Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
As the economy continues to grind in neutral, and this winter keeps an icy choke-hold on us, folks continue to worry about all of our small local business owners. They are the heart and soul of Asheville, after all.
Here’s loyal reader Woody, who is concerned specifically about Ophelia’s. But he raises a great point – how can we best support the restaurant/businesses we love in Asheville? Money’s tight all over, so what’s the best strategy? I don’t have an answer right now. I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Meantime, here’s Woody:
After the closing of Picnics on Merrimon and the near final blow to Curras Dom, I’m now terrified that some of my other favorite eateries might be on the verge of of slipping away due to the slow economy and I’m sure also this cold weather.
This morning my family came into town to drop my sister off at UNCA and as always we headed out to get something yummy to fill their tummies since Chapel Hill can’t seem to hold a candle to our vegetarian, vegan and humanely raised meat selections. We started off by trying to go to Tupelo Honey since they had never been there for Sunday Brunch but as I warned the wait was an hour for a party of five. I suggested Ophelia’s which they’d been to for dinner in the past and loved. We headed across downtown and got to Ophelia’s at 2PM.
I was horrified to see that there wasn’t a single person there. We asked the waitress if they were getting ready to close for the day… they weren’t. We asked if we’d missed the rush… we hadn’t. There just never is much business there for breakfast or lunch. I don’t understand this! Their food is possibly my favorite in all of Asheville and I consider myself a bit of a foodie. My mother who owns The Food Fairy in Chapel Hill agrees and is in some sort of second heaven when she sees all the high quality meats and then the mix of delicious veggie and vegan dishes.
My point here is that for whatever reason this fantastic restaurant seems to fly under everyones radar here in town and I very selfishly would love it if you’d promote them in some way… maybe just mention that they do Sunday brunch and for all those people waiting in hour long lines for Tupelo and Sunny Point they might like to try something new and delicious… or maybe add a weekly featured restaurant to the blog, get individuals to send you a review or do it yourself if you like to eat out… Anything at this point would do them wonders I’m sure.
I also would like to point out that I have ZERO affiliation with Ophelia’s, nor do I know anybody that works there. I just can’t stand the thought of them closing!
Love the plate crawl idea. Do it Asheville!!!!
This is the worst economic climate of our lives. I’ve stated the obvious, but times are tough and each person decides how they will make it through these tough times. As you make those decisions, remember your community. We will make it through these times better by sticking together. I serve as the President of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association (AIR) and my full time job is the Assistant Food & Beverage Director of The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa. I just want full disclosure so it’s not an issue for anyone.
AIR (http://airasheville.org/) exists because local restaurateurs banded together to help promote each other over the alternative – chain restaurants. The mission of AIR is to support and market our local member restaurants. Dining at a locally owned restaurant delivers more money back into your own community. Chain restaurants send the majority of their money somewhere else. Local restaurants are more likely to use local food and to give back more to their community than their chain counterparts. Local restaurants offer the Asheville experience rather than the same one you get across the nation.
But I don’t think anyone here is arguing any of the above. The question is: How to support Asheville restaurants? Dine at them. Choose them over the chain experience. That’s the easy answer. Also, encourage them to join AIR and to get engaged. We have lost some from our list also, but the restaurants that are the most involved locally seem to find a way to survive. The community involvement goes hand in hand with networking and promoting themselves. AIR helps show restaurants how to do just that.
Finally . . . a sales pitch, but also information about a great value for you. AIR offers the Main Course Dining card that offers buy one get one free entrées at 18 AIR restaurants valued at over $600.00 – your price $50.00 – go to http://airasheville.org/page/3105-AIR-Dining-Club.
If you do have a bad experience tell the manager or owner – don’t just leave and never return. We do not have the big budget training available to us that the chains do – help us to improve if that’s why you don’t dine with us. We want to serve you.
Remember to dine local independents when you go out for dinner.
Thank you!
Kevin
Thanks for mentioning Hendersonville’s Small Plate Crawl, eemilla.
Each restaurant put together a special menu of 5 to 7 small plates, priced from $2.00 to $8.00. Crawlers went from restaurant to restaurant, purchasing only the small plates they wanted. Sharing was encouraged. Crawlers could print out a Passport online, which mapped the 23 participating restaurants. Each restaurant visited punched the passport. Five or more punches and you could enter the Passport for a prize drawing. Over $400 in prizes were donated for the drawing.
In an effort to help the restaurants off the beaten path, getting a Passport punch from one of them as one of your five restaurant minimum meant that your passport was entered into the drawing twice. It worked! 86% of the Passports turned in, included a visit to one of the bonus restaurants.
Another big plus was that people tried restaurants they’d never been to before and have since been back. The low prices and "permission" to have just a taste gave them the motivation to try new places without worrying about putting out the money for a meal they might not like.
The crawl was purposely timed for after "visitor" season and on a slow day of the week. It was extremely successful in spite of heavy rains, flooding and street closures. It turned into a party of sorts, with everyone chatting with others that were crawling.
We’re planning on doing this twice a year, as the seasons and menus change. Asheville would be a perfect location for something like this – easily walkable to lots of restaurants.
Ophelia’s survived having one of the worst names ever in the food business… it used to be called "Bearly Edible." If they could made it past that then maybe they are in good shape during this recession. I wish them the best of luck.
This is the year where you are going to need to fight for the businesses you love. It has been a delayed reaction in Asheville, but many stores are closing now. Don’t think that without your help everybody is going to be ok.
Ophelia’s advertises in the MtnX; read your local paper. As far as bringing customers in during the off season, I really liked Vancouver’s solution. I think it was called Taste of Vancouver, and tons of restaurants created tasting menus at different price points with and without wine. The prices ranged from 15-80 (the higher prices of course included the wine pairing) for a three or four course meal. Also Hendersonville recently did a plate crawl where one purchased a card then got to eat small plates at the participating eateries.
http://hendersonvilleepicurean.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-massive-small-plate-crawl-in.html
i think that if early girl and tupelo honey would let you make reservations, then i would DEFINITELY eat there more often.
if i’m going to b/fast, especially on the wkd, i dont have time to wait behind the tourists… problem is… when the tourists are gone, the locals are already in the habit of going somewhere else! (ie corner kitchen and rezzaz (brunch), limones all let me make reservations, so thats where i go!
Always think local first.
I can’t think of a corporate chain restaurant here in Asheville that can’t be beat by a local restaurant. We all live here together, lets keep our loyalties and money here in Asheville. Buffalo Wild Wings? Please. Go to Asheville Pizza and Brew and get some great wings. The same with places like Olive Garden, Chillis, Outback. I can find better food with local ingredients at our local restaurants. The same with coffee shops and bakeries. Its so easy to pick local over national and it kills me to see people waiting outside to get into places like Olive Garden. I hope they’re tourists and don’t know any better but if they are then we as a community need to figure out how to market our local businesses better.
Just a heads, there are quite a few good restaurants listed on Restaurants.com including Ophelia’s. I don’t know how much it helps them but they obviously need the business if they’re offering gift certificates on their site.
Right now some of the good eats on there are Ophelia’s, Zambras, Corner Kitchen, and Sante’s.
Halfprice Asheville.com also offered some good gift certificates last year for local eateries.
Hey Ash, Is there a blog dedicated to local food/deals, etc? Maybe that’s one way to go to help the local restaurants.
ThePhan, you are correct this is happening all over.
My family went to Ophelia’s for Sunday brunch in October. Like Woody, we had had a good experience in the evening. We were happy to find a place that we could get into quickly, as we had tickets to an ACT show and needed good vegetarian fare without the wait.
Alas, the experience was less than desirable. There was one waitress and apparently only one person in the kitchen. She admitted to us that the dayside does not get much attention and they were out of a lot of food. We had to change our order several times because she kept having to tell us they were out. (And mind you, there weren’t many people in the restaurant and it’s not like a crush of patrons cleaned out the pantry). When the food FINALLY came, it was at least pretty decent, though not as good as we’d had at night.
Bottom line: If Ophelia’s is to survive, they need to be consistent in their delivery. I am sure that we will not return, sadly, for brunch. Maybe not for other meals, either. There are too many good places in Asheville to take a chance on those spots that are less than satisfying.
I’m with McMurtrey here: I haven’t heard a lot about Ophelia’s, and I consider myself somewhat of an Asheville cuisine connoisseur (my significant other and I eat out…a lot). Anyway, thanks for the suggestion; I’m going to grab a bite there, maybe even today!
As to the issue of supporting local restaurants, one of my favorite places to eat is Pineapple Jack’s, which is *amazingly* affordable, and also delicious! Chai Pani and Kathmandu Cafe (for lunch) are also wonderful places to eat and are very inexpensive. Additionally, many places – like Flying Frog – are beginning to offer tapas as a cheaper alternative to a full dinner.
Let’s not forget that the restaurant business is very tough even in GOOD times. The success rate of new restaurants is very low even to begin with. Many restauranteurs are terrible marketers and businesspeople. And contrary to the comments of AshevilleDweller above, this is happening everywhere. It’s not just an Asheville thing.
I agree with Woody. It’s some kind of miracle that Ophelia’s has stayed open this long and is never packed AND maintains quality. I’ve always pondered that as I walk past Limones (typically need-a-reservation-packed for dinner). Every time I’ve eaten at Ophelia’s I’ve had a really good eating experience – good service, great food. Love their variety, their wine list, everything. I took an out of town friend there back in September and he raved.
Asheville has a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it – a wide variety of quality dining options.
Right now, yes, money is tight – my approach is that I limit my evening dining-outs to once a month or so, go somewhere dress-up nice and I always choose a local place. Since I work downtown, I eat lunch out more frequently (more than I should). But I always think about how my money can best be spent. Frequently, Mamacita’s wins.
There are a lot of informal social/networking groups that meet regularly (green drinks, etc.)…if they don’t already, it might be good for those groups to intentionally choose a different place to eat/drink/socialize each time.
Its called people are BROKE and the jobs are drying up in Asheville so people are staying at home to eat. If these places are going to make it, it will be luck at this point, sad but true. So dont take it personally when your favorite local eatery goes under its the economy in Asheville lack of jobs and high taxes that did it in.
If Asheville had some real jobs instead of part time it would be much different.
Wow, I just went and looked at Ophelia’s menu. I’m a recent transplant to Asheville and a vegetarian. Why is it I had no idea about this place? Do they advertise? I’m going to go check it out for sure.