Owners of Havana restaurant set to buy Green Room eatery in Asheville

Jason Sandford

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

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The owners of the Havana restaurant on Battle Square in Asheville are set to buy the Green Room Bistro on Church Street, says Brian Lee, the owner of the Green Room. Havana will close next week and take over the Green Room, and its menu of pub food will remain the same, according to Lee.

Lee, with his wife Tiffany, owns and operates the Altamont Theatre just a few doors down from the Green Room on Church Street. The venue has been dubbed the best listening room in town, but Lee has recently cut back the number of shows he’s booked there and turned the space over largely to an event venue. Lee said competition is stiff in downtown for music venues, and it’s been difficult pulling people off the main drag of Patton Avenue.

Just a week ago, Lee told me that he planned to turn the Green Room into an Italian restaurant. He said he’d ordered a new pizza oven and had a new chef lined up to focus the menu on Italian dishes. But late this week, Lee told me he’d received an offer from the owners of the Havana to buy the Green Room, and he took it. The group that owns the Havana bought that restaurant about a year ago.