There are always new restaurants in Asheville to talk about. A recent update from the city’s tourism office highlighted a dozen openings, including a live-fire kitchen serving shellfish beignets, a brewery with two miniature golf courses, and a fried fish spot where the sandwiches are served on Frisbees.
Yet those aren’t the places that locals are keen to discuss, at least if my recent conversations with strangers there are a reliable gauge. A man drinking a negroni at Contrada’s snug bar, upon learning I’m a food writer, was the first one to ask me: “Whatever happened to No Evil?”
