What’s new in food: Wildwood Still debuts at Moxy hotel

With the Sept. 12 opening of rooftop bar and restaurant Wildwood Still, the stage is set to celebrate two of Western North Carolina’s favorite seasonal things — fall color and brown booze.

On the seventh floor of the new Moxy hotel (a Marriott brand), Wildwood Still offers indoor and outdoor seating for 152, three gas-powered fire pits (one inside), a bar stocked with whiskeys and a Japanese-influenced menu of snacks, hot and cold small plates, and Robata-grilled composed plates.

Christa Baer, a veteran employee of McKibbon Hospitality, which owns and operates Wildwood Still, explains that the company’s vice president of food and beverage, Kiel Lombardo, trained under Japanese American chef Roy Yamaguchi. “Kiel has that experience, and the concept is really his,” she says. “We think it’s a great blend.”

Bauer, who is director of food and beverage for the Moxy and Wildwood Still, is thrilled to mix a personal passion with her professional path. “I am huge bourbon enthusiast,” she says. “I have lost count of how many Kentucky distilleries I have visited and toured. I am really excited about getting to bring different whiskeys and bourbons into our bar.”

Among the over 150 choices will be Japanese and Irish whiskeys, national brands and products from local distilleries including Oak and Grist, Chemist Spirits and Two Trees Distilling Co. Several signature cocktails are based on those spirits, and one of three nitro draft cocktails is as well — the Bourbon Barrel Buzz, a combination of Buffalo Trace bourbon, toasted hazelnut, coffee liqueur, cold-brew coffee, demerara sugar and nutmeg. A selection of wine and beer is available for the spirits disinclined, and lead bartender Colin Dennis has created a nonalcoholic green tea ginger beer that will be on draft.

Dishes from executive chef Austin Tisdale include Wagyu sliders on Japanese milk buns, hamachi, pork gyoza, kabocha gnocchi, and from the Robata grill (which uses a special charcoal and can be heated to 1,000 degrees F) expect har siu pork ribs, Ora King salmon, chargrilled oysters and local mushrooms with barrel-aged shoyu.

Half of the restaurant’s walls are NanaWall — floor-to-ceiling glass doors that fully fold and slide open — and half the ceiling is glass. “Even inside feels like outside,” says Baer. “We don’t want inclement weather to shut down that rooftop experience.”

Wildwood Still is open 3-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 3 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday at Moxy, 61 Biltmore Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/e4u.

A new home for Dogwood Cottage

Amanda Plyler laughs when she describes herself as a baking school dropout. Truth, but it hasn’t stood in the way of her building a successful career as founder, owner and instructor at Dogwood Cottage Baking, which recently moved to a new Weaverville Road location just half a mile from the first but twice the square footage. It all began seven years ago with Stella.

“I had always loved baking and had made some bread, but never 100% sourdough,” she recalls. “I made my own starter from scratch — and named her Stella — and made my first loaf of sourdough truly risen from wild yeast. It was delicious, and I was really proud of myself.”

Then a physical therapist assistant, Plyler had never taken a professional class, but as her interest grew, she enrolled in A-B Tech’s baking and pastry program. Though circumstances got in the way of her completing the degree, she felt as if she had learned enough to teach others and began offering small baking classes out of her home. “My house plan was called the Dogwood Cottage, so that’s what I named it,” she says.

In addition to teaching, Plyler began renting time at commissary kitchens to bake for tailgate markets, which led to her opening her first space in Woodfin and hiring Leehe Stegall, who learned baking from her Jewish grandmother.

A couple of years in, Plyler realized that teaching was where she found her joy, so with Stegall as her co-instructor, she fully transitioned Dogwood Cottage Baking into a baking school in 2023. “I call it a baking school for the home baker,” she explains. “We teach professional techniques to the home baker.”

The hands-on classes in the original Woodfin building could accommodate up to six people; the new space accommodates 10-12 students and gives everyone more elbow room.

Sourdough bread baking is the most popular class. “We talk about how to make a starter, send them home with some starter and teach them how to feed and maintain it,” Plyler says. “The day before class, Leehe and I make the dough, and then everyone learns how to knead and bake it off. They take home a loaf of bread and dough to bake the next day.”

Also popular is Baking 101 and French Desserts. The November and December class schedules have just been added and include Holiday Baking, Pies and Rolls, and Babka and Bagels. The school will host a holiday open house on Sunday, Nov. 17, 1-4 p.m.

Dogwood Cottage Baking is at 235 Weaverville Road. For more information and class schedules, visit avl.mx/e4w.

Silver takes gold

Chef Silver Iocovozzi will need to make room in the trophy case for his most recent national accolade. On Sept. 9, Food & Wine magazine included the Neng Jr.’s founder (and co-owner with husband and wine director Cherry Iocovozzi) among its list of 13 Best New Chefs for 2024. A profile of chef Iocovozzi in the magazine’s October issue lauds the 18-seat West Asheville restaurant for its “riotous, freewheeling menu effortlessly veering between Filipino and Southern food — sometimes lumpia and kinilaw grace the menu, and other times a slow-cooked Brunswick stew — there’s nothing else quite like it in the world.”

Neng Jr.’s is at 701 Haywood Road. For more, visit avl.mx/den.

Summer’s end workshops

Savor the tastes of the summer season well into the next by learning to can, freeze, dry, ferment and root-cellar through Sow True Seed’s Preserving the Harvest class on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 5-6:30 p.m. at its Haywood Street building near downtown. Accomplished home gardener and sustainability expert Beatrice Nation will lead the class.

Looking ahead to next year’s garden, Seed Saving Basics will be taught Wednesday, Oct. 9, 5-6:30 p.m., at the same location. Self-described “Western North Carolina plant nerd” Frankie Larson will teach seed-saving techniques for flowers, vegetables and herbs and hands-on experience with the tools that make it easy. The class covers both dry and wet processing, and participants will take home some locally grown seeds.

Classes are $15 per person, and preregistration is required.

Sow True Seed is at 423 Haywood St. To reserve a spot, visit avl.mx/e4i and click on the desired class date.

Popping up at Regina’s

When Regina’s co-owners Lisa Wagner and Kat Fitzgerald (also executive chef) added Friday and Saturday dinner service in July, they invited interested chefs and cooks to use their kitchen and dining rooms for pop-ups on other evenings. On Sunday, Sept. 22, 5-9 p.m., chef Dean Boskovich will stage Cremona, showcasing an Italian-influenced menu with courses including pasta, salad, grilled polenta and Denver steak with anchovy butter.

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, 5-9 p.m., private chef Dasjiah Owens will present Harmony & Table, featuring seasonal dishes such as crispy potato fritters, confit chicken and lentils, charred cabbage and pan-fried fish with sweet potato.

Regina’s is at 1400 Patton Ave. For more information and to make reservations, visit avl.mx/e4x.