Blue Ridge offers up a mix of tourist-friendly restaurants and local draws.
Tucked away among the Chattahoochee National Forest in North Georgia’s Fannin County sits Blue Ridge, a quaint mountain town with a friendly small-town atmosphere. Among the hiking trails, streams and forests, Blue Ridge houses a bustling main street speckled with craft breweries, wineries, galleries, shops and local eateries that attract tens of thousands of tourists from across the country.
The mountain town has a year-round population of about 1,200 people, but the sidewalks can become crowded as people flock to the cool mountain breezes in the summer and colorful foliage in the fall. Most guests stay two to three nights in town, with nearly a quarter of visitors staying around a week, according to the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce.
The city sees a softer season between January and March, but that period is slowly becoming just as busy as the summer and spring. Restaurateurs like Dan Mellman, founding chef and owner of Harvest on Main, Cucina Rustica and Pizzeria at Cucina Rustica, now sees a constant flow of tourism throughout the year.
Mellman is a self-taught chef who spent time abroad in Europe honing his skills. Stateside, Mellman spent 25 years in Florida opening concepts like The Greenhouse, at which he received a James Beard nomination for Best Chef in the South. During this time, Mellman also met 20-year veteran food writer, researcher and wife Michelle Moran, who joined Mellman in his restaurant endeavors.
Having both spent time in time in Europe, Mellman and Moran saw the similarities between Southern and Appalachian foods and Mediterranean cuisine from the likes of Sicily and Spain. The two saw the potential in Blue Ridge to open a concept that drew on these native and European influences; thus, Harvest on Main was born.
Rather than open restaurants and concepts to expand their portfolio, Mellman and Moran opened businesses or added to existing businesses per the request of customers. Since there weren’t many bakeries or grocery stores aside from Ingles, Moran started offering baguettes, bagels, prosciutto, brisket and other local food store items that other businesses couldn’t and didn’t offer.
As the city saw more tourism, Mellman and Moran saw a big change in their customer base.
“We used to be 80% local, 20% tourists, and business was very seasonal,” says Mellman. “Now it’s a real kind of a flip. It’s 20% local and 80% tourists. And tourism is great for business, but it’s just mentally rough on you if you really kind of want to try and stand out and do your own thing.”
While Harvest on Main remains in the heart of Blue Ridge, Mellman and Moran expanded business operations about six or seven miles outside of town in nearby Morganton, where locals know them and can find a place to park. There, Cucina Rustica serves country-style Italian dishes, while La Pizzaria at Cucina Rustica next door will be serving up New York style slices and pies this summer.
They also moved outside of town a few miles away to be closer to their property Cook’s Farm, where they grow specialty produce on 30 acres of land alongside pigs, rabbit, quail, and chickens for food, and eggs and honey for baking.
Like Mellman and Moran, Liz Correa and her family moved to Blue Ridge for its small-town, slower-paced appeal. Correa, who is originally from Camagüey, Cuba, and lived in Puerto Rico and Miami, is the owner of Rum Cake Lady Cuban Café, a fast-casual counter-service spot that offers authentic Cuban food and Correa’s signature rum cakes.
Before opening the restaurant, Correa was baking her family-recipe rum cakes for sale at farmers’ markets. After seeing what a hit her cakes were and the need for more diversity in the food scene in Fannin County, Correa and her family opened up the café in 2015.
With award-winning rum cakes and accolades like being named last year one of the best Latin restaurants in the state by the Georgia Business Journal and the 2022 Tripadvisor Traveler’s Choice Award – the fourth year in a row – the Cuban Café drives a ton of business from locals and visitors alike. Correa and her family capitalized on growth, opening a second location in nearby McCaysville in the years following the initial business’ success.
The original building now serves as a home base for Correa to bake cakes and prep food, and the Blue Ridge location offers pick-up and delivery but customers anywhere in the United States can order rum cakes online for shipment.
On the opposite side of the tourism spectrum sits Chad Bowers, owner of Misty Mountain Hops, who sees a 50/50 split between local and tourist business. Bowers, who was born and raised in Blue Ridge, opened the doors of Misty Mountain Hops three years ago as the town’s first music venue, hosting local musicians just a block off Main Street every Friday and Saturday.
“Being in Blue Ridge, having turned into a kind of tourist town, it definitely helps us,” says Bowers. “Because we’re local and we’re up here away from downtown, we still get a lot of locals, like people I went to school with and a lot of what we call new locals, people who have been here for five or 10 years.”
Everyone in the Blue Ridge restaurant community agree that they see an increase in business around larger events like Georgia Apple Fest in Ellijay, one of the largest apple festivals on the East Coast and just 15 miles down the road from Blue Ridge. For 52 years, the annual event has attracted thousands to the region, driving traffic to businesses and restaurants in the neighboring towns.
However, the annual apple festival isn’t the only event that’s increased business either. The city’s Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Association in Blue Ridge focus on and coordinate events that draw people to town. For example, when Moran was a chair of the Blue Ridge Business Association, he helped create an event called Fire and Ice, an ice carving festival and chili cookoff that occurs during the slower season. Now in its 12th year, the Fire 7 Ice Chili Cook off and Craft Beer Festival brings people to downtown each February.
Besides city-wide attractions like the Georgia Apple Festival or Fire and Ice, Misty Mountain Hops partners with local businesses and organizations to host entertainment and themed nights apart from their steady live-music gigs on the weekends.
“We grouped up with a local theater and did two weekends of murder mystery nights,” Bowers says. “We’re woking with a local baseball team and do a spaghetti dinner, and we do Singo [bingo with music] every Tuesday.”
Mellman and Moran also have a partnership with a couple of neighboring businesses to help provide some free meals to the senior center since the residents have recently been displaced due to a pipe burst.
“The balance between competition and cooperation is kind of limited in Blue Ridge,” says Moran. “But right now, we’ve got a partnership with two other restaurants, Southern Charm and Blue Jeans Pizza,” Moran says. “We all kind of rise to the occasion when there’s a need in town.”
As far as 2023 goes, restaurateurs recognize that the area is continuing to grow in popularity among tourists, but they aren’t exhausting themselves to cater to that demographic. Instead, they’re focused on bettering their businesses to their standards, whether that’s Bowers adding more music posters to the walls at Misty Mountain Hops or Mellman and Moran consolidating their growth to focus on their flagship restaurant Harvest on Main.
Thanks to its small-town feel, a camaraderie among restaurateurs and a welcoming vibe to guests and locals alike, Blue Ridge is growing into its own.
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