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An evening at River House
May 17 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
SOLD OUT
Join us for a special Saved by a Salamander dinner at River House Inn and Restaurant on the banks of the New River in Grassy Creek, North Carolina.
River House is renowned for it’s elegant but unpretentious ambiance and delectable food. River House is the first choice for fine dining in the Ashe County High Country area.
A unique menu will compliment the signature cocktail for the dinner A silent auction of artwork donated by local artist Scott Balland will complete the evening. Current menus can be found HERE
All profits from the dinner will benefit the New River Conservancy.
SOLD OUT
A bit of history to the Inn:
In 1824, a miner named Meredith Ballou put up the first dwelling on what is now the site of River House. His descendent, Uriah Ballou, built the original incarnation of River House in 1870. He raised a large family in that house and died there in 1932. One of Uriah’s sons, James Larkin Ballou—known simply as “Doc” – acquired the house and land and began the process of modernizing the property.
Gayle Winston, a native of Ashe County, bought the property – at least the 46 acres that were left. She set about acquiring additional property to expand River House holdings to 180 acres. She renovated the main house and many of the other buildings to create the historic River House Country Inn and Restaurant.
No stranger to creating fine dining establishments, Gayle and some friends started the Troutdale Dining Room in tiny Troutdale, VA in 1976. The menu was French-inspired, with “simple, but very interesting food,” she says. “We baked our own bread, and we made our own ice cream, and we did everything, though we didn’t make much money. But we did get very good reviews.”
Winston would later acquire or start the Glendale Springs Inn in Glendale Springs, N.C., the Tavern in Abingdon, Va., Greystone Inn in Roaring Gap, N.C., and the Old Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem, N.C. She still owns and oversees the latter, along with River House, which she purchased in 1988.