Asheville’s vegetarian food scene will lose one of its cornerstones on Saturday when Green Light Café moves on from 22 Lexington Ave. Shanon Blair, who owns the eatery with her husband, Michael, says real estate difficulties caused them to close, at least for now. “There’s no option to renew at this time,” she said. “We couldn’t find another location quick enough, so we’ll have to just pull out and then maybe in the future try to reopen somewhere else,” she says.
The café, which features vegetarian dishes inspired by global cuisine, will remain open through dinner on Saturday, Sept. 8.
The owners plan to continue cooking for their catering and special events projects. Diners can satisfy their Green Light cravings at several upcoming events: Organicfest on Sept. 8, the Jomeokee Music and Arts Festival in Pinnacle on the weekend of Sept. 15 and the Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain in October.
The Blairs have experience navigating their business through changing environments. They opened Green Light in Black Mountain in 1998, where it remained for ten years. In 2002, they expanded into catering and events. In 2008, they took a two-year hiatus from the restaurant and focused on catering. They re-opened the brick-and-mortar restaurant in Asheville in 2010. Here’s hoping this week’s move is just one more opportunity for the eatery to re-invent itself.
Green Light Café at 22 Lexington Ave. will be open Wednesday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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