Asheville Black Book
Land of artisans, craft cocktail bars and incredible food–plus those Blue Ridge Mountains with plenty of great hiking to work it all off...this small Appalachian city punches way above its weight
Last fall, I found myself in Asheville, North Carolina, for a watch event my husband was doing. The night before we had been in nearby Greenville for an event, and the day before that, in Atlanta. Every person I met, besides being so warm and friendly, asked about where I was going next—and when I said Asheville, every single one of them lit up and had a ton of suggestions. Also our deputy editor, Alex, had been there recently, and thought it was a city we should cover. I had been there once before on a road trip and just breezed through—honestly, I didn’t get all the hype. We had done a story on Asheville in Condé Nast Traveler where we called it out as a next second city, but in my one night there, I wasn’t convinced. Sure, I loved the doughnuts (seriously the best donuts ever at Hole), and we had some great BBQ at Buxton Hall and great drinks at Antidote, but I wasn’t sure it was worth doing a whole Black Book on. But then something happened on this second whirlwind trip–I got it. I met all these locals, many of them transplants, who were exactly the kind of people you’d want to grow old with–kind, interesting, curious, well-traveled, into food—and they can’t imagine living anywhere else. For dinner, I had the best Spanish meal of my life outside of Spain at La Bodega, and then went back in the morning for a killer breakfast sandwich. And all of those kind people (and then some) gave us these great recs. For such a relatively small city to have so much creativity on the food, spirits and arts fronts, against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful nature in the country, is frankly mind-boggling. I’m looking forward to the next time I can go back and actually stay a while!
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
James Donaldson owns Chemist Spirits in Asheville, the distillery and bar (Antidote) that hosted the party for WM Brown last fall. He’s the consummate host and pretty much everyone gathers there at some point for an incredible cocktail on the weekend.
Dusty Allison is a longtime WM Brown and Yolo subscriber who we finally met in person last fall. He’s a native of Western North Carolina who has lived in many of its small mountain towns and in Asheville since the mid-90s, where he works as a broker but is about to launch a media brand, Highland to Islands, focused on the sporting lifestyle of the Carolinas. He’s got great taste and offered up a very extensive list of his hometown favorites.
Elizabeth Schulte Roth is a media veteran who moved from New York to Asheville in 2012. She has since launched two magazines—Atlanta Peach and PaperCity Atlanta—and recently joined Bespoke Experiences, which curates custom itineraries in Asheville.
Judith Puckett-Rinella worked as a photo editor at T and Vanity Fair in New York before moving to Charleston. But she finds herself in Asheville all the time because she runs two resorts deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville River Cabins and The Glamping Collective.
Blair Knobel’s Substack Vessel, celebrates the “visionary voices, inspired experiences, and distinctive flavors of the evolving South.” Previously, she was the editor in chief of the arts and culture magazine Town, based in Greenville, South Carolina, where she lives and explores the soulful nooks of the Blue Ridge Mountains.