The August Wrap-Up
By the Numbers
6 media placements
2 national publications, Travel + Leisure and AFAR
4 clients featured in a single AFAR guide
10 years of The Montford Rooftop Bar
1 trip to the Massachusetts coast
August took us from the Blue Ridge Parkway to a working oyster farm on the Massachusetts coast, with clients appearing in Travel + Leisure, AFAR, No Vacancy News, and the Asheville Citizen Times. The month closed with the world's finance ministers arriving in town, which is not a sentence I expected to write this year.
The Montford Rooftop Bar turned ten this month, making it Asheville's longest running rooftop bar.
A decade is a real accomplishment in this industry, and it is worth pausing on what it took to get here. The Montford opened before Asheville had a rooftop scene to speak of and it has stayed at the center of one ever since. That staying power comes from a locally driven culinary philosophy and years of partnerships with makers and producers across Western North Carolina.
The anniversary party leaned into exactly that. Local spirits led the cocktail menu and the kitchen sent out hand rolled tater tots five different ways. Asheville Bee Charmer and East Fork generously contributed raffle prizes. Sandy the Violinist played as the sun went down over the mountains while Philip Bollhoefer (VP of Food & Beverage for Parks Hospitality and the chef who shaped The Montford's approach from the beginning) gave a beautiful sunset toast.
Cheers to 10 years! 🎉
Across the street, Embassy Suites by Hilton Asheville Downtown was featured by No Vacancy News in a video segment on how Asheville shapes the property, with Director of Sales & Marketing Jack Benton walking viewers through what makes this particular hotel specific to where it sits. It is rare to see a brand hotel covered for what makes it different rather than what makes it consistent.
Firelight at Shope Creek was featured by Idyllic Pursuit in a piece on why Asheville still draws travelers in the wake of Helene, told through the places that have kept the region worth the trip.
It is a question worth asking honestly, and the answer the story lands on has less to do with what the region has rebuilt than with what was always here. Firelight sits twenty minutes from downtown on twenty-two wooded acres along the creek with eight cabins, private hot tubs, an outdoor sauna, garden, and chicken coop that supply breakfast. Co-owners Shari Robins and Amy Cavanaugh built it around slowing down, which turns out to be exactly what people are looking for right now.
In the Scheffer Group family, The Majestic was profiled in AIRfare, the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association's newsletter, in a piece tracing the restaurant's first year. The interview with executive chef Kaya is worth reading in full.
Chef/owner of Jettie Rae’s Oyster House, Eric Scheffer and executive chef Antonio Perez visited Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, MA in August to see faces old and new, catch up with the team, visit the farm, and — of course — enjoy some of the best oysters on the East Coast.
Every partnership between a farm and a restaurant is uniquely special because together they write a story of land & sea, time & people.
Island Creek has been supplying oysters to the restaurant since the day Jettie Rae's opened their doors 6 years ago. Here are a few behind-the-scenes snapshots of a larger story Jettie Rae's and Island Creek are writing together, every day, between the Massachusetts coast and the North Carolina mountains. Stay tuned for more.
Back in Asheville, Jettie Rae's hosted its second Sunday Social on August 9: a traditional Spanish Seafood Paella with fresh shrimp, middleneck clams and Maine mussels. The tables overflowed with tapas such as Pan Con Tomate, Gilda, Fried Smelts, Patatas Bravas, and Roasted Cauliflower with Romesco.
These run family style on the shaded patio one Sunday a month, and they sell out quickly enough that the mailing list is the only reliable way in.
Up the mountain, Travel + Leisure called Blowing Rock the crown of the Blue Ridge. The guide highlights the historic downtown, railroad, and mountain views, with both Cafe Violette and Tout Suite Bakery included.
AFAR also broke Asheville down neighborhood by neighborhood in a guide from journalist Jenn Rice, featuring Soprana Rooftop Cucina, Embassy Suites, Gan Shan, and Firelight across three different parts of town.
The month ended with Asheville hosting the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, with delegates staying at The Omni Grove Park Inn. Ahead of the summit, the Asheville Citizen Times published a guide to the city's restaurants for visiting delegates, and Soprana was included among Asheville's Michelin-recommended restaurants.
We're grateful to every editor, writer, photographer, creator, and producer who continues telling thoughtful stories about the people shaping hospitality across Western North Carolina.
Hot summer afternoons are already turning into cool, pre-autumn evenings. New menus are coming, patio dinners will call for a jacket, and the leaf seekers are about to do what they do every fall. There is no better time to be here.
