Mountain Xpress: Orange Peel expansion underway

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Coolness. Here’s the story:

The Orange Peel Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Asheville’s premiere downtown music venue with a national reputation as a top music destination, is expanding.

On tap: a downstairs private club that will seat 75 to 150 people and serve cocktails on the club’s Hilliard Avenue side, and a new smoking porch of at least 400 square feet on the club’s opposite north side. On the Orange Peel’s main floor, 50 to 100 removable “box seats” will be added to stage left to allow for special seating for certain shows. Also, the long stage-left bar will be divided, with half the bar staying put and the other half moving to the opposite side of the main floor.

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The work started a week ago and marks about a $500,000 investment for the Orange Peel. The club sits at the corner of Hilliard and Biltmore avenues in downtown. It has a long history, first as a 1950s skating rink reborn as a home for R&B clubs featuring disco and funk. The building later saw use as an auto parts warehouse and was vacant until Public Interest Projects Inc. took interest and injected it with new life seven years ago.

Rolling Stone magazine last year named the venue a top five “best club” in the U.S. Bob Dylan, the Beastie Boys, the Flaming Lips, Ben Harper and the Smashing Pumpkins have all played the Peel, an intimate space with a bouncy wooden floor and giant overhead fan.