Asheville Is One Vote Away From Being Named the South's Best Culinary Town

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  July 10, 2026

Asheville is one vote away from being crowned the best food town in the South, and the clock is running. The city landed on the 15-town shortlist for The Local Palate's 2026 "Best Culinary Towns in the South," and first-round voting closes today, July 10. If you have ever bragged to a visiting relative about where to eat in Asheville, this is the moment to back it up.

The Local Palate is a Charleston-based magazine that covers Southern food, drink, and culture, and its Readers' Poll carries real weight in the region. The winning town lands on the cover of a special issue, The Best Culinary Towns of the South, which goes on sale December 15. For a city that has spent two decades building its name on food, this is the kind of recognition that sticks.

Here is the part worth acting on. Round one, with all 15 towns on the ballot, runs July 6 through 10. Round two, a head-to-head among the top three finishers, opens July 13 and runs through July 17. So even if the first window closes before you get to it, Asheville has a strong shot at the second round, and there will be another chance to vote midweek.

How the Contest Works

The Local Palate did not pull these 15 towns out of a hat. Editors researched more than 40 small towns across the South, from Maryland down to Florida and west to Texas, before narrowing the field. The Local Palate capped eligibility at towns with populations under 450,000, which keeps the contest focused on places where a food scene defines the character of the whole community rather than getting lost in a big metro.

The criteria go well beyond restaurants. Judges looked at bars, cafés, farmers markets, coffee shops, wine shops, food trucks, festivals, kitchen and home-goods retailers, and even educational food experiences. In other words, they were measuring the full ecosystem, not just how many white-tablecloth dining rooms a town can claim.

Editor in Chief Erin Byers Murray put it plainly. "We hungrily research each town to determine which businesses, chefs, vendors, and venues make the town's culinary scene so unique," she said. That framing favors depth over flash, which happens to be Asheville's strong suit.

The competition is no pushover. Past winners include Lafayette, Louisiana in 2024 and Jackson, Mississippi in 2025, two cities with deep and distinct food cultures. This year's field includes Johnson City, Tennessee, another Southern Appalachian town with a growing scene, plus Charleston, West Virginia, Staunton, Virginia, and a dozen more. Asheville is not walking into an easy win, which is exactly why local votes matter.

The Foodtopia Roots

Asheville did not become a food town overnight, and the story is more interesting than most people realize. Explore Asheville brands the local scene as "Foodtopia," a name that points to something specific. It describes an interconnected ecosystem of growers, makers, and chefs, all rooted in Southern Appalachian foodways that go back generations in these mountains.

The modern chapter has a clear starting point. Table, the downtown restaurant opened by chef Jacob Sessoms, helped launch Asheville's farm-to-table movement when the idea was still novel in a small mountain city. That early bet on local sourcing set a tone that the rest of the scene followed. Sessoms has since expanded to Golden Hour and All Day Darling, but Table remains a foundational room in the city's food history.

What makes the Appalachian angle matter is that it is not a marketing gimmick. The growing season, the preservation traditions, the wild foraging, and the family farms scattered across Buncombe County and the surrounding hills give Asheville chefs something they cannot buy in a bigger market. When a menu leans on ramps in spring or preserved fruit in winter, that is the land talking, not a trend.

That authenticity is precisely what a poll like this rewards. Plenty of towns have good restaurants. Fewer have a food identity that grows out of the place itself. Asheville's kitchens are cooking a landscape, and anyone who has driven the back roads of Leicester or the French Broad valley understands where the ingredients come from.

The James Beard Credentials

If you want the short version of why Asheville belongs on this list, start with the numbers. Area chefs and restaurants have earned 40 James Beard nominations and four national wins to date. For a mountain city of Asheville's size, that is a big haul, and it stacks up against food towns many times larger.

The most recent win is fresh. Taylor Montgomery of Montgomery Sky Farm took home the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, announced June 15 in Chicago, less than a month before this poll opened. Montgomery Sky Farm sits just outside Asheville in Leicester and runs as a regenerative farm and animal rescue as well as a restaurant. Montgomery, who works alongside co-owner Fran Montgomery, builds hyper-seasonal tasting menus around Appalachian ingredients and old preservation methods. It is the Foodtopia idea taken to its logical extreme, a chef cooking from land he tends himself.

Montgomery is not alone at the top. Meherwan and Molly Irani of the Chai Pani Restaurant Group were 2026 finalists for Outstanding Restaurateur, national recognition for a group that helped put Indian street food on Asheville's map. Katie Button continues to draw crowds and critics to Cúrate, her Spanish tapas restaurant downtown. Ashleigh Shanti has earned attention for Good Hot Fish, her counter-service spot in the historic Southside neighborhood that pays homage to the fish-frying matriarchs of her family.

That is a lineup of national talent working in one small city. The James Beard record is the single strongest line on Asheville's résumé heading into this vote, and it is hard to argue with.

The Michelin Stamp

Then came Michelin. In November 2025, the inaugural Michelin Guide to the American South recognized 15 Asheville restaurants, a debut that put the city on the same map as far larger Southern destinations. For a guide making its first pass through the region, 15 recognized restaurants in one small mountain city is a serious statement.

The significance is worth sitting with. Michelin does not chase trends or reward marketing budgets. Its inspectors work anonymously and measure what is on the plate. When a guide of that standing walks into a market for the first time and pulls out 15 Asheville restaurants, it validates everything the Foodtopia branding has claimed for years.

The recognized rooms span the range that makes Asheville distinct. There are polished destinations and there are unfussy neighborhood spots, which reflects a city where a great meal does not require a reservation two months out. That breadth is the point. Michelin was not just impressed by the top of the scene. It found quality scattered across the whole thing.

For voters weighing Asheville against the rest of the field, the Michelin nod is the credential that travels furthest. James Beard speaks to chefs and the industry. Michelin speaks to anyone, anywhere, who reads a guide before booking a trip. Together they give Asheville a case that few towns under 450,000 people can match, and they arrived in the last year, right as this poll came around.

A Tour Through the Neighborhoods

Numbers and awards tell part of the story. You understand the rest best by walking the city, because Asheville's food scene is organized by neighborhood, and each one has a personality.

Downtown is the anchor. Table, Cúrate, and Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse all sit within a short walk of one another, and Soprana crowns the top of the Embassy Suites with a view. The S&W Market, a restored Art Deco building turned food hall, gathers several vendors under one roof for anyone who wants variety without picking a single door. It is the densest concentration of good eating in the region.

Head to the South Slope and the character shifts toward breweries, with Little Chango serving Venezuelan arepas in the middle of it. Cross the river to West Asheville and you find The Admiral, a small kitchen with an outsized reputation, along with Leo's House of Thirst for a glass of something interesting. Montford brings All Day Darling for brunch and Tall John's for a neighborhood dinner.

The Southside neighborhood, historically the heart of Black Asheville, is home to Ashleigh Shanti's Good Hot Fish, a reminder that the city's food story has roots that predate the current spotlight. Farther out, the River Arts District lines the French Broad with breweries and restaurants along a working riverfront corridor.

You can eat your way across Asheville for a week and never repeat a neighborhood. That range, from a chef's tasting menu in Leicester to a fish plate on the Southside, is what a culinary town is supposed to feel like.

Why This Matters for the Mountains

A win for Asheville would ripple well beyond Buncombe County. When national outlets and travel guides spotlight the region's food, the attention does not stop at the county line. Visitors who come for a Michelin meal in Asheville tend to wander, and that means dinners in Waynesville, drives to Sylva, weekends in Brevard, and second looks at towns like Franklin that sit within easy reach of the city.

The food scene is also one of the clearest signs of what makes life here appealing in the first place. People do not move to the mountains for the commute. They come for the character, the community, and the sense that a place is worth staying in. A strong culinary culture is a symptom of all three, evidence that talented people are choosing to build their lives and businesses in these hills rather than somewhere bigger and flatter.

That is worth a few seconds of your day. Voting closes today for round one, and round two opens July 13, so there is still time to help push Asheville forward. Head to thelocalpalate.com, find the Readers' Poll, and make it count. A town that has quietly earned 40 James Beard nominations and 15 Michelin nods should not lose for lack of local pride.

And if watching Asheville's food scene draw this kind of national attention has you wondering what it would be like to call these mountains home, that is a conversation I am always happy to have over coffee somewhere with a good view.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I vote for Asheville as the South's best culinary town?

Voting happens at The Local Palate's website, thelocalpalate.com, in the Readers' Poll section. The first round ran July 6 through July 10, 2026, with all 15 finalist towns on the ballot. If Asheville advances, a second round runs July 13 through July 17 among the top three finishers. There is no fee and no subscription required to cast a vote. The winning town gets announced on the cover of The Best Culinary Towns of the South special issue, which goes on sale December 15, 2026. If you missed the first window, watch for the second-round ballot to open midweek.

What other towns is Asheville competing against?

The Local Palate named 15 finalists spanning the South from Maryland to Florida and west to Texas. Alongside Asheville, the field includes Bluffton, South Carolina; Charleston, West Virginia; Clayton, Georgia; Covington, Kentucky; Huntsville, Alabama; Hyattsville, Maryland; Johnson City, Tennessee; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Little Rock, Arkansas; Natchez, Mississippi; Norfolk, Virginia; Orlando, Florida; Round Top, Texas; and Staunton, Virginia. Editors researched more than 40 towns before narrowing the list, limiting eligibility to places with populations under 450,000. Past winners of the poll include Lafayette, Louisiana in 2024 and Jackson, Mississippi in 2025, so Asheville faces a strong regional field.

Why does Asheville have a reputation for food?

Asheville built its food identity on Southern Appalachian foodways, a network of local growers, makers, and chefs that Explore Asheville brands as "Foodtopia." The modern chapter started with the farm-to-table movement, which downtown restaurant Table helped launch under chef Jacob Sessoms. Since then, area chefs and restaurants have collected 40 James Beard nominations and four national wins. In November 2025, the inaugural Michelin Guide to the American South recognized 15 Asheville restaurants. The city pairs serious fine dining with counter-service spots, breweries, farmers markets, and food halls, which is exactly the range The Local Palate judges reward.

Who won the 2026 James Beard Award from Asheville?

Taylor Montgomery of Montgomery Sky Farm won the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, announced June 15, 2026, at the ceremony in Chicago. Montgomery Sky Farm sits just outside Asheville in Leicester and operates as a regenerative farm and animal rescue alongside its chef-led tasting menus. Taylor Montgomery, who runs the operation with co-owner Fran Montgomery, is known for hyper-seasonal cooking built around Appalachian ingredients and old preservation traditions. The win landed weeks before the culinary town poll opened, adding a fresh national credential to Asheville's case and drawing attention to the farm-driven cooking that defines much of the region.