Posts on social media about new menus don’t always make news in a town that prides itself on creative, free-thinking, independent restaurants. But when an announcement tags someone who, until recently, was the highly regarded founding chef of another restaurant — well, stop the presses.
Christopher “Cookie” Hadley has served as executive chef at the Hawaiian-inspired RosaBees in the River Arts District since its launch in 2019. But in July, he bade farewell to the space and owner Melissa Gray and aloha to The Hound, a bar and lounge that opened in 2023 in the former Greyhound bus station in East Asheville.
Hadley — who has been cooking for nearly 30 years — grew up in Kansas City, Kan. “So I know barbecue and smoked meats,” he says. “But we spent summers in Hawaii [where his stepfather was born and raised], and I took Spam musubi to school in my lunchbox. That food was my wheelhouse.”
Despite the success he and Gray had working together at RosaBees (the restaurant garnered national press and local love), Hadley says he began feeling restless. Having once owned his own restaurant — Morning Glory Café in Black Mountain — the itch for more agency persisted.
Serendipitously, a query appeared on a local industry-centric Facebook page about an Asheville bar and lounge looking for a chef to take over its small kitchen and run the food program. Hadley connected with the venue’s owners — Peter Montague and Adam Bannasch, who also own Zambra. (Bannasch and his wife, Kate, founded Copper Crown in East Asheville as well.)
When Montague and Bannasch opened The Hound, their goal was a gathering place with drinks; they tried food truck residencies and then pop-ups but ultimately decided they wanted to wash their hands of culinary. Hadley recalls an early meeting with the two about their vision for the space moving forward. “They said they were looking for someone with experience who had proven themselves and they could literally say, ‘Here’s the kitchen. Have at it,’” he says with a laugh.
On July 31, Hadley launched Bonito with a one-page menu of snacks, tacos, sandwiches and poke. Among the standouts are the Cubano sandwich, street corn salad, shrimp ceviche, ono taegu (a Korean dish of rehydrated dried squid in a sesame honey-gochujang glaze) and an addictive bar snack of buttered popcorn with kakimochi. “It’s like an Asian Chex Mix,” Hadley says.
When the installation of a hood is completed in a few weeks, Hadley will expand the menu; the team also intends to add a smoker outside the kitchen where he can indulge his Kansas City barbecue chops. “I’m a big fan of these foods I grew up with and excited to share my enthusiasm.”
Bonito at The Hound is at 2 Tunnel Road. For hours and additional information, visit avl.mx/cs7
Smokin’ Onion fires up dinner menu
In September, Keems and Parker Schultz will mark three years since rolling out The Smokin’ Onion food truck, which has built a fervent following with its 100% plant-based menu. In February, the business took up residence in a 36-seat brick-and-mortar shop on Haywood Road in West Asheville at the foot of the small shopping center that’s also home to Botiwalla, Bad Manners Coffee and Purna Yoga 828.
“Opening the store for breakfast and lunch, we saw that we were filling a need for a great vegan breakfast,” Keems says. “Lunch is always great, but the food truck is busiest for dinner, so customers kept asking when we would do dinner in the restaurant.”
Consider it done. The Smokin’ Onion has added dinner service Fridays, noon-8 p.m. and Saturdays 3-8 p.m. Menu highlights include the town gyro, the cluckin’ good sandwich, the yippee kai-yay burger, red curry and the cauli chop with mashed potatoes and the restaurant’s signature brussels sprout.
The food truck still parks at New Belgium Brewery, 21 Craven St., Tuesdays, noon-8 p.m.
The Smokin’ Onion is at 697 Haywood Road, Suite E. For more information, visit avl.mx/e0j.
FroZen Monkey adds fruit ice cream
Since 2017, Mike Closson has been setting up his FroZen Monkey kiosk at festivals, Asheville City Soccer Club games and school events in and around Asheville, offering shaved ice — a kinder, gentler version of the snow cone — to Western North Carolina residents. “A snow cone is crushed ice, chunky and crunchy,” he explains. “Shaved ice … is soft and fluffy.”
On July 26, Closson opened the window on a teardrop camper parked alongside Ovenbird Kitchen in Swannanoa to introduce his new frozen treat — New Zealand-style fruit ice cream.
He discovered it while scrolling through the internet last fall looking for a product to serve in the shaved ice and festival offseason. “It’s hand-scooped vanilla ice cream mixed with frozen fruit and turned into a soft swirl,” he explains. “I was surprised it wasn’t a thing here in the States,” Closson says.
Currently, he serves cups and cones of fruit ice cream — blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and blackberry — with plans to add tropical flavors like mango, papaya, pineapple and banana. He also offers the shaved ice that made FroZen Monkey popular from the camper; the kiosk and its accompanying 10-flavor fountain will continue to pop up at festivals and events throughout the region.
FroZen Monkey is at 131 South Ave., Swannanoa. For hours and additional information, visit avl.mx/e0k.
Golden Pony serves smoked fare
When chef Joey Woll was cooking at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., some of his co-workers dubbed him “the golden pony.”
“I think it was a jab at first, but it became funny,” he says.
Now, Golden Pony is the name for the pop-ups he’s introduced at Eda’s Hide-A-Way in Weaverville, the second location of Eda Rhyne Distilling Co. Woll developed the concept while at his current post as executive chef for the Weaver House special events venue.
“I’m friends with Eda Rhyne’s founders, Chris [Bower] and Rett [Murphy], and when they were opening the Hide-A-Way they talked to me about doing food. I wanted to stay with my job here, so pop-ups let me flex and keep the solid job. Weaver House has been great about letting me use kitchen space here for prep.”
The magic happens on his 250-gallon offset smoker, Peggy Sue, named for his grandmothers. He hauls it to the Hide-A-Way, sets up a table under a tent and loads up plates with smoked meats, including a recent hot Italian sausage sandwich with piperade on a roll.
“I’m from the Northeast, so I have that affinity for that carnival kind of fare, but I’ll be putting beef on the smoker too. We’ll be doing chopped brisket on a bun, Buc-ees style, for Honky Tonk Flea,” the venue’s recurring flea market that takes place on the third Sunday of each month, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Eda’s Hide-A-Way is at 1098 New Stock Road. For more information about the Honky Tonk Flea, visit avl.mx/e0m. To follow Golden Pony, visit avl.mx/e0l.
Sunday Supper + Noodle Wednesday
Gan Shan West is the go-to place six days a week (closed Monday) for chef Ray Hui’s contemporary take on the food he grew up with in his Chinese immigrant parents’ restaurant in Fort Myers, Fla.
But Wednesdays and Sundays offer a little extra. Noodle Wednesdays rotate three noodle dishes weekly — phat si ew (flank steak with wide rice noodles), Singapore mei fun (with vermicelli rice noodles) and lo mein (the classic dish with egg noodles). Sunday Supper presents one special menu item weekly.
Gan Shan West is at 285 Haywood Road, Suite 20. For more, visit avl.mx/e0n.
Feeling crabby?
Cheer up by diving into Cultura’s newest tongue-in-cheek Cease & Desist menu — Jane’s Crab Shanty — which may or may not be a play on a seafood-themed national chain that starts with Joe and ends with Shack. Every Sunday through September from 5-10 p.m., the restaurant will serve a five-course dinner of fresh oysters, lobster dip, lobster bisque, crab legs and shark pie. Reservations are recommended; $60 per person, $30 for kids.
Cultura is at 147 Coxe Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/e0o.
Summer Celebration
Let country roads take you home to Jamie Swofford and Keia Mastrianni’s Old North Farm in Shelby for Trial to Table’s Summer Celebration on Saturday, Aug. 17, 4:30-7 p.m. Presented by Utopian Seed Project, the popular series showcases crop varieties from farm trials via the talent of local chefs. Tickets, which are a suggested price of $50, include eight small plates (half of which are vegetarian), alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and ice cream from Jessica Weismann of Found Ice Cream. Featured chefs include John Fleer, Sera Cuni, Greg Collier and Mastrianni.
Old North Farm is at 3458 Crowder Ridge Road, Shelby. For more information, visit avl.mx/e0r.
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