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fonta flora brewery

March 1, 2016 by Chrissie 3 Comments

Filed Under: all, beer, brewery, nc Tagged With: fonta flora, morganton, road trip

Every time we escape to the mountains, we make a pit stop in Morganton on our way back to Charlotte.

fonta flora

A stop a Fonta Flora for a flight and a growler fill has become a tradition since our first visit in June 2014. Solely based on the recommendation of friends who had visited a few weeks prior, we rolled into downtown Morganton with a tad of skepticism (to tell you the truth, Morganton, NC isn’t much of a vacation destination, I have a friend from law school who grew up there and couldn’t wait to get out). Well, we left with a full growler and Fonta Flora has been on our road trip itinerary ever since. In fact we like it so much that we celebrated our engagement there in June 2015; smiling, laughing and basking in our post engagement glow over a few pints and a pizza from Moon Dog down the street.

fonta flora

My love for a brewery is definitely one part vibe and one part beer. There are a lot of things I love about Fonta Flora. I love that the tasting room and brewery are one; you can sip a pint among the big tanks where all the action happens. I love the rustic ambience of the tasting room, an old brick structure with wooden beams, wooden tables dotted with wildflowers in growlers, and a big wooden bar. I love that every time we visit, about every 3-6 months, always on a Sunday, the same friendly bartender is parked behind the bar (he’s a local teacher who likes beer and works at the brewery part time). I love the soundtrack; usually a healthy mix of my favorite classic rock jams, featuring CRR, Paul Simon and The Beatles. I love the pride they have in the state of North Carolina; from the flag, to a giant outline of the state on a brick wall, to the pride and dedication they have in brewing with local ingredients and their partnerships with local farmers (on our most recent trip we noticed they’ve also started serving cheese and charcuterie boards with locally sourced cheese and meats). I love the cozy, comfortable feeling I get when I walk through the door; like I’m somewhere familiar, kind of like home.

fonta flora

And I love their beer. As I sipped my first Fonta Flora brew a year and a half ago, I still remember telling AJ it was one of the first beers I ever had that tasted like the flavors and ingredients they said were in it (it was a Brass Monkey, still one of my favorites, brewed with Earl Grey tea, orange and coriander). With “an emphasis on seasonal flora,” Fonta Flora brews a variety of unique and creative beers using local, foraged and farmed ingredients: like carrot IPAs, brews chock full of beets, dandelion saisons, porters with hazelnuts and wild ales full of paw paw fruit or cherries.  Their taps rotate seasonally, so there’s always something new to try. I always opt for a flight to maximize the variety of beers I can try, and we usually head back to Charlotte with at least one growler (but more often, it’s two).

fonta flora

fontaflora.com / 317 n. green st., morganton
mon, wed, thurs, fri 5pm-10pm
wednesday 5pm-9pm
saturday 3-10pm
sunday 12pm-7pm
closed tuesdays

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Comments

  1. Kathryn @ Family Food on the Table says

    March 2, 2016 at 3:23 pm

    What a cool looking brewery! I’m not a huge beer drinker but my husband is and I always love the really cozy feeling you get at a good brewery – all about the ambiance, as you say 🙂 We are overdue for a little mountain weekend getaway, so we will definitely have to plan to make a stop here next time we go! Thanks for the recommendation 🙂

    Reply
  2. Liz says

    March 4, 2016 at 11:39 am

    Very cool! I need to check out the brewery soon. I’ve only had Fonta Flora once or twice at some bottle shares in my area. I’m glad to hear you like the place and their beer!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. bagels all the way: bagels with lox, cream cheese, capers, onions, tomatoes and dill | off the eaten path says:
    May 16, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    […] and a Max Scherzer bobblehead. Here’s a fun fact: Scherzer pitched a no hitter the day that AJ and I got engaged. We called my parents to tell them the good news, and my dad tried to act surprised on the phone […]

    Reply

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chrissie off the eaten path blog
Hi! I'm Chrissie: a pizza and sushi loving, craft beer and red wine drinking, restaurant exploring and traveling home cook who's been taking pictures of my food since 2013. To learn more about Off the Eaten Path, click here!

Get in touch: offtheeatenpathclt@gmail.com

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hi my friends, lets talk takeout. are you still lo hi my friends, lets talk takeout. are you still looking for local takeout inspiration? we've found that over the past ten months, one of the easiest ways for us to support local restaurants and eat delicious is by ordering takeout once a week (sometimes more if we can't get to the grocery store or don't feel like cooking). our take out routine is a mix of new to us places as well as some tried and true trusty standbys, and I'm going to try to highlight some of our favorite spots more often. (like a #takeouttuesday situation but since I'm not super organized I cannot promise a new post every tuesday!)

it seems very appropriate to kick of this takeout series (whatever you want to call it!) with a classic: pizza! @iniziopizza is one of our favorite restaurants in charlotte and we order from them a lot (confession: we always get two pizzas because we are greedy and don't want to share with each other). while I'm always and forever on team pistachio pesto pizza, we tried their two new seasonal pies this week: the Pizza Di Pera (with cider poached pears, toasted walnuts, fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella, topped with a gorgonzola cream) and Porchetta Pizza (slow roasted Italian porchetta made in house, broccoli rabe, lemon zest, pecorino, fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella, topped with a salsa verde). they were both delish but we agree we can't get enough of that gorgonzola cream 

this is a 🚨free food alert🚨 post. inizio graciously let us take home their new seasonal specials at no cost to us, but as avid pizza lovers we do exercise our wallets a lot at their dilworth location (inizio is included in my best pizza in charlotte post which I just updated you can read on my blog...if you want the link leave a 🍕). and please don't forget to tip, even with take out!

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