Editor’s Note: I have no affiliation with the links below. They are just for your information.

Black Mountain, North Carolina, is one of my favorite places to visit. We discovered it when the Good Chaplain was still on active duty. We attended several Presbyterian Chaplains’ conferences about 9 miles up the road at the Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina.

Black Mountain is a small town in the mountains of western North Carolina. It is quaint with a vibrant downtown area that attracts many visitors, especially during the summer. The first time I visited, we were at one of the chaplains’ conferences, and several of the women decided to make a trek into town. I fell in love immediately.

It is not a huge town, population of about 8,100, but it a town full of boutique shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and even a general store.

This summer, the Good Chaplain and I pulled our trailer to North Carolina to visit some retired Air Force friends who live just north of Asheville. We camped on the west side of Asheville, and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go to my favorite places in Black Mountain, about 15 miles from Asheville.

So we took an afternoon to drive to Black Mountain before meeting our friends for dinner. We arrived in town around lunchtime, so our first stop was the Berliner Kindl German Restaurant. We’d eaten there before and knew they could accommodate the Good Chaplain’s pepper allergy. Yes, the Good Chaplain is allergic to all kinds of spice peppers, including black and white pepper.

Next stop, Common Housefly: A Kitchen Emporium. We love to look around at all the neat gadgets that we didn’t know we couldn’t live without. They have such a unique assortment of pots and pans, dishes, kitchen linens, small appliances, and all the kitchen tools you could ever want. I bought a Gurgle Pot there on one visit. This time we bought a set of kitchen knives to replace our old set.

Right next door to Common Housefly is Hey, Hey Cupcake. Although we didn’t stop there this time, in November 2017, we visited the shop with some of our friends from a chaplain’s conference at The Cove in Asheville. It happened to be Soccer Stud’s birthday, so we bought a cupcake, stuck a candle in it, and used a cell phone to send him a greeting of us singing “Happy Birthday,” to him. We also went with these friends to Dobra Tea Room, where I saw some unusual kinds of tea.

The Town and Country General Store is what you expect of a general store — a little bit of everything. It’s fun to browse the two merchandise rooms and find other things you didn’t know you couldn’t live without.

I am a huge Polish Pottery fan. If I’m ever at your house and a piece goes missing, well, I, um, didn’t take it, nope, not me. That’s what I threaten to do anyway. Europa is a favorite store with pottery and trinkets from all over Europe. You can get German nutcrackers, Scottish Tartans, French soaps, Italian Glass, Swedish Dala Horses, Swiss Army Knives, and, of course, Polish Pottery. We didn’t stop this trip either because the Good Chaplain didn’t want to spend that much money.

Of course, there are many other establishments to see in Black Mountain. These are just a few of my favorites. As I’ve said, Black Mountain, North Carolina, is a great place to spend a day wandering the streets and going inside whenever it meets your fancy.

Until next time,

Vicki

Where are some of your favorite shopping places? Leave a reply.