Additional Features Horizons is a AAA-rated Four Diamond restaurant and is located inside the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa. Horizons has earned the Four Diamond rating for 11 consecutive years.

Just 28 years after Asheville’s Biltmore Estate was built, mountain grandeur continued with the AAA-rated Four Diamond Grove Park Inn. Inside the lodge-style accommodations is a fine-dining option at Horizons, the inn’s Four Diamond restaurant.

Horizons has earned the Four Diamond rating for 11 consecutive years - eight more than the resort itself. Dining guests can expect treats throughout the four-course meal, certain to satiate an appetite made ravenous in the fresh Blue Ridge Mountain air.

The restaurant
Guests are greeted by the host at a desk just outside the restaurant. Tall beveled glass doors framed in wood adhere to the Grove Park lodge feel, while inside hues of brown and burgundy dominate.

Horizons, designed to accommodate 85 diners, creates a refined atmosphere with a jacket requirement for men and a gift of a single rose for ladies at evening’s end.

As patrons enter the restaurant, seven tables line the right wall and two line the far wall - all next to large windows overlooking the Grove Park Golf Course with downtown Asheville in the distance. These tables for two are prime real estate for a romantic evening; while the setting sun creates a palate of purples and pinks in the sky, Asheville’s downtown lights begin to sparkle in the distance.

Between each of the seven tables are antique buffet tables topped with flowers or liquor displays. On one, a collection of Scotches, such as Laphroaic Single Islay Malt Scotch Whiskey, was on display. Another held a bottle Louis XIII Cognac.

The dining tables express simple elegance, donned with white linens topped with a glass calla lily vase holding a single rose and a matching calla lily candle holder. Platinum-lined chargers display the Horizons logo. Surrounding the table are burgundy leather studded chairs with armrests. Each bears the signature Horizons “H” on the upper back.

“Guests come to the mountains to dine. They are coming for the experience,” said General Manager Kevin Schwartz, who has been with the Grove Park Resort for 13 years.

Hungarian pianist Lajos Pagony enhances the experience with popular tunes. He’s quick to give a smile to onlookers, and guests feel comfortable applauding after a song.

Recessed lighting in the ceiling provides a gently lit atmopshere, and is aided with the softly backlight tops of Asian style floor screens.

Wait Staff
Polite and professional wait staff pull out chairs for patrons and place napkins in laps before pouring ice-less chilled water. Fresh lemon slices are then dropped into the water.

Salt and pepper shakers have been removed from the table, but the seasonings are available upon request. Wait staff have both a pepper mill and salt well, but there is very little need for either.

The average tenure for a server is five years at Horizons, but there are a few who have been there for a dozen. Initial training can last from a few weeks to a few months and continues with weekly sessions pertaining to food, wine, service and liquor.

Food and wine tastings also are part of the training so servers are prepared to provide recommendations during a meal. Not only can they tell a patron how marbled the lamb is, but also what wine is suited to accompany the course.

The menu and wine list
Horizons usually serves from the prix fixe, four-course menu, but a la carte is available upon request and ranges from $40 to $75 for entrees. The restaurant specializes in lobster and Kobe filet.

Chef Deborah Ivey was recently promoted to chef de cuisine to become the first woman in that position at Horizons. Ivey was trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. As befits her promotion, the menu will be tweaked in fall 2004 to highlight her signature dishes.

Also available are 675 wines, with 100 available in half bottles. About 20 wines can be ordered by the glass. With such a large inventory, Schwartz said, wineries offer some half bottles especially bottled for Horizons.

Wines range from $1,750 for a bottle of 1990 Petrus to $20 a bottle. Most wines are in the $80 to $150 range.

Horizons, which specializes in Burgundy and Napa Valley Cabernet based wines, has been named “Best of” by Wine Spectactor Magazine and received the Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award (DIRONA).

The food
The meal begins with an amuse bouche - something to amuse the mouth - that is usually delicate and small. For example, the serving might be a pâte à choux, similar to a cream pastry.

Diners also will receive fresh baked French or cheese bread with olive oil on the side. Butter is available upon request, but few patrons ask for it, according to Schwartz.

The first course options range from braised rabbit; foie gras with plums, raisins and apple cinnamon syrup; or Kobe beef carpaccio with quail egg and cipollini onions.

Soups and salads are available for the next course, including lobster bisque accented with chive and lobster roe oil or the chilled apple puree with raspberry sauce. The caesar salad comes fabulously presented with creamy dressing drizzled around whole leaves of lettuce holding pieces of shrimp, crab and lobster. A whole shaving of cheese is curled on the side.

When the season is right, Horizons uses vegetables sold by local farmers for foods nourished by clean air and lots of mountain rain.

“We use local vendors as much as we can,” said Schwartz.

An intermezzo, typically a dollop of sorbet, is served before the main course, which is delivered in grand style with silver domes covering the plates and removed simultaneously.

All meal prices are determined by the main course, ranging from a $67 vegetarian selection to the $115 grilled Kobe beef.

Kobe Beef is served as a carpaccio and as an entree, which 25 percent to 30 percent of patrons order. Horizon’s Kobe is delivered from Strub Ranch in Texas, where the cattle are fed a diet of grasses and beer and massaged daily. All that fuss is designed to reduce stress for prime marbling in the beef. The taste reflects the hard work with filet served in a Pinot Noir sauce along with asparagus.

Butter Poached Maine Lobster is another entree choice with bok choy and a citrus ginger broth for $94. The lobster is flown in fresh daily.

For dessert, chocolate reigns supreme with three chocolate choices - white chocolate and raspberry crème brûlée (the most popular), seven wonders of chocolate and a banana split with homemade strawberry, chocolate-chocolate chip and banana ice cream. A puff pastry with sugar free ice cream also is available, as well as Grand Marnier or bourbon butterscotch soufflés.

Coffees include French press, Ethiopian Kirgacheffe and Jamaican Blue Mountain.