Date Night Dining: Square One in Hendersonville, NC

A sidewalk view into the kitchen of Square One
 in downtown Hendersonville, NC

Last night my husband and I ate our work week stress away at Square One, a downtown Hendersonville, NC restaurant.  I would like to say upfront, that we love eating out in Hendersonville because it's so dang laid back!  People are wearing jeans, hiking boots, and hoodie sweatshirts... as opposed to eating dinner out in downtown Greenville, where even in jeans, a nice shirt and clogs I feel out of place some nights.  It's a different vibe.  Very cool.

So dinner... we ordered a Malbec and Mojito. Simple, but nice wine list and $5 Mojitos! We started with baked brie in puff pastry with blackberry jam, served with spiced nuts on a bed of baby greens with toast.  Delish.  The puff pastry could have been left in the oven a few more minutes, but tasty all the same. When we unwrapped said pastry, gooey jam pooled out in the plate and made a nice dressing for the greens.  I think there was some honey involved too.  Who's complaining? Not I.



I want to say, I'm just now a brie fan.  I apparently had some sort of stinky, smelly cheese (not a fan) that I was told was brie when I was younger, so up until the past couple of weeks (no, I'm not exaggerating) I avoided it.

But YUM! It took my daughter's Whole Foods cheese mission on our last shopping adventure to try it again. I had to set an example, after all. I love that she gets all into the foodie thing when she sees the baskets around the cheese section with little remnants of odd and end cheeses (all for $1 or so).

Back to Square One (couldn't resist) main course: I had duck breast, grilled and paired with dried cherry gastrique (def: caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar), bacon and Gorgonzola cheese, all on a bed of white rice.  It was absolutely delicious.  The duck was juicy and rich... cooked medium well, with a salty, sweet outer crust. The cherries were swollen with sweet sauce.  I ate until I was way too stuffed for dessert.  Someone posted on Urban Spoon that the portions were too small and the food quality had gone down under new management.  They lied. For $19, I got way more than I usually could handle for dinner, but because it was so good. I gobbled it all up.

Daniel ordered fried chicken.  At $14, he was curious as to what their take would be on the Southern staple.  His eyes rolled back in his head with the first bite.  It was honestly some of the best chicken I've had: juicy, and well seasoned all throughout.  The sides of mac and cheese and thick slices of heirloom tomato were good, but the chicken definitely stole the show on his plate.

We both ate, with Drinks for $55 (plus tip... our waitress was super helpful and nice).  You can't beat that on a Friday night. Especially for the quality and quantity of food we consumed.  I heard there's a Groupon coupon floating around out there for this place. Be sure to jump on that! We are going back soon for the bread pudding topped with Nutella and pineapple (too full to try).

Happy eating!