Although Suzy Salwa Phillips helped establish Asheville’s food truck scene several years ago with her mobile business, Gypsy Queen Cuisine, she now has plans to open a brick-and-mortar shop in West Asheville. Why is Phillips making the shift from truck to storefront and what does she have planned?
With the Federal Aviation Administration still many months away from issuing rules on the commercial use of drones, Western North Carolina entrepreneurs are eager to offer customers a bird’s eye view. Thanks to high-resolution cameras and relatively modest cost, drones are considered a game changer for things like airborne surveillance and photography.
“While there is no doubt that Asheville is in need of more lodging for the increasing number of tourists, the concern is, ‘How is it going to be accomplished?'”
Sunny Point Café is well-known for its breakfast and brunch offerings, but for the past few months, Noah Hermanson, the restaurant’s self-described “libations engineer,” has been crafting a new bar program inspired by his passion for food.
Fresh Lunch brings a new daytime delivery service to downtown, Standard Pizza plans a Biltmore Village location and Asheville breweries sponsor the Beer City Cup soccer tournament. Plus food writer Jonathan Ammons talks about simple snacks at 5 Walnut Wine Bar.
City plans to improve infrastructure, expand public space, increase access and encourage private development in the River Arts District have triggered considerable controversy. Xpress reached out to the city, RAD business and property owners, and organizations involved in the now flourishing area’s revitalization to try to answer some key questions.
On the agenda for the May 26 Asheville City Council meeting: lots of public hearings on housing projects around town, including a mixed-use development project at 146 Roberts St.
“If we want Asheville to thrive, we need to have a balanced and fair approach to handling the inevitable concerns that accompany a title like ‘Beer City, USA.'”
“This May, we want to salute Harris Teeter and the Asheville location for its continuing efforts to help support the military during Military Appreciation Month and honor the men and women of the armed services.”
“The corporate person,” dressed in a suit and tie with a Monopoly-guy visage, took several whacks at a papier mâché Earth today in Pack Square, smashing it into pieces. The lampoon was put on by Move to Amend Buncombe County and REAL Cooperative.
Foragers live along a spectrum, and I’m fairly moderate, somewhere on the tamer end. I tag along occasionally with those who hew to a wilder code of living and eat closer to the land. The other day I served as assistant to well-known local, Alan Muskat, “The Mushroom Man,” on a wild foods tour he had arranged for some out-of-towners.
Winston-Salem Journal editorial page editor John Railey’s new book, Rage to Redemption in the Sterilization Age, combines a chronicle of a bleak period in our state’s history with a poignant personal memoir.
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features Hall Fletcher Elementary school’s outdoor learning space, Roots + Wings School of Art and Design’s expansion onto a new campus and local band The Circus Mutts’ quest to raise funds for a new tour vehicle.
Education was a hot button issue this Friday, with the N.C. House passing a $22 billion spending budget, which increased funding for schools. This meant that a visit from Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, who spoke today at an Asheville City Schools Foundation event, could not have come at a more relevant time.
“If you are upset about the lack of affordable housing in Asheville, consider these numbers — the true monthly costs of being a landlord.”
Strive Not To Drive, a week of multimodal awareness events held throughout Asheville, held its first ever walking tour this past Tuesday, May 19, to showcase concerns and problems facing pedestrians, bikers, people with disabilities and motorists in downtown Asheville.
Helmed by story creator Christopher Gaspar and told by a number of local arts professionals and visionaries, the 12-minute video aims to embrace “healthy conversation between creatives, activists and entrepreneurs.”
“If we want a thriving tourism economy and a “craft brew mecca” kind of culture, then we need law enforcement officers trained to deal with this new direction our fine city is taking.”
“A stand of about 70 tall, beautiful old trees on the South Slope of Asheville is in danger of being removed. It is one of the last, if not the very last, undeveloped wooded areas in this part of downtown.”
Identifying the challenges facing the Future I-26 project is fairly straightforward; implementing the needed improvements is more complicated. So how does an ordinary highway become an interstate? And when might the stretch north of downtown Asheville make the interstate grade?
“Despite its name, Regional Recycling Solutions (the new solid-waste recycling facility proposed for West Asheville along Hominy Creek) is a big step backward for recycling here in Western North Carolina.”
