used by the younger crowd (tweens, teens and young 20 somethings). My son was on MySpace so I really had no interest. Then I came across Facebook about a year ago and decided to join because it looked a little more mature. For the first six months or so, I really didn’t do much with it. I’d get on maybe once or twice a month. Little by little, I started getting more involved, I began connecting with many friends from high school, and I realized that there is a business side of Facebook. So I have a personal page and a I have a Fanbook Page for the Inn. I am really enjoying Facebook now. Connecting with old friends, classmates, and co-workers has been incredibly satisfying. The Fanbook page allows me to share the Inn with people I know and people I don’t, but I can follow other businesses, charities, and people and stay in tune with their lives. My mother is on Facebook, including aunts, cousins, and siblings who I don’t see often. This is one form of social media that everyone can benefit from. I do have a LinkedIn profile, which I see as a business tool. I joined a few years ago, but don’t spend a whole lot of time on that one. I’ll have to be better about staying “linked in.”
- Twitter - I just joined Twitter yesterday and don’t yet have a clue how it works. But, it’s another form of media where I can follow and be notified of topics that I think are interesting. On Twitter, you share short snippets of information (140 characters or less) in things called Tweets. Most Tweets have a link to something else; an article, someone else’s Twitter page, etc., etc. Again, I don’t quite get it yet, but I’ll get there. People can follow my blog on their Twitter account and receive Tweets every time I post something new. They can also subscribe to my Feed.
- Feeds – I use a service called Feedburner so that people can be notified any time I write a new blog (if they are interested). Feeds can be set up through many sources, including a simple email address. If a person likes another blog or page of someone else or a business, look for a feed link/RSS link. If you subscribe or sign up, every time that page is updated, you will be notified. I receive feeds from several other business into one source, Google Reader. I click on my Google Reader page and it lists all the pages I subscribe to and it will show which ones have new postings since the last time I checked. You can even link your feeds with your Twitter account. I have to figure out how to do this as soon as I finish this post. I’m still new to the whole “feed” thing so I still have a lot to learn. But, again, I have tapped into a lot of information that I normally wouldn’t know about unless I hunted around the Internet for it.
- Digg/Stumble – These sites allow you to share web pages, photos, videos, etc. with others by giving the item a Digg or Thumbs Up. The more diggs or thumbs up a page has, the more people who see it, all over the world. You can share your favorites through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sources. This can be beneficial for business because if something becomes popularized, that could bring more people to a website that wouldn’t normally find it. I use these sites mainly for news information and Digg sends 5-second pop-ups to my computer at various times throughout the day and I can click on the link if I want to read or see the whole page. These sites are simply easy ways for information to be passed around the Internet quickly. You may also see web pages and blogs with a Digg or Stumble button which means that you can digg or thumbs up that page without having to go to either site to find the page. If you have accounts with these sites, it keeps track of all the pages you have responded to, your favorite pages and topics, and you can submit a page to the site for others to see. I use these sites for fun and have shared a few pages on Facebook.
The social media forms that I have listed are the tip of the iceberg. They are the most popular right now, but I’m sure there will be more for me to join and experience. As a result, I am spending more and more time on my computer, but I actually feel more connected to people than I have since buying the Inn 4 years ago. If anyone knows of other popular social media outlets that you think I should look into, please send me a comment on this post and share it with other readers. I also welcome any comments that would help me and others to use these sites better.
