If there was ever a course of study better suited to the task of preserving an iconic 80-year-old West Asheville dining institution while also transitioning to a fresh concept, it’s wildlife conservation. And Kelly Gable is on it.
On Jan. 29, the former Tastee Diner general manager and Maryland native — who studied wildlife conservation at the University of Maryland — unveiled the historic Haywood Road restaurant’s script flip to Hail Mary, a bar and restaurant she hopes will be welcomed by Tastee’s loyal clientele, West Asheville neighbors and visitors.
With Hail Mary, Gable is not only intent on keeping the business but also retaining Tastee Diner staff out of work for nearly four months after Tropical Storm Helene. She recognizes the restaurant’s long history in Asheville — the original Tastee Diner opened in 1946 — and is well aware of the controversy and pushback Asheville chef Steven Goff endured when he bought Tastee and shifted its concept in 2022.
“A lot of the changes he made rubbed a lot of locals the wrong way, and that’s unfortunate,” Gable says. “Steven is an amazing chef and did really interesting things.”
She adds, “That being said, I never knew old Tastee, so I didn’t know people’s emotional connection to what it was. What I saw was good food, still diner food, but it’s post-COVID, so $5 plates don’t exist anymore.”
Gable spent much of her pre-Asheville professional life in Nashville, Tenn., with the bulk of her time there as bar manager at Josephine, a busy, chef-driven restaurant in the city’s 12 South neighborhood. She hung out after hours at Dino’s, a popular East Nashville dive bar, eventually segueing from customer to general manager.
Seeking a quieter life more conducive to her commitment to sobriety, she moved to Asheville on Jan. 1, 2023. When someone at Tastee saw Dino’s on Gable’s social media profile, she was recruited to join the team, and in April 2023, Goff promoted her to general manager of Tastee.
In 2024, says Gable, Goff and his wife, Sam, began thinking of selling Tastee and moving to the coast at the end of 2025, but Helene altered the timeline. A few weeks after the storm shuttered the restaurant, when she proposed a game plan for reopening, “They said, ‘Well, we think this is a sign we should not wait until the end of next year.’”
Gable went home, cried, considered options and called her aunt for advice. The aunt proposed that she buy Tastee. “I laughed and told her I didn’t have the money,” she says. “She told me she had always wanted to invest in a restaurant, and I seemed like a good bet.”
As the transition of ownership began, Gable pondered ideas for her business model. Drawing on her 18 months of hands-on experience at Tastee — she knew breakfast traffic there was typically just trickle-down business from the three popular breakfast joints nearby — Sunny Point, Biscuit Head and Early Girl.
“I felt like we needed to go in a lunch/dinner direction, but keep a couple of breakfast sandwiches,” she says. “I kind of took my inspiration for what we are doing from a couple places I really like — Turkey and The Wolf in New Orleans, Cobra Burger in Richmond (Va.) and Red Headed Stranger in Nashville. They are chef-forward, have supersmall menus, keep things simple and do what they do really well.”
Mallory Foster, executive pastry chef for Rhubarb, created the opening menu, then turned the kitchen over to chef Chris Cox (Mother and Mother Ocean Seafood), and cooks Laney Bracey, Liz Deluca and Caleb Knight. Guests will find a burger and sandwiches, some vegan options and small plates, plus a full bar with house cocktails.
The name change came after Gable did a deep dive into Facebook groups and comment boards and realized that keeping Tastee was a hard no. “I thought about the hurricane and how this is our hail Mary to preserve history, this sense of place and save this small business,” she says.
As for the praying mantis logo, Gable laughs. “Entomology was my field in college. I am obsessed with bugs. Between the praying mantis and the Hail Mary, I hope it works.”
Hail Mary is at 575 Haywood Road. Hours are noon-10 p.m. every day except Tuesday. For more information, visit avl.mx/ehj.
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