OWL Bakery North, Tall John's set to open; Regina's, The Argot Room, Asheville Crafted Edge, Crust Never Sleeps bakery and a mac-n-cheese bar all in the works
And just in time for Halloween, 'Dexter' star takes up residence in Asheville
Note: This story sponsored by Citizens Fuel Co., a family-owned Asheville company.
Here’s some of what’s going around:
Asheville Brewing Co. recently unveiled a specialty pizza that offers some over-the-top pumpkin fun. Their Pumpkin Spice on Everything pizza, available only at their Merrimon Avenue location, is topped with the following: house-made pumpkin pie filling, buffalo mozzarella, goat cheese, sausage, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin spice and a hot honey butter drizzle. Go get it.
In case you missed it, Asheville Brewing recently announced the return of $3 movies at their Merrimon headquarters in what they’re calling Theater 2, a space that was their long-time game room. ABC ended their $3 movies a couple of years ago and switched to showing first-run flicks in their main theater. They’re continuing that, but bringing back the older movies in their second theater space. (Longtime Asheville residents will remember that this location was once the Merrimon Twin Theaters. When entrepreneur Mike Rangel took over 675 Merrimon Ave., he called his business Two Moons Brew and View, then later changed to Asheville Brewing Co.)
Asheville Brewing has spooky movies running in Theater 2 during all of October, with showings at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. For the week of Oct. 20-24, “Hotel Transylvania” is the early movie, with “A Nightmare on Elm Street” following.
Asheville Brewing is a sponsor of this newsletter. Give this Asheville staple a visit. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the Hot Sheet, drop me a line here or at sandford.jason@gmail.com.
Tall John’s, the new neighborhood tavern in the former Chiesa restaurant space at 152 Montford Ave., opens to the public today (Oct. 19). It will be open from 4-10 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Chef Trevor Payne spent the last nine months transforming the space with a new open kitchen and spacious bar, where he’s offering classic European-American food and drinks.
The West End, formerly known as The West End Bakery in West Asheville, has been closed for several weeks, with a number of people reporting on social media that they don’t plan to reopen. I’ve been unable to confirm the status, but the down time is a sad episode in the history of the location. Cathy Cleary and Krista Stearns opened the bakery in 2001 just as the Haywood Road corridor began to come back to life.
Old Europe Pastries’ new location, right across the street from its Broadway Street cafe, is moving along and still under construction.
The Rabbit Hole at Sunny Point Cafe, the new bakery and micro-event space for the ever popular West Asheville cafe on Haywood Road, is set to open soon. The location is a renovated house adjacent to the small cafe parking lot on State Street.
The Crumby Baker is planning to open brick-and-mortar bakery at 24 Sardis Road. It will be called Crust Never Sleeps, the name under which the bakers have been selling their delicious breads and more at local tailgate markets.
Chef Elliott Moss, the Asheville barbecue master who parted ways with Buxton Hall Barbecue earlier this year, just announced his plans to open a new restaurant, Regina’s, in the former Happy Hill Restaurant location, 1400 Patton Ave. Stay tuned for more.
Retro Coffee is now open at 2619 Sweeten Creek Road.
Word on the street: The folks from Chemist Spirits distillery/Antidote cocktail bar are planning to open a new location in Biltmore Village. City construction permits show that there are plans to build a connector addition between 2-4 Brook St. and 6 Brook Street. Those locations were the longtime homes to The Compleat Naturalist and Porter and Prince, two locally owned retail shops that were both there for about two decades. Both closed this year.
Little D’s is the name of a new restaurant planned for a space formerly home to a Chinese restaurant in the shopping center at 952 Merrimon Ave., according to city construction permits. The shopping center is home to Fresh Market, 828 Family Pizzeria and several other businesses.
The Argot Room is the name of the new event space in the works by Sean Piper, co-owner of the fabulous Jargon restaurant on Haywood Road. (The word “argot” is defined as “the jargon or slang of a particular group or class.”) The Argot Room will fill the space at 717 Haywood Road, which is adjacent to Jargon. On a recent tour, Piper told me he needs the room to make his small restaurant business work. (Jargon opened in 2017.) There’s a high demand for large, flexible event space, he says, and he needs the basement space for storage. There’s no definitive timeline on getting the Argot Room up and running.
Asheville Crafted Edge, an artisan knife-maker that aims to engage the Asheville foodie community, is planning to open on Eagle Street. The shop plans to offer “a vast selection of high-end regionally produced knives that are handmade or small batch produced.”
There’s still no word on when Chef Ashleigh Shanti’s highly anticipated Asheville restaurant Good Hot Fish might get up and running. Eater.com reported in May that it would open this fall. Shanti competed with 14 other chef’s on on the Bravo TV network’s reality television cooking show “Top Chef Austin” earlier this year and made it to the top six before being eliminated. She’s been cooking at various pop-up events this summer and fall.
OWL Bakery’s new north location at 197 Charlotte St., the former Waterbird coffee shop and cocktail bar, is set for a soft opening this week. Regular hours for the exquisite coffee/pastry shop will be Tuesdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
New Stock Pantry has opened a brick-and-mortar shop at studio 115 of Riverview Station, the big building that’s home to local art studios and galleries at 191 Lyman St. It’s the work of Ashley Capps and Travis Schultz, who offer their delicious creations there, everything from bread and sandwiches to heat-and-serve meals. Their food is awesome. Up until now, Capps and Schultz have been offering their food through meal boxes ordered online, a service that remains. Check ‘em out.
This week’s cold snap has me thinking about soup. Here are two tidbits: The MatzoMan, otherwise known as Adam Anson, is back with his delicious matzo ball soup. Go to the MatzoMan page on Facebook for details on ordering, or get over to Mother Ocean Seafood on Merrimon and grab it out of the cooler. Also, 18 Chestnuts, an Asheville-based maker of plant-based soups, was honored earlier this summer by the World Plant Based Awards. 18 Chestnuts founder Ilona Kossoff makes her soups, such as chestnut maple, red pepper pomodoro, with locally sourced vegetables and natural ingredients.
The Village Pub restaurant and bar should be opening soon at 100 Fairview Road.
Mizu Noodles and Asian Cuisine is coming to the shopping center at 22 New Leicester Highway, according to city construction permits.
If you haven’t been to the little taqueria tucked behind/beside Tamaleria y Tortilleria Molina at 809 Patton Ave. (a couple doors down from Gypsy Queen), get on over there. They’ve got some damn tasty tacos.
Cedeno Mac and Cheese Bar is coming to the Asheville Mall food court, according to the owners, who recently emailed me to give me a heads-up. Tracy Cedeno tells me that she and her husband, Adam, are planning to open “the first ever macaroni and cheese bar in WNC.” Tracy Cedeno is the previous owner of Doughlicious Yummy’s, which opened in Brevard five years ago.
The Mule, the new taproom opening by Devil’s Foot Beverage Co., is set to open to the public on Oct. 27 at 131 Sweeten Creek Road, suite 10. The spacious room will also serve as an event space for both private and community events. Read all about the new home of Devil’s Foot here.
Here’s a tidbit that arrives just in time for Halloween: Actor Michael C. Hall, known for such hits as Showtime’s “Dexter” and HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” is now an Asheville homeowner. Hall was born and raised in Raleigh before following his love of acting to New York University and beyond. Asheville, be careful whose door you knock on when you’re trick-or-treating.
Finally, a new streaming series on Amazon Prime called “The Peripheral” is set to debut Friday. The series is an adaptation of science fiction master William Gibson’s 2014 novel of the same name, and significant pieces of the show were filmed in Marshall last year. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor, among others. The opening shot of the trailer is a beautiful, panoramic scene of Marshall.
Thanks for reading,
j
The Rabbit Hole, you say.