There is a town called Asheville known as Beer City USA, an adventure for your taste buds with specialty beers such as Bruis’n Ale, the Winter Warmer and Brewgrass. Researchers claim that drinking one to two pints of beer per day has the same cardiovascular benefits as red wine, which can lower the risk of heart disease by 30 percent. Just in case you need a reason.

How do Carolinian beers compare to the Main Line Narbrew’s labels such as Black Sheep and German Assassin or those at King of Prussia’s Rock Bottom or Flip and Bailey in Rosemont? It’s worth a trip to North Carolina where, as on the Main Line, bartenders are making cities better places.

But what really makes Asheville a better place is the largest private residence in North America, the Biltmore Estate to which we dedicated a column in the Main Line Times. A 250-room mansion built by George Vanderbilt, it is modeled after the 16th-century Chateaux Blois, Chenonceaux and Chambord in the Loire Valley of France. By the way, Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park, was retained by Vanderbilt to landscape the estate.