[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from downtown Asheville as we explore mountain recovery.

We'll visit The Lodge at Lake Lure, see how Asheville is bouncing back, and learn how your visit can help all of our mountain communities.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend," everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are in downtown Asheville.

Of course, this vibrant city was hit hard by Hurricane Helene and so were many smaller mountain communities all across North Carolina.

The road to recovery will be long, but one thing we all can do to help our neighbors is stop on through.

Just the simple act of staying overnight at a hotel or checking out a new restaurant or visiting an orchard or a vineyard will help bring much needed revenue to help rebuild.

In fact, that's the purpose of tonight's show and the entire season as we point you to places in the mountains.

We want you to know that these communities are up and running and ready to welcome you with open arms.

Let's start at a place that's been popular for generations.

The Lodge on Lake Lure was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene, but producer Clay Johnson is happy to report they're up and running, ready to greet you.

[gentle music] - [Clay] When you walk under its jasmine-draped trellis to the front door of The Lodge on Lake Lure, you know you're about to enter some place special.

- [Spence] When you walk in, you immediately see this grand room, this lodge lobby, and you're like, "Man, this is a cool throwback-in-time lodge," the panel walls, the hardwood floors.

And then you look out of the windows, and you see this majestic view of the lake and the mountains, and you're like, "You can't build that."

- [Clay] It's what prompted Spence Romine and a business partner to add the lodge to their collection of small inns around the country.

- If you have a great view, and you've got a great location in a cool little area, you can make everything else work.

- [Clay] The state first built the lodge in the 1930s as a retreat for its highway patrol troopers.

- [Spence] Whenever troopers needed a break, they could pay a very, very small amount of money and come stay here on the lake.

- [Clay] Decades later, the state sold it to an investor, who turned it into an inn.

It was an inn under several more owners until the pandemic shut it down in 2020.

Romine and his partner bought it in 2022.

- We just looked at it, and we saw the view.

We saw that it kind of checked the box of needing updates, which is kind of where we can add value to it.

We read old reviews, and we realized, "Okay, these are the things that people are complaining about, so let's make sure we get those things right."

- [Clay] They replaced the furniture, redid the floors, and changed out the HVAC system.

They added a bar to what was just a sitting room.

- [Spence] We made it where the bar looked like it's been there for 100 years.

- [Clay] Romine and his partner updated the lodge's 17 guest rooms, 15 of which have lake views.

They all have private bathrooms and either a king or queen bed.

- [Spence] We wanted it to be a great little getaway for couples.

- [Clay] The rear of the lodge has decks, terraces, and patios.

- [Spence] There's so many sitting areas that all have the central point of looking at the lake.

- [Clay] They have the grounds redone with a focus on native plants.

- We want it to look good, nice, but we also want it to look as natural as possible.

We don't want it to look overdone, you know?

- [Clay] They added a new boathouse and a dock to give guests lake access.

- If they wanna jump in the lake, they can jump in the lake.

If they wanna go on a boat ride, we've got a boat.

We'll take you on a boat ride.

And if you just wanted to sit there in the many chairs and little couches that we have, you can just sit there.

- And we're gonna light it on fire with my trusty torch here.

- [Clay] At day's end, you can hit the bar for a signature cocktail like the 525, a smokey blend of a Manhattan and Old Fashioned.

- And then we're going to be straining over our freshly smoked cube.

- [Spence] Next door there's fine dining overlooking the lake at the lodge's restaurant Appalachia.

- We are in Western North Carolina, so a lot of this stuff that we do for the menu here is as local as I can possibly get it.

This is our crispy Duroc pork belly, house-made kimchi aioli, some house pickles.

Right here is carrot and cucumber, a little bit of house hoisin sauce and toasted sesame seeds over the top.

This is crispy duck leg confited in duck fat and slowly cooked for about six hours, Parmesan spring peas, and then an emulsion of beet and whipped carrot on that with some grilled and pickled mushroom relish finished with Maldon salt.

This is a lemon blueberry tart, house-made with a lemon mousse, blueberry curd layered on top, and then a meringue made with lavender, fresh blueberries on top.

We have a really beautiful view here as you can see.

I want the food to match that view.

- [Clay] Jennifer Cohen and her husband love both.

She says they've stayed at the lodge many times.

- It's small, charming, welcoming, gracious.

It slows everything down, [sighs] and peaceful.

It's peaceful.

- We've all gone on vacations where you go home from your vacation, and you're like, "Man, I'm kind of worn out," whereas I think the perfect vacation in Lake Lure is you can go home and think, "Man, that was great.

That's just what I needed because I'm relaxed."

I think the lake and the mountains are the destination, and we just provide a quiet place to enjoy that.

[gentle music continues] - The Lodge on Lake Lure is located at 361 Charlotte Drive in Lake Lure.

Appalachia serves dinner Thursday through Sunday from 4:30 to 8:00 and lunch Friday through Sunday from 11 to 2:00.

For more information, give them a call at 828-655-0455, or visit lodgeonlakelure.com.

Asheville is full of Art Deco architecture, and one of the most iconic examples is the gorgeous S&W Cafeteria built in the late 1920s.

Well, the cafeteria is long gone, but it's been repurposed into a food hall and market with a little taste of everything.

- To me, we're in the most beautiful building in downtown Asheville, and it started in 1929.

It goes way back with my family.

My grandfather, he was the manager of the S&W for 35 years.

The S&W Cafeteria has my heart, and to see the way it's come to life one more time, I hope it never stops.

- This became a food hall in 2021.

We knew we wanted local vendors.

We knew we wanted to have a great variety.

And we thought that having a food hall here would be the perfect mix for this building.

And we thought, "What a better use of this space than to have a mix of vendors in this building."

- The S&W Cafeteria has come back to what it formerly was, which is one of the most beautiful parts about the story that we have here.

Was many things over the years.

It's tried to be restaurants.

It's tried to be an event space.

But now we've come back to its original roots, which is a cafeteria.

And the beautiful part about what it is, it's not just one business.

It's multiple businesses here.

- We have Farm Dogs that is a spinoff of Farm Burger right off the street.

We have Mikasa Criolla that is empanadas and other Peruvian-inspired fare.

We have Bun Intended that is Thai street food.

We have Buxton Chicken Palace that is a spinoff of the original Buxton Hall Barbecue.

We have The Hop Ice Cream, everybody's local favorite that's been in Asheville for 30 years.

We have the new tenant, which is Flour, and they are gonna be serving delicious salads and sandwiches and breakfast.

And we also have Highland Brewing, which is our flagship tenant on the mezzanine.

So we're really lucky to have all of these fantastic vendors in the building.

- You walk in the door right away, and you know that this is a special place.

A lot of the traffic funnels towards us just naturally.

You know, we've also been around Asheville for a long time, and I think people genuinely are excited to come try like the local homemade ice cream shop when they come into the S&W.

- They've kept this unique original Art Deco architecture, always feels really special.

- Art Deco and Art Nouveau started in Europe and came through here, but Art Nouveau is really more of a European event, and Art deco is more the American expression of it to some degree.

Douglas Ellington is an architect who lived here in the '20s, and additionally he worked on city hall, Asheville High, First Baptist.

So Art Deco was a brief moment, and we're very fortunate in Asheville to have several buildings here.

- During the renovation process, what we really did was try to peel back layers of things that people had done over the years to get it back as much as possible to its original state because obviously the building is incredible and beautiful just as it is.

- Luckily, the outside of the building hasn't changed.

The inside, the ceilings, still seem the same, the floors.

The stairs, I love the stairs.

- One of my favorite features of the whole place is the travertine stairs.

As you go up or down, you can see they're worn.

As an architect, when I see stuff like that, I feel like I'm seeing time.

I'm looking at it, at time itself.

- Even if you're just coming to see the architecture, it's worth the trip, but anybody in your group is gonna be able to find something that they want when they come here.

So it's a really easy place to bring a group of people and make sure that everybody's going to be happy and also get to experience a lot of Asheville's unique history at the same time.

- I'd recommend The S&W Market to anyone who's looking for like a really authentic retro vibe.

It's just a fun place to go and hang out with your friends and have a good meal.

- I like that there's so much of variety.

You can choose anything you want from ice cream, chicken.

I mean, they have it all here.

- [Anne] We feel really good that we've gotten back to the original purpose of the building as a cafeteria.

So this is our modern-day take on a cafeteria where you have counter service, and you have local food that's delicious at a reasonable price, which was the whole meaning of the cafeteria to begin with.

- [Deborah] The S&W Market is at 56 Patton Avenue in Asheville, and it's open every day except Tuesday.

On Fridays and Saturdays, they're open until 8:00 PM.

For more information, visit their website at swmarketavl.com.

[solemn music] - [Kevin] The morning of the hurricane, we got about between 11 and 12 feet of water inside the building.

- [Carter] We lost electric power all across the town.

So there was that moment of trying to figure out what to do.

Where do we go from here?

- [Shelton] That was a massive storm.

We're in the French Broad River corridor right here, and we had water levels up to 24.6 feet.

- [Kim] We lost about 80% of our studios in the River Arts District.

- [Deborah] The damage is hard to imagine, but on my recent trip to Asheville, I found a city well on the road to recovery.

- From day one, the grit and gumption of Western North Carolina has been on full display in that heart of hospitality with neighbors helping neighbors, restaurants opening their doors, hotels opening their doors to first responders.

- So all of us co-owners kind of got to this location to realize that the power was still on downtown.

So we said, "Let's get to work."

We started cooking food.

We started making coffee for locals.

We wanted to figure out a way to create a hub for people that were looking to help.

- To stay safe, well, first of all, we took care of our families and our little neighborhood that's connected to us.

And then once we were able to get back on our property, we started remediation so we could get open as quickly as possible.

- [Deborah] I met Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville in the brand-new Moxy Hotel.

- We've made remarkable progress here on the ground in Asheville since Helene ripped through here in late September.

You know, Biltmore is reopened.

We have a new airport terminal on the way that will open this summer.

We've got great views.

You know, Asheville is really still stunning and still standing.

- One of my favorite spots to eat in Nashville was the Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Village.

Kevin, so how high did the water rise?

- In this flood, up to about, just below that leaf branch there just under the eave.

We have to replace the floors, and so that'll look new.

Things will look new and sparkling and just like it did before.

- But the food and the plates will still be just as delicious- - The food will be just like it always was and the staff, which is wonderful.

Most of them are coming back.

- [Deborah] After checking in to my adorable space at Wrong Way River Cabins and Lodge, owner Shelton Steele filled me in on his story.

- We were fortunate in that we had a really tight team of contractors that were able to help us get open.

So by November 1st, we were partially operational, and by December 31st before the end of the year, we were 100% operational.

- [Deborah] That's pretty remarkable.

- I know.

We're really proud of it.

- People really come together, huh?

- Absolutely.

- Asheville's famed art community, the River Arts District, was devastated by the storm, but the RADA Outpost offers new hope.

- We're super excited to be able to show the work of the River Arts District artists in downtown until we can rebuild and have our studio spaces working again.

There is a whole section of the River Arts District that is currently open, and people can go see artists blowing glass.

People can go see painters.

People can go see jewelry artists working.

But we also wanna give space to artists that are still unhoused and make sure that people can see their work.

- [Deborah] And the next morning, Carter James of Flour filled me in on how the town rallied to help.

- So we kind of created this volunteer-based system where people were bringing in food, water, medical supplies, diapers, things like that.

And then we had local volunteers that were willing to drive it out to Swannanoa, Black Mountain, down into the River Arts area, places that weren't able to leave their homes.

So we created this whole kind of ecosystem of donation-based volunteer system that was able to get supplies out.

- [Deborah] In West Asheville's historically Black neighborhood along Burton Street, DeWayne Barton, founder of Hood Huggers Tours, had to halt tours but stepped into an unexpected role helping with Helene's recovery.

- Originally when I got up that morning, my goal was just to go check on the elders, but then my neighbors, they start bringing me tons of supplies, like tons and more and more of supplies.

And then I had to say I had to be in distribution.

We had to find a church to store everything, and then we started going around seeing what people need and start distributing different products to different people.

And it kept coming, and it kept coming.

- [Deborah] Everyone I met had a message for people considering a trip to Asheville.

- You know, we are back on our feet.

It's gonna look a little bit different in places, but that's okay.

You know, we need your help, and we're inviting you back.

- We've always welcomed visitors here with heart, and that's what we ask visitors to return with.

So exploreasheville.com is really the best place for visitors to get their information from what's open, great itineraries for spring, and where they could also stay away from with people and places that are gonna need a little bit more time to heal here in Asheville and Western North Carolina.

- To find out more about Asheville's recovery from Hurricane Helene as well as updates on the city as it welcomes guests back, go to exploreasheville.com.

Here on Patton Avenue just down from S&W Market is a brand-new boutique hotel.

It's called The Restoration, and the name is a good metaphor for all that's happening here in Asheville.

[laid-back jazz music] - The name Restoration came about from our first hotel down in Charleston.

It was restoring the old and bringing in the new.

We try to find these mid-level cities, which Asheville is great for that.

We came in, and we looked at the space and tried to figure out the best ways to utilize it so it's not just a hotel.

We are a community center, you know?

If you look at the big arches that we have out front, we wanna be able to open those doors and welcome the city in and revive the feeling of the community-mindedness, you know, just bringing all the different types of people and all the different types of arts and everything back together again.

- So we were, actually, originally, it was a Bank of Asheville, and then it was also a Bank of America at a certain point.

It was four stories.

Though they built on two additional floors.

So the fifth and sixth floor were actually added onto.

And that sixth floor is where we have the observatory rooftop and the solarium, which is our event space.

One of the biggest values is the idea of bringing people together, so bringing not just tourists, but also just local people together to kind of exchange stories and kind of a good meeting point.

We have 60 rooms.

They're all suites, so 11 different room types, which is quite a lot considering we're a smaller hotel.

But we have a variety.

We have rooms with two queen beds.

We have premium rooms, which are all larger.

They're 600 square feet, so it's still quite large rooms for a boutique-style hotel.

- [Mike] We opened about a year ago.

We basically have four outlets.

You know, the smallest outlet is The Rise Coffee Shop.

- We use High Noon Roasters, which is local.

They're actually right down the street.

It's my favorite cold brew.

- And then on the first floor we have The Exchange.

- So The Exchange, we have traditional Appalachian foods.

We do change up that menu dependent on the season.

- We have dishes that are approachable to everyone, whether it's a trout po' boy for lunch or shrimp and grits at night.

And then for pastries, we actually have our own pastry team.

- Then we have the rooftop.

The rooftop is the observatory, and the observatory is more floral, more outdoors.

- The observatory rooftop bar, we are open to the public, Come up there, grab a beverage, and enjoy it on the terrace.

Get light bites and a beverage.

Great views of both downtown and the mountains.

It's a great spot for sunset.

- And then down in the basement we have what we call the Draftsman.

Obviously it's very beer-centric city, so we've got a lot of beers on tap.

- The Draftsman, we have live music on Fridays and Saturday nights.

You can come down here, and we have arcade games that are all free play if you have an open bar tab.

We have two full-size bowling lanes.

The live music and the fact that we are open later is something that Asheville really needed.

It's a one-stop shop where you have so many things going on.

You can be having an event upstairs and live music in the basement and get a nice meal in The Exchange.

There's just so many things that we offer right in the middle of everything.

- It's my second night here, and I absolutely love it.

I love being so central everywhere.

I get to walk pretty much everywhere downtown and short walk back if I go anywhere else.

- I was just walking downtown with my dog, and they had the garage doors open, had some jazz music playing.

So I just said, "I'm gonna walk on in, see what they got."

Sat on the patio.

It was a nice sunny afternoon, got exactly this, had the trout.

It was fantastic and absolutely won me over.

- One of our biggest goals as a company is when people are coming into the hotel, we want them to feel like they're at home.

So if you're looking just for a relaxing getaway, this is definitely the place.

You come in.

We just want you to leave all of your troubles at the door.

Just come in, relax, and just really enjoy your time here.

- The Restoration Asheville is at 68 Patton Avenue in Asheville.

To plan your visit, give them a call at 828-220-0368, or visit their website at therestorationhotel.com.

For years, visitors wanting to know about the contributions and lives of Black Americans in Asheville have been fascinated by the Hood Huggers Tour.

And right now I'm with co-founder DeWayne Barton, who's gonna take me on a ride.

We ready to go?

- Yes.

- Let's do it.

Asheville's like one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the country.

So this community is transforming in a real way.

- [Deborah] Hood Huggers offers several different tours, both walking and driving through legacy Black neighborhoods.

DeWayne steers you to parts of Asheville once solely occupied or owned by African Americans due to segregation.

As we drive around, he connects the past to the present.

Today he took me to Burton Street in West Asheville, home to his family for four generations.

- With the tours, the goal is to have young people in the community be the ones that keep the spaces up.

A elder will tell the story, those real-life stories, a church or organization that's doing work in the community right now to improve it.

- The Hood Huggers Tour is more than what you might expect.

This is just almost overwhelming.

I mean- - Oh, right.

- What in the world?

So how did all of this come together?

- Picking up trash, [Deborah laughs] picking up trash in the neighborhood.

And historically, African American places that they would tear down, we would go grab the door, the sign, a window, anything we could, and incorporate it in the space, make large and small sculptures of it, and keep telling the history even though it's not here anymore.

This section right here is called "Make Our Water Safe, Surrounded by Water, None Can We Drink."

This is "Ancestors in the Garden, Emotional Dysfunction of Consumption," and up top is "Urban Nightmare, Silent Screams."

So a lot of this is picking up garbage, cleaning out the river.

If we couldn't make the neighborhood safer, we could make the neighborhood clean.

We could clean up, so that's what we did.

You're gonna see sculptures that talk about social justice and environmental justice all at the same time, and, of course, the art of resilience of people who created a way out of no way in spite of all the challenges of the past and present.

- Sometimes I ask, you know, "Why would anyone want to relive this?"

But you have to because it's the resilience that it needs to remind you of.

They went through so much, and let it not all be in vain.

The tour ended in an empty lot that looks like an empty lot, but in this quiet, uncluttered space, DeWayne sees promise.

So where are we right now?

- All right, this is our final stop.

This is the future site of The Blue Note Junction.

The founder of Burton Street was E.W.

Pearson.

That was a store that he built back in the early 1920s, and we wanna bring it full circle and put that same name in the future.

It's gonna be a health and business resiliency hub designed to support the region.

- Well, that's an exciting future, and I look forward to seeing it come to fruition.

[DeWayne laughs] Thank you for the tour.

- Yes, thank you.

- To book your walking, driving, or specialty tour of Asheville with Hood Huggers, go to hoodhuggers.com.

That's it for tonight's show.

This is the view from the rooftop of the Moxy Hotel, a new luxe hotel downtown Asheville.

Isn't it spectacular?

Throughout the season, we're going to be returning to the mountains to show you more places to visit and explore because this is truly a special and beloved part of our state.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or you can find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[bright music]