Our first stop is the High Country of Western North Carolina. The Banner Elk Cafe appeared to be a great beginning to the blog – they listed scallions, for one, under the description for their potato skins! – and we had been informed that we had to eat at the cafe during our stay. This was not a difficult task (or generous recommendation) as one barely needs more than one hand to count the number of decent sit-down restaurants in Banner Elk. I love the area for its woodsy, hilly geography and perfect weather, and if it actually had a perfect potato skin, this could have serious retirement potential – for many decades down the road, of course.
For those who care or are curious about ambience, the cafe is more of a labyrinthine diner-meets-mountain lodge. Multiple areas, inside and outside, are connected with no particular order. We chose the cozy booths in the more diner-esque space. There is also a large choice of pies and dessert selection, in one of those tall, glass enclosures. This felt promising.
And, it has an enormous menu, mainly because the cafe actually has two kitchens that it draws from while sharing with another restaurant. The “loaded potato skins” are on the ‘blue menu’, described as “stuffed with cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, and sliced scallions” for $7.95.
So how did they taste? Overall, not necessarily retirement potential. But, a decent taste and a pretty good value. The size was very ample for four of them, which comes out to about $2 per potato skin.
Skin: The skin was wonderfully crispy, lightly salted, and crunchy but not overpowering.
Cheese n’ Bacon: Real cheese – it seemed like Colby and Monterey Jack, and real bacon (I could tell they had actually cooked bacon and chopped it up). The cheese was decent but not rich with flavor, the bacon wonderfully crisp – but sadly overcooked. This completely colored the potato skin experience and overall made the whole thing quite dry. It was also dry because of the ratio of potato to cheese to bacon. Thus the importance of proportionality is born. The potato itself was cooked fine, but because there was so much potato relative to cheese and bacon, you were too “well aware of it”. I don’t want to feel like I’m chowing down on a mouthful of chunky potato with a potato skin. There’s a time and a place for that, and that’s a loaded potato.
Proportionality: While there was a good amount of bacon, there was not nearly enough cheese to counter the amount of potato. When you have a massive potato skin – which there is absolutely nothing wrong with – you need it smothered in cheese. A cheese comforter, if you will, to keep that potato inside warm and juicy and savory. Unfortunately this and perhaps the lack of butter? Ensured the potato was far drier than it should be.
I felt like there was potential here, and I do have some honorable mentions:
- It came with salsa! Now, I have no interest in salsa with my potato skins, but it’s nice if you like it.
- The server brought extra sour cream immediately when I asked.
- Generally speaking, the service was fantastic: attentive and fast – and they were busy (it was lunchtime and as mentioned, there are only so many restaurant choices)
But. BUT. They did not come with the promised scallions.
Clearly, we need to discuss the importance of scallions, aka chives, on potato skins. While you may not see them often as they are not really required for a delectable potato skin, they are absolutely better with them. A potato skin is positively elevated with scallions. Might they still be incredibly tasty? Definitely. But scallions bring them to another level, giving a tangy, zippy, latent oniony -bite-.
Nevertheless, their absence would have been fine if they hadn’t been promised on the menu. Normally I am not the sort of person to inquire about that sort of thing – I’m usually just happy to be there and have the happy-go-lucky attitude of ‘it is what it is’ (I’m just happy to be eating), but – I felt a duty for my dear, potential, handful of readers out there. I wanted to clarify whether the menu was incorrect or it was just an oversight, or a material shortage. So, I did lightheartedly mention it to the server, who interestingly enough seemed mortified and he did offer to go back to the kitchen and get some. I declined and assured him it was fine – but thought it was sweet of him that he wanted to bum-rush the kitchen staff to seize some scallions.
All in all, my overall impression of the Banner Elk Cafe’s potato skins was that they are crispy, generously sized with potential. It’s really too bad they were on the dry side due to the overcooked bacon and cheese ratio.
But, if I’m ever in Banner Elk again, I’ll likely be back – and not just because I wouldn’t have a choice!