The newest offerings in Asheville include Cubanos, tacos,  hot honey chicken, and shrimp ceviche

More often than not, tipsters, readers, friends and family of Eater have one question: Where should I eat right now? What are the new restaurants? What’s everyone talking about? While the Eater 18 is a crucial resource covering old standbys and neighborhood essentials across the city, it is not a chronicle of the “it” places of the moment. Enter the Eater Heatmap, which will change continually to highlight the spots crowds are flocking to at the moment or generating a big buzz. Folks are asking, “Have you been yet?” Try one of these newbies today.

September 2024: Regina’s, Bonito, Taqueria Rosita, Haywood Famous
June 2024: Luminosa, Flour, Mission Pizza, Chai Pani
April 2024: Soprana Rooftop Cocina, Zella’s Deli
March 2024: Finch, Master BBQ
January 2024: Good Hot Fish, the Smokin’ Onion
December 2023: Cassia, Sweets & Seats
November 2023: Laila, Golden Hour and the Roof
October 2023: Avenue M, Mother Cafe, the West End Bakery
September 2023: The Restoration, Botiwalla

Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Master BBQ

You may think you only want an IPA, lager, or pilsner from Zilliacoah Beer Co., but if the Master BBQ grill is fired up, the smoke will pull you right to the window of the fire engine red food truck behind the brewery. The next thing you know, you’ll be ordering a pork, chicken inasal, or tofu skewer, chicken adobo, grilled pork belly, pancit, a couple of lumpia, and a side of annatto rice (toasted annatto seeds add crunch to the complimentary pickled cucumbers). Owners Julia and Paul Pike built a fervid following for fourth-generation chef Paul’s Filipino comfort food popping up around town, and in February snagged the permanent parking space behind Zilliacoah, with seating inside the brewery or riverside picnic tables.

 

1. 870 Riverside Drive, Woodfin, North Carolina 28804
2. (828) 808-1916
3. Visit Website

Zella’s Deli

“Hot Buns & Tasty Meats” was the slogan on Zella’s Deli window that lured downtown Asheville pedestrians into the Northeast-inspired sandwich shop opened in April 2022. Mikey’s Meatball, Johnny’s Italian, Reubens, corn beef on rye, and egg sandwiches on a kaiser roll built a following. Two years in, Zella’s moved to a more expansive space in Swannanoa, expanded the sandwich board, and added Sunday brunch and dinner service, Thursday through Sunday, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Find comfort Italian specialties like pork saltimbocca, chicken parm, spaghetti and meatballs, and fettuccini Alfredo, plus Italian Fish Fry Friday, Prime Rib Saturday and Family Lasagna Sunday.

 

2372 US-70, Swannanoa, NC 28778

(828) 505-8455

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Bonito

Cookie Hadley’s menu at RosaBees in the River Arts District drew deeply from summers spent in Hawaii with his Japanese stepfather’s family. Still, having grown up in Kansas City, Kansas, he’s got the barbecue in his bones. In August, he launched Bonito from the kitchen of the Hound Lounge, bringing all of that and more to the menu available five days a week. Hurricane popcorn is a compelling bar snack of buttered popcorn, furikake, and kakimochi — Hadley calls it “Asian Chex mix.” Banh mi, Cubano, and kalua pork on a Hawaiian roll round out the globally-influenced sandwich board; shrimp ceviche and barbacoa tacos are standouts; sides include esquites, sticky rice, and Hawaiian macaroni salad. Expect to see specials off the smoker parked on the property.

 

2 Tunnel Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28805

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Flour

Early birds get the fresh, hot biscuits at Flour, which took over the street-side corner of the S&W Market in late May. The bakery/cafe opens at 7 a.m. daily to serve downtown residents and workers their morning coffee and sweet and savory breakfast foods, then segues smoothly to an afternoon and evening menu featuring housemade focaccia sandwiches, pizza, salads, daily specials, cookies, cheesecake, wine by the glass and Aperol, Hugo, and amaro spritzes.

 

56 Patton Avenue, Asheville, North Carolina 28801

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Mission Pizza

When the partners behind Terra Nova Beer Co.’s South Slope flagship taproom and brewery heard that Winston-Salem’s acclaimed Mission Pizza Napoletana chef/founder Peyton Smith was considering giving Asheville a taste of what earned him a James Beard nomination, they sent an emissary to the Winston-Salem mothership and proposed a partnership. Mission accomplished — a high-temperature gas-powered oven was installed at Terra Nova, and customers can enjoy small plates and five rotating pizzas with the repertoire of 18 TNB beers on tap, wines, draft cocktails created by Golden Pineapple, Botanist & Barrel cider, and Devil’s Foot craft soda.

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101 South Lexington Avenue, Asheville, North Carolina 28801

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Luminosa

The stunning renovation of the iconic but long-neglected 98-year-old Flat Iron Building into the dazzling Flat Iron Hotel in the heart of downtown Asheville required a statement restaurant, and Luminosa confidently cleared the bar. Led by local culinary luminary Graham House as executive chef and his chef de cuisine Sean McMullen, the pair make the most of their dream-come-true kitchen equipped with a wood-burning oven and live fire grill. Nearly every item on the rustic Italian menu is touched by one or both – grilled, charred, smoked, or buried in embers. Case in point: the grilled little gem salad, fire-roasted half chicken, trout with smoked roe creme fraiche, and charred baby carrots. Standouts are the lemon pizza and housemade fresh pastas.

 

20 Park Avenue North, Asheville, North Carolina 28801

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Taqueria Rosita

Luis Martinez, one of Asheville’s most popular and peripatetic chefs has found a home, partnering with Venezuelan businessman Henry Padilla to open Taqueria Rosita at the Odd. Martinez, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, built a fervent following for his pop-ups and guest appearances at special events — vehicles for his advocacy of heirloom products from Indigenous populations in Mexico, Central, and South America. In particular, he has long preached the gospel of maize and promises that at Rosita, named for his and Padilla’s mothers, corn is everything. He is clear that Rosita is an Oaxacan restaurant with totally unique to Asheville items like a tlayuda, a 15” corn tortilla spread with a black bean puree, tomatoes, cheese, avocado mousse, and meat or nixtamalized carrots. A memela is a 6” corn tortilla, cooked on a griddle with a bit of lard, spread with a chicharron paste, black bean paste, tomato salsa, and queso fresco. Three tacos are also on the opening menu — braised beef, vegetarian, or chicharron. As Martinez settles into the kitchen, he will add Colombian and Bolivian dishes as specials; The Odd has created special beverage choices to compliment Martinez’s menu.

 

1045 Haywood Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28806

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Regina’s

Call this Regina’s 2.0. The retro-diner restaurant that initially opened with chef Elliott Moss in June 2023 struggled to define itself after his abrupt departure one month later. But founding partner Lisa Wagner soldiered on with opening chef Kat Fitzgerald, who added co-owner to her title in time to celebrate Regnia’s first birthday with cake, more cocktails, a refreshed menu, new operating hours, weekend dinners, and the promise of collaborative pop-ups with other chefs. Highlights in Fitzgerald’s repertoire include her version of shakshuka on a bed of roasted sweet potatoes, pork loin hash (an ode to Waffle House’s “scattered, smothered, and covered”), a triple-stack bordelaise burger, and a hot honey chicken or hot honey lion’s mane mushroom sandwich.

 

1400 Patton Avenue, NC 28806

(828) 505-3099

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Haywood Famous

With the opening of Haywood Famous — a tongue-in-cheek reference to local notoriety achieved in West Asheville — you don’t have to get up early for fresh, hot coffee. Eva Rodriguez-Cué doesn’t start serving Cubanos, cafecitos, cafe con leches, cortaditos, and coladas until late afternoon or early evening. Still, she keeps the lights on long after the sun goes down. You can also get a sugar rush with Cuban pastries, macarons, and gorgeous cakes by Mel Hanley, owner/baker of Brown Sugar Boulangerie. Rodriguez-Cué — and her precious shop pup Zoey — encourages people to sit and stay in the cozy little shotgun space she DIY’d with the help of family and friends, furnished and decorated with rescued vintage, a mural painted by tattoo artist Ash Grey, and countertops built by Evie Horton and Matisse Araque — every one of them Haywood Famous.

 

508 Haywood Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28806

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Cassia

Cassia is the national tree and flower of Thailand, and it’s the name of chef/partners Madeline Redo and Trevor Musick’s Thai pop-up operating at Cellarest Beer Project. Before moving to Asheville, the couple spent a few months in Thailand diving deep into the cuisine. Cassia’s new food trailer will operate Fridays through Sundays, this winter. Local sweet potato firecrackers (the vegan version of the firecracker shrimp spring roll), taro fritters, smoked trout fried rice, and curry of the week are popular menu items.

 

395 Haywood Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28806

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The Smokin’ Onion

Vegans are rejoicing that Keems and Parker Schultz’s popular food truck the Smokin’ Onion has rolled into a brick-and-mortar home with 36 seats in West Asheville in the same pocket shopping center as Botiwalla and Bad Manners Coffee. The all-day breakfast and lunch menu of plant-based comfort foods includes buttermilk fried “chicken” on a sweet potato waffle, herbed scallion biscuit with oyster mushroom gravy, fried green tomatoes with sweet potato grits, a double-patty smash burger, and hand-cut fries with smoked onions.

 

697 Haywood Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28806

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Finch Grocery

The twee-est of the twee historic pebbledash cottages in Biltmore Village, Finch is tucked into the alley behind Scout Boutique. Every inch of the front room displays bottles of wine, packaged gourmet foods, condiments, tea, coffee, chocolate, linens, bar and entertainment accessories, serving pieces, and paper goods. Order hot and cold beverages at the small counter, and light fare made fresh to order in the kitchen to the rear; umbrella-shaded tables on the enclosed patio provide seating. The set menu includes fancy grilled cheese, tuna salad, and a mini charcuterie board. Recent daily specials featured mushroom and farro soup, a hummus and veggie tartine with feta, and a hot ham and cheese sandwich. Fresh pastries perched on pretty cake plates are impossible to resist.

 

10 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, North Carolina 28803

(828) 505-0203

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