Simplicity
The Name of our Restaurant is "Simplicity at
The Mast Farm Inn". Gourmet organic fine dining. "Slow Food
In A Fast World". Simplicity at The Mast Farm
Inn was selected from among hundreds of fine dining
restaurants in North Carolina, and awarded 4th
place in 2010, and 2nd Place in 2011,
for "The
Best Dish in North Carolina Award". Best Dish is
North Carolina’s Official State Restaurant Competition presented every
year by The
North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
and sponsored by
Our State Magazine.
See the "reference information" tab above and to the right for complete
reference information.
Click Here to see a detailed page about the award, and our
vendors & suppliers.
What we offer is gourmet slow dining of extreme quality and freshness; a meticulous cuisine prepared with "Mindfulness", mindful of our mountain region's heritage, and mindful of the high quality of the natural ingredients, with a level of care and personal service second to none. As the world moves forward, more and more towards ever accelerating frenzy, we think we can probably all use more caring and "simplicity" in our lives and therefore in our dining. We live fast, we eat fast, it often seems we even sleep fast, and yet we sometimes enjoy life, and people, less and less. Perhaps sometimes the “instant gratification a-la-carte” doctrine has something to do with that. Back To Basics; maybe sometimes less is effectively more, and small is beautiful; “Carry me back to the days I knew then.”
"Simplicity is the final achievement. After
one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity
that emerges as the crowning reward of art."
~ Frédéric Chopin
What makes a restaurant “less but more” and
capable of doing "more with less"? Among other
things: a lot of thinking, hard work, talent and care but also values
and convictions, and perhaps a bit of courage; sometimes the courage to
be different. From 1880 to 1996 The Mast Farm Inn Restaurant served
wholesome, farm style meals at a country gourmet standard of excellence
in a very homelike relaxed atmosphere. For a 10 year period we converted
to the expected a-la-carte dining and did great. But, we want to embrace
that past, that heritage, tradition and history. We want a step back in
time. We want a restaurant you can consider a personal haven of relaxed
comfortable simplicity. Like eating very very well at home. Where
everyone shares the same meal.
We don't just want to make good home made food. We want to make the
home made food your Grandmother used to make if you lived on a farm in
North Carolina when
you were 6 years old, and when she won all the blue ribbons at state
fairs, and every day you got to sample the new things. Once in twenty
times she may have dropped the ball. But 19 times it was somewhere
between “very good” and “Heavenly Choirs at Mull Of Kintyre” because it
was a simple expression of respect, caring and culinary craftsmanship
also known in these parts as "real good cookin"
Like
Michael Pollan,
Alice Waters,
Frank Stitt,
Joel Salatin and
Barbara Kingsolver, We also want to make your food like food was made before it was
trucked cross country wearing pesticides and flavoring rather than
freshness and natural flavor, from a time before life offered so many
selections and options. Sometimes less is more. Simpler also
means fewer wasteful choices, more natural variety, slow food, slower
dining, local produce, traditions and taking the seasons into
consideration.
Your food will be as local, fresh, natural and organic as we can make
it. In the growing season, It will use produce from our own organic
farm garden, pasture raised meats, free-range dairy and eggs, and ingredients purchased as much as possible from
local organic farmers and growers. Out of season, it will still be as
natural and organic as we can make it, may come from further away; but
minus the chemicals.
First and foremost this means a four, or more, course fixed menu, at a
fixed price; one menu a night, each night different, made every day for
a limited number of people who said they were coming to dinner; Food
like Grandmothers made it at home on Sundays before the world became what it
is today. Not all progress is forward movement, often the past contains
treasures, and back to the past is often enough a step in the right
direction. We hope you will give “Simplicity” a try.
"In character, in manner, in style, in all
things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." ~ Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
The Mast Farm Inn
2543 Broadstone Road
Historic Valle Crucis
Banner Elk, North Carolina 28604
(828) 963-5857
stay@mastfarminn.com
www.themastfarminn.com
