Some of what’s going around:
-Surprise snow: Weather forecasters on Monday were calling for 1 or 2 inches of snow overnight for Asheville proper, but most folks ended up with 3 or 4. School was closed again. And forecasters are saying we could get another blast of snow Wednesday night. Stay tuned.
-Shooting: Two people were shot Monday afternoon in Biltmore Village in what police described as a drive-by shooting, which happened on the stretch of road right in front of Chico’s. Police are searching for a suspect.
-Word on the street: Dobra Tea is opening a second Asheville location on Haywood Road, next to Asheville Bee Charmer.
-Shuler move: Loyal Ashvegas reader Brian points me to an interesting property transfer – it looks like former U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, who lived in Waynesville, is moving to Biltmore Forest:
120 Stuyvesant Road (Lot 1 block R Biltmore Forest), $985,000, Kevin F. and Shawnna K. Graham to Joseph Heath and Nikol David Shuler
Shuler represented Western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District from 2007 to 2013. He didn’t run for a four term, and instead took a lobbying job with Duke Energy.
-Blue Dream Curry House: Asheville food critic Stu Helm reported last week that Blue Dream Curry House would be opening in coming months at 81 Patton Avenue in the former Hyphen Cafe location. As its name implies, the restaurant will feature all kinds of curries.
-Block party: The city of Asheville says the Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) will hold the second annual Festival of Neighborhoods on Sunday, March 15, 2015 at A-B Tech in the Ferguson Auditorium at 2:00 p.m. Asheville City Council established NAC to help strengthen the bonds of community and improve the quality of life for residents. This year’s festival will feature workshops focused on identifying ways neighborhoods can be organized and successful.
-Thunderfork: Thunderfork, a pop-up restaurant, is set to open tonight (Tuesday) at 5:30 p.m. on Wall Street in downtown Asheville. From the press release:
Ladies and gentlemen of Asheville, behold ye the Thunderfork. Nate Allen of Spruce Pine’s highly respected eatery, Knife & Fork, will be grilling out with Elliott Moss on Tuesday, Feb. 24, right on Wall Street in front of the bar. The Thunderbird/Knife & Fork combo will also include cocktail collaborations from the folks of MG Road and Jack Hayes of Knife & Fork’s sister bar, Spoon.
Served a la carte (and, organizers say, at reasonable prices), all of the food will be cooked on Moss’ wood-fired grill, which was constructed for him by his father, a career welder in Florence, S.C. Expect local rabbit, house-made sausages, handmade pastas, preserved veggies and offal bits cooked up just right over an open flame.
Moss has guested on several occasions at Allen’s restaurant, but Thunderfork marks the first time that Allen will work in Moss’ turf, and for good reason – it has been a while since Moss has had a kitchen of his own. He spent a great deal of time last year bouncing from kitchen to kitchen after abruptly departing Ben’s Tune-Up to find better footing and crank out the kind and quality of food he wanted to cook – something he has found seemingly endless free range to do with Thunderbird at MG Road.