my favorites 💜

Wake Foot Sanctuary is a foot spa inside the Grove Arcade at 1 Page Avenue, Suite 115, in downtown Asheville, open every day from 9 to 8. Every visit starts with a hand-formulated foot soak picked from a menu like Lavender Chamomile, Tea Tree and Mint, Salty Beach Rose and The Melt, and the massage happens while you soak: head, neck and shoulders, hands and lower arms, or feet and lower legs.

A soak with 20 minutes of massage is $95, and 40 minutes is $130. Packages run from the Chai Latte (45 minutes, $90) to The Luxe and Jet Setter (75 minutes, $200), and Date Night is $270 for two, with a warm pot of tea and treats.

Regulars treat it as an hour off their feet in the middle of a downtown day. Seating is limited, and Wake doesn't do stand-alone massage, so the soak is always the main event.

Wake Foot Sanctuary

LaZoom runs comedy bus tours of Asheville on its purple bus, leaving daily from the LaZoom Room at 76 Biltmore Avenue downtown. Since 2007, its performers have mixed scripted sketches, costumed characters and real local history across four tours. Hey Asheville is the city comedy tour through downtown, Montford, the River Arts District and the South Slope, with a brewery stop, for ages 13 and up. Lil Boogers is the kids' version, with family-friendly skits and Asheville history, from $29. Ghosted is the after-dark haunted comedy tour for ages 17 and up, and Fender Bender puts a live local band on the bus for three brewery stops, 21 and up. Back at the LaZoom Room, the house improv troupe, The Extra Virgins, plays Sunday Service comedy shows.

Locals take visiting family on Hey Asheville and get a laugh out of how much real history sneaks into the jokes.

LaZoom Comedy Tours

Asheville T-Shirt Company is a custom screen printing and embroidery shop at 66 Asheland Avenue in downtown Asheville. It prints and embroiders t-shirts, hats, beanies, polos, jackets, bags and koozies for businesses, bands, teams and events, and it's part of the Asheville Brewing family of businesses.

Local businesses and bands have their merch made here, and regulars count on fast turnaround for event shirts.

Asheville T-Shirt Company

Hood Huggers International is a Black-led community organization and tour company in Asheville's historic Burton Street neighborhood in West Asheville, founded by DeWayne Barton in 2015. Its Hood Tours tell the story of African Americans in Asheville, past, present and future.

The 90-minute walking tours cover downtown's East End Valley Street, The Block, the YMI Cultural Center and Stephens Lee, or the Burton Street community, its Peace Garden and a community center that was once a segregated elementary school. Driving tours visit Shiloh, Southside, Burton Street and East End. Tours run at 10 AM, 1 PM and 4 PM and are booked online, with private group tours by request. Many of the sculptures in the Peace Gardens & Market, which he and his wife started in 2003, are Barton's work.

Neighbors and visitors leave a Hood Tour knowing the names and places behind Black Asheville's history.

Hood Huggers International

Ultra Coffeebar is a specialty coffee shop and cafe at 242 Clingman Avenue, at the Five Points corner in the River Arts District. It makes its flavor syrups in-house, pours nitro cold brew on tap and serves bagels, wraps, paninis and baked goods, with lots of vegan and gluten-free options.

River Arts District locals love the nitro cold brew and the outdoor seating. It's an easy stop before a day of gallery hopping.

Ultra Coffeebar

The Organic Mechanic is a family-owned auto repair shop at 568 Haywood Road in West Asheville, with a focus on eco-conscious practices. It handles preventive maintenance, oil changes, brake service and repair, transmission service and repair, and emergency repairs, and works to meet suggested EPA standards, including permeable pavement to keep oil out of runoff. Repairs come with a 24-month, 24,000-mile nationwide limited warranty on parts and labor. It's open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, closed for lunch from noon to 1, and The Destination Guide named it the Best Eco-Friendly Business in Asheville.

West Asheville neighbors trust it with their cars, and drivers like that the shop cares about how it handles oil and waste.

The Organic Mechanic

One World Brewing West is a craft brewery and live music venue in West Asheville at 520 Haywood Road, with an indoor stage, outdoor patio, rotating food trucks, and weekly jazz, indie, and funk shows.

Regulars know the beer list by heart, and everything in the West taproom comes from the 10-barrel brewhouse on the bottom floor. The music skews local and the outdoor stage and bar make warm nights the best time to go.

One World Brewing - West

Wagbar is an off-leash dog park and bar on Merrimon Avenue in Weaverville, just north of Asheville, and the original Wagbar location since 2019. The 25,000 square foot park has a grassy hillside, ramps, a big tunnel, a dog swimming pool and a DIY dog wash, with heaters in winter and fans in summer.

The bar pours 10 rotating taps of local beer, plus Devil's Foot sodas, Dynamite coffee, wine slushies and snacks from West End Bakery and Asheville Pretzel Co. Regulars come for Tuesday trivia, live music and rotating food trucks, and humans get in free, dog or no dog. Open daily, noon to 9 on weekdays and 10 to 9 on weekends.

Wagbar

Haywood Country Club is a neighborhood bar at 662 Haywood Road in West Asheville, open daily from 3 pm to 2 am. It pours beer, cocktails and shots, with outdoor picnic tables and dark booths inside. The calendar stays busy, with open mic on Mondays (sign up at 6:30), music bingo on Thursdays at 8 pm, art shows, live bands and themed parties, and some Sundays it hosts the West Asheville Street Market from 11 am to 6 pm.

West Asheville regulars treat it like their living room, grabbing a picnic table on warm nights and a dark booth when it's cold.

Haywood Country Club

WNC CBD is an Asheville hemp company that started in 2019 and now also goes by World Needs Cannabis. It's family owned by Mike and Meghan, who began with a $10,000 personal loan, a lot of Googling and a wholesale business before moving into online retail.

They don't run their own storefront, but you can find WNC on the shelf at Smokey Mountain Hemp Co. on Coxe Avenue in the South Slope, including their Dog Walkers pre-rolls, or order the full lineup at wnc-cbd.com. That covers high-THCa flower, pre-rolls, concentrates, tinctures, gummies and CBD, all for adults 21 and up, with free shipping on orders over $100.

People follow WNC for the limited flower drops, which have been known to sell out fast. After Helene, their Carolina Comeback strain raised $18,000 for the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County, and a cut of their 4/20 sales goes to the Last Prisoner Project.

WNC CBD

Tiger Bay Cafe is a Black, woman-owned and family-run cafe that's back in business at 195 Hilliard Avenue, inside Ben's Tune Up on the South Slope. It closed its West Asheville counter inside BattleCat Coffee in late 2024, and now serves what it calls global street food.

The menu runs from bagels, breakfast burritos and waffles to paninis and salads with Southern, East Indian and Latin twists. The breakfast panini stacks scrambled egg, bacon, cheddar and Swiss with herb mayo, and the BCT panini pairs bacon, tomato and avocado.

Fans from the BattleCat days still order the breakfast bagel, an everything bagel with cream cheese, tomato, avocado, scrambled egg and cracked pepper.

Tiger Bay Cafe

plant is a fully plant-based restaurant on Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville, serving creative vegan fine dining that wins over skeptics and longtime vegans alike. The seasonal menu uses whole ingredients and global techniques, and it's one of the most praised vegan restaurants in Asheville NC.

Locals say plant is worth the trip even if you're not vegan, because the food is that good. The menu doesn't change often, but new dishes are worth the wait, and the staff is thoughtful about allergies and dietary needs.

my favorites 💜

Meghan Coltrane

Some favorite things that make Asheville like no other place on the planet.

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