The West Asheville bar The Admiral will remain open for business tonight after a car crashed into the building last night. Co-owner Drew Wallace told Xpress that the damage would be repaired today and he wasn’t concerned.
The Admiral opened late last year and has been doing a brisk business since. Wallace said the crash resulted not from St. Patty’s Day-inspired ruckus, but from a simple accident.
“The driver wasn’t intoxicated or anything like that, they were just picking someone up; they thought they had it in drive, but it was actually in reverse,” he explained.
— David Forbes, staff writer
photo by Jonathan Welch, staff photographer
Thanks for reading through to the end…
We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.
We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.
It looks like the building was made with petrified phone books or giant chicklets. Glad they’re still open – best bar in town.
Thank god this bastion of hipsters is still open.
Yes, giant chiclets. I’m gonna buy some today.
Worst bar eVar.
The hole improves the decor, and maybe it will vent out some of the yummy thick cigarette smoke.
I always thought the name sounds like a gay bar form a police Academy movie.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Sammule, don’t sully the name of The Blue Swan by associating it with this haven of tight pants wearing morons.
i 2nd Trey… or maybe im just jealous because im not a hipster.. down with the “too cool” establishments.
I am not a hipster and I don’t wear tight pants (very often) and I stand by my original comment. So there. Anyone up for cocktails?
Bugg, the internet is more addictive than Crack.
Yeah…they weren’t intoxicated or anything. Yeah right!
Ouch! I thought they were thinking of making that window into a door when i saw it.
I’m certainly not hip and i LOVE the Admiral for it’s food and the people who run it. And the smoke doesn’t begin until 10pm and by that time most of the smokers couldn’t wait and headed out to Toliver’s Crossing anyway.
zen,
the smokers “couldn’t wait” for WHAT?
smokers couldn’t wait to smoke. Smoking becomes allowed at only 9pm at TC.
Am I the only one that sees the abject hipocracy in a bar allowing you to kill yourself one way (alchohol) but restricting your ability to kill yourself in another way (smoking)?
Well, alcohol only kills you if you drink too much of it, cigarettes cause linear and cumulative damage. Plus, I don’t have to drink your drink if you are standing next to me.
What’s a minute off of life between friends? All I’m saying is that it’s quite stupid that bars will let people get liqored up and leave without caring how the majority of them get home, but the moment someone lights up it’s “You could kill someone!”. Am I wrong?
if the mountainx is interested in getting more of the community to comment on their articles and be involved, perhaps jason bugg should chill on the comments that add no value to the conversation. i’m not sure that all the mountainx readers need or want to have a full running commentary that reveals more about you, jason, than the slaps you attempt to give local businesses, groups, and others trying to build community.
Yep, you’re off on this one, Jason.
I recommend a large box of chiclets. You can shake ’em.
And they rattle.
I don’t smoke. I was just pointing out the hypocrisy.
I wonder if the person who hit the building was smoking?
“if the mountainx is interested in getting more of the community to comment on their articles and be involved, perhaps jason bugg should chill on the comments that add no value to the conversation. i’m not sure that all the mountainx readers need or want to have a full running commentary that reveals more about you, jason, than the slaps you attempt to give local businesses, groups, and others trying to build community.”
So if I have happy wonderful things to say about a place it’s okay, but the moment that I say something negative I shouldn’t say anything?
What does me making a joke about a bar that is typically full of hipsters say about me, o wise one?
I think it says that I don’t like hipsters. I’m cool with that.
That place is super smokey and too cool for its own good, but being able to bounce back between there and the Rocket Club and then walk home… come on, why would anyone complain.
This story only got the scoop cause Forbes sits in the booth next to where the car hit.
Truth be told, this is my favorite bar in town, smoke or no. If you go on a weeknight it’s more mellow and has less smoke, even after 10pm.
Bashing hipsters is hip itself.
the mountainx is interested in getting more of the community to comment on their articles and be involved, perhaps jason bugg should chill on the comments that add no value to the conversation. i’m not sure that all the mountainx readers need or want to have a full running commentary that reveals more about you, jason, than the slaps you attempt to give local businesses, groups, and others trying to build community”
So you want to filter what is being said. Jason is just giving his opinion. One in which others agree. I enjoy the so called “smug comments”. They can lead to discussion, which is the purpose of all this. Sorry not always positive, but thats life. A better question might be why this story is worthy of news…………..
I always thought “hipsters” were a style of underwear. Anyway, there SHOULD be a bar for people who wear wrangler jeans and fanny packs. I smell a business plan…
Who wears Wrangler Jeans and fanny packs? I think that retarded people already have bars they hang out in (like Magnolia’s).
It’s not hypocrisy. It’s common sense.
Non-smoking bars exist for an obvious reason: some people want to go to a bar where there is no smoking. Those people spend money. These bars want that money.
These taverns are responding to market forces. There is a demand, and these bars fill it.
First off, I’m a non smoker.
Second, non smokers are the biggest whining bed wetters I know. Look into your hearts non smokers, you know it to be true. Your mother the non smoker? Bed wetter.
I’m sitting here in my wrangler jeans (the high waist conceals my hipsters) rummaging through my fanny pack for a clue as to why NOT smoking makes someone a whining bed wetter. Smoking makes everything smoky, and if I spend any time at all in a smoky bar, I have this husky sexy voice all day the next day, which completely ruins my rep as a non-hipster (other use of the word)
Smoke or no smoke, this is a rad place to meet up and have some great food. The guys are nice and love to show off the hole in the wall at this true hole-in-the-wall of West Asheville. Their “dive” neon inside beautifully says it all…
The “Dive neon says what? That they are adopting a derisive term as a sort of hipster status sign? Like a trucker hat or something?
I agree mike! Why this thread got derailed about the smoking issue is beyond me – The Admiral’s policy is later than others and isn’t really a problem.
Jason, it’s a neon sign that says ‘Dive.’ It’s from a underwater sporting term and used ironically.
Hipsters using irony? Surely you jest.
It’s like…. the bingo parlor from hell….. with a grill.
It looks like the sign used to say “Budwiser” but most of the neon had burnt out… but upon closer inspection it actually says “dive” in the parts that are still lit. Kinda witty actually. I do like the lampshade and dark atmosphere. Where else can you have a can of PBR handed to you with flair, already opened and ready to be enjoyed?
“Where else can you have a can of PBR handed to you with flair, already opened and ready to be enjoyed?”
Any bum by the railroad tracks will probably do that for you, and not give you the requisite speech on Will Oldham.
get hip jason, its bonnie “prince” billy now.
“Any bum by the railroad tracks will probably do that for you, and not give you the requisite speech on Will Oldham.”
I was at a party last year with Will Oldham and Harmony Korine. Does that make me the uber-hipster?
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK DREW,SOUNDS LIKE THE PLACE IS A HIT. LOVE YOUR VEGAS FAMILY