[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," we'll visit places to relax and renew, from the Wilkerson Nature Preserve in Raleigh, like a spa in Wilmington, a winery in Hendersonville, and a yoga retreat in the mountains.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] - Hi, everyone.

Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend."

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week we are exploring places to relax and renew across our state.

Maybe your idea of a place to relax is just out in nature, taking a walk.

And that's what I'm doing today, at one of my favorite places, the Annie Louise Wilkerson, Nature Preserve Park in Raleigh.

And you can enjoy it at any time of the year.

This park is over 150 acres, and it's got fields, trails, an education center, even a brand-new nature library.

We'll explore it more throughout the show, but first, it's important to take time out for yourself.

And that's exactly what I did one weekend in Wilmington.

[gentle upbeat music] For a weekend wind-down, you can't go wrong in Downtown Wilmington.

I found the perfect wake-me-up at Bespoke Coffee on Princess Street.

- [Employee] Welcome.

What can I get for you?

- I think I'm gonna have a cappuccino.

Can you tell me about your pastries?

Are they made in-house?

- Yeah.

So we have some things from Savorez next door, and those were baked freshly today.

And then we have some other baked goods from Sunrise Bakery.

- [Deborah] Bespoke Coffee & Dry Goods is just a quiet space to enjoy delicious coffee drinks and freshly baked breakfast foods from the local Sunrise Bakery, like this amazing strawberry empanada.

In the morning, it's bright and airy inside, and the servers are both knowledgeable and super friendly.

Next, I headed just a few blocks away to a street called Orange for my big treat of the day.

[upbeat music] As I am elevated to the second floor to meet owner JC Richards, I am also welcomed by bursts of orange and white decor.

- This is 20 Orange Spa.

We're located in Downtown Wilmington.

It's a beautiful location right along Cape Fear River.

I've been a massage educator for years.

I love massage, and I could talk about it all day.

And I've been a massage therapist for 12 years.

So most of the therapists I taught and trained myself.

So we just started with this new Glo2 Facial.

So it's a three-step process.

The first is this oxygenating, bubbling exfoliation process.

They call it oxfoliation.

And then the next treatment is the ultrasound treatment, which is just warming and smoothing.

And then the third is this lymphatic massage.

And when you leave, your skin is amazing.

- [Deborah] At 20 Orange Spa, you will find some very unique services and features.

Their hot contrast room is one of them.

- The contrast room is set up for really a person or two to enjoy the therapy of hot and cold applications used together.

So we have the infrared sauna in the same room as the cold plunge.

So you can choose to use one or the other, or the ultimate version of contrast, using both.

We're proud to say we're the only ones offering that in town.

- [Deborah] They may also be the only spa in Wilmington offering this.

- The rooftop terrace.

We are so excited.

It's private.

We open up the cabanas so you have the wind whipping through.

You can hear the river.

It's a really lovely, serene view of Downtown Wilmington.

So it's like, let's be real about the nature of Wilmington.

We have 10 months of perfect weather.

Some rain.

- [Deborah] Refreshed after a treatment, it's definitely nice to spend the afternoon on the Riverwalk, or cuddled up inside with the comfort of your surroundings.

[comforting upbeat music] When it's time to reemerge in the evening, I chose the quiet elegance of casual dining at Floriana's.

- First of all, we're an Italian restaurant.

We make all our pastas in-house.

We have nine balconies on the second floor.

And that's right on the river as well.

So you open the door, we sit you down there, and then you're dining on the river.

- And do not skip the bread here, served nice and warm with their house-made pesto.

Oh, fresh.

Oh, that's amazing.

For my salad, I went a little non-traditional with their beet salad.

This is a terrific salad.

You've got the peppery arugula with crisp apples, the wonderful vinaigrette on there, as well as the nice surprise with the gorgonzola cheese.

And the crushed pistachios really bring out all of the flavors.

I love them all mixed together.

I just love filled pasta.

So I went with the tortilloni, not to be mistaken with tortellini.

- The tortilloni mignon, called the mignon because we braise down filet mignons.

And then we make a handmade tortilloni pasta, which is like a fatter version of a ravioli.

And then we finish it in a nice creamy red sauce.

We make our own desserts here as well.

We've got two mains that are always gonna be on the menu.

One is the tiramisu, and the other is the chocolate mousse, which is very nice, very rich.

We make that every day, and then we do a nice fresh whipped cream right on top of it.

- I'm not even a big chocolate fan, but this is so creamy and chocolatey and delicious.

Order the mousse.

I'd also call it a required self-care indulgence and a fine way to end your wind-down weekend.

[graceful piano music] Bespoke Coffee & Dry Goods is at 202 Princess Street in Wilmington, and they're open daily.

Visit them online at bespokecoffeenc.com 20 Orange Spa is on the second floor at 20 Orange Street.

To make your reservation, visit them online at 20orangespa.com.

Floriana is at 21 Market Street, and they're open for dinner nightly and Sunday brunch.

For more information, you can give them a call at 910-504-0160, or go online to wilmington.florianarestaurant.c.

Here at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve, this trail loops around an old farm pond.

It's a really beautiful place to hike.

And, you know, in farming, the conditions that are good for growing apples are the same as for growing grapes.

So why not make wine from both?

Producer Clay Johnson and his videographer, Erik Olsen, take us to a farm in Hendersonville where they're doing just that.

[upbeat music] - [Clay] This Henderson County farmland has been in Alan Ward's family for nine generations, including acres of apple orchards.

- We knew it was a great place to grow apples.

Apple's been grown here since really the 1800s.

- [Clay] And Ward knew what's good for apples is also good for grapes.

- [Alan] The soils here are great.

They're mineral rich.

The altitudes, the slopes are really important here for air drainage.

It's just a wonderful place to grow grapes.

- [Clay] Ward planted his first vineyard here in 2007.

He opened Saint Paul Mountain Vineyard to the public in 2012.

- And we use equipment that helps us remove the fruit off the stems.

- [Clay] Ward's new production facility produces about 10,000 cases of wine a year, mostly from French vinifera.

The winery makes six reds, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec; six whites, including Chardonnay, Riesling, and Vidal blanc; and a couple of sparkling roses and fruit wines.

- Hello, guys.

How are you doing?

- [Clay] Tastings come in flights, served up with a little wine education.

- [Employee] These first two, for each side, you have your Vidal blanc, and that is a grape that goes really well here in Western North Carolina.

- We come here to escape from our jobs, to relax.

Great people, wonderful service, and it's just a great place to kick back and relax.

- We really want them to relax and enjoy wine and take the mystique out of the wine.

We want people to learn where the wine comes from, how it's made, what it takes to produce a great wine, and that North Carolina can grow fruit and make tremendous wines, just like any other part of this state or the world or the country.

- [Clay] In 2017, Ward opened Appalachian Ridge Artisan Hard Cider, just down the road from his winery.

- [Alan] Cider is actually a wine.

A lot of people don't realize that.

It's not brewed.

So we make the cider as a wine, and then we add some sparkling to it.

- [Employee] Ward planted an orchard from apples he brought back from Normandy, France.

- [Alan] Normandy is really the cider capital of the world.

So our ciders are different than a lot of the grocery store ciders.

They're true European-style ciders.

- [Clay] At the same facility where the wine is made, Ward blends the Normandy apples with local apples to make ciders.

- Apples we use are usually a blend of about seven different apples.

They have tannin, acidity, where we've got a broad spectrum of that taste.

- [Clay] The cidery's tasting room is located in a beautifully restored 1880s barn, where guests can sample hard ciders and spirits.

There's plenty of outdoor seating, too, with views of the mountains and orchards.

- Welcome.

Welcome to Appalachian Ridge.

So today I have six hard ciders available for you.

- [Clay] Like the wines, cider tastings are served in flights with descriptions of each.

- The Bearwallow Mountain is our original hard cider.

So there you're gonna hit a little bit more of that apple note, but without getting too sweet.

- To us, it's a really family atmosphere.

We love the folks that work here, the friends we meet.

It seems like you can come and do a tasting or have wine or cider and just sit and meet new friends.

- [Clay] There's always a few bad apples, and kids love to launch them with a giant slingshot.

♪ She won't be surprised walking down the road ♪ - [Clay] Both the cidery and winery feature music on the weekends, often accompanied by food trucks or catered meals.

Together, they are Saint Paul Mountain Farms, an effort by Ward to serve up fine wines and ciders and keep his family land in farming.

- [Alan] We just have a philosophy here in this world.

You know, you don't rent to own, you rent, and we just wanna make it a better place for that next generation.

♪ It's your highway ♪ - Saint Paul Mountain Farms is at 588 Chestnut Gap Road in Hendersonville, and they're open daily.

For more information, give them a call at 828-685-4002, or go online to saintpaulfarms.com.

This is the new nature library here at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve.

It's a really great resource, especially if you wanna learn something new about nature.

Right now, let's head to Charlotte, where Jack Brayboy takes us on a tour of a historic building that was once the home of an iconic retail brand and is now the center for artistic creativity and entrepreneurship.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - [Jack] Just on the edge of Uptown Charlotte sits the city's hub for creativity, art, performance, and community.

Its name?

The Visual and Performing Arts Center, or the VAPA Center for short.

It all started in the minds of husband and wife team, Arthur and Joanne Rogers.

They had visited similar cities of art around the country and asked themselves, "Why not Charlotte?"

and the journey began.

[upbeat music] - I'm looking around at the talent that's in Charlotte, and I'm thinking, "There is more talent here.

Why don't people see this?

And why is it that the talent that Charlotte is paying for is from outside of Charlotte?

Why are we spending all our money outside of Charlotte and not supporting our own artists?"

- I dare say you won't find a broader demographic of artists anywhere in the state, and that covers all demographics: age, race, profession.

We've got veteran-owned businesses, veteran-owned women's businesses.

So it's a good collective of ours.

- [Jack] It's hard to imagine, but the building was once the uptown home of Sears and Roebuck from 1949 to 1979.

You can see here a newspaper clipping from its grand opening.

Later, it would become the Hal Marshall County Services building until 2016.

One thing that is striking is the sheer size of the 158,000-square-foot building and its three floors once inside.

The maze of hallways adorned with magnificent art of local creators.

[upbeat music] Studio spaces, large and small, behind these doors.

Home to 343 tenants.

Yes, more art this way.

[upbeat music] - I just think Charlotte is at a really interesting time in its life as an art city.

And when I heard about VAPA, I knew it was gonna play an integral role into ushering Charlotte into its next stages as an art city.

- But to have our own space always seemed to be a dream that was unattainable because of the expense.

And to be able to have the space, to have our own area, our little beautiful classroom that's sunlit, we have the beautiful offices, and to have this community of artists and arts organizations is really a dream come true.

- There are people here that may have had something else going on in their life, a different job, but yet, they had a passion.

Some type of medium of art that they did.

And because of VAPA's accessibility, they're able to afford a workspace here.

- Clearly today, the VAPA Center has exceeded all expectations, but they have no intentions of slowing down.

There is a vision for what VAPA 2.0 might look like.

- The long-term plan is to have a purposefully built facility.

The big question is, well, how long are you gonna be here?

And so what I tell people is that it doesn't matter really about the building and how long we're gonna be here because VAPA is not the building.

[upbeat music] - [Jack] The VAPA Center never mutes creativity.

It celebrates it.

Because here, it truly is art, everyday!

[upbeat music] - The Visual and Performing Arts Center is at 700 North Tryon Street in Charlotte, and it's open daily.

For more information about upcoming events and classes, go to vapacenter.com.

Another way to relax and renew is dinner with friends.

Well, Bob Garner met an old friend at a popular restaurant in Winston-Salem called Oh' Calcutta.

Here's the story.

- [Bob] Freddy Lee, who's Chinese, and Gopal Chandarana, who's Indian, grew up and went to school together in Calcutta.

Through a long chain of circumstances, they ended up partnering with Oh' Calcutta on Winston-Salem's 4th Street.

With this place, Freddy now has a full handful of Twin City restaurants.

And guess which came last?

- Already had all different kind of restaurant.

I have Italian, have Brazilian, have French, have Asian.

I see I haven't done Indian yet.

That's why I ended up doing an Indian restaurant, so.

- I told Freddy, "Hey, I want to open a restaurant.

Can you help me out?"

He said, "Yeah.

Well, let's do it together."

That's how we came up with the modern Oh' Calcutta name with a modern Indian cuisine.

I want to open something very different from any other restaurants, Indian restaurants.

Because if you go to a Indian restaurant, they have all mostly, more or less, the same kind of food.

- These are choti plates, small plates, appetizers, whatever you want to call them is okay.

So let's just pull the trigger on that starter pistol.

And that's a good thing to call them too.

Starters.

This is kamla pani puri.

It's basically a fried puff topped with yogurt.

And there's chickpeas, there's potatoes, there's onion, there's cucumber, other things in there.

And what you do is squirt a little tamarind juice on there, which makes it totally unique.

Mm.

Tamarind juice totally transforms that.

This is basically a beet and sweet potato croquette.

They may pronounce it a little bit differently, but it has a mustard aioli, which always indicates a little presence of garlic.

You can certainly see the beet in there.

Sold.

Yeah, yeah.

This is basically a lamb meatball, perfect to be eaten with a spoon, by the way.

They do this in different ways around the world, but not like this.

This is crumble goat cheese topped with cilantro in a simple masala sauce.

And it ain't complicated, mm, but it sure is good.

Now for some body, or main plates, along with drink possibilities.

A nice Malbec or your favorite red, whatever it may be, will go perfectly with a braised lamb shank served with basmati rice, a spicy tomato butter, and sort of a common combination here of Brussels sprouts, fingerling potatoes, and rainbow carrots.

Mm, that is right up my alley.

Look at this.

Salmon cooked in a tandoori, along with a nice vegetable mixture, which I really like about most of these dishes.

A nice spicy, but not overwhelming sauce.

[upbeat music] And a little bit of the naan with truffles in it.

Chenin blanc or your favorite white will go perfectly with that.

By the way, proteins are often cooked threaded onto standup rods in the clay-lined tandoori oven, while naan bread bake stuck to the inside wall of the tandoori.

There are plenty of beer choices to go with entrees like the chicken tikka masala, which I make at home all the time.

Personally, I would drink white wine with the tikka masala and red wine with the goat rezala, which is delicious and has extra flavor from being cooked on the bone.

When I tell you Indian spice bread pudding is a big dessert hit, you'll hopefully realize the rules are kind of off here.

- The great thing is you don't have to be afraid about going to an ethnic restaurant not knowing what to do, because his staff is trained.

They come, they know the menu.

They'll stand at the table for 10 minutes and explain.

And that makes me very comfortable when I come here.

- [Bob] General Manager Brooks Ruvolis and his excellent staff know this menu backwards and forwards and will make it a cinch to order and enjoy the incredible food fusions.

I strongly urge you to give Oh' Calcutta a try, quickly.

- Oh' Calcutta is at 310A West 4th Street in Winston-Salem, and they're open for dinner every day except Mondays.

For reservations and more information, give them a call at 336-999-8855, or go online to ohcalcuttaws.com.

There's nothing like being out in nature to relax and renew.

But if you can add fine dining and yoga, certainly helps, right?

Come with us to the Horseshoe Farm in Henderson County for an elegant, but not too stuffy experience that will definitely leave you relaxed and ready for the new year.

[serene music] - What's important for me on the farm is that when guests come here, whether they're staying overnight or just visiting the spa or the restaurant for the day, that they feel like this is a place they can be themselves and take a deep breath, unwind, relax.

It's kind of like the biggest gift of this place, is being able to offer that for others and watch them experience it.

[serene music] - We are at the Horseshoe Farm located in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

We're an 85-acre farm resort.

[gentle upbeat music] - [Jordan] We have lodging for up to 61 people, in eight different homes.

We have the Stable Spa, which is our full-service luxury spa in a renovated stable.

We have the Silo Cookhouse, which is our dining room here.

We do a modern farm to table dinner party every night for 40 people.

- [Rachel] We have taken our silo and cut out the bottom.

And we turned it into a bar so you can hang out there and just come relax and enjoy some time on the farm.

- We were living in Los Angeles prior to this.

Had just started our family.

We have two small boys.

And my father asked me to come out and see the farm.

And I drove through the gates, and I was just blown away by it.

That was December 2017.

July 2018, we opened to a family of 50 that took the property for two weeks, and it's kind of been like wildfire since then.

I thought I was just doing lodging, and here we are, close to five years later, with the spa, with the restaurant, the pool, and it's really morphed into this really beautiful farm experience.

[upbeat music] We're in the Silo Cookhouse here, which I call the heart of the farm.

It's our lobby, our lounge, and our dining room.

We do dinner service here four nights a week.

It is a modern farm to table dinner party.

- In connection with all of the things we try and do to create the ultimate guest experience, my opportunity is to provide you with one of the best dining experiences that you can have.

At seven o'clock, we have passed hor d'oeuvres and cocktails.

And at 7:30, just like when this was a working farm, I ring the cookhouse bell, and Chef will talk about our first course.

And then the food all comes out at once.

So we all dine together.

It's so convivial and optimistic.

You see every night people are leaving with friends, with connections, with this like, great experience.

[gentle music] - One of the things that when I was drawn to this property, just like the magic of driving in here, was this idea of giving people a place to have space, to relax, to heal.

I knew I needed to find a place to make that happen.

And so the old stables were on the farm here, and they're absolutely gorgeous.

And the first time I ever walked into them I was like, "Why don't we convert the stable into a space?"

- The Stable Spa is a unique and gorgeous space here on the Horseshoe Farm.

We offer a variety of massages.

We also specialize in a lot of esoteric services, too, like craniosacral, sound therapy.

We utilize the herbs and flowers that we grow here in our garden in our services.

So we'll be making herbal and flower-infused oils that we use in our treatments.

The whole energy of this property and this spa is so unique and so different from any other place.

I hope they'll take away the sense of calm and serenity combined with the massage or facial treatment that they got.

And when they leave, they're just gonna feel totally amazing and absolutely different from how they walked in.

- The Horseshoe Farm is at 155 Horseshoe Farm Drive in Hendersonville.

To book your experience, go to thehorseshoefarm.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We have had a wonderful time out here at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve Park in Raleigh.

It is truly the perfect place to relax and renew.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or you can find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] - [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[bright music]