Alex Buerckholtz was living in West Asheville at the start of that community’s reawakening a few years ago, when new pubs and restaurants were emerging along Haywood Road. Ever since, he’s hung onto the notion that what the corridor really lacks is a beer-and-wine shop.
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Now he’s made it happen. After working as a manager at Asheville Brewers’ Supply (which relocated in June from its longtime spot downtown on Wall Street to a larger facility at 712-B Merrimon Ave.), Buerckholtz set his sights back on Haywood Road.
“I knew that this area needed something like this,” he says from his newly opened store, appropriately christened Hops and Vines.
The shop, in a recently renovated building across the street from Digable Pizza, brings a hearty selection of craft-brewed beers, from accessible mainstays to more elusive Belgians. Customers are also greeted by a wall of wine bearing a wide stock of $10-and-under selections alongside pricier palate-pleasers.
Buerckholtz hasn’t left his brewing roots behind: He dedicates part of the store to brewing supplies and plans to offer in-house brewing classes, after which participants will take home their final product. Also on the horizon, he says, are Saturday wine-and-beer tastings at the store.
Though its doors are already open every day but Tuesday, Hops and Vines will hold its official grand opening on Saturday, Oct. 27, with local microbrewers on hand for tastings and giveaways.
Hops and Vines is located at 797 Haywood Road. For more information, call the store at 252-5275.
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