WALK (short for the West Asheville Lounge and Kitchen) is coming to Haywood Road, directly across the street from The Admiral in the building that used to house the Rocket Club. The target opening date is in December.
Jenna Lowe is one of a half-dozen business partners in ages ranging from 30 to 45 entering the venture together. The group includes an owner of Universal Joint and owners of Boone Saloon in Boone, N.C. Lowe says that the chief aim of the restaurant group is to create a comfortable, neighborhood-bar atmosphere, complete with two pool tables and a jukebox.
The kitchen will serve a mix of identifiable fare, from comfortable American to Southwestern cuisine. “We’re really aiming to do affordable, casual food that’s done well,” says Lowe. “We just want an enjoyable place for people to come hang out and eat and drink.” The kitchen staff, she says, has not yet been hired. A full bar will be offered, including a number of signature cocktails. Even so, Lowe says that the owners don’t plan to get too over the top with a complicated bar menu so as not to make the drinks too expensive or labor-intensive (which often translates to longer waits at the bar). “We just want it all to be simple, fresh and affordable.”
As far as construction goes, the owners have started from scratch, tearing down the bathrooms (they were once located just inside the front door for a bit of a feng shui nightmare) and moving them to the rear of the building. A new concrete-slab bar will also be built, and strategic lighting design will brighten up the space, as will the addition of a number of garage doors that will stay open in nice weather.
WALK will be open seven days a week and will likely offer brunch service on weekends.
“We’re working to make West Asheville an even better area,” Lowe says. “We hope to become another needed, good addition to the area. We’re getting really excited about it,” she says.
Here’s the future website: http://walkavl.com/ (right now, it’s just a placeholder).
It would be a shame not to reclaim that bar that was in the Rocket Club somehow. It was nice enough.
We walked down to WALK tonight…great vibe and wonderfully restored. We were very excited for this new edition in East West Asheville. Ordered a few beers and 2 street tacos along with a brat. We waited 45 before they brought out the brat. It was cold and the fries were overdone…but hickory nut gap meat…so for what that is worth.
The waiter then brought us the check after we had been there for almost an hour and a half. At that time we asked about the street tacos, the waiter replied “oh the kitchen is a little slow tonight”. We responded that it had been over an hour since the order was placed and we had already eaten the brat, so we would rather not have the street tacos on the tab and to forget about it. We paid and got ready to leave just as the chef came out with the tacos. Are you kidding me? Street tacos should never take almost 2 hours to make…thats why they are called STREET TACOS. Someone better tell the food trucks to park outside, because the food and service is way to slow. Not only were we not greeted at the door, we waited around the entrance to be seated (there is no sign indicating that you need to seat yourself) a couple sitting informed us to find a seat anywhere, and the waitress threw a few menus on the table and walked away.
This is day two since being open, and I hope that they get it together over at WALK. Hire more staff if that is the case, because business is about to pick up this weekend and when we were inside only half the tables were full. There is no excuse for poor customer service and a ridiculous amount time to pass when making easy, low cook time snacks and sides. We’ll be back, but maybe not for a little while.
My experience was also not good. Don’t order the tempeh avocado melt. It is bad tasting tempeh on a piece of bread with a few slivers of avocado. My husband had pulled pork sandwich, and no bbq sauce was even available on the side. The slaw tasted of vicks vapo rub. I will wait for another month before I return. Service was also slow , and when one of the owners asked us how it was…she seemed uninterested in my comments or suggestions.