Asheville Indepedent Restaurant AIR Passport now on sale

Press release

The Asheville Independent Restaurant (AIR) 2014 Passport is now on sale, just in time for the holidays. The Passport, which includes buy-one-get-one coupons at more than 40 of Asheville’s locally owned, farm-to-table restaurants and breweries, can be purchased for $50 at the AIR website (www.airasheville.org) or at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce gift shop.

“If you like eating at AIR restaurants or you know someone who does, this is the perfect gift,” said Jane Anderson, executive director of AIR. “The Passport is a great value. Fifty dollars gets your $1,000 worth of savings. Plus you are supporting the local restaurateurs and, indirectly, the farmers who provide the ingredients that go into the food that makes Asheville such a great place to live and visit. Purchasing the 2014 AIR Passport is another way to ‘buy local’ this holiday season.”

The 2014 Passport includes applies to either breakfast, lunch, dinner or brunch at the following restaurants: Acropolis Pizza, Ambrozia Bar & Bistro, Avenue M, The Bier Garden, Bouchon, The Cantina at Biltmore, Carmel’s, Chestnut, City Bakery Café, Corner Kitchen, Creperie Bouchon, Edna’s Of Asheville / Bad Puppy Coffee, Fig Bistro, Frankie Bones, French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Grovewood Café, Karen Donatelli Café, Kathmandu Café, Jack of Hearts, Jack of the Wood, Laughing Seed, Lexington Avenue Brewery, Little Pigs Bar-B-Q, Luella’s Bar-B-Que, MG Road, Native Kitchen & Social Pub, Oysterhouse Brewery, Pack’s Tavern, Plant, Sante Wine Bar, Scully’s, The Social Lounge & Tapas, Strada Italiano , Sunny Point, The Social, Thirsty Monk , Tupelo Honey Café, Ultimate Ice Cream, Vincenzos, Vinnie’s Neighborhood, Mela, Jerusalem Garden Cafe, Rosetta’s and Glass Onion.

AIR, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2014, is an association of local, independent restaurants dedicated to keeping Asheville’s food scene eclectic, interesting, fresh and flavorful. It’s more than 100 members contribute richly to the city’s reputation as a culinary destination and a national leader in the farm-to-table movement. Most recently, AIR partnered with the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) and the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute (BRSI) to promote more environmentally-sustainable practices among the city’s restaurants. As a result of their work, Asheville was the first city in the U.S. to be named a Green Dining Destination.

AIR restaurants also reinvest in the community by supporting a new generation of culinary innovators and entrepreneurs through the GO! Kitchen Ready Training Program, which prepares students to enter the culinary field, and the Chefs of Tomorrow Scholarship Fund at A-B Tech’s nationally acclaimed culinary program.