Dive bartenders reveal the soft, warm — and often kooky — underbelly of Asheville’s bar scene

BAR STARS: Pictured clockwise from upper left, local bartenders Elijah Wayne, Catherine Meriwether and Jennie Lou Nelson say dives are hubs for community connection. Photos by Caleb Johnson

Asheville’s glittering rooftop bars and elegant, upscale lounges are full of options for stunning cocktails concocted from locally distilled spirits, house-crafted tinctures, foraged herbs and freshly squeezed juices — many of which cost nearly as much as a lower-end entrée. 

But what if you just want a cheap well shot, a can of PBR and the company of some colorful characters? You might be more in the mood to seek out one of the city’s epic dive bars.

Asheville’s low-brow haunts aren’t just good for affordable drinks and late-night carousing, say three longtime Asheville bartenders. With their low price points, these watering holes offer a hospitable barstool, listening ears and judgement-free support network for people from all walks of life, while also giving back to the greater community.

Of course, there’s also a healthy dose of offbeat fun thrown in for good measure.

Bikers, drag queens and line cooks 

“When the rest of the world locks its doors, the dive bar welcomes the outcasts to come together and commiserate, hopefully relax and be each other’s allies and possible therapists,” says Jennie Lou Nelson, reigning Best of WNC Hall of Fame winner in the “Bartender” category. “From bikers to drag queens to line cooks, it’s neutral territory to facilitate a good time — and if you’re lucky, the bartender will offer you some terrible advice, a wink and maybe even a couple of her French fries.” 

Nelson presides over the taps and spirits at Burger Bar (Asheville’s oldest bar, which, of course, does not serve burgers) and Eda’s Hide-A-Way in Weaverville with occasional stints at 27 Club and Handlebar & Grill. Customers at any of those businesses are unlikely to mistake her for anyone else: Her look — complete with spider web forehead tattoo, dramatic makeup and gloriously vampy outfits — are 100% Jennie Lou. 

Having worked behind numerous local bars over the past decade or so (“I get fired a lot,” she quips), including nearly 10 years at The Odd and two years at Fleetwood’s, Nelson is a familiar face to many Asheville bar-goers. In fact, her love of taking care of people — as well as a passion for rock-and-roll music — originally drew her to working in bars.

FREE SPIRIT: Jennie Lou Nelson, pictured on the job at the Burger Bar, says the freedom to be her sassy, authentic self is part of the reason she loves bartending in dives. Photo by Evan Garner

Describing herself as “born and raised by the cockfighting cartels of Apple Valley, N.C.,” Nelson started honing her people skills as a young teenager selling odds and ends she collected off roadsides at Smiley’s Flea Market in Fletcher. After moving to Asheville, she discovered that dive bars were a space where she was not just accepted for being a sassy, wisecracking oddball, but paid for it.

“I have no filter and dress like a maniac,” she says. “I wouldn’t make it a single week in a dress code 9-5 gig. I’m allergic to fluorescent lighting and khaki and would probably make out with the janitor.”

Fellow dive bartenders Elijah Wayne and Catherine Meriwether share similar motivations for their own longterm love affairs with Asheville’s juke joints. Wayne, who slings drinks along with Nelson at Burger Bar and the Handlebar & Grill as well as at the Asheville Retrocade in West Asheville, began his run in the food and beverage industry at Westville Pub, where he started as a dishwasher before eventually making his way behind the bar on Thanksgiving Day 2016.

In addition to his role at multiple dive bars, Wayne is the owner of the metal and hardcore music promotion company, Blue Mountain Mischief Promotions, and a member of the metal band Bleedseason. He says the opportunity to be around music is a major highlight of bartending for him. And he shares Nelson’s attraction to the freedom of expression the occupation allows.

“I like not having to watch my mouth, and I like not having to worry about being judged for how I look or how I identify or who I associate with,” he says. 

‘Underqualified therapists’

Wayne also enjoys being around people. “We’re pretty much very underqualified therapists for people,” he says. “People will come to a bartender with anything. I’ve always been good at holding space for people, so I think it just works for me.”

Like Nelson and Wayne, Meriwether has stuck with bartending for 15 years mostly because of the customers. “I just like getting to know people,” she says. “I’ve been invited to my regulars’ weddings and their baby showers. I’ve become a staple in their life.” She even once made a tiny onesie out of a bar t-shirt as a gift for a regular customer who had just had a baby.

CHOSEN FAMILY: Catherine Meriwether, pictured at 27 Club, says she’s frequently invited to attend customers’ milestone events, including weddings and baby showers. Photo by Caleb Johnson

The 27 Club near downtown has been Meriwether’s domain since she moved to Asheville seven years ago. She also works at the One Stop at Asheville Music Hall and had previous stints at Asheville Beauty Academy, which closed last May, and the Getaway River Bar before it was destroyed by Tropical Storm Helene. 

Originally from Washington D.C., Meriwether hasn’t always worked in dives. Over the past 15 years, her gigs have ranged from high-end craft cocktail establishments to the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. But dives are her bread and butter.

“I just thrive on volume and personal connections,” she explains, adding that working in dive bars keeps life interesting. 

Nelson agrees. One reason she loves bartending at dives is that they tend to embrace authenticity and creativity.

She recalls a time when she was obsessed with making bloody Mary’s — drinks that became so popular, she says, that they were voted among the top three in the Best of WNC polls three years in a row. “At first it was edible garnish that I would collect all week, such as pickles, meats, cheeses,” she says. “By the end, they had plastic dinosaurs, edible glitter, a My Little Pony, a cigarette, a condom or a $5 bill. Try that in a conventional setting!”

Then there are the unforgettable chance encounters. Wayne remembers a night in 2019 while working at The Odd (then called The Odditorium), when famed musician Tim Capello was setting up for a gig at the bar. 

“This man played with Tina Turner for like 10 years, besides being in movies,” says Wayne. “He was like, ‘Hey, my name is Tim.’ And when he said that, a Tic Tac flew out of his mouth and hit me in the face.”

BEHIND BARS: Elijah Wayne, pictured at Retrocade Speakeasy, entered the food and beverage industry as a dishwasher before working his way up to bartender in 2016. Photo by Caleb Johnson

And, of course, dives are magnets for general Asheville eccentricity. Meriwether will never forget a night early in her tenure at Asheville Beauty Academy when she handed a customer his drink, and he tried to pay her with a handful of colored stones.

“I was like, ‘I know Asheville is weird, but crystals aren’t money,’” she says with a laugh. “No one had mentioned to me that it was an actual thing going on that night, and the little rocks were drink tickets. I thought the guy was trying to pay in crystals, which is so Asheville.”

Then there was another time at the One Stop when she stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. “The first thing I saw was a completely topless woman walking across the street — it’s cold, mind you, very cold,” she explains. “I was like, ‘Whatever, that’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen.’ Then I turned around, and there was a guy on a unicycle juggling rainbow bowling pins. And I was like, ‘Well, I’m not in D.C. anymore.’”

Hard work

Despite the laughs and camaraderie, high-volume, fast-paced bartending is not always fun and games. Even with her ebullient personality and love of people, Nelson says her job’s “constant expenditure of social currency” can leave her feeling drained and antisocial after too many shifts in a row. 

“In an ideal dive bar situation, it’s symbiotic and it actually energizes you instead of depleting. That’s what gets me through,” she says.

For Wayne, having to deal with aggressive customers who’ve had one too many drinks is a drawback. “De-escalation is key,” he says.

Meriwether, who is 36 and currently in nursing school with the goal of working in emergency medicine, says the long hours on her feet behind the bar are hard on her body. “My knees think I’m 112,” she jokes.

She also notes that the hypervigilance required when dealing with customers who have been drinking can be exhausting. “You know, guys constantly want to hit on you. They take your kindness or me trying to get to know you as, ‘Oh, she’s hitting on me,’” she says. 

“You have to be present constantly — pretending like you’re kind of aloof and, like, cute and bouncy, but actually completely very aware of your surroundings at all times,” she adds. 

Meriwether also laments the fact that, although dive bartenders tend to be workhorses, typically juggling multiple jobs at once, they are seldom recognized for their contributions to the bar community. 

“We get brushed under the rug,” she says. “When people think of bartenders in Asheville, everyone thinks of fine dining and craft cocktails. And, yeah, I agree, that’s impressive. But there’s bartending and there’s mixology; and I will not only make you a phenomenal drink, but I will get to know you and your personality and vice versa.”

‘Beacon for the community’

Additionally, Nelson points out that Asheville’s low-brow bars themselves seldom receive kudos they deserve. “Dive bars don’t get enough credit for being a true and humble beacon for the community, a hub for people to regroup, share experiences, poop, recharge and collectively mourn the chaos of this world,” she says.

In the wake of Helene, she says, both of the bars she works at raised money to support their staff. The Burger Bar distributed food to the community. Eda Rhyne — which experienced severe flooding at its Biltmore Village distillery and taproom (it reopened after renovations on Dec. 31) — installed a washer and dryer at its Hide-A-Way location for the community to use. 

“Customers pitched in, gathered resources and came together,” she remembers. “It was really beautiful.”

Likewise, Meriwether says, Asheville Music Hall jumped in to welcome the community immediately after the storm had passed, donating food and offering a place of respite. “Everyone wanted to come out. There was no food, no water, so we just cooked off all the pizza we had, and we served as many drinks as we could,” she remembers. 

Disasters aside, Asheville’s dive bars are intrinsic to the spirit of the community, she notes. When a longtime 27 Club regular was killed by a hit-and-run driver not long ago, the bar hosted a memorial for family and friends and installed a photo of the person behind the bar. The space also hosts an annual Friendsgiving event at Thanksgiving for local folks who can’t spend the holiday with family.

“So many people in this community are of a different orientation or identity, and they might not have immediate family that accepts them. So dive bars are their family,” says Meriwether.

Nelson agrees that a good dive is its own sort of clan. “The dynamics between customers, staff and owners is a really heartfelt connection,” she says of her employers. “We love each other!”

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