Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
From loyal reader Jeff. Thanks Jeff!
Ashe ~ Universal Joint opened Tuesday night and the place was jam-packed with curious locals. I ran into about 15 West Ashevillians I knew including several neighborhood business folk. I was curious to find out if it felt like I was eating in a busy intersection. I’ll have to wait to find that out because there were no tables left outside. Interior is sparse and industrial, yet interesting. Juke box had good stuff. I did not see a pinball machine, but perhaps it was removed to make room for the crowd. They opened the garage doors up which was nice.
Being the first night officially open, I will cut them plenty of slack on service. The menu looks like it intends to give Burgermeister a run for their money. Same stuff. They have about 9 or so beers on tap as listed on a board on the wall. However nowhere were beer prices listed… not on the board, not on the menu. When the check came I found out that draft pints were $4 and $5, depending on the flavor. For food I opted for a gyro which included cheesy fries for $7. Not a bad price, but it was about half the size of a typical Greek restaurant gyro. And it was cold. Again, I’ll cut them slack because it was day one and they were slammed. The new staff was working their tails off.
It was neat to see a finished place on that corner. There was a lot of foot traffic on both sides of the street that night. As much as I’ve seen since Halloween. Most people parked at Wachovia, which is closed by dinner time.
Overall, I’ll probably go back. But I still think WestVille Pub is my home away from home. And I think Burgermeister has them beat on both ambiance, food and value.
Your mileage may vary.
The Universal Joint is a chain, from GA, it’s their MO is to renovate an old gas station an turn it into a "joint". http://www.ujointbar.com/story.html
We are glad to see them join us on Haywood, there is plenty of room in West Asheville for more fun places to go. So glad they recycled a building! The more the merrier!
Thanks to everyone who supports us and loves what we do love to do!
Bakerman is right about our budget, we’ve never had deep pockets, but we’ve been true to ourselves and allowed creativity to rule. The vintage stuff on the walls has come from our lives, Chef Tom’s dad is retired from the Kelly Tires Plant here in NC. The big painted Harley sign was given to us from a customer who found it in the garage of a house he bought in west asheville. We reflect our community and aren’t affraid to seem quirky.
Bakerman however is wrong in that our keen management skills have provided high quality food, affordably and consistently for more than six years in West Asheville. If you ever had a Plain Jane with wedges in the 90’s when Burgermeister’s was downtown, you could almost step back in time with one bite! With one noteable difference- today our buns are made by City Bakery. And we have an awesome full service staff instead of just counter service.
It’s unreasonable to expect one place will make everyone happy, just find what you like, life’s too short and you gotta eat!
We ate there once recently and the food was o.k., but not worth the terrible service. The server was inattentive and rude and it is extremely noisy. We won’t go back.
I have been four times now. The food is decent. The service wanders between mediocre and poor. 10 minutes to get a menu when the place is not busy? Another 10 to have someone come back to take your drink order? Then having to flag down the server to place an order for food? This has happened to us more than once.
Maybe they will tighten things up. We’ll go back. But, Burgermeisters has better service, good food, and overall doesn’t seem concerned about being the place to be hip, and that’s a good thing. Right now it appears that U-Joint is as much a place to be *seen* drinking and hanging out as anything else, and that is floating them for now. Will be interesting to note how winter affects their business when it is no longer so appealing to sit outside.
hEY! Been to the UJ now three or four times and is my new favorite place.They are what I think Burgermeister was intended to be without the budget or management to ensure a quality product. The Westville is a "bar" that serves miedochre food once you get past the cliques, wait time, and dimwits (seriously its time rehire a new staff). No comparison. The Ujoint is a "restaurant" that happens to have a bar. The staff works first and socializes third unlike a nearby establishment. The food is awesome, and the service had always been timely busy or not….my only complaint so far has been apps and entrees coming out at the same time. Whats the point of the app….timing and firing food…not that complicated. Otherwise way to go UJ!
<b>They probably made the mistake of hiring wait staff from West Asheville.</b>
That’s funny. I didn’t recognize any of the wait staff, so they might be been imported from other parts of town.
I always give a place a month to work out the kinks. We almost gave up on Mela when they first opened, now I’m glad that we waited for the initial staff to turn over. Yum!
it’s called the universal joint as an automotive reference, since they typically renovate old, decrepit gas stations for their restaurants. weed has nothing to do with it, ding dong.
I saw the food delivery man rip up a parking sign for digable pizza and tom’s barbershop just so he could enter from Tom’s parking lot!
I love this place! The food is fantastic and the outside seating area is perfect. You feel like you are just sitting right in the middle of W. Asheville having a beer. Yeah, the beer prices are a little steep, but not too bad. Still love The Admiral, but I love having this place on this side of I-26.
the space is great, but the name is lame. if you’re going to be called universal joint, there better be some fucking weed on the menu…
Great space, great menu, great beer. Kinks take a while on any new place so cut the processes some slack, relax and smile at the uj, seems like these folks know what they’re doing.
Ok, so I have heard the real deal from two people that ate there last night. They said the food was awesome. They also said the place was very nice and clean. They did say the wait staff was lacking but attributed it to being the first night that was really busy.
I heard what the two had for dinner and I can’t wait to get some of that food in my belly.
I hope they survive the beat down from the locals with a smile because people are talking about this new eatery all over town and from what I hear they are really excited.
They probably made the mistake of hiring wait staff from West Asheville.
As for competition: locals from West Asheville will likely keep going to places like the Westville Pub because they feel comfortable in something that is not very sophisticated. UJ will bring in people from all over, especially transplants from Atlanta that know their quality of work. I am sure even a few of the local West Asheville crowd that demands a clean place to eat will make UJ a regular spot to go to.
I haven’t been yet, but their menu is unimpressive. So far, there seems to be nothing to distinguish them from Westville, Burgermeister’s or Tolliver’s Crossing. Too bad–I was really hoping for something a little different.