Dining in the Dash: Spring House Restaurant

One of the many things I love about living in Winston-Salem is the restaurants.  For a small city, we have so many amazing options for eating out. And as our downtown continues to go through this revitalization process, there seem to be more and more wonderful places to choose from!

So of course that means we end up trying something new every time we go, right?  Of course not.  Like the townies we are, Matt and I had gotten in the habit of going to the same places over and over again.  After discussing this with Anne and finding that she and Locke were doing the same thing, we came up with a plan to make ourselves a list of places that we would try over the next year instead of going back to the same stand-by.  The only criteria was that at least one of us had never been or both of us hadn't been in over a year. And thus, our new project - Dining in the Dash - was born!

Here is the list we came up with:

• Kitchen Roselli
• The Screaming Rooster
• Goat Lady Dairy
• the Taco Truck
• Sweet Potatoes
• Breakfast Of Course
• Bernadin’s
• Meridian
• Old Salem Tavern
• King’s Crab Shack
• New Town Bistro
• Muddy Creek Café
• Winston-Salem Prime
• Spring House Restaurant
• Lexington BBQ
• Hillbilly Hideaway

Of course, Anne has beaten me to the punch with her dining review but I'm going to go ahead and post about it anyways.

The first place we picked was the Spring House.  I had heard about this new place a few months ago via Twitter and then from my friend Teri who raved about their mojitos. I'd read it was a former mansion from the "Millionaire Row" - the downtown 5th street area that was where the turn-of-century big shots had built huge estates - but which was now mostly converted to office spaces.  I love when old spaces are renovated to capture their original charm so I was excited to see what the renovations looked like.

It did not disappoint at all.  The setting is downright charming.  We lucked out with a warm spring night and the front doors of both dining rooms and the library bar were flung open on to a bright green lawn, a patio with more outdoor seating and a small collection of benches around a fountain where I could imagine comfortably waiting for our table with a glass of wine in hand.  (Fortunately we didn't have to wait since we had a reservation.)

The menu was fun and interesting, with lots of creative dishes that provided a twist on what I'd describe as maybe upscale home cooking.  I had the pork tenderloin saltimbocca and Matt had the chicken fried chicken.  (It came with a waffle.  He was pretty smitten.)  My pork dish was delicious and very tender, with an delicious smoky spoonbread for the side.  It didn't knock my socks off so I'd probably try another dish next time I went, but I definitely wasn't disappointed by it either.  I ended with a almond apple crisp that I generously passed around to share with the table, even though I could have easily hogged the whole thing myself!

One of the major features of the menu was their cocktail selections, which of course I didn't partake in, but would easily make me come back for another visit in a few months.  I would have gotten the drink Anne had - the twisted brown trucker.  It looked every bit as pretty as the description sounded and she gave it a thumbs up.  There's a couple different things that would bring me back to try this again: they offer a tasting menu which I think would be a great way to try many of the unique dishes they offer and the first Wednesday of every month has cooking classes.  Both of these are going on my to-do list... but I better wait until I get through our other places to try first.

I thought Anne summarized it well when she said it was on the pricier side if you did appetizers, drinks and dinner but definitely worth it for a nicer meal.  It would also be a great place to come for drinks and appetizers on the patio or the charming library bar.  We'll definitely be back!