2012’s greatest hits: The year’s top A&E, food and beer stories

The A&E story garnering the most hits was “Winning at Pinning: Local Web Star Kelby Carr Re-enters the Print World With Two Books About Pinterest.” Written by Contributing Editor Jon Elliston, the piece features an interview with Carr (see photo above), a nationally known Asheville author who made her June debut at BookExpo America in New York City. Carr was there to sign copies of her new book, Pinterest for Dummies, a primer on what she described as the “mesmerizing and beautiful social network driven by visual content.”

The second-most-viewed A&E post announced the winners of Xpress’ annual readers’ poll. In “Best of WNC 2012: ALL of Your Favorites Revealed!” readers weighed in on over 200 categories, naming their favorite restaurants, bands, villains and much more. The poll, wrote A&E Managing Editor Rebecca Sulock, is “a showcase of our community, the place we love and serve.”

Third in line was “Promoting the Art of the Raconteur.” A&E reporter Alli Marshall’s post previewed the “Unchained” storytelling tour, which made a Sept. 16 stop at the Diana Wortham Theatre. The star of the tour was Neil Gaiman, author of short fiction and graphic novels such as The Sandman and Coraline. Other performers included Peter Aguero and Edgar Oliver. Their mission, wrote Marshall, was “to bring brilliant raconteurs, along with musicians and writers and other artists, to towns large and small across the South — and eventually across the continent. We’ll champion the local and home-grown: independent bookstores, community gardens, performing cafés. We’ll advocate getting offline and off the grid, and wherever we go we’ll celebrate the pleasure and inspiration of raconteuring.”

Popular food/beer stories

“Asheville Beer Week Is on the Horizon *Updated, with New Events*” was a collaboration involving several staffers. Coming on the tail of announcements that two big craft breweries, Sierra Nevada and New Belgium, will be calling WNC home, the 11-day May celebration included events at various local restaurants, breweries and other venues, culminating in the June 2 Beer City Festival. The article gave readers the first taste of which events were planned.

Next in line was “Asheville’s First Food Truck Lot Opens in Downtown (With Slideshow)” by former Xpress food writer Mackensy Lunsford. The story reported the March 2 opening of “The Lot,” a mobile-vending area at 51 Coxe Ave. The occasion marked the end of a long-running push by vendors for the right to sell food in Asheville’s central business district. The post included a photo slideshow by staff reporter Bill Rhodes.

The third-most-viewed article, “Yet Another Brewery Comes to Asheville,” was also by Lunsford. The May 23 story reported on a new brewery in the works at the former Asheville Hardware site at 91 Biltmore Ave. “This is really turning into a crazy beer city right now, isn’t it?” co-owner Walt Dickinson observed in the article. Subsequently dubbed Wicked Weed Brewing, the business plans to open its doors Dec. 28.

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About Jake Frankel
Jake Frankel is an award-winning journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics, from politics and government to business, education and entertainment.

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