Hot Sheet: Well Played Board Game Café re-opening May 28; Pop Bubble Tea, Gigi's Underground now open; First Watch opening; Asheville real estate market still hot; more

Also, Nantahala Outdoor Center is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary next month

This story sponsored by Citizens Fuel Co., a family-owned Asheville company.

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Well Played Board Game Café is set to re-open for a sneak peek on Saturday (May 28) at its new location on the Asheville South Slope, then celebrate with a grand re-opening party on June 3./ photo by Jason Sandford

The Well Played Board Game Café is set to celebrate its grand re-opening. Folks will recall that the café opened in 2017 on Wall Street, where it built a devoted following with its hundreds of board games and welcoming atmosphere. The café closed in October 2020. Now it’s back.

Well Played will invite guests in to a sneak peek on Saturday (May 28), then celebrate with an official grand re-opening party at 6 p.m. on June 3 at its new location, 162 Coxe Ave. (the former Tasty Beverage location) in the South Slope neighborhood. On the ground floor of the historic Chrysler Building, the café plans to open at 8 a.m. every morning and serve coffee and espresso from local small batch roasters, as well as breakfast pastries and sandwiches. For later in the day, the café will feature a full-service menu of small plates, sandwiches and desserts. Visitors will find local craft beverages, 20 beers on tap, and a new cocktail program. For all the gamers, players will once again have access to a library of more than 700 board games. Expert gamemasters will be available to guide guests. The first 100 customers to arrive at 6 p.m. on June 3 will receive a free 1-year game pass valued at more than $300.

Gigi’s Underground, a new jazz and blues club, has opened at 122 College St. The location is a basement that was once home to Fred’s Speakeasy. Look for great cocktails and music in this space by co-owner Chef Jay Medford of Stay Glazed Donuts and Storm Rhum Bar.

Speaking of jazz, the Monday jazz nights at Little Jumbo cocktail bar in the Montford neighborhood is quickly building a reputation as must-see music. Monday (May 23) will feature guitarist Mike Baggetta with Daniel Kimbro on bass and Jordan Perlson on drums.

First Watch, a Florida-based breakfast restaurant chain, is preparing to open its new Asheville location any day now. The restaurant, located at 2 Hendersonville Road in the Biltmore Station center, in the former Pour Taproom location there, held its soft opening over the weekend.

Ashley Garrison, left, and Eva Peterson, of Pop Bubble Tea inside The Hop Ice Cream Shop on Merrimon Avenue./ photo courtesy of Greg Garrison

Pop Bubble Tea has opened inside The Hop Ice Cream Shop’s location at Merrimon Square Shopping Center (640 Merrimon Ave.) Pop Bubble Tea is a sweet collaboration between Ashley Garrison, co-owner of The Hop, and Eva Peterson, who is originally from Hong Kong. Bubble tea was born in Taiwan, where its makers combined tea with milk and tapioca pearls, as well as other flavors. Pop Bubble Tea plans to use high quality tea leaves from Taiwan, as well as fruit from local farms. Patrons can customize their drink by choosing tea and milk types (including non-dairy), toppings, and the amount of sugar and ice they prefer.

The overwhelming popularity of synchronous firefly viewing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has sparked more and more private tours offering firefly viewing to small groups (though not necessarily of synchronous lightning bugs.) Asheville Wellness Tours, for example, is hosting a series of private tours of a secret location near Asheville were the elusive Blue Ghost firefly variety hangs out.

Lots with free parking around Asheville are quickly disappearing. The big parking lot surrounding the former Fuddrucker’s restaurant on Charlotte Street is now off limits, according to new signs posted there. Over on Buxton Avenue, a parking lot across from Catawba Brewing’s location there is now a paid lot, and the lot owner (not Catawba) is towing vehicles. And a couple of people have told me that the parking lot surrounding the former Wells Fargo bank branch on Haywood Road, formerly free, is now a paid lot.

The Asheville real estate market is still hot, according to stats for the first quarter of 2022. Overall, it's a continuation of the trends we've been seeing since the start of the pandemic - increased demand combined with low inventory has sent prices soaring. The market may cool as interest rates continue to climb, as does inflation, but for now here we are. These numbers are for the city of Asheville:

• new listings are down nearly 15 percent for Q1 of this year compared to Q1 of 2022; the overall lack of "inventory," of homes for sale, has been one of the key drivers of price, as well as demand, of course.

• the median list price for Q1 of this year was $439,900, compared to $364,000 for Q1 of 2021; that's a whopping 20.8 percent increase

• the median sold price for Q1 of this year was $442,000, compared to $365,166 in Q1 of last year, up 21 percent

• the average list price in Q1 of this year was $551,809, compared to $490,000 for the same quarter last year, up 12.6 percent

• the average sold price for Q1 of this year was $554,856, compared to $482,966 during same quarter last year, a nearly 15 percent increase.

Just how over-priced are homes in the Asheville metro area? The answer is 46 percent, according to an analysis from Moody's Analytics. Read this NPR story from May 12 for more details.

How about some Asheville anniversaries: High Five Coffee recently celebrated its 15th birthday. Posana restaurant is 13. The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project celebrates its 20th anniversary on Wednesday (May 25) with a free event from 4-6:30 p.m. at Hickory Nut Gap Farm.

Photo courtesy of the Nantahala Outdoor Center

Finally, Nantahala Outdoor Center celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Wow! From its website:

Nantahala Outdoor Center was founded in 1972 by Payson and Aurelia Kennedy, and Horace Holden Sr. The outfitter originated as a small motel and gas station along the Nantahala River in Bryson City, and was the outgrowth of an idea that friends working together to pursue their outdoor passions could change lives. This foundation powered the success and growth of NOC to expand to offer over 120 adventure itineraries and multiple outposts and retail locations across four southeastern states.

The Nantahala Outdoor Center is an economic engine that’s attracted an amazing contingent of smart, creative, influential boaters to Western North Carolina over its half century. It remains a key training outpost for current and future Olympians, not to mention all the family fun they offer. Congratulations!

Check out details here of NOC’s 50th anniversary party, which is set for June 11.

Thanks for reading,

-j