Food & Drink in Boone

The Dan'l Boone Inn is a historic building, one that's changed hands quite a few times during its tenure in downtown Boone. At one point, it was the town's first hospital; at another, it was a dormitory for college students. In 1959, however, it reached its current state, and became a restaurant. Today, that restaurant is best known for its family-style country cuisine, which runs the gamut from Southern-fried chicken to stewed apples?and that's just the dinner menu. The culinary team also whips up country style breakfasts on weekend mornings. Whatever they're cooking, they hew closely to down-home traditions, which has earned their food honors from publications such as Southern Living Magazine.

The Gamekeeper Restaurant offers modern mountain cuisine in an elegantly rustic setting featuring in-house smoked meats, wild game, fish and vegetables prepared over a wood-fired grill. Most food is indigenous to the area and only the freshest offerings from local farmers, cheese makers and mushroom growers are used.

For the past 30 years, Makoto's has remained a reliable tableside performance grill and sushi bar that has satisfied patrons with Japanese seafood, steaks, and other savories served up by expert and entertaining chefs. The sushi bar artfully decorates plates and stomachs with offerings such as the spicy kani salad ($6.95), inari or smoked salmon nigiri ($3–$4.50), and rolls ranging from the spooky roll with calamari and asparagus ($7.95) to the exotically creative fuji apple roll with apple, goat cheese, samurai secrets, and spicy tuna ($11.95).

Frogurt Boone’s staff sprinkles 96 dessert garnishes, including granulated peanuts and mandarin oranges, onto fro-yo flavors such as root-beer float, cranberry-hibiscus tart, or french vanilla. Frogurt frozen yogurt ($0.43/oz.) nourishes bodies with digestive-friendly probiotics, calcium, and modest amounts of sodium and cholesterol, making it a healthier alternative to scarfing down cookies or chugging Pepsi-flavor toothpaste. Sugar-free and dairy-free flavors also await yogurt-craving tongues.

Crave treats diners to the fine art of food shrinkage with their internationally influenced menu of tapas. Tapas are smaller plates intended for snacking, sharing, combining, and carting home in microscopic doggy bags to create unique full-course meals. Crab-cake sliders layered with roma tomato and remoulade ($4.15) slip past dental defenses to tickle exposed taste buds, and fried goat cheese ($3.95) fills tonsil caverns with the echoing flavors of its pecan crust and granny-smith apple garnish. Chefs reflect their global modus operandi with battered plates of vegetable tempura ($5.95), bowls of spicy tomato-tortilla soup ($3.95), and miniature cowboy hats filled with 4-ounce portions of filet mignon ($9.95). Those saddled with heftier hunger pangs can satiate themselves with a large plate, such as duck confit with mushroom risotto, french beans, and mushrooms ($16), before stifling cacophonous sweet chompers with a delectable dessert of poached anjou pear with Grand Marnier sauce ($4.55).

The zipline at Vance Toe River Lodge zigzags through Plumtree's lush canopies, sending tour-goers on three-hour airborne adventures. After masking their appearance with helmets, harnesses, and gloves to ease ziplines' innate fear of humans, zippers travel across the 11 cables and four sky bridges that run through the forest's tallest topiaries. Along the way, guides enlighten patrons to the ecosystem that surrounds them, the underground mining system that sits beneath them, and the 5,500-foot height that separates danglers from the distant sea. Complimentary lunch at the Lodge Cafe after the trip awaits morning zip-liners unwilling to barter with squirrels for their acorn stockpiles and afternoon groups to fill up on food to give them energy prior to taking off.