It was 20 minutes until closing time on a cold Friday afternoon in late February, and customers stood shoulder to shoulder inside New Stock’s tiny but toasty front room. Chef Ashley Capps, who owns the artisan meal service with her husband, chef Travis Schultz, was behind two 6-foot folding tables laden with packaged, prepared dinners — coq au vin, osso buco with risotto, shepherd’s pie, enchiladas — plus soups, sides, boxes of baked goods and jars of dressings and sauces. Schultz, and New Stock’s sole employee, Laura Palace, were in the adjacent production kitchen, from which intoxicating scents wafted.
This multitasking location, tucked behind a red door in a Woodfin shopping center, could be considered New Stock 3.0. Capps and Schultz launched the first iteration as a meal delivery and subscription service in 2020 from a shared commercial kitchen space.
In September 2022, they opened NewStock Pantry retail shop on the ground level of Riverview Station in the River Arts District. Meals ordered online through Capps’ enticingly written weekly email newsletter could be picked up there; cold cases and shelves were stocked with a bounty of food items.
In May 2024, they moved production to the Woodfin location, just a few months before Tropical Storm Helene dumped 28 feet of river water inside the Riverview Station shop.
“As soon as we could get out of our neighborhood, we drove to the Woodfin kitchen, got all the food we had purchased, put it on Travis’ smoker in our yard and, for two weeks, cooked dinner for the neighborhood every night,” says Capps.
By mid-October, they were back in business, operating as New Stock. Capps relaunched her weekly emails and the pair began setting up at the West Asheville Tailgate Market and the River Arts District Farmers Market, which had relocated after the flooding.
With the onset of winter weather in January, Capps and Schultz decided the kitchen would double as a pickup and retail spot Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. “We never intended this to be a place people came in, but it’s nice and cozy and has worked out,” Capps says.
New Stock is partnering with Oak & Grist Distilling Co. at 1556 Grovestone Road, Black Mountain, to do a soup bar on Friday and Saturday evenings, offering two soups (one vegan) and small savory pies. Starting this month, Nosh Bagel is at the New Stock space 10 a.m.-1 p.m. the first Saturday of each month selling bagels and bialys that can be paired with New Stock’s whitefish salad, lox and cream cheeses.
Acclaimed for her pies, Capps will celebrate Pi Day on Friday, March 14, offering whole pies and prebuilt variety pie-slice boxes at New Stock during the day and at Oak & Grist that evening. (She’s pondering a banana pudding pie comeback. If you know, you know.)
“Long term, we still want a larger space with retail in front and a kitchen in the back,” Capps says. “We see 2025 as a time to keep making great food, doing tailgates and collaborating with our friends, helping each other and doing things that bring joy.”
New Stock is at 148 Weaverville Road, Unit C, Woodfin. To sign up for the newsletter, visit avl.mx/ekc.
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