Asheville restaurants: what’s newly open, what’s coming

Asheville, says Tom Austin in a Sept. 9 Travel + Leisure piece, “is hip as all get-out lately.” As for what makes Asheville one of the new darlings of the South, Austin counts the many ways.

But the top on that list is Asheville’s “impressively evolved” culinary scene.

We’re inclined to agree. The past few weeks have seen the Smoky Park Supper Club open on the French Broad, to much fanfare. And it’s hard to argue with a kitchen driven by smoke and fire — not to mention the uber-talented Mark Rosenstein and his young, up-and-coming protegee Michele Bailey.

And Buxton Hall Barbecue is finally open in the South Slope, thanks to the diligent work of kitchen maestro Elliott Moss as well as Meherwan and Molly Irani, whose track record with opening successful restaurants (in both Asheville and Atlanta) is flawless.

What else is new? Read below for some of Asheville’s most recent additions to the culinary scene, as well as a few more right on the horizon.

Taco Billy brings migas to the people

Adopted by fast food kings like Taco Bell or stuffed with Korean short ribs, tacos are as ubiquitous and variable as the sandwich. And in Asheville, the citywide menu of the iconic street food fare is about to expand as another taco restaurant pops up.

Taco Billy is now open on the east end of Haywood Road with tacos that owe as much to grandmothers and Paleo eaters as they do to Mexico.

“And we’re hoping to turn the breakfast taco concept into an institution,” said native Texan and first-time restaurateur Hunter Berry, who owns the 40-seat restaurant with his wife, Beth Berry.

Breakfast tacos are already an institution in Austin, Texas, where the couple lived before moving to Mexico and spending four years in Chiapas and in the Yucatan.

In Asheville, that might translate to warm tortillas stuffed with the classic egg dish migas for a quick-hit breakfast of two tacos and a cup of Joe for $6.

Non-breakfast tacos will include a fried-chicken taco and another with chicken tinga, braised chicken spiced with smoky chipotles. And some tacos may be ordered on a Paleo-friendly plantain taco shell, which the restaurant recently spread with black bean-pecan hummus before adding baked sweet potatoes, avocado and a coconut-lime dressing.

Some are intentionally homey, like the ground-beef taco with lettuce, tomato and guacamole. It’s comforting, basic, and likely wholly familiar to any eater — sometimes you just want a warm tortilla, filled with familiarity.

Taco Billy is at 201 Haywood Road. For now the restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch only, Tuesday-Sunday 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

New eatery, Taco Billy, joins Asheville's taco tapestry

Local Provisions shoots for the stars

At 77 Biltmore Ave., the former location for the now-closed Seven Sows, a ham mural is gone, as are the garage doors.

In its place is a glass wall. The booths are gone too, in favor of a cleaner, simpler floor plan.

And according to Justin Burdett, the chef and co-owner of Local Provisions, the restaurant that will open there in about six weeks, a simple approach is at the heart of his plan, along with a focus on local, seasonal foods.

But he stops short of calling his format farm-to-table.

“The phrase farm-to-table has become so bastardized now,” he said. “Everyone who serves tomatoes in season feels like they can call themselves that.”

But for the chef, whose resume includes Highland’s Ruka’s Table, Miller Union in Atlanta and Hugh Acheson’s 5 & 10 in Athens, the term marks something that’s instinctive for the chef.

Burdett, named a Carolinas Rising Star by Star Chefs in 2013, leans on local meats and preservation techniques to supplement a menu that borrows from Southern tradition but doesn’t adhere to it. Expect to find distinctly non-Southern ingredients such as uni on the menu, for example.

“My style of food is a little more modern,” said Burdett. “I like fermentation, a lot of preserving and charcurterie, but apply it to dishes that are more dainty, pretty little things.”

Bolstered by those techniques and an effort to make the menu approachable yet memorable, Burdett hopes Local Provisions will join the upper echelon of restaurants in Asheville.

“We really want it to be a destination restaurant,” he said. “Jacob (Sessoms) at Table, John (Fleer) at Rhubarb and Katie (Button) at Curate have all done it, and we hope we can fall into that group.”

With Neal McCarthy, General Manager and co-owner of Miller Union in Atlanta also a partner in Local Provisions, the restaurant is already dressed for success. That’s fine by Burdett, who’s not content with just getting a restaurant open and enjoying a modicum of success.

He’s hoping for a James Beard nomination, perhaps status as one of Asheville’s newest destination restaurants.

“I’m really shooting for the stars,” he said. More details about the food and menu to come. Local Provisions will be at 77 Biltmore Ave.

New Asheville restaurant, Local Provisions, opens in fall

A wellness center and cafe blooms on Merrimon

The long-planned Nectar Cafe, a raw foods and vegan restaurant, juice bar, yoga studio and wellness center, quietly opened last week with a limited menu juices and smoothies.

But once it’s fully operational — the cafe’s grand opening is scheduled for October — Nectar will begin serving breakfast and lunch, with a menu that includes pizzas with almond-carrot crust, topped with raw pesto or raw marinara and cashew-based cheese. Other savory dishes include raw vegetable “pasta” bowls, green curry with kelp noodles, and a forbidden rice bowl with Caribbean flavors and locally grown microgreens.

In a few months, the restaurant will usher in a dinner menu of vegan and organic Chinese fare.

Nectar is located at 853 Merrimon Ave. in a two-story building which previously housed the Northside Grill, a bar best known for cheap wings and football. After that, a restaurant called Appalachian Tavern began renovations on the location, eventually abandoning the project.

Construction began anew last year to convert the building into a wellness center, with the second floor of the building home to Veda Studios, providing yoga, meditation and nutrition classes.

Tim Boissy, chef and co-owner of Nectar with his Los Angeles-based brother Dan Boissy, previously owned a raw-foods company called Easy Living Foods in Northern California.

“The basic concept is food as medicine,” he said. “A holistic wellness center, where people can come and change their lives if they need to.”

Keep an eye on Nectar Cafe’s Facebook page or visit www.nectaravl.com for updates.

New vegan raw restaurant, Nectar Lounge, opening soon

The Block Off Biltmore also brings a vegan experience

On Market and Eagle Street, The Block Off Biltmore is inching closer to its expected October opening on the ground floor of the Richard Sharp Smith-designed YMI Cultural Center.

TBOB will be an all-vegan bar, reflecting owner Cam MacQueen’s decades of animal-free living. Beer and liquor will be vegan-safe — a surprising amount of what’s available on the market isn’t, as many a devout vegan should be able to tell you. Vegan food will come from outside sources; MacQueen hopes local restaurants and groups such as GO Kitchen Ready Training Program will want to host pop-up restaurants in the space.

“The vegan piece is important to our mission because it’s important for the planet and the people who are hungry in the world,” said MacQueen, a former Howard University School of Divinity student who specialized in Social Justice Ethics. “Of course, it’s also important for the animals, and a big piece of our social justice mission.”

Historically, the YMI provided night school for adults, a day school and kindergarten. There was also once a gymnasium, doctor’s office, drugstore and swimming pool there.

In the midst of vast changes to the historically African-American neighborhood, MacQueen hopes the new bar, which will host spoken-word performances, music and local-documentary screenings, will act as a community center for the neighborhood.

“We’re very excited about opening, and want to encourage people to come to what we’re calling a ‘community living room,’” said MacQueen. “Part of the mission is to preserve the history of the space and celebrate it.”

CharBar no. 7 comes to Gerber Village

The former location of Frankie Bones, known for steaks and burgers, will soon be home to a new restaurant, one also known for steak and burgers.

The Charlotte-based CharBar No. 7, from the same ownership group as Hickory Tavern, will open a location in Gerber Village in late fall or winter. With the Asheville location and another forthcoming restaurant in Pinehurst, CharBar will soon have five operations in North Carolina.

Though it’s not a sports bar, CharBar will offer the NFL Sunday Ticket on 28-30 televisions, as well as a dozen beers on tap, many of them local, a full bar and mid-priced wine list.

The restaurant bills itself as a family-friendly, all-American neighborhood grill with a special focus on steaks and burgers. The rest of the menu features what you would expect from a neighborhood grill: wedge and Caesar salads, blackened chicken quesadillas, chicken wings and fish and chips.

The menu also features a half-dozen seafood dishes, about a dozen burgers and seven or eight certified Angus beef steaks, charbroiled at 1700 degrees. The average entree costs $10-15, more for steaks.

The 210-seat restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner daily, closing at midnight on weekdays, and later on weekends. CharBar will be at 2 Gerber Village on Hendersonville Road. More at www.charbar7.com.

There’s still more to come

Charlotte Street Taco Shop: John Atwater, the owner of Mamacita’s, will open an as-yet unnamed sister restaurant to his popular downtown taco and burrito shop at 132 Charlotte St. The menu will serve primarily tacos, but with a few hand-held street-food items like pupusas, Salvadoran handmade and stuffed tortillas. Atwater said he hopes to have the restaurant open by the end of November.

Gypsy Queen Deli and Market: The local queen of Lebanese fare, Suzy Phillips, will open her brick-and-mortar restaurant, Gypsy Queen Deli and Market, this fall at 807-A Patton Ave. The restaurant will carry a lot of the same items as Phillips' food truck, including falafel with house-pickled veggies and garlicky sauce and fattoush salad. The grand opening is slated for Oct. 24.

Copper Crown: Adam Bannasch, co-owner and chef of Zambra, is planning a new restaurant for East Asheville. The new neighborhood bistro, Copper Crown, will serve lunch and dinner and Saturday and Sunday brunch. Bannasch said flavors should be somewhat inspired by New Orleans, where he lived for several years, working in restaurants including Fiorella's Cafe, Stella! and the James Beard-awarded Peristyle. The restaurant is slated for an October opening at 1011 E. Tunnel Road.

Patton Avenue dim sum restaurant: Mai Medvedev, who also owns Russian Chapel Hills Winery, and dim sum chef Taitsz Lam are teaming up to open Red Ginger Dim Sum and Tapas later as early as November at 82 Patton Ave. The restaurant, on the first floor of the Capital Building, will offer full-service, a la carte dim sum and contemporary Chinese tapas. There will be 90 seats in the window-lined interior, with another 30 on an outdoor patio, and a full bar.

Yep, even more tacos: Early next year, a craft tequila and taco restaurant, Bartaco, is coming to the former Andy’s Heating & Cooling building at 121 Biltmore Ave., just south of the Orange Peel. Bartaco currently has eight locations, including two in Atlanta, Georgia, all of which focus on Cali-Mex fare, including tacos and rice bowls. The restaurant should open early next year.

John Fleer’s new spot on Lexington: Rhubarb chef John Fleer is opening a new project on Lexington Avenue, in the former French Broad Chocolate Lounge space. The new spot will focus on baked goods, prepared foods and deli-style sandwiches, and will also have a section for local provisions. Fleer is not yet sure of an opening date, he said.

Keep an eye out for more restaurant announcements, coming soon to www.CITIZEN-TIMES.com.