Asheville's Summer of Openings: What the New Restaurant Wave Says About a City Still Rebuilding

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  August 13, 2026

Roy Trantham's second Thunder Burgerz Grill will seat about 180 people when the dining room and the patio are both full, which is roughly triple the footprint of the original. It landed at 521 Haywood Road in West Asheville with a tentative early August opening, built around a 1950s diner concept, a full bar, and a calendar that already includes karaoke and comedy nights. That is not a soft debut. That is a bet on a street that has been quietly reshaping itself for a decade.

It is also a good snapshot of what this summer has looked like in Asheville. The openings are bigger, they are spread across more neighborhoods, and a striking number of them are second acts rather than first ones.

The Haywood Road Bet

West Asheville has been the city's most watchable restaurant corridor for years, and Haywood Road is the reason. The street runs long and low through a neighborhood of bungalows and porches, and the businesses along it have always leaned independent, casual, and local before anything else.

Thunder Burgerz fits that pattern precisely. Trantham built a following at the original location on burgers, wings, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, and breakfast, and the Haywood Road version keeps all of it while adding room to actually host people. Ninety indoor seats and ninety on the patio is a different kind of restaurant than a counter with a line out front.

The patio number is the interesting one. Outdoor seating has become close to mandatory in Asheville, partly because the summers here run mild enough to use it from April through October, and partly because the mountain evenings are the whole point of eating out in this part of the state.

Haywood Road is not done, either. Finest Deli is planned for the former Asheville Sandwich Company space further along the street, keeping a sandwich shop in a spot that has held one for years. That kind of continuity matters on a street where regulars notice when a familiar door stays dark.

If you have not walked Haywood Road recently, it rewards an afternoon. Park once, walk the stretch, and you will pass more independently owned food in a mile than most Southern cities manage downtown.

Biltmore Village Keeps Getting Pieces of Itself Back

On July 24 at 6:30 in the morning, the Wendy's at 776 Biltmore Avenue opened its doors for the first time since Tropical Storm Helene tore through Biltmore Village in the fall of 2024. Franchise operator Tar Heel Capital Corporation, led by CEO Tad Dolbier, rebuilt it with a new layout, ordering kiosks, contactless pickup, and a walk-up window.

It would be easy to skip past a fast food reopening in a story about new restaurants. In Biltmore Village, it does not read that way.

Helene put water through that entire district. The Swannanoa River came up and took out businesses that had been fixtures for decades, and the recovery has been slow and uneven in a way that anyone driving through in 2025 could see. Every building that reopens down there is a marker.

Gemelli, the Italian sister restaurant to Strada, moved into Biltmore Village earlier this year from the Westgate shopping center, adding a sit-down dinner option to a district that lost several. Piebird opened nearby at 115 Hendersonville Road with chicken pot pie, biscuits and gravy, and seasonal dessert pies, which is about as well matched to a mountain winter as a menu gets.

The district is not what it was before the storm. Some of what was lost is not coming back in the same form. But the current version has more open doors than it did a year ago, and locals have started treating it as a destination again rather than a detour.

The Wayside's Long Road to Grove Park

The story people around here keep asking about is Village Wayside Bar & Grille. Mark and Polly Harding ran it for 15 years out of the old Biltmore Village train depot, one of the most recognizable historic buildings in the county, until the floodwaters of September 27, 2024 destroyed it.

More than a year later, they announced the restaurant was coming back, and not to Biltmore Village. The new Village Wayside is going into Grovewood Village in North Asheville's historic Grove Park neighborhood, taking the former ELDR space.

The building is worth the trip on its own. It is a 1917 structure with a swooping roof and pebble walls, part of the campus that once housed Biltmore Industries, the craft operation Edith Vanderbilt supported in Biltmore Village before Fred Loring Seely bought it in 1917 and moved it up the hill. Seely was Edwin Grove's son-in-law and the man behind the Grove Park Inn, which sits just next door.

So a restaurant that spent 15 years in a Vanderbilt-era depot is relocating to a campus with its own Vanderbilt-era origins. That is an unusually tidy piece of continuity for a business displaced by a flood.

Construction has been underway and a firm public opening date has not been posted, so anyone planning around it should confirm before driving over. When it does open, it will bring a scratch kitchen and a genuine neighborhood bar to a part of North Asheville that has plenty of visitors and not many places for them to sit down informally.

Merrimon Avenue Turns Into a Restaurant Row

North Asheville's Merrimon Avenue has spent years as the road you take to get somewhere else. That is changing quickly.

Mountain Madre is opening its second Mexican kitchen and agave bar at 791 Merrimon, bringing a full bar concept to a stretch that has historically run toward groceries, drive-throughs, and strip retail. The Scheffer Group has a casual counter service spot planned at 319 Merrimon in the former Musician's Workshop building.

Two openings do not make a restaurant row by themselves. What makes this notable is the type of openings. These are not quick service tenants filling a vacancy. They are second locations from operators who already have proof of concept elsewhere in the city and chose North Asheville for the follow-up.

That is usually a sign a corridor has crossed a threshold. Operators expand into places where the daytime population, the residential density, and the traffic count all line up, and Merrimon has been building all three for a while now.

For residents up that way, the practical effect is simple. There is more within a short drive than there used to be, and less reason to fight downtown parking on a weeknight. Anyone who has circled Lexington Avenue at seven on a Friday understands the appeal of that.

Downtown's New Flavors Are Coming From Farther Away

The most distinctive downtown opening of the year is not Southern, Italian, or Mexican. Slava Cafe, a Ukrainian cafe and bakery, moved into 37 Wall Street in the former Rite Rite space, serving pierogis, cabbage rolls, and honey cakes built from family recipes.

Wall Street is one of the best short blocks downtown. It curves, it is mostly pedestrian in feel, and it has kept a European quality that the wider streets around it never had. A Ukrainian bakery belongs there in a way that is hard to argue with.

South Slope is also still absorbing new food, with Eggs Rancheros Kitchen planned at 224 Biltmore Avenue serving Mexican American breakfast and lunch. The neighborhood built its identity on breweries, and the food that follows breweries tends to arrive in a specific order. First the trucks, then the counters, then the sit-down kitchens. South Slope is well into the second phase.

What these have in common is that they are filling gaps rather than duplicating what already works. Asheville has plenty of elevated Southern and plenty of craft beer. It has had far less Eastern European food, and daytime breakfast options downtown have always been thinner than the dinner scene suggests.

That is the healthier version of restaurant growth. A city with fifteen versions of the same concept is fragile. A city adding cuisines it did not previously have is deepening.

What Buncombe's Summer Says About the Rest of the Mountains

Step back from the individual openings and a pattern shows up. Almost every significant restaurant story in Buncombe County this year has been shaped by Helene in some way, whether it is a rebuild, a relocation, or an operator taking a vacancy the storm created.

That is the thing people outside the region still do not fully understand. Nearly two years on, the storm is not the background of the story here. It is the story, and it is being told one reopening at a time.

For those of us further west in Macon, Jackson, and Haywood counties, Asheville's dining scene functions as the region's big night out. Franklin is about an hour and 20 minutes away, Sylva about an hour, Waynesville closer to 45 minutes. Close enough for dinner, far enough that our towns keep their own pace.

That balance is a large part of what draws people to the western counties in the first place. You can live on a quiet road outside Franklin or Brevard, keep your evenings dark and your mornings foggy, and still be an easy drive from a city with a real restaurant culture. Not many parts of the country offer both without a compromise.

Watching Asheville rebuild also tells you something about how durable the demand for this region is. Restaurants are risky businesses in the best conditions. Operators opening second locations in a county that flooded two years ago are making a statement about where they think this place is headed.

Every so often a client tells me a weekend of eating their way through Asheville is what convinced them to start looking at property out here, and if you find yourself in that camp, my door is open whenever you want to talk about it.

Sources: Citizen Times via AOL, restaurant growth and openings · Asheville Food Bites: New restaurants · Asheville.com, Village Wayside to reopen in Grovewood Village · Mountain Xpress, What's new in food · WLOS, Wayside Grille reopening · AVLtoday Restaurant Roundup

Body runs about 2,250 words. Two things to verify before publishing: the Thunder Burgerz opening was reported as tentative for August 3, and Village Wayside's date has shifted more than once, so a quick call to each would firm those up.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What new restaurants opened in Asheville in summer 2026?

The most visible summer arrival is the second location of Thunder Burgerz Grill at 521 Haywood Road in West Asheville, which owner Roy Trantham targeted for an early August opening with a 1950s diner concept, a full bar, and roughly 90 indoor and 90 patio seats. The Wendy's at 776 Biltmore Avenue in Biltmore Village reopened July 24 after being rebuilt from Tropical Storm Helene damage, with a new walk-up window and ordering kiosks. Several other concepts opened earlier in the year, including Slava Cafe on Wall Street, Piebird on Hendersonville Road, and Gemelli's relocation to Biltmore Village.

Is Village Wayside Bar & Grille reopening after Helene?

Yes. Owners Mark and Polly Harding announced the return of Village Wayside Bar & Grille after floodwaters destroyed the original restaurant on September 27, 2024. The new location is at Grovewood Village in North Asheville's historic Grove Park neighborhood, in a standalone 1917 building known for its swooping roofline and pebble walls, on the campus that once housed Biltmore Industries near The Omni Grove Park Inn. The restaurant spent 15 years in the old Biltmore Village train depot before the storm. Construction has been underway and an exact reopening date has not been publicly locked in, so check the restaurant directly before planning a trip.

Which Asheville neighborhood has the most new restaurants right now?

Three corridors are absorbing most of the new activity. Haywood Road in West Asheville continues to add casual, independent concepts, including the second Thunder Burgerz and a planned Finest Deli in the former Asheville Sandwich Company space. Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville is filling in fast, with a second Mountain Madre Mexican kitchen and agave bar at 791 Merrimon and a counter service concept from the Scheffer Group at 319 Merrimon in the former Musician's Workshop. The South Slope and Biltmore Avenue stretch is the third, with Eggs Rancheros Kitchen planned at 224 Biltmore Avenue.

How far is Asheville's restaurant scene from Franklin and the southwestern counties?

Franklin sits roughly 70 miles southwest of Asheville, about an hour and 20 minutes by way of US 23/441 and I-40, which makes Asheville a comfortable dinner trip rather than an overnight one for most of Macon County. Sylva and Waynesville are closer still, at roughly an hour and 45 minutes respectively. That distance matters for how people here use the city. Plenty of folks in Franklin, Highlands, and Cashiers treat Asheville as their special occasion dining destination while keeping daily life closer to home, which is part of why the western counties stay quiet even as Buncombe grows.