One Love moving

One Love Jamaican Restaurant, an island of Caribbean delights in a country field just outside Canton, is moving its banana cornbread, goat curry and oxtail stew farther from Asheville. The restaurant will reopen under the same name in Lake Junaluska. Owner Patrick Bulgin says business was too slow back in Canton. He hopes the former […]

Presents for Grove Park Inn

The Grove Park Inn is celebrating its 100th birthday with new chefs, beer and dining opportunities. The resort is in the midst of a restaurant makeover. KSL Partners, the group that purchased the inn about a year ago, is updating the atmosphere at Horizon's, Sunset Terrace, and Blue Ridge Dining room, adding a new bar/restaurant […]

Doughnuts win first place

That big, golden circle on Asheville's Horizon? It's not the sun — it's a doughnut, a yeasty paczki (pronounced punch-key) filled with apricot and chili pepper caramel sauce, to be exact. Ron and Valerie Patton took first place in The Big Tasty food business competition in March with their plan for Vortex Doughnuts. They hope […]

Up close and sociable

Anthony Cerrato celebrated his restaurant's first birthday in March. With a year behind him, he hopes to expand on Strada's Italian menu with a new tapas concept that pulls from all around the Mediterranean, including Morocco. With partner Eric Booker, Cerrato will rebrand Sazerac, the cocktail lounge next door to Strada, as The Social Lounge […]

Pisgah goes convention­al

Compare a bottle of Pisgah Pale Ale from February with one from April, and you'll notice a difference on the label. A small green circle is absent from the latter. As of the end of March, Pisgah Brewing does not produce organic beer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The difference is only in […]

Post-Consumer Pantry

Olive oil is one of those slippery beasts that spans all price ranges. Middle-of-the-road olive oil will get the job done, but there's nothing quite like a drizzle of high-end extra virgin to make bread, salads and vegetables come to life. White vinegar doesn't vary quite as much, but tasty, high-quality vinegar gives sour foods […]

Stromboli during the spin cycle

The Bar of Soap takes diversification seriously: It's a laundromat, a bookstore, a beer bar and, now, an Italian restaurant. “Don't put all your eggs in one basket,” says Sean McNeal, who owns Bar of Soap. Last week, Del Vecchios, an Italian comfort-food restaurant, opened in the Merrimon Avenue business, offering dine-in, take-out and delivery. […]

Henry’s Cheese Spread

Some have likened this dip to pimento cheese, but it may have been more awesome, with the creamy-fiery thing of p.c., but torqued up by horseradish to a picklish, sinus-clearing intensity. … It’s a fabulous spread for asparagus spears, radishes, carrot sticks, and crackers, to name a few. Or stir it into grits or fold […]

Community sizzle

The basic method behind sautéing is the toss: put your ingredients in the pan and encourage them to mingle. Steven Liebenhaut and Rosetta Star hope to do the same thing with people (minus the actual cooking part). With a group of like-minded folks, they're organizing Sauté, a community café that will encourage interaction between strangers […]

Wild edibles

Since the 1960s, Euell Gibbons has influenced multiple generations to rediscover the art of foraging wild foods, included among them, my grandpa, Ted. As a former lawyer for the Cleveland Browns, one may take him as an unlikely student of Gibbons. Once he retired from law, however, my grandpa spent increasing time on his hobby […]

Sweet on brewing

With local beer, pickles, kombucha and more, fermented foods are brewing all over Asheville. Soon, cider will become part of that list. Come fall, Urban Orchard Cider Bar will open on Haywood Road with about four craft ciders on tap, plus beer and wine. “It's just an addendum to the whole fermentation scene,” says Thom […]

Food blindness

Readers, Xpress has been blind. For nearly four years, a local, affordable, family friendly restaurant has gone nearly unreported. I'm not really sure why we haven't written about Piazza in east Asheville. Shortly after it opened in 2009, we mentioned it here and there, but we’d not written a full feature. Piazza offers a glorious, […]

Stick to your list

Tyler McCall understands the perils of the grocery store: the crowded aisles, the long lines, the impulse buys. He's created a business to address those problems. Simply, To Go, which launches this week, offers a personal grocery shopping and delivery service. “Asheville doesn't have anything like this at the moment, and I think it's something […]

Think tanks

Last week, Charleston’s major news stations spotted something unusual coming into the port: a cargo ship with the upper deck loaded to capacity with 28 fermentation tanks. All of them were bound for Mills River, site of Sierra Nevada Brewing’s new East Coast facility. These tanks range in size from 400 to 1,600 barrels. If […]

Pizza parlour

After two years on Patton Avenue, Favilla's New York Pizza is growing with a new dining room. Until now, the restaurant's pizzas, pasta dinners and sandwiches have been available by carry-out or delivery only. The expansion into the adjacent shop will provide seating for 39 people. Jeanette Favilla, who co-owns the business with her husband, […]