Hot Sheet: Doctor Brown's farewell trivia night; a new South Slope bar/brewery; a call for artists to celebrate Hominy Creek Greenway; Gran Fondo Asheville; more
Also, remembering Tunnel Road as Asheville's 'Miracle Mile'
Here’s more of what’s going around:
David Brown is hanging up his hat as a trivia night host. David, also known as Doc (he’s got a PhD in U.S. History), started Doctor Brown’s Trivia way back in 2006. His first gig was at Scully’s, then at Westville Pub and Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria the following year. David built a devoted following as trivia nights in Asheville hit their heyday. But David says his trivia master days are over (his food truck and Candler restaurant keep him extremely busy), except for one final night on July 23 at the Haiku I Do venue. He adds that Kipper Schauer, another of Asheville’s grand master trivia hosts, will be on hand as well. It should be an awesome, nostalgic night. Stay tuned for details.
Gran Fondo Asheville is set for July 18 in downtown Asheville. The bicycle race will start in downtown Asheville (Walnut Street) and go out from there, with separate routes for different levels of racers.
The site of a former Denny’s restaurant at 1 Regent Park Boulevard is set to for a new shell building that will be offered up for lease to two retail operations, according to city construction permits.
Asheville Sports Club, the working name of the new bar/brewery planned for 137 Coxe Ave. next to the new Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant, is still in the works.
Cowboys Mexican Grill is coming to suite 100 in the Westgate Shopping Center, according to city construction permits.
Dalton Distillery recently celebrated its 10th anniversary at 251 Biltmore Ave. Adam Dalton, who got interested in making spirits when he was a student at UNC Asheville, started with rum and has expanded from there. For more, here’s a journalnow.com profile of Dalton. Congratulations!
The Black Mountain food scene is hot right now with the opening of the new Bush Farmhouse, which I mention in this food round-up. And there’s more to come. Word on the street is that John Richardson of Black Mountain Kitchen and Ale House has plans to build out a food court right across Ridgeway Avenue from Bush Farmhouse using shipping containers, and food offerings are to include some well-known Asheville restaurants.
A call for artists has been issued by the Friends of Hominy Creek Greenway. They want to celebrate the greenway’s 10th anniversary with a public art exhibition. The call goes out to all craftspeople, visual and performance artists to consider creating a temporary outdoor art installation that will be up from Oct. 2-10. Deadline to apply is Wednesday, July 7.
The Asheville Museum of Science, in partnership with the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, is seeking nominations for Western North Carolina women to be featured in a new exhibit designed to celebrate contemporary female scientists and inspire a new generation of female leaders in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. The exhibit will be unveiled later this year. To apply or nominate a woman you know, go here.
6AM City, the South Carolina-based company that owns a chain of hyper-local city newsletters in eight locations, including AVL Today in Asheville, has announced that it plans to grow into a total of 24 cities by the end of the year. The company says the growth will help them continue to improve their product. And they’re hiring.
The Miracle Mile was the nickname given to Tunnel Road back in the 1950s and ‘60s, when it grew quickly from a two-lane country road into one of Asheville’s first tourist-centered commercial corridors. Hotels, motels and tourist courts of all kinds were built along the route just east of downtown. Did you know that one hotel of that era had a chairlift to move guests around? (The section of road got so built up with billboards that opponents of the giant signs held Tunnel Road up as an example of out-of-control clutter during efforts in the 1980s in North Carolina to ban billboards.) Check out a great series of posts on the Asheville, the way it WAS Facebook group for more.
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-j