Never Blue - Sunday Brunch

Update (5/26/08) - Never Blue is no longer open on Sundays. Rumor has it they may open again on Sundays later in the year. Also this reviewer plans to try their dinner menu sometime soon. Stay tuned!

Never Blue is a new restaurant that opened on the first block of Main Street in Hendersonville in early February. They completely revamped an industrial space into a beautiful artistic environment with lots of tile work and original art housed in two separate areas. The first and main area is your typical bistro style with tables, some comfy couches and full length bar with seats. The second area is pseudo outdoors - an indoor patio with a water feature and a huge garage door that will be open on the warmer days. Perfect for someone like me whose ethnic background includes all countries whose people burn easily. I get the nice breezes without the blazing sun! I suspect they may add some outdoor tables if sidewalk space permits. The food has a Latin flair with many choices of tapas, soups, salads, sandwiches, desserts/breakfast pastries, and a full dinner menu. And of course, a full coffee bar. We gave them several weeks to sort out their kinks and finally went for Sunday brunch this past weekend.

We made reservations for 11:00, but it really wasn't necessary. So, we got pick of the litter for tables, choosing one by the window. Unfortunately, the city is busily doing construction on their block, right outside the window, but that will soon be over and offers some form of entertainment in the meantime. The high tables are a little awkward to get in and out of (3 of the 4 of us bumped the table at some point, sending drinks splashing overboard), but I still like them. Perhaps just spaced apart a little better would help?

On to the main event - the food! They had cleared an area in front of the bar to make way for the buffet stations. There were six trays I think, mostly divided, and all but one, hot. They offered bacon, house made sausage patties, white cheddar cheese grits, home fries, brown sugar carrot medallions, four cheese mac & cheese (an odd brunch choice, but I loved it!), ribs (w/sauce), roasted chicken, tortilla chips with a queso sauce, and shrimp cocktail with house made sauce. On the bar were several salads, hummus (which I overheard a woman raving about), and several desserts including wild blueberry bread pudding (warm), black cherry cobbler (warm), cream puffs with white and dark chocolate sauces, a sweet monkey bread, a chocolate/PB cake and some others that I can't remember. They are all house made except the cream puffs. Along with the buffet set up, there was a waffle and omelet station with plenty of toppings for each (Hummus Lady was chastising her friend for being "boring" and ordering a simple ham and cheese omelet when there were so many choices!). The price is $20/person with beverages included. I thought that price was reasonable. The items vary a little bit each week.

Liking all things breakfast, I loaded up on bacon, sausage, home fries and cheese grits, then headed straight to the waffle station. I normally prefer the "regular" small square waffles to Belgian style (which are the more common for a brunch and what these were), but I loved my waffle. It was crispy, yet fluffy and soft on the inside. My only gripe was that they had fake syrup instead of the real deal, but at the price of real maple syrup, I wasn't surprised. Perhaps I can sneak in my own condiments next time...

Everything I ate was delicious - some items better than others. The sausages had been on the heat a little too long and bacon, not long enough. The cheese grits were very good, but I still prefer the thick fluffy ones at Blackwater Grille. I enjoyed the home fries, but they could've used even more spice for my taste. I then went back for mac & cheese (I would eat that every day if I could!) and a cornucopia of desserts. I tried the blueberry bread pudding, the chocolate/PB cake and the cream puffs (both sauces, which were served warm by the way!). All were very good.

I wish I could eat more, because I wanted to try everything! Fat Kat and others at our table reported the carrots, omelets, cesar salad, queso dip, and shrimp cocktail to be good. I wish someone had tried the chicken or ribs because they both looked really good. The organization seemed to be pretty good with only a bit of a log jam at the omelet and waffle station (which is common at brunches). There was one guy doing both. They had two omelet pans and two waffle makers, so he was going as fast as his equipment let him. No one seemed to be complaining. Table service was good - attentive, but not pushy. We stayed for over two hours and were hogging prime real estate and never felt rushed. We were keeping an eye out to vacate in case anyone needed the table. They had some nice piano music playing in the background. It was his first day doing it and although it was too loud at first, they turned it down and it was fine. A nice touch. Live music in restaurants is always a fine balance - you want to be able to hear it, but you also want to be able to easily talk to your tablemates.

So, the overall opinion of our table was that we definitely enjoyed it. Nice atmosphere, decent pricing, good service, an interesting (and plentiful) choice of food and, for the most part, well-prepared. Buffet style service is always tricky because it can go from fresh and beautiful to dried out and ugly in a heartbeat. Everything at their buffet looked beautiful.

The lack of one fork is simply because nothing really blew me away (but as I said, I didn't get to try everything), but it was all solidly very good and there wasn't anything I tried that I didn't enjoy. I'm a breakfast girl, so prefer brunches that lean toward breakfast items and less toward lunch (this one definitely favored lunch), but I suspect I'm in the minority. I would've liked to see some French toast, some other egg dishes and maybe some more breakfast pastries, but there's only so much room! And they did have plenty of good looking food as it was.

See the Hendersonville Epicurean link (right side of page) for more details and some photos. Note that the plastic overhead guards and buffet set up is only there during Sunday brunch. They remove it during regular meals revealing their beautiful tiled bar and have seating at the bar and at high tables in front of the bar.

Never Blue
119 S. Main St.
Hendersonville
828-693-4646
Serving
Lunch: Wednesdays - Saturdays 11:00 - 3:00
Sunday Brunch 10:30 - 2:00

Dinner: Wednesday and Thursday 5:00 - 9:00
Friday and Saturday 5:00 - 10:00

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

UPDATE: Went to Never Blue for a spontaneous lunch yesterday and it was great! I had the tapas Beef Tenderloin Quesodilla (w/grilled onions, horseradish and some other yummy stuff) and a tapas sized spinach salad. My husband had the sliders and a sweet tea. All were excellent. I think I preferred the sliders to mine, but all were really good. The sliders (2 of them) came with some excellent onion straws (and dip) and some fresh fruit that was perfectly ripe. It was a little pricey for every day ($25 + tip), but it was excellent quality. So, great for a treat.

THEN, we went back (after walking around town a little) for some dessert to go. They had told us about a peanut butter cheesecake with some drinking chocolate over the top (think dark chocolate sauce) and an Oreo crust. When they gave me the bill for $6, I about had a stroke, but then when I got home and tried a bite, OMG!! Soooooo good. It was the style of a personal cheesecake - beautifully presented (even in a take out box!). I felt like calling them back and telling them to give me a dope slap for grousing about the price tag. It was worth every penny!