Mattie Lou’s Café & Bakery sold out of all its baked goods by noon on its very first day of business. That was a tremendous relief for Mattie Grey, the sole proprietor, baker, coffee maker and counter person for the business that opened Nov. 13 in the former Merrimon Avenue home of Geraldine’s Bakery.
“I was afraid I’d be standing there twiddling my thumbs all day,” she recalls a week later. “But people had seen my sign and posted on NextDoor and Facebook, so there were actually people waiting at the door when I opened at 8 a.m.”
There was natural curiosity about the highly visible address that for 11 years had been Geraldine’s, an Asheville institution. That closure was announced on social media and a sign taped to the door, citing financial losses from Tropical Storm Helene. The gracious farewell also urged Gerladine’s customers to welcome and support the new tenant.
Not everyone got the message. “Some people have been a little grumpy about it,” Grey says. “I’ve had people walk in, ask about doughnuts and when I say we don’t do doughnuts anymore, they walk right back out. I want to say, ‘Wait, do you want to try this instead?’”
She might suggest, for instance, a selection of laminated pastries like chocolate or twice-baked almond croissants, sweet or savory Danish, iced cinnamon rolls, gooey pecan sticky buns or cookies the size of a platter. She adds cardamom to her morning buns and fills her cruffins with miso caramel pastry cream.
The menu reflects her influences and traces the progression of her somewhat unlikely path to pastry chef and bakery owner. She grew up in a small town in East Tennessee and loved baking with her grandma. After high school, she moved to Seattle and got a job in a small specialty food kiosk at the famous Pike’s Place Market; an acquaintance encouraged her to pursue her interest in cooking and baking.
With no means for formal education, she instead found unpaid evening internships in restaurants, where she learned basic skills. Eventually, she got a job as a prep cook and moved on to pastry positions. “I’m much better suited to get up at 3 in the morning than still be up at 3 in the morning,” she explains.
She took a pastry chef job with Indigo Road Hospitality Group in Charleston, S.C., then spent two years in Austin, Texas. When her mother unexpectedly passed away in July 2023 and she returned to Jonesborough, Tenn., for the funeral, she realized it was time to come home. Or close enough.
“I had always loved Asheville; it was just so comfortable to me,” she says. She accepted the position of executive pastry chef for the then-soon-to-open Flat Iron Hotel, and in September 2023, she moved to Asheville in advance of the hotel’s May 2024 opening. After several months overseeing pastry for the hotel’s four dining concepts, and still grieving her mother, she decided to fly solo. An Instagram post she made seeking a commercial kitchen led her to Geraldine’s.
Two days before she was set to meet with the Geraldine’s owners, Helene hit, closing the bakery temporarily, then permanently. She decided to forge ahead anyway. After reaching an agreement with the owners, she started cleaning, organizing and ordering product the first week of November.
“It was a whirlwind!” she says. “It feels almost too good to be true. But people have been so kind and welcoming. They’re glad I’m here, and I am so happy to be baking for them.”
Mattie Lou’s Bakery & Café is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 840 Merrimon Ave. avl.mx/ec1
Guajiro keeps on truckin’
Since parking his bright red Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food truck at The Cotton Mill Studios in October 2022, Chris Barroso has built a devoted following for his hearty breakfast foods, lechon asado and Nana’s sopa de frijoles negros — black bean soup from his grandmother’s recipe. In May, he expanded with the opening of El Patio de Guajiro, a 45-seat indoor restaurant, bar and outdoor seating space at the Cotton Mill building. The restaurant and food truck were destroyed when floodwaters rampaged through the River Arts District on Sept. 27.
Barroso recently bought fellow Asheville restaurateur Eric Scheffer‘s sky-blue Cielo catering truck. After slapping the bright yellow Guajiro sign on its side, Barroso arranged a permanent parking space at Hi-Wire Brewing’s Biltmore Village taproom and, on Nov. 16, popped open the window to find long lines of fans eager for their Cuban sandwich fix.
Barroso is also offering a holiday catering menu with favorites like vaca frita, ropa vieja, arroz con pollo and desserts.
The Guajiro food truck is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily at 2A Huntsman Place. To learn more, visit avl.mx/prwu.
Nolo’s new home
When Marquee artisan market was demolished by floodwaters from Helene, so was the Nolo nonalcoholic bottle shop kiosk inside the building. In November, just in time for sober folks to navigate the boozy holiday party season, Nolo replenished its online inventory of alcohol-free beers, canned cocktails, wines, spirits and mixers for sales and local pickups.
Additionally, on Dec. 1, owners Jennifer and Jason Phillips — who bought the two-year-old business from founder Jason Pedrick in July — set up shop inside Atomic Furnishings’ new downtown home. The mid-century modern and hand-made furnishings showroom lost its Swannanoa River Road building to flooding and recently relocated to the former Moog warehouse at 178 Broadway Street.
Nolo will mix up mocktails and offer other zero-proof samples at Atomic’s grand reopening and 10th anniversary party on Saturday, Dec. 7, 4-8 p.m.
For more information, visit avl.mx/ebs.
Plant Bar sprouts in West Asheville
Another casualty of Helene’s destruction of Marquee was the second location of Asheville Dispensary and AD Elixir, Coffee & Tea Bar, which launched inside the River Arts District building the last week of August.
The original Asheville Dispensary Elixir Bar, opened by Jimmy Gallagher on Haywood Road in 2018, became a community gathering place and go-to retail outlet for CBD and delta-9 edibles and THCA flowers and concentrates. With the recent rebranding of that location’s AD Elixir Bar to Plant Bar, Gallagher and general manager Nikki Eldred have implemented an artisanal coffee program, enhanced the lounge spaces with more seating and foliage for a cozy experience.
Plant Bar offers zero-proof drinks, herbal elixirs, specialty espresso drinks, traditional Chinese teas and healthy bubble teas developed in collaboration with The NOHM Collective.
Plant Bar’s lounge and outdoor deck are open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. daily at 909 Haywood Road. Learn more at avl.mx/ebt.
Slovenia by the glass
East of Italy is Slovenia, and on Wednesday, Dec. 11, the border dissolves when that country’s food and wines are presented through a five-course wine dinner at Gemelli Italian restaurant. Each course and wine pairing will be introduced with a discussion of the country’s grape varietals and the Hungarian, Italian and Mediterranean influences in the dishes.
The event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person.
Gemelli is at 70 Westgate Parkway. Make reservations at avl.mx/ebv.
National honors for Hendersonville winery
Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards in Hendersonville recently summitted at the American Wine Society 2024 National Commercial Competition. Saint Paul, which opened in 2011 as Hendersonville’s first vineyard, was honored with the Best of North Carolina award for its viognier, which also was named a Best Varietal.
Additionally, five of Saint Paul winemaker Tim Crowe‘s estate wines — chambourcin, Chestnut Gap, petit verdot and V and V Reserve — received silver medals, achieving an average score of 93 out of 100.
Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards is on farmland that has been in owner Alan Ward‘s family for centuries. In addition to the vineyard and tasting room at 588 Chestnut Gap Road, the family owns the Appalachian Ridge Cidery at 749 Chestnut Gap Road.
For more information, visit avl.mx/ebu.
Bienvenue Bouchon
After being closed in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, Michel Baudouin reopened his downtown French restaurant, Bouchon, on Nov. 22 with weekend service. Open at 3 p.m. Friday through Sunday, there is a limited menu to begin but count on the classics, including the Xpress Best of WNC Hall of Fame pommes frites plus mussels, gratinée a l’oignon and steak au poivre.
As for Baudouin’s East Asheville restaurant, RendezVous, the chef says with a laugh that he was relieved the location’s popular pétanque court did not turn into a duck pond in the flood. Other than losing product due to the power outage, the building was relatively unscathed, and after investing in daily potable water deliveries, he reopened it on Oct. 19 with service 4-9 p.m. daily.
Bouchon is at 62 N. Lexington Ave. RendezVous is 184 New Haw Creek Road.
Mikasa Criolla leaves S&W Market
After two years of serving hot empanadas and other Peruvian dishes in downtown’s S&W Market, chef Santiago Vargas and partner Ana Austin have closed their Mikasa Criolla kiosk. The pair announced on social media that they plan to focus on operating their catering company, Mikasa AVL, from their new kitchen at 1636 Hendersonville Road. They will also continue to offer a menu of empanadas available for online ordering, delivery and pickup, as well as at a few local retail locations.
For information on Mikasa AVL, visit avl.mx/ebw. To order empanadas or for a list of retail locations, visit avl.mx/c6p.
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