36 Hours in Asheville, N.C. (Published 2023) (2024)

Asheville, N.C.

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By Shayla MartinPhotographs by Mike Belleme

May 4, 2023

Shayla Martin, a former North Carolina resident, visits Asheville frequently.

2:30 p.m.Walk ‘the Block’

Seventy years ago, Eagle and Market Streets, known as the Block, made up a prosperous African American business district. The Young Men’s Institute (now the YMI Cultural Center) was a cornerstone of the local Black community, with a library, athletic facilities, retail space and classrooms. Though much of the neighborhood was destroyed by urban renewal policies, the Tudor-inspired, red-brick center, built in 1893, is undergoing renovations and expected to open in its entirety later this year. Already, the ground-level retail spaces include Noir Collective AVL, a Black-owned boutique filled with artwork, jewelry, teas, soaps and more, and PennyCup Coffee, where a colorful mural by the artist Big Al Carter greets visitors. Nearby, a cultural center called LEAF Global Arts allows visitors to virtually explore music from around the world, play instruments and occasionally enjoy live performances (free).

4:00 p.m.Celebrate Indigenous artistry

Also in the downtown area, Weaving Rainbows, a new art gallery and creative space dedicated to Indigenous artists, works with artists from the local Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as well as Indigenous communities in Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, with most of the works created by women. Here you’ll find naturally dyed, handmade weavings, clothing, rugs, huipils (ponchos) and more. This month, the team plans to open the onsite Bejaflor Botanicals Elixir Garden, a nonalcoholic bar of elixirs ($5) made from both international and Appalachian herbs.

6:30 p.m.Dine among legends

An oversize portrait of the writer James Baldwin by the local artist Jenny Pickens greets guests at Benne on Eagle, a restaurant that pays homage to local African American culinary traditions. Ask for a table near the “Legends of the Block” portraits of four Black female chefs and Eagle street business owners from the 1960s and ’70s whose culinary impact is still felt today. The restaurant focuses on seasonal Southern cuisine: Starters like fried green tomatoes ($12) are served with pimento cheese and tangy chow chow, while the fried catfish and collards entree ($24), served with sweet potato hash and peanut red pepper sauce, is a must. Check out the night’s featured co*cktails or try the Mo Benne Blues ($14) with vodka, blueberry, lemon and lavender.

8 p.m.Listen to live jazz

Asheville is known for its music scene and you can ease into it just steps away from dinner at the Foundry Hotel. Housed in three 19th-century buildings that were once a steel factory for the nearby Biltmore Estate, the Foundry offers Gilded Age vibes with Art Deco-inspired furnishings and free live jazz most evenings in the Workshop Lounge bar (co*cktails from $12 to $15). On Fridays, the Hot Club of Asheville jazz collective plays 1930s swing until 9:30 p.m. Don’t be afraid to join fellow guests on the dance floor.

10 a.m.Unwind at a Japanese spa

Just 15 minutes from downtown Asheville, you’ll find the Blue Ridge mountain views that so many come here for. In the late 19th century, doctors began praising the area’s fresh air, some saying that it was a cure for respiratory illnesses. Today, you’ll find yoga, salt caves and aura readings to help you pursue inner calm, but nothing quite compares to Shoji Spa & Retreat. The Japanese-inspired spa, deep within the Pisgah National Forest, is known for its open-air private tub houses. Guests may soak in salt mineral hot tubs ($123 for 90 minutes) with tub-side tea service ($24) that includes the spa’s signature tea blend, raw unfiltered honey and tea crackers. All soaks and spa packages include access to a wet cedar sauna and cold showers.

1 p.m.Blow glass and sip brews

Along the French Broad River, in former warehouses, mills and shipping containers, is the River Arts District, a one-mile stretch of galleries and studios for more than 200 artists. If you visit on the second Saturday of the month, you’ll find live music, workshops and food and wine tastings. Visit the North Carolina Glass Center for a 30-minute Hot Shop class and create a paperweight or drinking glass ($90), then check out Foundation Woodworks for wooden kitchenware, sculptures and jewelry. Nearby, at the Hi-Wire Brewing AVL Beer Garden, choose from 24 taps (from $3 for a four-ounce pour) among mural-covered shipping containers, while snacking on fried brussels sprouts ($8) or smoked barbecue over a cornbread waffle ($15) from the onsite Foothills Local Meats food truck. Afterward, play a game of bocce or pinball.

4 p.m.Explore Affrilachia

Coined by the Kentucky poet Frank X. Walker, “Affrilachia” refers to the cultural contributions of local African Americans to the Appalachian South, which is often portrayed as predominantly white. With hopes of reinvigorating Affrilachia, DeWayne Barton, founder of the Hood Huggers International tour company, leads walking and driving tours, like the Burton Street tour ($30), which explores the neighborhood founded in 1912 by Edward W. Pearson, a businessman and former Buffalo Soldier (the name given to members of the historic Black U.S. Army regiments). Cliff Cotton, Pearson’s grandson, greets tour-goers at the Burton Street Community Center with tales of his grandfather, who founded Asheville’s first Black semi-pro baseball team. The tour also visits the Peace Gardens & Market, part community garden, part outdoor museum.

7:30 p.m.Sample pinxtos and bread pudding

Many visitors think that dining in Asheville must include a meal created by Katie Button, the James Beard Award-winning chef who helped put the city’s dining scene on the national stage when she opened the Spanish restaurant Cúrate Bar de Tapas in 2011. Reservations are sometimes hard to snag, so shoot for a table at the nearby sister restaurant, La Bodega by Cúrate. The dinner menu offers Basque pintxos, including mejillones, spicy mussels served with a warm baguette ($16) and pescadito frito, fried anchovies with green peppercorn mayo ($14). Or journey through pinxto culture with the chef’s tasting menu ($65; optional wine pairing, $35). Save room for s’mores ($16) or bourbon pecan cheesecake ($12) at Crave Dessert Bar, a five-minute walk away.

10:30 p.m.Dance the night away

Known for its Sunday drag brunch parties, downtown’s Asheville Beauty Academy also encourages folks to stay up late. The dance club and bar got its name from the building’s former life as a beauty academy in the 1950s, but today, the L.G.B.T.Q.-focused space welcomes guests to join Saturday night themed parties that might include a Hip-Hop Vinyl Party ($5 cover). House or draft co*cktails (from $9) flow until 2 a.m., so you can experience the club’s tagline: The longer you stay, the better you look.

9:30 a.m.Visit the Vanderbilts’ not-so-humble abode

No trip to Asheville is complete without a stop at the Biltmore House, the palatial Gilded Age mansion built by George Vanderbilt in 1895. Billed as the largest home in the United States, it comes in at a whopping 175,000 square feet. A self-guided audio tour (from $89) can feel stale if you aren’t an architecture buff or particularly interested in the Vanderbilt family, but fortunately the larger estate offers everything from wine tastings at the onsite Biltmore Winery to hiking trails and bike rentals to explore the estate’s 22 miles of paved and woodland dirt paths. Through Jan. 7, 2024, the “Italian Renaissance Alive” experience at the estate’s Amherst at Deer Park exhibition space features light, sound and scent accompanying projections of works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boticelli and other artists, all set to Italian opera. (Tickets, including the Italian experience, range from $109 to $129).

12 p.m.Dig into a Southern Sunday brunch

North Carolina takes its Sunday brunches so seriously that the state passed the so-called Brunch Bill in 2017 to allow restaurants to start selling alcohol at 10 a.m. instead of noon. Asheville has no shortage of options, but for a true down-home-brunch-in-your-Sunday-best experience, hop in an Uber for a 10-minute ride to Blue Ridge at the storied Omni Grove Park Inn. The spread ($48) is immense, with predictable items like omelets and buttermilk pancakes. But take a cue from local diners and make a beeline for the biscuits and sausage gravy, shrimp and grits, and fried catfish. Brunch includes a mimosa, Bellini, champagne or Bloody Mary. Ask for a table by the window overlooking the mountains.