Mountains of North Carolina: Little Main Street Inn Banner Elk

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Feature: The Main Street Inn

Looking for a great vacation to cool off in the North Carolina Mountains in the summer, see the leaves in the fall or ski in the winter…..
Banner Elk is the perfect small town with great amenities and a perfect setting. We set out to find a cool reprieve in the mountains of North Carolina and found The Little Main Street Inn. Oh, what a find! It had everything we wanted and more. It is the best value when you consider all of the amenities that it offers.

The Inn was built in 1934, and had a few other uses before it was an Inn, is a half mile from town and has plenty of good restaurants. We don’t like to eat out every day and the Little Main Street Inn has a full kitchen with a dishwasher, dining room, living room with a gas fireplace, large bedroom, and a spacious bathroom with a shower and jacuzzi. The Little Main Street Inn exudes warmth, comfort, and the feeling of being home yet away. Our unit had many antiques such as a wooden oak ice box and vintage lamps. The entryway is lined with antiques and artifacts. LittleMainStreetInn.com

The front porch is a great place to watch the world go by and get lost in your thoughts.
There is also a rear porch with a seat swing.

The living room is very comfy with a TV and gas fireplace.

A completely stocked kitchen with pots and pans, a coffee maker, a dishwasher,
a fridge, a microwave, and a stove.

The bedroom has a queen bed and a foldup bed in the closet, two large dressers, a nightstand, and AC. The room has an extra USB station to plug in all of your devices. The large bathroom is adjacent with a shower and large jacuzzi.

One thing you will notice is that the entire Inn is immaculate and clean. The outside grounds and bushes are trimmed and the front porch has lovely flower boxes and rocking chairs.

The gas fireplace adds a nice touch for those of us in Florida who mostly don’t own one. We turned it on for effect. It heated the room up in 30 seconds.
Great for the winter or fall.

You can name the cows next door yourself and watch them from your living room window, grazing or eating apples from the tree.

Muffins, donuts, and health bars are available complimentary in the common area 24/7. The kitchen is stocked with cold cereal and milk.

The owners first came across The Little Main Street Inn over 20 years ago and loved it. They then proceeded to purchase the Inn, they are wonderful friendly people who give you your privacy and space yet respond immediately to any requests.

There is plenty to see while staying in Banner Elk:

The Original Mast General Store, 1883, is a wonderland of everything you could imagine
and more. There is also a great ceramic and jewelry store next door.

Grandfather Mountain is the tallest mountain in the eastern escarpment of the
Blue Ridge Mountains, 5946 feet

Blowing Rock Lookout is a series of rocks that offers a great view of the mountains.

On our way out of town at 6 AM these magnificent trees were lit up near Sugar Mountain.

The town of Banner Elk is around 3900 feet, high enough to keep you cool in the summer.
The population is 1088 and it was founded in 1848.It is located between Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain.

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There are many restaurants to eat at in Banner Elk. These two restaurants were recommended to us by locals.

Who can resist Italian food! We feasted at Bellas Italian Restaurant in Banner Elk. Greg the chef knocked it out of the ballpark. The portions are large, seasoned perfectly, and fresh as can be. The prices are extremely reasonable and they have a great menu with many choices. Sit at the bar or at a table, it’s casual with the TV’s overhead. It is family-owned and operated. They have a few other restaurants in the area. https://bellasbannerelk.com/.

Above, L to R: The freshest house salad, the eggplant was prepared perfectly and is just scrumptious, skinned, thin, and delicious, The Buffalo shrimp, very large, fresh, and unbelievable..

Penne Mediterranean, Tortellini Carbonara, Veal Parmagiano, every dish is superb and Magnifico! All dishes are topped with shredded
Parmesan and parsley. We can’t wait to try the rest of their dishes.

Italian Bruschetta, is delicious and with a fantastic presentation!

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We also had a few visits to the Town Tavern, Banner Elk. It’s a fun and casual sports bar pub with many TVs and country music. They have an awesome pub food menu with plenty of choices. It’s open and airy and sits next to a park where they have live music on Thursday evenings. The owners are fantastic and pay attention to detail. The wait staff is friendly and attentive.

Go hungry and leave very satisfied. Their salad is large and awesome, tasty with cheese, carrots, romaine, bacon bits, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, crotons, and your choice of salad dressing. Needless to say, we were very impressed with the salad. At $12.99 it’s a bargain! You can add chicken to the order. The Reuben sandwich is delicious with real corned beef not processed. It is difficult to find real corned beef Reubens at a pub. The burger was a standout, cooked perfectly and juicy and flavorful as could be. We also sampled the crab cake sandwich which is very large and filling. By the way their fries are awesome also. Town Tavern has a great outdoor seating arrangement and on Thursday nights you can listen to music at the park next door just by sitting on Town Tavern’s patio while sipping a drink and eating dinner.