Looking Glass Creamery slates Carmelita as a sauce. True, it’s good on apples, bread, ice cream, but it’s best, unaccompanied, with a spoon. Some of the nation’s top confection connoisseurs agree. On Jan. 18, Carmelita won a Good Food Award at a San Francisco ceremony hosted by Alice Waters of Chez Pannise and delicious cookbook […]

Headwaters Brewing of Waynesville was sent a cease-and-desist order earlier this month over its name. The dispute came from Victory Brewing Co. of Downington, Pa., makers of popular beers like HopDevil, Prima Pils, Golden Monkey and, you guessed it, Headwaters Pale Ale. Who was using the name first? Headwaters owner Kevin Sandefur won the Haywood […]

Some of Asheville’s finest cooking can’t be found in a restaurant. It’s available but once a year, when the local Mardi Gras community gets together for its annual Cajun Cookoff fundraiser. For $10, you can come and heap your bowl with gumbo, chowder, crawfish pie, jambalaya and everything our Louisiana transplants learned to make better […]

Since October, there's been a vacancy at the heart of downtown. Large, paper question marks have concealed the windows at the corner of Battery Park Avenue and Haywood Street, which used to be Restaurant Solace (and before that, the Flying Frog Café). The company that owns the building posted the 6-foot-high punctuation in the windows […]

Congratulations to the nine recent graduates of the GO Kitchen-Ready culinary training program. They officially completed the 13-week certification course on Dec. 19. Some of the students plan further training at A-B Tech, and some have accepted jobs at downtown restaurants, such as Bouchon and The Green Sage. Others plan to explore interests in nutrition […]

Chef Jason Roy of Lexington Avenue Brewery knows biscuits are more delicious than their side-dish status suggests. That's why he's starting a new restaurant, Biscuit Head Café and Provisions, where cat-heads get the glory they deserve. Roy's concept is all about elevating the down-home staple. “Growing up in Georgia, I'd always go to a biscuit […]

There's a lot of buying power in $800,000. That's the amount Asheville nonprofit Green Opportunities recently received to improve access to quality food in low-income communities. The money will build community gardens and greenhouses near Pisgah View and Hillcrest apartments and at the W.C. Reid Center. Other possible projects include a community kitchen that would […]

The Wednesday tailgate market at French Broad Food Co-op is over for the year, but local farmers and producers will gather on Fridays through the winter months for a smaller market. The gathering takes place in its usual spot, the parking lot next to the co-op (in front of Build It Naturally on Biltmore Avenue), […]

Zia Taqueria of Charleston is coming from the shore to the mountains and bringing its Tex-Mex cuisine with it. Owner Kevin Grant recently leased the former Dolores and Jose Mexican Restaurant building in West Asheville at 521 Haywood Road. “We are so excited to be opening up in Asheville and feel that this location will […]

The promise of island oysters is not a cruel December joke; actually, it's the Appalachian Oyster Bash & Seafood Boil, a fundraiser for RiverLink and the Downtown Marshall Association. The island in question is Blannahassett Island, an easily accessible landmark in the middle of the French Broad River. “It’s an ideal spot for a seafood […]

Eats & Treats Café opened this month at 204 Weaverville Highway. The menu focuses mostly on diner-style staples: biscuits, eggs, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, hot dogs and fries, plus Hershey's ice cream, milkshakes and sundaes. Most menu items cost less than $5. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday and breakfast and lunch […]

In November, Noble Cider closed on a $40,000 loan from AdvantageWest. Some of Asheville's flagship start-ups have benefited from the same loan program, including Buchi Kombucha, Smart Foods Bakery and CoCoChi, the makers of SkinFood. In total, the Advantage Opportunity fund has supported 21 small businesses since 2007. According to Matthew Raker of AdvantageWest, an […]

Throughout the nation, more people are buying cider: This year, sales increased by 65 percent, reports NPR. In October, Irish cider giant C&C group ponied up $305 million to buy Vermont Hard Cider, the company that makes Woodchuck. To put that number in perspective, the owner of Vermont Hard Cider bought the company in 2003 […]

Anne-Fitten “Brewgasm” Glenn, Xpress's beer columnist, is moving on to more beer-filled pastures. She's officially taken up with Oskar Blues brewery in Brevard, where she'll be doing marketing work. Sadly for Xpress, Glenn's new job means she won't continue to write her bi-weekly “Brews News” column. Still, you can expect to see her freelance stories […]

Asheville's restaurants regularly cause a national stir: this month, they're making it clear that they're the greenest ones around. Asheville is officially America's first Green Dining Destination. Two years ago, a group of local restaurants came together through Asheville Independent Restaurants to pursue the certification, which is awarded by the Green Restaurant Association, a nonprofit […]

Asheville chefs quit Laughing Seed Café's chef, Sandy Krebs, is leaving the popular vegetarian joint, according to the restaurant's public relations staff. Krebs had been with the restaurant for just more than a year. Changes to the vegetarian eatery, which is consistently voted Asheville's best in Xpress' Best of WNC poll, will not be radical, […]

To keep the momentum from National Farm to School Month going, area teachers, early childhood educators, child nutrition directors, parents and chefs are all invited to attend ASAP’s Growing Minds Farm to School Institute on Nov. 10 at UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center. Register by Oct. 22 at growing-minds.org. “We have more than 10 years of […]

“It’s October,” says restaurant owner Meherwan Irani, in an attempt to explain the confluence of restaurant openings and expansions that happens this time of year, as if the month itself acts as an entrepreneurial invigorator. (Irani himself will launch a new project, downtown bar and lounge, MG Road.) Whether the season or the weather or […]

WNC hot sauce blows up WNC's hot sauce set the world on fire in September — or the state, at least. Smoking J's Fiery Foods of Candler and Carolina Pig Polish of Whittier brought the heat to the North Carolina Hot Sauce Contest in Oxford, and brought back first place prizes and $500 each. Smoking […]