This NC restaurant ranks among the nation’s can’t-miss new dining spots. Here’s why
A North Carolina restaurant serves Southern classics, and it’s quickly become a fan favorite.
So much so, the dining spot now ranks as one of the nation’s top new places to eat, according to results shared Friday, Jan. 5.
The restaurant — Regina’s in Asheville — ranks No. 2 on a list of must-visit places that started dishing out food within the past year. The list comes from USA Today’s 10Best, which publishes travel-related rankings.
To create the best new restaurant list, 10Best said “a panel of food and travel experts” picked top-notch restaurants that recently opened their doors across the country. Editors narrowed down the nominees before members of the public could vote on their favorites up to one time per day over the course of a month.
What makes Regina’s special?
In the resulting readers’ choice awards, Regina’s was the only North Carolina restaurant to win. The restaurant in the tourist hot spot of Asheville serves breakfast and lunch dishes, with dinner options set to return in the spring, according to its website and Instagram page.
The dining spot focuses on comfort food dishes, including fried chicken, biscuits and other Southern staples. The restaurant also has rotated specials since it got its start in June, according to social media posts and the Asheville Citizen Times.
“Many of the recipes here are an ode to the strong women who have influenced the cuisine: the mothers, grandmothers, and aunts who perfected and passed down these recipes,” 10Best wrote.
The results come as 10Best created several lists of top new travel spots that are worth checking out in 2024, including the best recently-opened hotels and museums. Within the categories, one of the new tourist attractions that made its mark was the Aeronautica Landing at Carowinds, a theme park on the North Carolina-South Carolina border.
When it came to restaurants, the nation’s top-ranking place to eat was Otto’s High Dive in Orlando, Florida. In the past, 10Best has told McClatchy News that it doesn’t share the number of people who vote in its readers’ choice awards.
This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 9:18 AM with the headline "This NC restaurant ranks among the nation’s can’t-miss new dining spots. Here’s why."
