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Outdoor Gear Builders
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The Free Spirit Of Enterprise
A Garden Center
Off the Beaten Path painters greenhouse
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F E AT U R E S vol. iv
10 A GARDEN CENTER OFF THE BEATEN PATH - PAINTERS GREENHOUSE -
ed. iv
48 A MECHANICAL INCLINATION - A. L. ODOM LOCKSMITH -
64 HOW SWEET IT IS STEVE FRABITORE & BRIAN SONOKUS OF TUPELO HONEY
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
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Contents 4 m a s t h e a d & i n f o r m at i o n
•
a p r i l 2 014
s u b s c r i b e o n l i n e at c a p i ta l at p l ay . c o m
lo c a l i n d u s t ry
columns
22 Outdoor Gear Builders
30 Posana Café
A growing number call Asheville home
Emi Chiappa-Starnes
56 Wine for Spring Hunt Mallett
l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n
76 The Art of Effective Communication Mike Summey
39 Cheesemakers create a creamy path through the mountains
keepin’ it brief
c a p i ta l a d v e n t u r i s t 85 Mountain Biking in Western North Carolina
34 Carolina in the West 60 The Old North State 80 National & World News
events 92 Get out of your Office See what’s going on in your community this month
on the cover
Emily Sampson, the head grower at Painters Greenhouse,. above
On the wall in Tupelo Honey’s Hive (corporate office). 8
| April 2014
SLEEPWALKERS?
DO YOU HAVE AN ARMY OF HAVE AN ARMY OF DOworse YOU HAVE ANOne who ARMY What’s than an employee who quits? checks out OF
SLEEPWALKERS? SLEEPWALKERS? SLEEPWALKERS? mentally, but still shows up to work each day. Employee disengagement costs employers $300 billion in lost productivity annually. Are your profits melting away because of disengaged workers? What’s What’s worse worse than an an employee employee who whoquits? quits? One Onewho who checks checks outout
What’s worse thanshows an employee who quits? who checks out mentally, mentally, but still shows up uptotowork work each each day. day.One Employee Employee disengagement disengagement mentally, but still$300 shows up toininwork each day. Employee disengagement costs costs employers employers $300 billion billion lost lostproductivity productivity annually. annually. Are Are your your profits profits costs employers $300Professionals billion in losthas productivity annually. Aretoyour Express Employment insight and solutions helpprofits melting melting away because because of ofdisengaged disengaged workers? workers? melting away because of disengaged workers?
re-engage your team, leading to higher productivity and driving your business to the top. Professionals Express Express Employment Employment Professionalshas hasinsight insightand andsolutions solutions to to help help
Express Employment hasproductivity insight andand solutions to help re-engage re-engage your team, team,Professionals leading leadingtotohigher higher productivity and driving driving your your re-engage team, leading to higher productivity and driving your business business toyour the top. top. business to the top.
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| April 2014
Painters Greenhouse
A Garden Center Off the Beaten Path written by dasha morgan
|
photos by anthony harden
emily sampson ,
the head grower at Painters Greenhouse. April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
11
As the snow begins to melt in your backyard, garden catalogs start filling your mailbox. When one sees the beautiful colors and varieties of botanical beauties that are being offered—from South Carolina,
Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, and elsewhere—happy spring gardening thoughts formulate and blossom. It must be time to begin planning your landscape and garden. What should be planted this spring? Do I want to add anything to my vegetable garden? Is there something specific that I should change or improve to make the garden more beautiful all summer long? Oh, I hope it doesn’t rain this summer like it did last year and ruin the tomatoes. The arrival of these catalogs are indicating that it is time to make decisions. If you wait too 12
| April 2014
long, the truly beautiful plants will be out of stock. With this in mind, perhaps you might want to visit a local greenhouse, off the beaten path: Painters Greenhouse near Old Fort. The trip there will be well worth the effort. This enormous greenhouse (over 100,000 square feet of growing and retail space) is filled with an amazing assortment of plants—from
ornamental sweet potato vine
colorful coleus
tr ailing vinc a vine April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
13
perennials to tropicals, annuals to shrubs and trees, and succulents to aquatics. They even offer a variety of individually designed combination planters and baskets. Painters Greenhouse is only open from March 1 to the end of June and is open Wednesday to Sunday. This is the planting season, so do take careful note, as loyal customers are certain to return early to buy quality plants. The two greenhouses and one cold frame, as well as a large open air area, will be overflowing with every kind of plant imaginable (over 800 varieties)—from small to large, with striking blossoms and colors, some needing su n, some need i ng shade. Ninety-five percent of the plants have been grown start-to-finish on the premises with no “middleman” involved. The production team works throughout the year to propagate and plant the majority of the plants. They sow seeds, divide bulbs and fern runners, and place plant cuttings into pots all winter long. It is a labor of love. Amazingly they keep prices extremely low. For instance the 4” pots of herbs are only $2 and the 6” pots of annuals and perennials generally run $4. A highly sought after plant is the enormous Boston Fern—or Weddin’ Fern—which is only $13 a hanging basket and sells like hot cakes. With prices like these, Painters Greenhouse competes easily with the big box stores. Painters Greenhouse has made a commitment to locate and purchase only non-GMO vegetable and herb seed varieties. This is important to them. The plant’s health is monitored from the very beginning. No lengthy transportation is involved, so quality is paramount and evident.
Ninety-five percent of the plants have been grown startto-finish on the premises with no “middleman” involved. It is a labor of love.
dana stenger ,
the Owen’s oldest daughter
A Little Background In 2009 Brad and Deenie Owen decided to retire. The Owens were living on a 320-acre farm in Pennsylvania with long, cold winters. Brad had been a wetlands ecologist with a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Alberta. He specialized in stream and wetland evaluations. Deenie comes from the medical field, most recently having worked in a pain management practice in Pennsylvania. She home schooled their two daughters and for many years was a member and president of the Organic Food Co-op. After vacationing in Western North Carolina, they made a major decision to retire to this area and enjoy the climate. br ad owen 14
| April 2014
deenie owen April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
15
jessy propagates cuttings
pink crown of thorns
Deenie volunteered at Painters Greenhouse in the spring of 2010, while it was still under the ownership of Stephen and Susie Painter. Just as the Painters were considering retiring and closing their business of over 35 years, the Owen’s older daughter, Dana, and her husband, Jerome Stenger, also were considering a move to North Carolina. Both Dana and Jerome had enjoyed botany and worked in greenhouses in the past and were looking to move on from their current positions in biology and library sciences. Perhaps buying Painters Greenhouse might be the answer? Perhaps the Owens family should continue this thriving business? Putting heads together, they came up with a plan. Brad and Deenie Owen would buy Painters Greenhouse; Jerome and Dana Stenger would move here to help run it. Stephen Painter agreed to stay on as a consultant and advise them for a year; Emily Sampson, a veteran at Painters Greenhouse, would become the Head Grower with the help of Jessy Piercy. It all 16
| April 2014
aloc asia
happened in short order. Yes, the Owens were off and running again—their retirement days were over, with many events on the calendar and crowds of loyal customers able to continue buying the quality plants they so loved. There are now six full time employees year round and perhaps ten or more helpers in the retail season.
A Learning Curve Of course it has been a steep learning curve for everyone. Each member of the team learned to specialize in their area of expertise. Brad Owen has become the construction and maintenance person. Deenie Owen tackles the office responsibilities with ordering and finances. Dana helps with ordering, finances, advertising, and website maintenance. Jerome documents all plants, products, and oversees plant health and needed pest
assorted agave pl ants
ornamental annual seedlings
jade
heucher a & maidenhair fern
baby c alibr achoa
c arolina pl ants ger anium combos
prevention. Painters Greenhouse strives to use an integrated pest management system by using a preventative practice of thoroughly examining the plants on a regular basis and keeping them healthy and able to resist disease. If a pest problem does arise, they try to use nontoxic treatments. They make sure all edibles are only treated with natural products. In addition to their ‘off-season’ duties, the entire family participates in the retail part of the business during the selling season. They have become friends with many of their customers and very much enjoy the interaction with them. There were other aspects of running the greenhouses that presented new challenges for the Owens. A loss of power could be catastrophic, so they have multiple generators for backup. There is even a phone alarm system to
call someone at night if something should go awry in the greenhouses. On certain occasions, Jerome may stay overnight at the greenhouse, sleeping on a sofa to stand guard for a possible
As a veteran of Painters Greenhouse, having worked alongside previous owner Stephen Painter, Emily’s extensive knowledge as a horticulturist brings the greenhouse to life. emergency, with family repairman Brad on high alert, prepared to jump into action. The gusts of wind up to 60 miles an hour this past month have been truly worrisome. And, needless to April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
17
say, the increased need for high cost propane is problematic. Since the Pennsylvania soil is not at all like the soil in North Carolina, the Owens began planting many of the greenhouse plants at their homes, so they could speak knowledgeably about how each performs in the local conditions. Although they had farmed in Amity, Pennsylvania, (southwest of Pittsburgh), the Owens were accustomed to a rich, crumbly soil. In North Carolina, the official state soil and most commonly found is Cecil soil. As we well know, this is a red clay that contains decomposed granite and quartz, making it heavy to work. Emily Sampson, the head grower, oversees the timing for 18
| April 2014
planting each specific plant. She has to map it all out, knowing the rate of growth for each plant, so that it is in prime condition for the selling season. As a veteran of Painters Greenhouse, having worked alongside previous owner Stephen Painter, Emily’s extensive knowledge as a horticulturist brings the greenhouse to life. She graduated from UNC Asheville with a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology, with extensive course work in botany. She worked with several other local growers prior to joining the Painters’ team. Assistant grower Jessy helps Emily with production and watering duties and brings her unique experience as a landscaper to Painters. Jessy is continually improving gardens
the pl ants go on and on , this aisle full of
colorful coleus and succulents with Boston Fern foliage in the foreground. April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 19
EILEEN FISHER
2onCrescent
828.274.1276 • 2oncrescent.com Mon-Sat 10-5:30; Sunday 11-4 4 All Souls Crescent, Biltmore Village
surrounding the retail area, providing beautiful spots for shoppers to relax and observe Painters’ plants in the landscape. Painters Greenhouse has a soil shed with a room solely devoted to bringing in truckloads of specially mixed potting soil for planting. The staff regularly fills planting trays and pots with this mixture as it rolls off the conveyor belt. The greenhouses must be kept within a specific temperature and humidity range, so there are many furnaces and fans, as well as energy-saving shade curtains that help with both heat retention and cooling. Watering requirements must be carefully monitored, depending on the weather. The specific needs vary tremendously from plant to plant. What is needed for the aquatic plants is certainly not what is needed for succulents. The many hanging baskets must be placed in the correct spot on the hanger above, so the automated dripper will water them accurately and regularly. All hoses and their condition must be examined regularly. Growing quality plants is a full time and labor intensive job, but with many satisfactions.
Jack in the Pulpit
Purple Globe Artichoke
Going Forward The Owens have made some changes since 2010. They enjoy getting to know their customers and want their visit to be a wonderful morning or afternoon experience. With this in mind, the grounds around the greenhouses include landscaped gardens with water features and picnic areas. They decided to offer more retail items for sale, like an extensive selection Black Cohosh of pottery and yard art, (including local artisans), and necessities such as gardening tools, soil, mulch, fertilizers and pest control treatments. They encourage their customers to grow their own food. They offer fruits, including raspberries and blueberries. They have expanded the number of vegetable and herb varieties, offering many heirloom vegetables as well as those bred to be disease resistant. New plants are continually being introduced, such as Purple Globe Artichoke, Holy Basil, American Maidenhair
20
| April 2014
Fern, Coreopsis Sunshine Superman, Black Cohosh, native Passionflower vine and Jack in the Pulpit (see illustrations). They also began a recycling program which encourages Painters’ customers to return their plastic containers and trays to the recycling area next to the parking lot. The plastics are then either sterilized and reused at the Greenhouse or donated along with other unused containers to local nonprofits and greenhouse hobbyists. Many festive weekend events are scheduled. Some of their big events include St. Paddy’s Day, an Open House weekend (late March), and an annual Herb Festival (famous for discounted herbs, live music and over 25 local artisans, April 12th and 13th). Many classes are offered, ranging from Herbal Soap-making (June 9th), a pollinator lecture (midJune) to Fairy Garden creation (May 4th). Lectures range from vegetable gardening to landscaping with native plants. Information on this and other gardening information can all be found at: paintersgreenhouse.com. Native Passionflower Vine Indeed the Owens and Stengers have accomplished a lot. A visit to Painters Greenhouse will certainly open your eyes to what they have achieved. Thoughts of retirement for the Owens seem to have floated away with the clouds. They are fully engulfed in a year round, labor intensive business with their daughter and son-in-law. Despite all of its long hours and numerous challenges, the Owens find this has been a very rewarding decision. The business allows them Coreopsis to exercise their creative sides; they Sunshine enjoy researching new plant varieties Superman and planning new events and classes. They all agree that the most pleasure is found in visiting with both new and old customers, and feel fortunate to be ‘going to work’ each day in such a beautiful environment. Western North Carolina is indeed lucky that they vacationed here a few years ago and decided to stay. If you haven’t been to Painters Greenhouse in Old Fort yet, get in your car and visit.
Holy Basil
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21
local industry
this page : The Prestige Adventure Center, face of the Outdoor Gear Builders group. Photos taken by Anthony Harden.
A Growing Number of Outdoor Gear Builders Call Asheville Home
W writ ten by darren dahl
Western North Carolinians love their Subarus; you see them all over the place. And, who can blame them since an all-wheel-drive vehicle can take you just about anywhere in the mountains you want to go. It’s no surprise, then, that Prestige Subaru on Tunnel Road in Asheville is a familiar destination for many in the area. But what some of those folks might not know is that sitting next to the rows and rows of shiny cars is a former warehouse that now goes by a new name: The Prestige Adventure Center. Just look for the sign along the road. 22
| April 2014
W
hen you first step into the space, which is several thousand square feet, you’ll notice there’s a towable pop-up trailer to your right and kayaks hanging from the ceiling. There’s also an ultra-lightweight tent on your left, a few hammocks and t-shirts, and several displays that contain everything from water-friendly shoes to waterproof bags. There’s so much gear in there, you might feel like you’ve walked into a local retail shop like Black Dome or Diamond Brand. But this isn’t a store. In fact, there isn’t even a cash register anywhere to be seen (though the bar is easy to pick out). That’s because this space is actually a showcase for the Outdoor Gear Builders (OGB) group, a year-old association of sorts made up of the burgeoning number of gear builders who now call Asheville and other Western North Carolina towns home. Current members include well-known companies in the area such as Sylvan Sport (tow-behind trailers/campers) in Brevard, Legacy Paddlesports (kayaks) in Fletcher, and Eagle’s Nest Outfitters (hammocks) in downtown Asheville. But the group also includes a slew of startups and small businesses that provide an impressive array of locally made or distributed products as well. “At first a lot of us were like, ‘Wow, we didn’t know there were this many companies here,’” says Matt Raker, vice president of Entrepreneurship & AdvantageGreen at Advantage West Economic Development Group, who is working with his colleague Noah Wilson to help the group get organized and draw others to the area. “But we’ve now got a burgeoning cluster of these companies. The Outdoor Gear Builders group is a way for them to connect, network, and help each other.” It’s clear that Western North Carolina is emerging as a destination for companies that make products tied to outdoor recreation, similar to how the area has also become a hub of craft beer making. As a whole, outdoor gear manufacturing is a $19.2 billion industry in North Carolina and employs close to 200,000 people statewide, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. The draw for gear makers to the area is obvious: not only is there an almost endless supply of mountain trails and rapids for adventurers to enjoy, the regional highway and transportation system makes it an ideal distribution center for the entire east coast—something that Raker and AdvantageWest would love to promote to other manufacturers interested in establishing an eastern presence in the mountains of North Carolina. “We think we’re a best in class location,” he says.
The Mountains: An Entrepreneurial Hotbed Whether or not Nike, The North Face, or Cascade Designs (the company behind the MSR brand) ever move to North Carolina, what’s clear is that the western region of the state is brimming with entrepreneurial talent—people who are creating both things and jobs here in the mountains. It was actually Tom Dempsey, the founder and president of SylvanSport, and Kyle Mundt, the company’s director of new product development and marketing, who first reached out to other area gear makers with the idea of holding a festival in the area as a way to create some joint marketing buzz for their products. After moving into its new 17,000-square-foot facility in Brevard three years ago, where it manufactures its own camping-trailers like the GO and the new GO Easy, SylvanSport has been growing by leaps and bounds, says Mundt, noting that the company now has 12 employees. (For more on SylvanSport, see the March 2012 edition of Capital at Play.) But once they realized there were more than just a few outdoor gear builders in
local farms,
LOCAL FOOD Spring '14 Events 4th Annual Car Show Saturday, April 5th 10-2 9th Annual BBQ Cookoff & Bluegrass Jam Friday, April 4th 12-8 Saturday, April 5th 11-6 Master Gardener Plant Clinic Saturday, April 12th & 26th 11-2 “Growing in the Mountains” Plant Show Sponsored by the Blue Ridge Hort Association April 25th & 26th 9-6 25th Annual Spring Herb Festival Largest Herb Festival in the Southeast Friday, May 2nd 9am-5pm Saturday, May 3rd 9-5 Sunday, May 4th 10-3 Master Gardener Plant Clinic Saturday, May 10th & 24th 11-2
WNC Farmers Market open daily 8-6 570 Brevard Road, Asheville
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 23
local industry
the region, and that organizing a festival from scratch was a bigger project than anyone wanted to tackle, he and other gear makers teamed up to sponsor a “village” featuring their products at the 2013 Mountain Sports Festival. “And things have just snowballed from there,” says Mundt, who also approached Prestige Subaru about turning their empty building into the Adventure Center and a showcase for the OGB. The group currently has about 18 members (see sidebar), each of which pays a small membership fee, while other prominent brands in the region like Defeet (performance socks), Industry Nine (world-class cycle wheels), Raven Designs (hammocks), and more have been approached about joining the group as well. recover : astr al : Given the vast range of products made Photo taken by Rachel Dudasik. Photo taken by Effort Inc 3 here, even the hardiest adventurer would be hard-pressed to find something they’d need out on the trails and streams that happened to have an expertise in textiles. It was while they didn’t have some connection to Western North Carolina. It’s were out riding one day that the pair hit upon the idea to, as easy to imagine a day in the not-so-distant future when a hiker, Johnston says, “start a socially responsible clothing business paddler, or cyclist could walk through the doors of a retailer that was also environmentally sustainable.” and go straight to the “Locally Made” section similar to how Recover currently sources the materials for several of its you can now with food or artisan products. products entirely within North Carolina and South Carolina, What follows are several brief profiles of OGB members you while some of its more technical fabrics come from a partner in may or may not have known were based here in the mountains, Guatemala. They also work with a work co-op in Haiti, where and whose products are available in a variety of local shops or they cut and sew the through their websites. garments. W h i le Joh n st on i s based in Asheville, the company’s warehouse and distribution center is ba sed i n H ickor y where Riddle lives. They Where it’s based: Hickory & Asheville have one other full-time What it makes: Clothing made from 100% recycled material employee and work with Year founded: 2009 a range of contractors Website: www.recoverbrands.com like graphic artists and printers as well. Bill Johnston grew up in nearby Statesville where his family The majority of the had strong connections to the textile industry—a subject he company’s sales come also studied when he attended North Carolina State University, from wholesale partnerships with local races, festivals, and from where he graduated in 2008. Johnston had also long been businesses like breweries and summer camps. “When people a fan of the outdoors and worked as a backpacking guide out see our logo on the shirt they know its 100% recycled,” says west and internationally before moving to Asheville to take a Johnston. “We try to use our product, story, and processes as a tool for other companies who make apparel tell their own job as a program director. That was when he reconnected with sustainable story.” a childhood friend and fellow cyclist, John Riddle, who also
Outdoor gear manufacturing is a $19.2 billion industry in North Carolina and employs close to 200,000 people.
Recover
24
| April 2014
swaygo :
Erica Sughrue caving with the Sink Pack in Tennessee. Photo taken by Bob Biddix.
terr aforma : Lory McClimans relaxing at DuPont State Forest. Photo taken by Jeff Paul.
watershed :
Photo courtesy of Watershed.
OUTDOOR GEAR BUILDERS Below are the members of The Outdoor Gear Builders (OGB) of Western North Carolina (as of March), a network of outdoor gear manufacturers and outdoor retailers organized to stimulate communication, share ideas, and generate crossover opportunities among these companies. If you want to know more, email them at info@outdoorgearbuilders.com. American Backcountry americanbackcountry.com
Lightheart Gear lightheartgear.com
SimpleShot Shooting Sports simple-shot.com
Astral astraldesigns.com
Liquidlogic liquidlogickayaks.com
Swaygo Gear swaygogear.com
Bellyak bellyak.com
Native Watercraft nativewatercraft.com
SylvanSport sylvansport.com
Blue Ridge Chair Works blueridgechair.com
Outrider USA outriderusa.com
Eno (Eagles Nest Outfitters, Inc.) eaglesnestoutfittersinc.com
Recover recoverbrands.com
(see March 2012 edition of Capital at Play)
Harmony House Foods gohhf.com
Rightline Gear rightlinegear.com
TerraForma Outdoor Solutions shopterraforma.com Tsuga tsugacanopies.com Watershed drybags.com (see January 2012 edition of Capital at Play)
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 25
local industry
Astral Where it’s based: Asheville What it makes: Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs) & shoes Year founded: 2002 Website: www.astraldesigns.com Philip Curry, a former Warren Wilson College student and an avid paddler, started Astral as a way to make a better and more eco-friendly PFD. It was actually his first company, Lotus Designs, which he started in 1993 in Weaverville, which helped modernize the PFD from the blocky orange one you might see in a WWII flick. Curry wanted something that could help protect him and other paddlers as they tackled obstacles on the nearby Green River and beyond.
The success of his products drew the attention of the people at Patagonia, who eventually acquired Lotus when Curry was just 27. After his non-compete clause with Patagonia expired, Curry started his next company, Astral, with the goal of making a PVC-free life jacket using the fiber of the kapok plant, which is naturally buoyant. After Curry moved to Vietnam in 2010, the company later introduced its own line of water-friendly shoes, which are also PVC and neoprene free, says Bryan Owen, who heads up marketing at Astral. “Our original shoe won National Geographic Adventure’s gear of the year award,” says Owen, who has worked at the company since 2007, and predicts that Astral’s shoe sales will soon outstrip those of its PFDs. “We wanted our shoes to be wearable on the river and off.” The company as a whole is also growing fast, with sales doubling since 2007, and it now sells its products all over the world. While all warehousing, marketing and customer service happens in Asheville, as well as some assembly work, Astral now employs a total of 30 people in the U.S. and countries like Vietnam and Indonesia who help make its products. “We see ourselves as a global brand, but Asheville has been and will remain our home base,” says Owen.
Legacy Paddlesports Where it’s based: Fletcher What it makes: Kayaks (liquidlogic & Native Watercraft) Year founded: 2006 Website: liquidlogickayaks.com & nativewatercraft.com native : Chris Tryon fishing off the coast of Wilmington. Photo taken by Tim Brown.
liquidlogic : Otter & Wren Benedict on the Chattooga River in Georgia. Photo taken by Shane Benedict 26
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With its abundance of swift water, Western North Carolina has a rich history of kayaking. But when Liquid Logic, a wellknown brand started in Asheville, merged with a company called Legacy Paddlesports in 2007, which was then located in Greensboro, it created somewhat of a gap in the market for locally-made boats. That all changed in 2012, when Legacy brought the Liquid Logic brand back to the Asheville area— bringing Native Watercraft along with it. Today, Legacy produces about 15,000 kayaks a year right here in Western North Carolina at a high-tech factory located just 20 minutes from the Green River—a key factor since many of the company’s 70 employees are also avid paddlers, says CEO Bill Medlin. “We believe you have to have a close connection to the products you make and the people who use them,” he says. Medlin says that while he expects revenue to grow by some 40% next year, and the number of employees to 85, Legacy is aiming for more of a controlled growth curve. “We’re not chasing numbers,” he says, noting that Legacy competes against other manufacturers who are more than ten-times its size.
“We believe you have to have a close connection to the products you make and the people who use them,” Medlin says.
While Legacy currently sells its kayaks, each of which is molded from scratch in their factory, all over the world, their focus is on selling through independent retailers like Diamond Brand located here in the U.S. “We want to respect and remain faithful to the people who helped us grow our business,” he says.
Bellyak Where it’s based: Asheville What it makes: Lay-on-top kayaks Year founded: 2011 Website: www.bellyak.com
bellyak : Head first through the rapids. Photo taken by Lindsey Graham.
Sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. At least that’s the case with Adam Masters, whose father, Bill Masters, founded Perception Kayaks in 1975. As a result, Adam Masters grew up around the world of kayaking and was always fascinated with tinkering around with the design of boats. But it was the experience of lying on top of his boat one day and hand-paddling head first down a river that the idea for the Bellyak was born. “All of a sudden easy whitewater became new and exciting again,” says Masters, who designs and models his boats from his office at the Riverside Business Park along the French Broad River in Woodfin. “I also knew there are people who don't try kayaking because of a fear of being trapped. With the Bellyak there are no skirts or straps holding you in, so you have the freedom to move around and experience the river in a whole new way.” Masters started by taking an old kayak and chopping it up to create a prototype, which he eventually digitally scanned into a computer-aided design program and applied for a patent with. After a somewhat slow start—he had to first convince skeptical kayakers that swimming on top of their kayak through a series of rapids was a good thing—Masters says sales of the Bellyak have gradually increased thanks to interest from surfers (who use the Bellyak as a training tool on the ocean), summer camps, and even a program that helps disabled vets get out on the water. He expects to sell about 1,000 of them in 2014 in North Carolina, as well as in Europe, Japan, and New Zealand.
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Where it’s based: Boone What it makes: Shelters & more Year founded: 2009 Website: www.tsugacanopies.com Jimi Combs, like many entrepreneurs, started his company, Tsuga, to help solve a need in his own life. What he saw was how there was no durable portable sun shelter on the market that was capable of both protecting people from the sun and not getting blown away by a heavy gust off the ocean. “Everything out there was designed to be just thrown away,” says Combs. “I wanted to build something that would last.”
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 27
local industry
Combs, who moved to Boone in 1987 from the Piedmont, had worked as a sales rep in the outdoor industry for 17 years for companies like Black Diamond. He was also an avid climber with experience in tower rigging for high ropes courses, where he learned a variety of handy skills ranging from carpentry to sewing. It was in his basement where he began designing, cutting, and sewing what would become his first product, a shelter that was both lightweight and weatherproof. He then created his brand (tsuga is the Japanese name for a species of Asian Hemlock trees), quit his job, and started looking for customers. “I wanted to have my own business,” says Combs, who is a single dad and wanted the flexibility to care for his son. rightline ge ar : Pop up tent. Combs has since expanded his product Photo taken by Sue Evans. offerings as well, to where he now sells a variety of utility buckets and urban bags along with his shelters, which are all produced in North Carolina. He is also ready to introduce a new product called Oasis, which is a lightweight, super compact, and portable water filtration system that can purify 20 gallons per hour—something he hopes can radically change the quality of people’s lives in the Third World or in the wake of a natural disaster. “We think we have a unique system that's going to save a lot of people’s lives,” says Combs, adding that the same system would work great for hikers, campers, and “doomsday preppers” as well. “You can crush them up so they fit in your pants’ pocket and will last you ten years and make one million gallons of water.”
LightHeart Gear Where it’s based: Fletcher What it makes: Ultra lightweight tents Year founded: 2009 Website: www.lightheartgear.com When she began hiking the Appalachian Trail back in 2006, Judy Gross, who was then a registered nurse living in Texas, quickly learned how heavy and cumbersome it can be to lug a tent around in your backpack for hundreds of miles. “Carrying that heavy tent pissed me off,” says Gross, who didn’t finish the entire trail due to a shoulder injury. But she did meet a fellow hiker along the way who could pack his tent down to nearly nothing. After she got home, she linked up with other hikers online who were also intrigued with this guy’s tent. Eventually, Gross brokered a deal with a woman she met online who sent her a one of the tents (its zipper was broken) in return for the cost of shipping. When she finally got to look at the tent, Gross, who is also a skilled seamstress, despaired: the tent was made out of a complicated series of triangles and diamonds. “I 28
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sylvansport : Go camping trailer.
Photo taken by Woods Wheatcroft.
don’t do math,” she says, “I couldn’t figure out all the angles, so I just put it away.” But the tent haunted her and she would pull it out from time to time and think about how she could make it better. It wasn’t until she and her husband moved from Houston to Asheville in 2008 to be closer to the mountains that the dream began to take shape. While Gross had at first considered opening a sewing school where she would teach, the onset of the Great Recession and the collapse of the economy gave her pause. “My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘Who can pay for sewing lessons?’” she says. “We said let’s make tents instead.” After going through several prototypes, Gross eventually sold her first tents, which use trekking poles for support and weigh less than two pounds, at the Hiker’s Festival held in Franklin. Today, five years later, she sells three types of tents all of which she now makes at the location of her second business, Excelsior Sewing. That business, which is based in Arden, also does contract sewing work for other small gear makers around the country to help keep products “Made in America,” says Gross.
Blue Ridge Chair Works outrider : The 422 Alpha flexing its electric muscles on a dirt road. Photo taken by Frank Bott.
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Where it’s based: Asheville What it makes: Outdoor furniture Year founded: 2000 Website: www.blueridgechair.com As far back as he can remember, Alan Davis has enjoyed being outside—especially when he could be in the mountains or on the water. While that hasn’t changed, his career has shifted from guiding whitewater rafting trips to making high-quality furniture that will last a lifetime. “There is no resume on file for me anywhere because I’ve never formally applied for a job in my life,” says Davis, who runs his business out of his home in the Riceville area of Asheville. “I am as free-spirited an entrepreneur as you will ever find.” The idea for making chairs hit Davis back around 2000, when he was on a rafting trip in Idaho. He immediately noticed that one of his fellow rafters had a chair with a cool design. But, just two days into the trip, the chair broke. However, the design of the chair stuck with Davis who, once he got home, began tinkering in his workshop to not just replicate the design of that chair, but make it durable as well. “I knew I wanted to make something better than the $8 antenna-looking stuff that ends up in a landfill after you use it twice,” he says. The resulting chairs—which now have names like “The Caravan Chair” and “The Outer Banks Chair”—as well as other furniture like stools and tables are made by contractors here in North Carolina like Liberty Wood Products in Franklin and have attracted an almost cult-like following from customers as far away as Japan who buy them directly from Davis’ website. “I am a virtual company but I’m indirectly responsible for creating about 50 jobs,” he says, noting that he was nominated for North Carolina Small Business of the Year in 2011. “Subcontracting out the manufacturing frees me up to focus on design and marketing. God put me on Earth to run rivers and fly-fish. And being an entrepreneur allows me the freedom to live the lifestyle I want.” April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 29
by EMI CHIAPPA-STARNES
Posana Café
and fried brussels sprouts (better than you’d think!)
E
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cooking show with her sisters, on the BBC. Find out more at thechiappas.com
With Forbes naming Asheville one of the top five secret foodie cities, this month I was lucky enough to eat at a restaurant you might easily find: Posana Café, found in the heart of downtown Asheville. The jars of various preserved foods lining the walls, the rustic dark stained wooden support beams, with its upscale lighting and casual atmosphere, Posana gave us a feeling that we were are not dining in the Carolina mountains but more like the west village, Manhattan. 30
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xecutive Chef and co-owner, Peter Pollay, graduated at The Culinary Institute of America and has worked with some of the “greats” in the restaurant industry: Chefs and restaurateurs such as Wolfgang Puck, David Burke, Waldy Malouf, and Larry Levy. He has worked in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and finally decided in 2003 to move to Asheville for a slower paced life. When he first moved here he was in real estate, and it was in 2004 when his wife Martha was diagnosed with Celiac disease that he decided to use his cooking knowledge to turn his whole house gluten-free. When the spot opened up in downtown Asheville, they decided to take the plunge and open a gluten-free restaurant. Peter prides himself on having strong relationships with local growers and producers, which enables him to offer the freshest ingredients available in every season, and also has a partnership with the Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project, which helps emphasize the importance of operating in an ecologically conscious manner. His passion for opening a gluten-free restaurant was driven by the fact that his wife has specific gluten-free requirements, she calls Posana Café her “Taj Mahal.” Posana Café has completed gluten-free training through the Nationa l Fou nd ation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). Peter not only uses ingredients from local farms, but he makes sure he visits the farms where his produce comes from so that he knows that what he is feeding his customers is the best of the best. The menu is seasonal based on what is locally available and they make everything in house including their drinks. Everything is made from scratch—all the stocks, sauces, dressings, etc., so Peter can say with pride
Peter prides himself on having strong relationships with local growers and producers, which enables him to offer the freshest ingredients available in every season.
peter poll ay,
Executive Chef of Posana Café April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
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Fried Brussels Sprouts Four Servings Ingredients: 1 lb. Brussels sprouts 8 oz. Parmesan (shredded) 3 cups Balsamic vinegar Canola oil Sea Salt Directions: clean brussels sprouts by trimming the core and quartering. heat canola oil to 350 degrees. in a stainless steel pan, reduce balsamic vinegar until it is syrupy and coating the bottom of the pan, set aside. in a nonstick pan, add 2-oz of parmesan in an even layer on medium heat. when parmesan is lightly browned, carefully flip the cheese over with kitchen tweezers. brown parmesan on the other side and transfer your cheese crisp over an upside down bowl to create a vehicle for the brussels to sit in, repeat 4 times. fry brussels in canola oil until browned and crispy, season with sea salt and toss with rest of shredded parmesan. divide the brussels mix evenly into your 4 parmesan crisps and drizzle with balsamic reduction. 32
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, LLC that he knows every ingredient that goes into their dishes. One of Peter’s main goals for Posana Café is to make sure people come out of the restaurant not saying “this is good for gluten-free” but that “this is great food” and to be surprised to learn that it is gluten-free. He doesn’t make a big deal about the fact they are 100% gluten-free and describes themselves as an upscale casual farm-to-table restaurant featuring a locally inspired, seasonal menu. Being in Pack Square, the restaurant tends to naturally attract tourists that come to Asheville, but I believe the locals might be missing a trick if they haven’t scheduled a bite here yet. Believe me, you need to schedule. When we arrived around six o’clock on a Saturday evening, there was over an hour and a half waiting list—in January, no less. I feel like in order to be a successful restaurant in this area, you have to stand out from the norm and offer something that you can’t get at the many other great restaurants found here. One of the main things that makes Posana stand out is the fact that not only do they source unprocessed, premium ingredients, but that their kitchen is 100% gluten-free. I must admit that I disclosed the fact that this was the case to my husband before eating there, as he has a certain perception of gluten-free food not being as good as “normal” food as he would call it. I believe his final words were “that is the best pork chop I have eaten in a long, long time...” We started off with the fried brussels sprouts on a parmesan crisp with balsamic reduction. Growing up I have memories of steamed brussels sprouts that I detested as they just didn’t taste good. These brussels sprouts opened my eyes to a whole new world. I’m not sure if it was because it was served with a parmesan crisp, which being Italian I can’t get enough of Parmiggiano Reggiano, but these were so delicious that I managed to convince Peter to share the recipe with the readers of Capital at Play, you can all thank me later! We then had the pan roasted scallops with beet risotto and the Hickory Nut Gap pork chop with parmesan grits, arugula, radicchio, and pears with a citrus dressing that left our mouths watering for days. Even though we were rather full, we saved a little room for the autumn spice cheesecake, which was recommended to us. I had never eaten a cheesecake like this, it was almost a deconstructed cheesecake, with the molasses crunch crumbs on the side, and a cider gel puree, which complemented the creamy caramel cheesecake perfectly.
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CAROLINA in the
WEST [
news briefs
Local men developing emergency power unit weaverville
A new gadget, created by a local inventor, may be on its way to the patent office and then into a home near you. Sam Evangelou, known as being the man behind the pizzas and sub sandwiches from the Pizzeria in Weaverville, has developed what is being called the A/C Power Box. This device is capable of running a normal LED light bulb, an emergency radio, and a string of a 100 Christmas lights on one seemingly dead AA battery. The device appears to be simple, a typical wall power outlet and switch and an enclosed box which contains the device’s inner workings. On the outside of the box is a housing for two AA batteries, although Evangelou has made other A/C Power Boxes with other
]
battery configurations. Helping him with the business aspects of his invention is Jim Ferry. Ferry recently moved to the Weaverville area after a career in international technology sales and marketing. Forming a business partnership, Evangelou and Ferry have begun the process of patenting the device. “My whole thing is to see about raising some money and lining up an electronics manufacturing firm. Get the product repackaged, look into the patent search, a previsionary patent which will protect us for a year, and if things go well, we’ll get a full patent,” Ferry said. Ferry sees the marketing potential for the device as being a power source for emergencies and mobile power. Currently, the only limitation is that the box, as it is designed now, cannot power a cell phone. Evangelou has also developed a power device called a Magnetic Pulse Electric Generator (MPEG), which runs
off of magnets. According to the pair, the device’s internal components, the specifications of which are being kept secret, are described as “tiny.” Evangelou thinks it can be as small as a pack of cigarettes. Evangelou and Ferry noted that electrical engineers from AT&T and Georgia Power and Light have seen Evangelou’s device in action. “They look at it and they have the same response: ‘This goes against everything we’ve ever learned about power and electricity.’” Ferry is in the beginning stages of the patenting process. However, he has a vision of seeing 10,00030,000 units being made in the US.
Hatchery Supported Trout Waters reopen in April western north carolina
A lso, a s a rem i nder, Hatcher y Supported Trout Waters (HSTW) closed to fishing on February 28, but will reopen at 7am on April 5. While fishing is closed, commission personnel will stock all HSTW in preparation for opening day. They stock HSTW, which are marked by green-and-white signs, at frequent intervals in the spring and early summer every year. This year, commission personnel
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NCDOT awards contracts to repair two local bridges henderson county
The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded contracts to replace one bridge and repair another in Henderson County. The bridge over Featherstone Creek on Locust Grove Road will be replaced with a culvert, and the bridge over Saconon Creek on Stepp Mill Road will be repaired. The bridge over Featherstone Creek was built in 1963. According to NCDOT officials, it is thought of as both functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. Therefore, the bridge replacement project will include grading, drainage, paving and replacing the bridge with a culvert. The
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$383,954 contract was awarded to NHM Contractors LLC of Asheville. Work is supposed to begin in June and could be finished by mid-October. The bridge over Saconon Creek project will include grading, drainage, paving, installing a retaining wall and retrofitting the existing structure, which was constructed in 1958. The roughly $1.2 million contract was awarded to DeVere Construction Company Inc. Work on the project is scheduled to begin as early as the end of March, with all work except vegetation establishment finished by June 2015. These two projects are part of the 17 road and bridge contracts worth $32.2 million awarded by NCDOT for projects across North Carolina. They were awarded to the lowest bidders, which is mandatory by state law.
New Regulation Changes Approved western north carolina
T h e N .C . W i l d l i f e R e s o u r c e s Commission has approved changes to the state’s wildlife management, game land and fishing regulations for the 2014-15 season. These new regulations will take effect August 1, 2014. The amended
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proposals were: A hunting proposal (H8) that removes Alexander, Catawba, Iredell, Stokes, and Yadkin counties from the list of counties where hunting bear with dogs is prohibited; A hunting proposal (H13) that will allow deer and bears to be taken with any type of handgun and ammunition, replacing the words “except body armor-piercing projectiles will be prohibited” with “unless otherwise prohibited by law;” A game land proposal (G2) that will add bear to the approved regulation that makes the Lick Creek tract of Alcoa Game Land in Davidson County an archery-only area for deer hunting; A game land proposal (G6) that will allow hunting deer with dogs on Stones Creek Game Land in Onslow County on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; An inland fishing proposal (F2) that will designate .5 mile of the West Fork Pigeon River in Haywood County below Lake Logan as a Public Mountain Trout Waters, classified as Wild Trout Waters. The Commission also approved bear hunting regulations that establish a bear hunting season in the Piedmont and allow the aid or use of unprocessed foods for bear hunting on private lands as long as the bear is not actually consuming the unprocessed foods. This seemed to be the most controversial proposal, yet well supported.
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Rescue Mission opens outreach center hendersonville
The Hendersonville Rescue Mission has officially opened the doors of its new Hendersonville Outreach Center on 7th Avenue. Following 14 months of construction, the new facility is home to the mission’s medical clinic, education center, a workout facility, day room, and gospel warehouse. According to executive director Anthony McMinn, the new facility will allow the Rescue Mission to better reach the community. He explained: “The day center is going to be huge because it allows us to provide a shower for these guys when they need a shower…It allows us to provide some other things that we haven’t been able to provide, try to connect them back with their families and (develop) some vision for these people to really get back into mainstream society.” The new day room is a place where anyone from the community can come to relax, have access to a public restroom and watch TV. The mission’s GED program and clinic have always been open to the public, but operations director Reverend Tim Jones said many people were unaware of that because it was in a building labeled, “rescue mission.” “People thought it was only
for homeless people or only for homeless people that were staying at the Rescue Mission, and so we wanted to make a community center that didn’t have ‘Rescue Mission’ attached to it,” Jones explained. He noted that many clients are not homeless but are still struggling to get by day to day. Jones said with the new day center, they hope to meet people where they already are to see what their needs are without having to wait for them to come to the Rescue Mission.
Walker College of Business team wins CFA Institute Research Challenge boone
Five students from Appalachian State University’s Walker College of Business have won the N.C. CFA Institute Research Challenge, surpassing student teams from Elon University, N.C. State University, and UNC Wilmington. Team members are Madison Bigham, Jack Bishop, Clark Featherstone, Zach Lavasque and Cameron Newell. All are finance and banking majors and members of the college’s Bowden Investment Group. Elbert V. Bowden Student Managed Investment
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Fund, which was established in 2000 to provide students the opportunity to gain investment experience, funds the group. Mentored by CFA member Chris Pavese, the students presented their analysis and buy/sell/hold recommendations on Krispy Kreme Corporation. Their presentation at the CFA Society North Carolina was the conclusion of months of research, interviews with company management, competitors and clients, and presentation training. Appalachian’s team, part of the business college’s Bowden Investment Group, competed in the Americas Regional competition in Denver, Colorado, facing teams from the United States, Canada and Latin America in March. The winners of the three regional competitions (Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific) will compete in the Global Final in Singapore on April 25.
NC apple study receives one of 13 university grants boone
Appalachian State University senior Leslie McCullen and her professor Martin Root are exploring the benefits eating apples has for our health. As part
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of the university’s College of Health Sciences, they are measuring the presence of triterpenoids in the peels of 47 different varieties of North Carolina apples. Triterpenoids are compounds that possess health-promoting properties that have been shown to fight cancer, inflammation and other disease. Root, who teaches in Appalachian’s department of nutrition and health care management, explained: “We’re starting by surveying apples in North Carolina to see which varieties are high or low in levels of triterpenoids, and then in later studies we would want to find out if the effects of these compounds can be studied in people.” Root was enthusiastic to study the compounds after reading research by others that linked the triterpenoid known as ursolic acid to reduced obesity in mice. He said that although the potential for these compounds is remarkable, no studies have been done with people, and this study is making the first step in that direction. Their work recently got financial support from Appalachian State University’s new Creating a Healthy, Just and Sustainable Society Student Research initiative. McCullen, a nutrition and foods major, applied for the grant and was one of 13 students who received $7,995 in total funding from the university. McCullen
used her $400 award to purchase three acids in the triterpenoid family, ursolic, oleanolic and betulinic acids, to use as standards for comparison. Using apples Root bought at farm stands, she cuts, peels, and extracts the acids from them, followed by putting the extract through a high pressure liquid chromatography method in the College of Health Sciences laboratory. This separates and quantifies the levels of the naturally occurring acids found in the peels. The HPLC method requires multiple tests, so the standards she purchased are used for comparison and to certify accuracy in the lab equipment. Appalachian’s new grant initiative is sponsored by Appalachian’s office of student research and the university’s research institute for the environment, energy, and economics.
Electronic Office Named to CRN Magazine’s Managed Service Provider Top 500 List western north carolina
The annual list recognizes the top technology providers and consultants in North America whose cutting-edge approach to managed services puts businesses in the
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best position to improve efficiencies, cut costs and speed time to market for their own products and services. CRN selected the top Managed Service Providers (MSP) in order to bring clarity to the decision making process. Managed (IT) Service Providers assist a wide range of businesses, industries, and professional firms, reduce downtime, and minimize security risks to networks, servers and workstations. Other benefits include access to IT experts and predictable, budgeted IT costs. With managed services IT issues are proactively identified and resolved 24 hours a day 7 days a week. As a part of the Top 500 list, Electronic Office has also been named to the MSP Pioneer 250 list (who have a business model heavily weighted toward managed services focused on the small and mid-sized business market). Since 1981, Electronic Office has been serving commercial clients with a full range of Managed IT services in Western North Carolina, protecting IT systems and critical data. Kemper W. Brown, CEO of Electronic Office, says “We serve our clients with just the right amount of IT support they need all while working within their budget. We work to identify potential problems and resolve incidents before they impact productivity and today no business can afford to be down.”
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L leisure & libation
Cheesemakers create a
Creamy Path through the mountains by paul cl ark
Looking Glass Creamery’s Pack Square, a brie style cheese. April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 39
leisure & libation
S
outhern food and culture have gotten lots of attention in the past few years, and many chefs who practice their art in Asheville and throughout the South are featuring the region’s flavorful foodstuffs in the dishes they send out of the kitchen. That includes the surprisingly large number and wide variety of cheeses made here in the mountains.
“Southern cheese is kind of hot right now,” said Jennifer Perkins at Looking Glass Creamery in Fairview. “It’s the cool thing in the cheese world.” But despite the makers’ increasing presence at farmers and tailgate markets, many people are unaware that cheesemakers exist in Western North Carolina. Some producers, like Yellow Branch Cheese and Pottery in Bakersville and Ashe County Cheese in West Jefferson, have been making cheese for decades. Others, like English Farmstead Cheese, started only in the past year. 40
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mixing it up,
Dairy farmer Terry English mixes salt into the curds at English Farmstead Cheese in Marion. April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 41
leisure & libation
“Farmstead” cheeses are made on the farm that produces the milk, whether it’s from a cow, goat or sheep. Artisan cheesemakers make small batches in the traditional way, by hand. Ashe County Cheese makes its cheese in large stainless steel vats that can hold as much as 20,000 pounds of milk. Its owners believe it may be the biggest and oldest creamery in the Southeast. There are some two dozen cheesemakers here in the mountains, Perkins said. She helped devise the WNC Cheese Trail, which provides maps to many of the creameries in the 33 counties west of Interstate 77, from Ashe to Yadkin to Graham counties. The trail covers 10 creameries and a dozen cheese shops, restaurants, inns, breweries and food makers that support the industry locally. The WNC Cheese Trail is a tasty tour, one that takes you long distances into beautiful countryside. A week wouldn’t be long enough to visit all of the creameries that entertain visitors. Here’s a taste of three of them.
LOOKING GLASS CREAMERY
Looking Glass Creamery started making cheese in January 2009. Jennifer Perkins had been making cheese for about 15 years before she and her husband, Andy Perkins, opened their creamery about a 15-minute drive from downtown Asheville. Jennifer Perkins had apprenticed at a small farmstead goat dairy in Southern Virginia and been an assistant cheesemaker at Blackberry Farm in Eastern Tennessee. She and her husband moved back to the Asheville area when her son became old enough to start school. Looking Glass Creamery doesn’t have any animals, other than four pet goats and sheep and the big, friendly dog that watches over them, Moses. The creamery buys cow milk from a dairy in Polk County and goat milk from Round Mountain Creamery in Black Mountain, another local maker of goat cheese. Looking Glass makes its cheeses in a sunny, spotless kitchen in the back of the shop where racks gleam with stainless steel equipment and are stacked with forms
curd cutting , Ashley Ioakimedes
at Looking Glass Creamery
A trip along the WNC Cheese Trail would include visits or products from these cheesemakers. Some farms require that you call to schedule a visit. Others have regular open houses (status indicated in parenthesis). Not all WNC cheesemakers are listed.
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ellington goat cheese
from Looking Glass Creamery
The Ellington goat cheese curd.
Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery
used to press curds into rounds and other shapes. The creamery makes a wide variety of cheeses, from fresh chèvre and soft-ripened pasteurized kinds to hard, aged cheeses. Its Ellington goat cheese won an award from Cooking Light in 2011. Another award-winner, its brie-style Pack Square cheese, is named for the family who supplies the milk as well as the park in the center of Asheville. Its Chocolate Lab is pungent, and its Ridgeline is mild. The Alpine-style Bear Wallow is a raw-milk cheese. The Carmelita, a sweetish goat cheese reduced to a rich caramel sauce, won a Good Food award last year. Perkins and her help work throughout the week, making about 300 pounds of cheese a week. Much of which they ship throughout the country through an arrangement with the high-end food purveyors WilliamsSonoma. A lot of it they send to local restaurants such as Red Stag Grill, Posana Cafe, Biscuit Head, Rhubarb, and The Market Place. And on Thursdays and Saturdays, they sell it to people who drive to their handsome barn in Fairview to buy the cheese, other local products and perhaps wine by the bottle or glass. Looking Glass Creamery has plans to add an outside patio this summer that will allow tasters to enjoy nibbles and wine al fresco while their children play with the Perkins’ animals. The shop sits on a bit of a ridge, affording long-range views of Little Pisgah and Ferguson mountains, as well as Hickory Nut Gap. Looking Glass is also taking the long view. Vermont, California, Wisconsin and Washington state all have vibrant industries centered around cheese tourism. There are cheese trails in Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, California, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Perkins and other organizers of the WNC Cheese Trail are hoping the trail brings similar exposure to the
Daddy’s Girl Dairy
The creamery makes a wide variety of cheeses, from fresh chèvre and soft-ripened pasteurized kinds to hard, aged cheeses.
English Farmstead Cheese
(by appointment only)
(no visitation, busy making cheese)
(open Fri & Sat, 10-6)
Victor Chiarizia, 828-551-5739 327 Flat Creek Road, Fairview www.caveagedcheeses.com
Anne E. Cain 336-468-4468 Hamptonville www.daddysgirldairy.com
Terry and Susan English, 828-756-4625 19456 US 221 N, Marion www.englishfarmsteadcheese.com
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 43
mother’s day MAY 11
leisure & libation
spring colors are here josh williams , co-owner of Ashe County Cheese, in front of their cow-shaped milk storage tanks outside the West Jefferson cheese factory.
FINE JEWELRY & DESIGN STUDIO
www.jewelsthatdance.com
Downtown Asheville 828-254-5088 Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30 - 6 44
| April 2014
re ady to go : Adam Billings at Ashe County Cheese stacks newly formed cheese rounds on the drying cart, where they’ll be dried for two days before being waxed and packaged.
L cheesemakers and their supporters in the mountains. Many local residents are unaware of Yellow Branch Cheese and Pottery, she said, even though it has been making cheese for almost 30 years and may be one of the oldest artisan cheesemaking operations in the country. The trail and the map that guide foodies around are already paying dividends. “About half the people that come through the door have heard about us through the cheese trail,” Perkins said. “It takes all the small dairies and the small cheesemakers working together to grow this industry.” But it seems to be working—the cheese trail maps proved so popular last year that trail participants ran out of them. This year, the state department of agriculture is printing them. That will be one fewer thing for Perkins to do, now that the warm season is inspiring food-lovers and cheeseheads back out on the road. She has lots to do in the creamery. “We have some of the best cheeses around, if I do say so myself,” she said.
ASHE COUNTY CHEESE
On the other end of the volume scale is Ashe County Cheese, a large factory and shop that take up two of downtown West Jefferson’s historic buildings. Ashe County Cheese makes about 25 different varieties and sells them in the store across the street from the factory. The store sells about 1,200 other products, such as old-fashioned candy, North Carolina wine, and its own fudge. It makes 30,000-40,000 pounds of cheese each week. The refrigerated case in the center of the store is crowded with the various cheeses that Ashe County Cheese makes. Most of its cheeses are cheddars whose sharpness varies with the age of the cheese. A mild cheddar has been aged one to three months, and a sharp cheddar will be aged a year. The company’s extra sharp is two years old. It currently has cheddar that has been aging for six years. “We call it five-year-old cheddar, but it’s actually six years old. We just haven’t changed the labels,” said Josh Williams, co-owner of the factory and manager of the store, during a recent tour of the factory. The factory flavors many of its cheddars with garlic, jalapeño and Cajun seasoning. Ashe County Cheese also makes jack cheeses, such as pepper jack and Monterey jack, as well as jack-based cheeses like tomato-basil and garlic-parsley-chives. They’re similar to cheddar but have a lower moisture content,
Heritage Homestead
Williams said. The company also makes gouda cheese and a Scandinavian baked cheese called juusto, which caramelizes when it is run through an oven. Local restaurants buy it to serve as an appetizer with a jelly, chutney or salsa. Ashe County Cheese also makes a Romano, a hard cheese often grated over pasta. “And cheese curds,” Williams said, looking at bags of pale yellow curds in the refrigerated case in the center of the store. Ashe County Cheese has cheese curds every time it makes cheese, which is four to five days a week. “Most people eat them right out of the bag, like popcorn,” he said. “It’s very popular in Wisconsin, and it’s getting more popular here. We sell a lot of it to restaurants.” Cheese curds are big in the Canadian dish poutine—cheese curd and French fries, with brown gravy ladled on top. Some people batter the curds and deep-fry them. Many local residents time their visits to get the curds warm, just over from the factory. Williams doesn’t really know where most of his visitors are from. The only way he finds out is when the shop is out of curds. People will tell him they drove hundreds of miles to buy them. The store has only so many bags to sell each day, but it always has plenty of other cheese, as well as cheeses imported from France, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Kraft started Ashe County Cheese in 1930 when the county was full of dairy farms. Then called Kraft Phoenix Cheese, incorporating the name of a nearby mountain, the factory consolidated several local cheese-making operations to help them distribute nationally. Most of the milk came in on the back of flatbed trucks in the type of milk can people associate with small dairies back in the day. The Kraft factory produced about 30,000 pounds of cheese a week, about the same that Ashe County Cheese makes currently. There are only a couple of dairy farms in Ashe County, neither of which supply the factory with milk. It buys its milk— about 300,000 pounds of it each week—from milk cooperatives in Piedmont North Carolina and Southwest Virginia. Trucks carrying 60,000 pounds regularly pull into the bay beside the factory, pumping milk into the three holding tanks outside shaped like cows. Williams’ father-in-law bought the factory in 1994. Williams and his brother-in-law bought the factory in 2010. Their employees make the cheese in four large vats, the two largest
Looking Glass Creamery
Mountain Farm
(by appointment only)
(open Thurs 3-7 & Sat 11-5)
(no visitation, busy making cheese)
Carol Coulter, 336-846-6267 960 Roy Goodman Road, Crumpler www.heritagehomestead.net
Jennifer and Andy Perkins, 828-458-0088 57 Noble Road, Fairview www.ashevillecheese.com
Marilyn Cade, 828-675-4856 Burnsville www.mountainfarm.net
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 45
leisure & libation
Your source for Hearth and Patio needs
of which turn about 20,000 pounds of milk into 2,000 pounds of cheese. The curds not bagged for immediate sale are pressed into round forms to produced 11- and 22-pound wheels. The large rounds spend the next two days in a cooler before they’re waxed and packaged. The factory makes about 300-400 rounds a day. Ashe County Cheese sells to grocery distributors all over the Southeast, from Texas to Northern Virginia. “If you drew a line from Texas to Northern Virginia, we sell beneath that line,” Williams said.
ENGLISH FARMSTEAD CHEESE
Far smaller is English Farmstead Cheese on U.S. 221 near Marion. Susan English was making buttercup cheese recently in the kitchen behind the creamery’s shop on the English family farm. She and her husband of 36 years, Terry English, milk about 80 Holstein cows in the North Cove community, a narrowing slice of valley that ends at the English place in the shadow of Humpback Mountain, a whale of a ridge that soars about 1,400 feet above the farm. The creamery uses only a portion of the milk the dairy produces. The rest is sent off to the milk cooperative that they belong to. The wife of a dairy farmer, Susan English made cheese in her kitchen for years before she took it on professionally. She was an operating room nurse at McDowell Hospital for 30 years before she quit last summer to turn her hobby into a career. Once their children graduated, got married and found work, the Englishes planned
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Susan English, left, and Luanne Graham at English Farmstead Cheese in Marion fill a form to press cheddar cheese curds into a block.
828-252-2789 264 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, NC
46
| April 2014
OakMoon Farm & Creamery
Ripshin Goat Dairy
(by appointment only)
(by appointment only)
Cynthia Sharpe & Dwain Swing, 828-688-4683 452 Roan View Drive, Bakersville www.freewebs.com/oakmoonfarm
Liza Plaster & William Early, 828-758-0906 1865 NC 268, Lenoir www.ripshingoatdairy.com
L and built their creamery, opening it last May. On a chilly afternoon in February, Susan English and Luanne Graham, a schoolteacher, were “cheddaring” the curds, cutting and stacking them so that the rest of the whey is pressed out. English said the heavy work would yield 13 pounds of cheese from the 130 pounds of milk she started with. She and Graham also had to package up some curds to overnight them to Nashville to a customer who sells them to chefs from Atlanta. The curds are one of English Farmstead Cheese’s biggest sellers. “We get two kinds of folks—those that don’t know what they are and those that love them,” English said during a recent visit, her hair held in place by a hairnet printed with the distinctive black and white splotches of a Holstein cow. English uses equipment custom-made by cheesemakers in Wisconsin to make Ashford Cheddar, the sharper Ashford Reserve Cheddar, a jalapeño jack, a gouda and the buttercup, which husband Terry said makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches. She also makes a variety of cheese spreads flavored with bacon, cucumber, Key lime, pineapple, garlic or sun-dried tomato. Terry’s grandfather, Jay English, started the dairy in 1926, extending roots the Englishes have in the valley that date back to the late 1700’s. Terry, a natural-born storyteller helping his wife out in the kitchen that day, launched into a story about the family patriarch, Gabriel English, who moved his children and their mother into the house he shared with his wife. “He said if having a concubine was good enough for Abraham, it was good enough for Gabriel,” Terry said. “But you don’t have to put that in the story,” Susan English said, laughing. She was struggling to flip the thick slab of curd. She makes cheese three times a week during the busy summer and fall months. She misses nursing a little, but she loves that her time is now her own. She has been delighted by the creamery’s success. “It’s been wildly successful,” she said. “At first, we were overwhelmed. We sold out every weekend all summer, until we got cheddar old enough to where we could sell aged cheddar. I’d sell 300 cheese spreads a week.” U.S. 221 is a busy highway between Interstate 40 in Marion and the mountains of the High Country. Lots of people taking the highway through North Cove have no idea the creamery is there and stop in on a whim, Susan English said. “We’re an accidental find for a lot of folks,” she said. A lot of visitors are on their way to Linville Caverns, just up the road. Many search them out because of the WNC Cheese Trail. The shop, right beside the highway, also serves as a showcase of locally produced foods. It sells a host of them—crackers, honey, pickles, cornmeal, salami, grass-fed beef and locally raised pork, among other products made locally or in nearby counties. The shop even sells cheese from other WNC creameries, as well as ironwork made by the Englishes’ neighbor. Susan English believes that by supporting other cheesemakers, she’s helping promote a local, growing industry. Everyone will gain by that, she said. “I don’t sell it if it’s not local,” she said. “I want to know where it comes from and who made it. These are all small family farms like our own.”
Round Mountain Creamery
Yellow Branch Cheese & Pottery (open Tues-Sat from 12-5)
Linda Seligman, 828-669-0718 2203 Old Fort Road, Black Mountain www.roundmountaincreamery.com
Bruce DeGroot and Karen Mickler, 828-479-6710 1073 Old Yellow Branch Road, Robbinsville www.yellowbranch.com
(by appointment only)
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 47
A Mechanical Inclination A. L. Odom Locksmith written by bill fishburne
|
photos by anthony harden
On the surface, locksmithing isn’t a hard field to get into. All you need is some mechanical ability, a year of apprenticeship, pass a test, survive a background check, get a license and swear to uphold a strict code of ethics. Congratulations. You’re on your way. Oh, and you’ll need about $50,000 worth of equipment including a truck and the willingness to answer your cell phone at all hours. If you want to sell locks and keys, you’ll have to compete with the big-box stores, and every employee you hire will bring another ton of responsibility for the doors he opens and the keys he makes. You’ll have to be ready to handle the stress of people who are desperately counting on you to change a lock to keep a spouse or formerly-significant other out; and you’ll have to be ready to open a car door calmly and assuredly with a panicked mom screaming and crying in your ear and a helpless child locked inside. 48
| April 2014
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 49
marianne odom
B
ack in 2002, Marianne Odom and her husband, Alan Odom, thought that sounded pretty good. They had moved to Asheville from Goldsboro, North Carolina, where Alan was a facilities manager for Progress Energy. Alan also had been in law enforcement and found his career path with the former Carolina Power & Light, which became Progress Energy and today is Duke Energy. Alan and Marianne had been married in 1983. The next several years saw Alan being reassigned to different Progress locations, including a long stay in Goldsboro. After Progress moved Alan to Asheville, the Odoms decided it was time to get something going in anticipation of yet another move or Progress cutbacks. Marianne, a graduate of East Tennessee State University with degrees in English and journalism, also had the urge to try something outside the home other than home schooling their
50
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son. She didn’t want to work for a newspaper, a job she had done before, so she became a locksmith. Alan eventually retired and became president of the family business, A.L. Odom Locksmith on Sweeten Creek Road. Through the years they have become fixtures and even lifesavers to thousands of businesses and residents in the Asheville area. Just as Alan and Marianne Odom suspected long ago, there is no shortage of need for a good locksmith. “I never had a job that was what you would consider to be a traditional female position,” Marianne says. “My father was a contractor and I had brothers as role models. We came from Wilmington but we grew up in Johnson City, Tennessee. I worked in contracting and for a newspaper before I started home schooling.” Marianne says that once she decided to become a locksmith she particularly enjoyed taking their son, Jason, to her classes. “I was attending classes and working to learn the trade and many
al an odom
times I would have him with me. By the time he was old enough to work, he had attended so many classes that sometimes he would answer questions in a class before any of the students had a chance to say anything.” Locksmithing is regulated in North Carolina by the North Carolina Locksmith Licensing Board. According to Barden Culbreth, executive director of the board, the licensing examination consists of 150 questions and requires about a year of practical experience and classes to pass. (See sidebar). Thirty five questions relate to state laws and the Locksmith Code of Ethics. From its start in 2002, the Odom firm grew quickly. It currently has three vans on the road staffed by employees and, at times, by Marianne herself. Alan Odom had a heart attack in 2012 and his health no longer allows him to be as active in the business as he once was. Marianne says nothing has changed except that she now carries more of the responsibility.
“Alan’s still here for advice and support,” Marianne says. “Our company continues to do pretty much anything, residential and commercial. We sell new locks, work on existing locks, get doors open and replace things that are worn out. And don’t forget keys. We make a lot of keys for houses, commercial buildings and cars. Pretty much anything with a lock. The commercial work includes key and lock changes for property managers. Whenever someone vacates an apartment you need to change the locks. You never know how many keys are floating around out there.” On the question of residential door locks, Marianne provides useful information. “A lot of contractors buy their locks from one of the big-box stores,” Marianne says, “Many times they and their clients don’t know there is a difference between the inexpensive big-box locks and the ones you buy from a professional locksmith. The cheaper lock often times has fewer tumblers or plastic parts that can wear out quickly. We can still repair them and still
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
51
Locksmiths & Apprentices by count y
Car keys
Ashe 3 Avery 3 Buncombe 45 Cherokee 2 Clay 0 Graham 0 Haywood 5 Henderson 9 Jackson 10 Macon 6 Madison 1 McDowell 3 Mitchell 0 Polk 0 Rutherford 4 Swain 0 Transylvania 4 Watauga 12 Yancey 2 Total in Western North Carolina
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make keys for them, but in many cases it’s less expensive to just buy a good lock in the first place.” The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA, a trade group) grades residential and commercial door locks from grades 1 to 3. Grade 3 is the entry level for residential locks. The BHMA suggests homeowners consider Grade 2 (Heavy Residential and Light Commercial) as the standard for all exterior doors. “We also do a lot of work with the new electronic locks and security systems that are operated by cell phone applications (apps)” Marianne says. “As long as there is a mechanical component to it locksmiths will be needed. And we sell some of the best electronic systems.” The Odom’s business ranges from the other side of Charlotte to Franklin and Murphy and up to Cherokee. They work in South Carolina, but do not cross into Tennessee due to licensing requirements. “We wouldn’t have enough work there to make it worthwhile,” she says.
| April 2014
With the advent of more and more complex automobile and truck keys, some of the business has reverted to automobile dealerships. Marianne acknowledges that but says there is no good reason for it other than manufacturers’ and dealers’ misguided efforts to provide higher levels of security (and keep the business in-house). “We can do a lot of new automobile keys, but generally only if there is an aftermarket key or if the dealer will sell us the key blank,” Marianne says. “Several years ago California passed a law that said all keys and keys to locks sold in the state have to also be available to locksmiths. That way they can’t force consumers to come into the dealership. That helped free up some of the technology. Still, for certain foreign car manufacturers (to remain nameless) I can cut keys for their cars all day long, but when you call them and tell them you need the key code to program it they’ll say they have to get the code from Germany and they don’t give it to locksmiths. That often means the car has to be towed to the dealership.” Marianne suggests owners needing certain keys on Friday afternoons might be out of luck. “It’s not the dealer’s fault that the key disappeared on Friday,” she says. “But it’s terribly inconvenient to have to wait through the weekend for a key code when a locksmith could handle it right away.” In any case with a lost vehicle key, Marianne says the owner should start by writing down the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) located inside the glass at the base of the windshield on the driver’s side. “We need to make sure the vehicle is registered to the person who wants a key. The VIN also gives a locksmith the information they need to determine whether or not an aftermarket key blank is available. Often, with newer, high-tech vehicles, they are not.” Asked if she is happy, 12 years later, about starting her own business, Marianne responds positively. “I absolutely am happy that we started our own business. It was a struggle to get going but now, I can’t imagine not to be in a position where we could help and get to know so many people and be captains of our own ship. Now, have there been bad decisions or things I would redo? Absolutely. But overall, yes, it has been a really good thing.” Marianne says the field, as with many skilled trades, has not been a big attraction to younger workers. “Unfortunately for the locksmithing trade there haven’t been a lot of people getting into the field. A lot of the people in the trade are older. As they retire, or die off, it leaves a void that needs to be filled. Even as electronics take over and some of the locks and things evolve into more modern technology, there are still a lot of the older
top 10
Reasons to Call a Locksmith 1
They pick more locks than you do, and they do it every day.
2
You’ve already locked yourself out, so how’s it going so far?
3
The cute lock-picking star from that TV detective show isn’t available.
4
The child locked in the back seat of the car has stopped laughing.
5
You don’t have a bobby pin.
6
The bent coat hanger isn’t working and you’re feeling small.
7
The keys on your key ring marked “DO NOT DUPLICATE” are duplicates.
8
The fancy home security video cameras you bought don’t keep anyone out.
9
14 contractors and roughly 112 people helped build your new home.
10
You’re a Realtor and one of your buddies walked off with the lockbox key.
marianne & al an odom April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
53
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| April 2014
things that need to be handled as well. And even if you have state of the art electronics, there are still going to be mechanical components. You hate to turn someone down when they call you, but without more locksmiths, that’s what we’re facing.” The average nationwide annual salary for locksmiths was $39,160 in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A young person coming into the field as an apprentice would see considerably less income, but could move up the ladder quickly if they have a background in computers and electronics. “Special training in the field can pay off,” Marianne says. “The youngsters who already know computers have less to learn. A lot of us who have been in the business awhile are getting older. There’s room for growth and new people.” Is there still business for locksmiths? The numbers indicate there is but the recession has hurt. Data from the North Carolina Locksmith Licensing Board shows there are only 45 locksmiths and apprentices in Buncombe County and a total of 109 in the state’s 18 western counties. Charts available from the BLS show a total of between 250 and 300 fully licensed locksmiths in the entire state. Still, Asheville provides a unique opportunity for a locksmith due to the great variety of houses and types of locks and security systems. Marianne describes an interesting day in which a locksmith might “go from working on a lock in a 100-year old house in Grove Park or Biltmore Forest to a modern WiFi activated electronic system in Biltmore Lake. You need to be able to adapt. “People call because they need help. Going forward what we’re wanting to do to serve our existing customers that have been with us all these years and anyone else we can be of assistance to. But we need more locksmiths. And when they come they’ll find it’s very gratifying to know they’ve helped someone deal with a situation or even helped Grandma get out of her bathroom.” Did she say, “Grandma in the bathroom?” “Absolutely,” Marianne says. “I think that might have been the funniest thing I ever worked on. You know, people think some doors just can’t be locked and when the door locks it can leave them in a strange situation. That one lady was pretty ticked off.” There have been lots of special moments in Marianne’s career. Getting a car open so a child can get out is one of them. “That has happened a lot more than it should,” Marianne says, “but thankfully only once or twice a year. Another thing is when you’re dealing with someone who might be having issues with their safety, maybe with a boyfriend or former spouse. Maybe they trusted someone they shouldn’t have. “Sometimes we go into a situation where the police have already been there—domestic situations where the situation is resolved but we have to button things up. Single women seem to be the ones who call us. We’ll go in and change the locks or add deadbolts. Whatever is required to provide an acceptable level of security. “People are grateful that you’re there to help. It’s stunning sometimes to think of all the things that we do.”
“Sometimes we go into a situation where the police have already been there—domestic situations where the situation is resolved but we have to button things up.” Marianne Odom said.
Learning the trade The pathway to licensing in North Carolina terminates in passing the state license test. According to Barton Culbreth, it takes about a year to learn the trade well enough to pass the test. Most new locksmiths start by becoming apprentices to licensed locksmiths through the Licensing Board. “That’s the general path,” Culbreth says. “Each licensed locksmith can have up to three apprentices working for him and it’s the perfect way to gain knowledge and experience under supervision. We don’t allow any more than that because it just gets to be too hard for the licensee to keep track of them. You might have three apprentices working on three different jobs. The licensed locksmith is accountable for everything they do, so we put a cap on it.” Another way to prepare for the licensing test is to gain experience without going through the formal apprentice program. Culbreth says that is more difficult, but some people can get the experience they need from their family business. “They apply to take the test and many of them are successful. It takes about a year of experience plus a lot of studying to be prepared for the test. But the high points come along nearly every day. One time we made an authentic key to a 100-year old Grandfather clock. That owner was thrilled. So were we.”
Professional standards In addition to the State Locksmith Licensing Board there are professional associations established to maintain high standards. The largest is the Associated Locksmiths of America which offers many member benefits and requires them to uphold a 12-point Code of Ethics. The state locksmith exam is offered quarterly in conjunction with the meetings of the N.C. Locksmiths Association. These exams sessions are on Friday afternoon. The February and August exams are in Charlotte; the May and November exams are in Raleigh. Additional sessions can be arranged based on demand. If the state website (www.nclocksmithboard.org) doesn't show any exam sessions scheduled when you apply for your license, simply leave that section of the form blank. The Board staff will then contact you to enroll you in an upcoming exam session. A.L. Odom certainly isn’t the only locksmith firm in Western North Carolina, but it is one of the best. And, Marianne Odom is one of the nicest locksmiths you will ever meet.
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
55
by HUNT MALLETT
H
hunt is the
Wine for Spring
S
pring is well underway, and I’m excited about the warmer days and opportunities to dine outside. Although the gardens aren’t in full summer swing, there are many early seasonal veggies like young greens, tender asparagus, snow peas, beets, broccoli, turnips and spinach. Here in the mountains, we can’t forget ramps! As the farmer’s markets open back up after their winter break, many booths will already have fresh produce coming in
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owner & operator of Weinhaus, located on Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville.
from getting a head start, utilizing greenhouses and cold frames. The local cheeses (featured at the Cheese Store of Asheville at the Weinhaus) take on new flavors as the cows, goats and sheep graze on tender spring grass. All this fresh bounty, along with the wonderful breads made by local bakers, call for us to break away from the stews, roasts, root vegetables and heavier fare that gave such comfort through the winter. Eat light, get outside, work in the yard, ride a bike, take a hike!
Along with the lighter food styles of spring comes the opportunity to enjoy lighter wines. I’m thinking of the crisp, zingy wines we love to sip as we get out of the house and onto the deck to relax. Wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Albariño, Pinot Gris and Chenin Blanc. The softer, more delicate wines might also be something you enjoy. These would include Viognier, Reisling, Gewurztraiminer, Torrontés, Vernaccia, Jacquère, and the Rosé blends of Provence. That’s a lot of different grapes, some you may not be familiar with, and those are just a few of the white wine grapes! I’ll give the quick lowdown on these grapes to peak your interest and give you a heads up when you are at a party and someone offers you a glass. Sauvignon Blanc is certainly familiar to most of us wine drinkers, but there are a few styles that vary widely. From New Zealand, Sauvignon Blancs feature a grassy, gooseberry, citrusy flavor with lots of acidity and zing. Those that come from France’s Loire Valley often take on lemon-like citrus flavors and are more delicate. The Pinot Grigio wines from Italy can be tart and crispy in the northern regions to a “fatter,” less acidic style further south in Italy. This grape is grown from the most northern wine growing regions in Italy’s Alps, all the way down to Sicily. In France and in Oregon, Pinot Grigio is known as Pinot Gris. These grapes are often grown in cooler climates and can be more delicate than some of the bold Pinot Grigios of Italy. Perhaps a little less known are some of the white grapes coming from Europe and South America. Starting in Germany and the Alsace region of France, there are the Reisling and Gewürztraminer grapes. These can be a wonderful balance of acidity and sweetness, or bone dry (as is the style in Alsace). Gewürztraminer also
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upcoming Auction
May 17, 2014 Auction begins at 9:00 a.m. EST 117 tunnel road, asheville, nc 828-254-6846
Public Preview, May 16 at 1:00 pm catalog available at brunk auctions.com
Andrew Brunk, NCAL 8830, Firm 3095 - Robert S. Brunk, NCAL 3041 Robert Ruggiero, NCAL 7707
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adds a bit of spice to the flavor. Jacquère is a lovely, delicately flavored grape that grows in the Savoie region of France and Switzerland that is used in a favorite wine of ours—Apremont. Over in the Loire Valley of France, Chenin Blanc is the most widely planted white grape. It also varies in style from dry to dessert sweet. Viognier and Roussanne are white grapes found in the Rhone Valley of France and can be very flavorful blends for a fuller bodied wine like Chardonnay. In Italy, a delightful grape that pairs so well with seafood is Vernaccia, grown along the Mediterranean side of Tuscany. Another great fish/seafood wine pairing is Spain’s Albariño grape, which is found in the Rias Baixas region along the Atlantic coast of Spain. Down in Chile, there is a lesser known grape, Torrentes, that exhibits some lovely floral scents, perfect for spring time sipping! I can’t let the thought of spring (and summer for that matter) go by without mentioning the wonderful Rosés of Provence and the south of France. These are wines that range from delicate, strawberry-scented wines to powerful, medium-bodied wines with layers of complexity. The grapes used are the same grown for red wine in that region, such as Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedré, Carignan and Cinsault. I have left out all the great choices of softer, easy going red wines that would be an easy transition from the heavier, bolder reds of winter, but space and time won’t allow me to get into that side of the wine spectrum. So I encourage you to give some of these whites a try as the fresh scent of new-mown grass, and the backache of digging in the garden gives way to a relaxing evening of sitting on the deck with a glass of wine! Cheers!
The Pinot Grigio wines from Italy can be tart and crispy in the northern regions to a “fatter,” less acidic style further south in Italy.
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THE OLD
NORTH
STATE [
news briefs
RST Fiber activates 100-gigabit fiber network statewide
RST Fiber has activated a 3,100-mile fiber optic broadband network that spans the state of North Carolina, and which it claims is the first privately owned 100-gigabit IPv6 backbone network in the country. According to CEO Dan Limerick, the Shelby-based RST intends to begin offering various business and residential services off that backbone in the Triad, most likely in the next 60 to 90 days after initial launches in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas. Residential broadband service will cost $99 per month, while business services must be individually quoted due to differences in location, number of employees and other factors. Gigabit Internet speeds, while common in many other parts of the
]
world, remain fairly rare in the spreadout United States, but offer service nearly 100 times faster than standard cable Internet. The privately funded RST built its network with some of its own fiber, and some acquired from the state’s NCREN fiber network, which has recently expanded to reach all 100 North Carolina counties. While some locations will be close enough to the physical fiber to tap right into the 100-gigabit pipe, Limerick explained that other locations will be connected to the network wirelessly. He said new wifi technology allows for those wireless connections to maintain gigabit speeds. The network currently reaches from the mountains to the sea, but Limerick says RST hopes to continue to expand its physical fiber lines to make more connections possible. Other providers are also working on gigabit Internet speeds. Winston-Salem is part of a group of cities and universities called the N.C.
Next Generation Network initiative presently negotiating with potential gigabit providers, including Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable currently provides gigabit speeds through its “Business Class” service, including to more than 700 schools around the state. Google is reportedly considering parts of the Triangle area for the next phase of its own gigabit fiber network.
Triad airports get $9M from N.C. Division of Aviation the triad area
The N.C. Division of Aviation recently awarded more than $9 million to three Triad airports. According to the division, the Piedmont Triad International Airport received $5.8 million in funds for capital improvement projects. The funding will be used for a $1.3 million reimbursement for the terminal area development for Honda Aircraft Company, including its headquarters and manufacturing buildings. Nearly $4 million will be used for site work associated with the company’s customer service center, and another $500,000 will be used for construction of airfield improvements. In addition, the division
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awarded $3.2 million to the BurlingtonAlamance Regional Airport for capital improvements, including a $620,000 for a taxiway lighting rehabilitation project, and $2.6 million to reimburse site prep costs for a 1,400-foot runway extension. The Mount Airy-Surry County Airport was given $260,000 to relocate utilities along Holly Springs Road to prepare for a runway extension project.
North Carolina’s driver license will offer ‘VETERAN’ label statewide
Qualified North Carolina military veterans can now carry the designation “veteran” on their driver licenses and identification cards. According to a law passed by the General Assembly, veterans who have been honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces who present their DD-214 discharge form can apply at a driver license office for the new designation. State Motor Vehicles Commissioner Kelly Thomas, NCDOT Secretary Tony Tata, legislative members, and representatives of the state’s Veterans Affairs Office and the N.C. Retail Merchants Association celebrated the launch of the new “VETERAN”
36
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carolina in the west
national & world
designation at the N.C. Museum of History last month before an exhibit about North Carolina service members. Military veterans requested the designation to help them in obtaining military discounts from a wide variety of retailers and service providers without having to show their military discharge form.
Construction on GTCC aviation building to be completed soon greensboro
Monteith Construction Company is hoping to complete construction this spring on a $7.5 million, 41,000-squarefoot aviation classroom facility for Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) near the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro. The building is the third facility housing the school’s various aviation courses. GTCC also holds classes from the T.H. Davis Aviation Center, located at 260 Regional Road, and another aviation building at 819 Radar Road, across the street from Honda Aircraft Company According to Mike Haney, a vice president with Monteith, which has offices in Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington,
the old north state
construction started in late 2012 and should conclude in May. It will be ready for student use during the fall semester. The plans by GTCC to build the classroom facility are part of a larger drive by the school to establish a pipeline of qualified employees for several major aviation companies that are expanding in the region, including Honda and TIMCO Aviation Services.
N.C. Museum of Art hires firm to develop ‘vision plan’ for Museum Park raleigh
Although the 164-acre park that surrounds the North Carolina Museum of Art is already an evolving landscape for local artists, museum leaders believe more can be done with the property. The museum has commissioned Civitas Inc., an international urban design firm based in Denver, to create a new “vision plan” for the museum’s park on Blue Ridge Road. According to Civitas founding principal Mark Johnson, this vision plan would present actionable ideas that could be implemented in the park as funds become available in the future. It
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Fisheries Association and the Carteret County Fisherman’s Association have given notice to various federal and state agencies of intent to sue for violations of the Endangered Species Act. The 60-day notice does not obligate the groups to a lawsuit, but according to fisheries association interim executive director Jerry Schill: “Despite all of the efforts to protect sea turtles by commercial fishermen, beach-front property owners, and any of the turtle hospitals along the coast, we have no way to gauge when success will be realized…Other than nesting turtles on the beaches, how many turtles are out there? How many should there be? What exactly is the process for success? We have no idea.” Schill said they need an “end game” and hope a move in that direction will start without the need for a lawsuit. The notice of intent was sent to representatives of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
is expected for the plan to be presented to the museum in July with the idea that funds would be raised for its preliminary phase of development soon afterward. Civitas is a landscape architecture firm that has worked with local governments and corporate investors across the country, and is not affiliated with the Civitas Institute think tank in Raleigh.
Fishermen say they’re prepared to sue over turtles nc coast
Two area organizations representing commercial fishermen are prepared to take their efforts from local waterways to the courtroom to get an accurate stock assessment to measure the recovery of the sea turtle population. The N.C.
Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Commerce, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, N.C. Depar tment of Environment and Natural Resources, and N.C. Wildlife Resources. Attorney Stevenson Weeks, who is representing the groups, said commercial fishermen want continued recovery of threatened and endangered sea turtles. While recovery could lead to a determination of de-listing under the Endangered Species Act and relieve some of the current restrictions placed on commercial fishermen, Weeks said that they are not trying to terminate protections for sea turtles. However, until a full stock assessment is completed and a determination can be made about the recovery of the sea turtle populations, Weeks said they want equal application of the Endangered Species Act.
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3/6/2014 10:09:50 AM
Durham’s Museum of Life and Science planning $4M outdoor exhibit durham
The Museum of Life and Science in Durham is progressing with one of its largest campaign initiatives ever to build a new $3.9 million outdoor exhibit for its 84-acre campus. According to museum president and CEO, Barry Van Deman, the two-phase project has already received a $500,000 commitment from the Durham County board of commissioners, and the museum’s board members have contributed another $390,000. Co-chairing the “Climbing Higher” campaign are Dr. Larry Crane, Liz Goodmon, and Kenneth W. Lewis. The first phase of the project, Hideaway Woods, is scheduled to open in spring
2015 and will feature a 2-acre, naturebased playscape next to the wooded area surrounded by the Museum’s Ellerbe Creek Railway tracks. Features will include a tree house village that is suspended 15 to 20 feet off the ground ,as well as twig and sapling structures designed by artist Patrick Dougherty. The second phase of the project, Earth Moves, is expected to open in spring 2016 and will highlight a large-scale digger pit with excavators, an earthquake platform and a free-standing waterfall.
Family Dollar joins EPA’s Energy Star program
Protection Agency’s Energy Star program. The discount retailer is creating a corporate energy-management program to improve energy efficiency, sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA initiated the Energy Star program in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to cut greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. When feasible, Family Dollar will measure and track energy performance at its facilities using Energy Star tools. For example, the company uses Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager to benchmark energy-use intensity of its stores, distribution centers and store-support center. Family Dollar is the largest user of that tool, with more than 5,500 of its sites benchmarked.
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Family Dollar Stores Inc., based in Matthews, joined the U.S. Environmental
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How Sweet It Is 600 people, 6 new stores, 40,000 customers a day, in 6 short years at Tupelo Honey Cafe.
written by anna raddatz photos by anthony harden & courtesy of tupelo honey 64
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Tupelo Honey’s “Shoo Grill Cheese, Have Mercy”
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 65
brian sonoskus & steve fr abitore ,
Tupelo Honey’s executive chef and CEO.
W
alking down College Street in downtown Asheville, you could almost miss it. This active block, flanked on one side by Pritchard Park, is home to several restaurants, galleries, and shops. Perhaps the only notable thing about the exterior of this specific restaurant is the way its seating area juts out onto the sidewalk, covered by an unassuming green awning. But go into any of the neighboring shops around mealtime and you’re bound to find people holding coaster pagers, those plastic blocks that light up when your table is ready. They’re all just killing time until it’s their turn to pull up a chair at the restaurant they’ve read about in the New York Times or seen featured on the Food Network: Tupelo Honey Cafe. 66
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this page : Scenes from the six (soon to be seven) restaurant locations. April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 67
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With all of the accolades preceding it, once inside the eatery you might be surprised by how casual it is. The young wait staff wear jeans and funky jewelry. The decor is homey and unpretentious, with honey-colored walls, dark wood trim, and whirring ceiling fans. It’s pleasant and comfortable, but nothing to write home about. That is, until your meal arrives. From the meatloaf to the fried chicken BLT, every dish tastes like comfort food on steroids. The flavors are familiar, but amped up, improved, and served in generous portions. From the first bite, you understand how the Tupelo Honey Cafe has amassed a large and loyal following over the years. From this original location, the Tupelo Honey brand has grown to six locations in three states: two locations in Asheville, and others in Charlotte, North Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The business employs over 600 people and serves over 40,000 customers each week. Their seventh location, in Johnson City, Tennessee, will open in May of this year. In 2014, revenue is expected to exceed a whopping $24 million. And, they’re not stopping there. The booming success of this business is due largely to the vision, leadership, and business savvy of one man: CEO Steve Frabitore. In 2008 he recognized a brand and a product that had unlimited potential. Over six short years, he has applied laser-focused financial analytics and powerful market research to grow the brand. He has grown a team based on hiring only the best candidates, and is passionate about creating opportunity for his employees. And, he recognizes the importance of connecting in a deep and meaningful way with the local communities that welcome his restaurants. But with all of this infrastructure and growth, for Frabitore the work his business does comes down to one simple thing: “We’re feeding people,” he says. “That in and of itself is probably one of the most rewarding things.” Frabitore, 51, spent the first 18 years of his career in the commercial packaged goods industry, starting with a sales job at Procter & Gamble right out of college, and ending up as president of Sundown Vitamins, which he helped grow from $60 million to $700 million in annual sales over seven years. From there, Frabitore moved away from the corporate life and toward entrepreneurial opportunities. He mentions that he tried yacht building for a short time, but the bigger success came from his efforts at a small retailer of outdoor power equipment, Florida Lawn & Garden in West Palm Beach. Over several years, he transformed this “mom and pop” dealership from one location to two, and from under $2 million in sales annually to over $12 million. While he learned many business tenets in his initial corporate work, taking an entrepreneurial turn meant taking true financial responsibility. “You don’t have to watch cash flow and the more intricate financial side of the business when you’re at
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 69
a huge company,” Frabitore says. “There are departments and teams that do that. But when you step off the ladder into the entrepreneurial world, you’re the human resources department, the legal department, and the accounting department. That’s a big transition.” The transition to restaurateur may seem like a big one as well. But Frabitore’s next undertaking was less about the industry and more about the location for his family. “Our first decision was where we wanted to live, and that was Asheville,” he says. Before their move, he and his wife, Jennifer, visited while keeping an eye out for business opportunities. “There were either very large companies for sale, tied to construction mostly, or small shopkeeper type things,” Frabitore recalls. “The only businesses in the sweet spot were those connected to tourism. That’s how restaurants got on the radar screen.” But he didn’t want to start a restaurant from scratch, and he didn’t want to buy just any restaurant. On one visit to Asheville, a Realtor showed him one that was for sale, but Frabitore didn’t care for the concept. Then the agent made a phone call to the original owner of Tupelo Honey, Sharon Schott, who was thinking about transitioning out of her business. “We walked in and had dinner and everything clicked,” says Frabitore. “It appeared to have a unique position in the marketplace, and it certainly had a fire and fanaticism around it from its patrons. I walked out of there saying, ‘This is what I want to do.’” He purchased the business in 2008. Frabitore had enough experience under his belt not to be intimidated by the restaurant industry. But after years in the aggressive business landscape of Southern Florida, he found he had to adapt to his new environment in a more personal way. “I was a fairly intense individual,” he says. “It took about a year to knock those edges off a bit. I lost my suntan and changed my perspective a little and everything was good.” But it’s safe to say that Frabitore has not lost his ambition or energy. While in conversation he seems very calm and laid back, he also peppers his comments with sayings like, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” and, “There’s only one speed, and that’s full speed.” Anyone who knows him will tell you that he’s a non-stop idea generation machine who has extremely high standards and a drive to do better and more. Brian Sonoskus, Tupelo Honey’s executive chef, would be one of those people. “The guy is just motivated,” Sonoskus says of Frabitore. “If anything, it’s just a challenge to keep up. You hate when you have the old guy in the company running circles around you on some days. But we
“I lost my suntan and changed my perspective a little and everything was good.”
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above : CEO Steve Frabitore. right : Employees working in what
they lovingly call “The Hive,” Tupelo Honey’s headquarters.
wouldn’t be where we are today without him.” Sonoskus, 47, has been with the business since the beginning, back in 2001, when he started as chef at the original downtown Asheville location. For that reason, he was a great help to Frabitore when the restaurant changed hands. “Brian and I made such a good partnership because he gave me the ability to analyze the business and focus on the front of the house while he kept the back of the house going,” says Frabitore. Over the next couple years, the two men shared their expertise with one another, with Frabitore learning the ins-and-outs of restaurant process from Sonoskus, who was guided into the business and analytical side by Frabitore. “We melded immediately,” says Frabitore. “We’ve never had a cross word or disagreement.” Sonoskus’ culinary background is almost as varied as Frabitore’s business background. He grew up in New Jersey in a family that hailed from the Pennsylvania mountains and had a strong connection to that mountain cooking heritage. From a young age, he learned how to cook from his parents April 2014 | capitalatplay.com
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and grandparents and lived in a home where the kitchen was the center of family life. As a result, when it was time to get a job, Sonoskus gravitated toward restaurants, starting out as a dishwasher at Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty in Toms River, New Jersey. He found the high energy, camaraderie, and colorful characters appealing, so after a few more restaurant jobs, he attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island. After graduating, he worked at restaurants in Charlotte, ski resorts in Utah, and traveled through Europe and Central and South America. Sonoskus used his travels and jobs to gain new skills and food perspectives, learning to prepare cuisines as diverse as sushi and classic French. One of the clearest experience contrasts came around 1990 when he was living in Charlotte. “I was working at Tally’s Green Grocery in the daytime,” he says, “and I’d leave there and go work at an Outback Steakhouse in the same parking lot at night. So I’d go from cooking vegetarian food to frying steaks in butter.” In 1995 he moved to Asheville and became chef at the now closed Magnolia’s Raw Bar and Grille, a Charleston-style restaurant featuring Creole and Low Country fare. Tupelo Honey opened in 2000, and Sonoskus was hired as executive chef by Schott in 2001. Today, Sonoskus has a nice, windowed office in the modern 72
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8,000 square foot Tupelo Honey headquarters, in an office building near the Biltmore Square Mall—a far cry from the restaurant’s initial office in the basement of the downtown location. These days he doesn’t have any scheduled shifts in the kitchens, but instead oversees recipe development, food quality control, kitchen processes, and staff training for all six stores. Each Tupelo Honey location carries the same menu, and there are certain dishes, which Sonoskus refers to as “lifers,” that are always available (for example, Nutty Fried Chicken, Not Your Mama’s Meatloaf, and Brian’s Shrimp & Grits). But the menu is updated every three months. It’s an opportunity to test new recipes, use seasonal ingredients, and evaluate dishes that aren’t as popular. The Tupelo Honey leadership approaches menu development and staff training as a science. As they test new menu items internally, they evaluate the foods’ colors, textures, and serving temperatures. They consider how plating can help the guest tackle the meal. And, of course, they work to make sure that the aromas and flavors are up to par. Once this is all determined, they add the new recipe to their “menu encyclopedia,” which contains everything the kitchen staff need to know in order to create each dish—from the prep recipe and utensils to be used, to a product photo and plating instructions. It also includes any allergen information. “The
the original location in
Downtown Asheville.
idea is that staff should not have questions they cannot get answered quickly,” says Sonoskus. He explains that this advanced attention to detail is unusual for a restaurant business of this size. “The infrastructure and tools we have well surpass restaurants in the 20 to 30 store range,” says Sonoskus. “A lot of businesses don’t have these materials until they’re much bigger than we are, so I think we’re definitely ahead of the curve.” One of the reasons Tupelo Honey is advanced for its size is the powerful team of advisors on its six-person board, and the investors the business has attracted. While the purchase of the original business was funded by the Frabitores themselves, the recent expansions have been helped along by investors to the tune of $6 million. The decision to sell shares was one that Frabitore and his wife (who also works at the business, in accounts payable) balanced very carefully. “Jennifer and I looked at it like this,” recalls Frabitore. “We believe we have something pretty special, and we believe we should give it a chance to run. Yes, we’re going to let go of the
majority ownership, but at the same time we’re going to create jobs and opportunity and see what this company can become.” They also recognized that on their own, they could only open a new location every couple of years; with investors, they were able to open three new locations in 2013 alone. Frabitore is adamant that surrounding himself with smart people, both on his staff and board, has been the key to Tupelo Honey’s success. “Getting the right people around me who were successful entrepreneurs to discuss these things was critical.”
“The infrastructure and tools we have well surpass restaurants in the 20 to 30 store range,” says Sonoskus. “A lot of businesses don’t have these materials until they’re much bigger than we are.” One of those people is board member Michael Bonadies, a leading hospitality expert and consultant. During his career, Bonadies has been involved in the development, branding, and operation of five-star hotels all over the world. He was also a April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 73
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founding partner of the Myriad Restaurant Group, which owned and operated globally acclaimed New York City restaurants such as Nobu and Tribeca Grill. Bonadies says he’s been very lucky in his career to work with restaurant and hotel brands that spark a unique guest response—he describes it as a “fierce tribal loyalty”— and says that Tupelo Honey is one such brand. When asked what these special brands have in common, he says they fill a very basic desire. “There’s a human need for special and unique spaces and experiences,” he says. “Sometimes that’s filled spiritually, other times it’s filled by a great restaurant or a great bar as a human gathering place.” Of course, that place must also offer a stellar product, something Bonadies says Tupelo Honey has in spades. “It’s one of those menus you pick up and you’re a little pissed off because you want to try everything on it, but you don’t have days to do it.” Bonadies explains that one of the main keys to successful restaurant expansion is finding the right real estate. It might be an understatement to say that where real estate is concerned, the Tupelo Honey leadership has done their homework. Sitting in his spacious and immaculate office, Frabitore pulls out a black three-ring binder. “You can run the whole company from this one binder,” he says. He opens it to reveal crisp spreadsheets of data on a variety of metropolitan areas and commercial locations. “We conducted some third-party research back in 2010 to identify key psychographics and demographics for cities that would make sense for us,” says Frabitore. That study helped them to identify 70 cities in the region that could be a good fit based on dozens of factors, like population, average household income, and number of restaurants per capita. Today their target is even more defined. “We’re focused on towns that fit our criteria that are within a seven-hour drive from Asheville,” says Frabitore. “We’re not interested in the airplane trips…yet.” They have a two-person real estate team that helps guide the search for specific commercial locations. For each potential space, they analyze square footage, layout, the closest road car count, parking availability, the expenses required to upfit the space, and many other variables. Due to Tupelo’s existing popularity and its resulting foot traffic, landlords are often eager to welcome the business to their buildings. “We have been fortunate and blessed to be a highly sought after tenant,” says Frabitore. “We have some pretty amazing offers.” Bonadies says the Southeast has been a home run for Tupelo Honey for a couple reasons. “The region has a growing population and totally underserved cities,” he explains. “You have a lot of people that have moved to the area, or people who grew up in the Southeast, have worked in major cities and have come back. So I think there’s a real demand for quality of execution. There’s tremendous opportunity just waiting to be filled.” But he also makes it clear that if they wanted to, they could take the brand from the regional level to the national. “As a concept and as a business,” says Bonadies, “it’s something that could extend across the country.” As the expansion continues, Frabitore and his team recognize that maintaining quality control from a distance is paramount. For this reason, they require daily “audits” at each location. First, there’s a food audit. Every morning Sonoskus assigns a couple dishes from the menu. The chef at each location prepares that dish, and the management staff inspects it for plating, temperature, and flavor, comparing it to the requirements in the “menu encyclopedia,” and reporting the results in a logging system that the company leadership can access. In addition, the manager of each shift does a “seating audit,” sitting in three different random locations in the dining area and making note of any detail that’s out of place, from dust on a ledge to gum under a table. These issues are also logged. “We’re trying to teach our managers to put on their ‘guest goggles,’” says Frabitore.
He explains that creating a good guest experience might take diligence, but at heart it’s not a difficult thing to do. “No one says, ‘Gee, I hope I get some lousy service tonight and I hope my food comes out cold,’” he says. “We’re all capable of understanding what the consumer wants, because we’re all consumers.” While the restaurant industry is notorious for high employee turnover, one of the perks of having a larger business is that staff members have the chance to move up the rungs over time, and the opportunity to really build a career. Sonoskus says this wasn’t always the case in the restaurant industry, but that in recent years “foodie” magazines and the Food Network have introduced some glamour and fun to the industry. “It used to be that there were two good jobs in a restaurant, and that was it. Now we have a lot of people who have been with us for ten years—they can move up to run a new location, join the training team, or become a general manager or chef de cuisine.” Frabitore stresses the importance of this as well. He mentions a general manager who started out as a part-time server, and says that he wants to make sure that Tupelo Honey is “not a company where careers go to die.” When the company brings in new hires from the outside, the philosophy is simple: “We want to hire the very best people at every position in the company,” says Frabitore, “from the dishwasher to the top.” And he’s willing to pay to attract the right candidates. Frabitore says that none of their employees are paid minimum wage; rather, they are a Living Wage Certified business and aim for their pay to be greater than the 75th percentile of the industry average. Other incentives are offered as well. Employees at the store level are eligible for cash bonuses, and upper level positions receive benefits and phantom stock options. This sense of generosity is also evident in the community involvement Tupelo Honey is known for. In every city that’s home to a Tupelo Honey Cafe, the business gets involved—from donating to local nonprofits to supporting community gardens. Sonoskus is very involved in the Chef in Schools Program, an initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama in an effort to fight childhood obesity. By giving cooking presentations in third grade classrooms, he hopes to inspire the younger generation to eat healthier. “We want to make sure the communities know we’re not there just to hang a shingle on the door and make a profit,” says Frabitore. “We want to build a meaningful, longterm company that people can be proud of.” In other words, as this buzzing hive makes more honey, they’re also pollinating the flowers along the way.
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by MIKE SUMMEY
The Art of
Effective Communication
M mike is an
entrepreneur, author of several books on real estate, and also an avid pilot and philanthropist.
It makes no difference how educated you are, how extensive a vocabulary you possess or how well you can perform a task yourself, if you can’t communicate with others in a way they can understand, you are handicapped. And, it’s not a handicap that will get you an upfront parking pass! In order to be an effective communicator, the first thing one has to learn is the fact that the burden of communication is on the person doing the talking. 76
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I
t is unfortunate, but in today’s society so many people are caught up in themselves and tend to blame the listeners when communications fail. Have you ever heard someone say, “I told you ______,” (you fill in the blank,) when something doesn’t go as they expected? “I told you to pick up your toys,” a parent might say to a child. “I told you take out the trash,” a wife might say to her husband. “I told you not to paint that room blue,” a contractor might say to a painter. “I told you I needed those reports by the end of the day yesterday,” a corporate executive might say to the company’s bookkeeper. The list of “I told you so’s” is unending and the blame for nearly every one of them falls on the person doing the telling. Professional sales people know that telling is not selling. Once you accept that the burden of communication is on the person doing the talking, it makes it easier to understand why effective communicators always try to speak at or below the level of understanding of the person to whom they are talking. A parent trying to get a child to pick up his or her toys who uses words the child does not understand is going to get predictably disappointing results. The same holds true for the wife who makes her request to take out the trash in the form of an order rather than a request. The way in which she speaks and the attitude she attaches to her words can easily overshadow
what she is saying to the point that she fails to get the results she wants. In the business world, the use of acronyms and buzz words known only to the speaker is one of the biggest culprits of ineffective communications. People who do this are usually ones who are trying to impress others with how much they know and how much smarter they are than everyone else. All they are really doing is demonstrating their ignorance of effective communication skills. I learned this in my early 20s when I was working in an environment where I was around several extremely brilliant
The list of “I told you so’s” is unending and the blame for nearly every one of them falls on the person doing the telling. PhD chemists. These highly intelligent people played a game with each other in which each day one would bring in a new word, give its meaning and then they would all try to use the word in conversation with The each other throughout the day. I Introducing thought this was an interesting way to improve my vocabulary so I asked if I could join their game. I still remember the lesson I learned about communication the first day I participated.
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One of the chemists word for the day was “vitiate.” Webster defines the word as “to make imperfect, faulty or impure; to spoil or corrupt; to weaken immorally, debase or pervert.” As I was trying to find a way to work the word into conversation, one of my co-workers began making fun of me for playing the “boss’ game” and started laughing at me in front of several co-workers. I looked at him and said, “I’m going to vitiate that smile on your face if you keep it up.” “Whatever,” he replied as he and the others walked away laughing. At that point, it dawned on me that he didn’t have a clue what I’d said. I might have gotten a warm fuzzy about threatening him, but he didn’t know he had been threatened. I would definitely have gotten my point across better if I’d said, “You keep that up and I’m going to bust you in the mouth.” Granted, that alternative reply might have been a bit crude, but I’ll bet he would have had no problem understanding it, which brings me to another key part of effective communication. When communicating, is it better to be socially or politically acceptable or is it better to deliver the message in the most understandable way? Naturally, everyone would prefer to communicate in the most acceptable way possible, but there are times when trying to do so results in the message being missed or misunderstood. Since that early experience with the co-worker decades ago, I have learned that when the choice has to be made, it is more important for the message to be understood than it is to risk it being lost in a lot of sugar coating. When I was still in the business world and training sales people I would emphasize to all my trainees that no matter how hard they studied, no matter how much they knew, no matter how charismatic they were, the only thing that truly mattered was whether or not they made the sale. I encouraged them to weed out all the industry jargon and eight syllable words and make their presentations in plain, easy to understand English. I told them that when they thought they had their sales presentation perfected to give it to a middle school student. I suggested that if the middle school student could understand it, I’d be willing to bet that the CEOs could too. Sales are all about communicating. You can give sales people the best training in the world, but they will all tell you that one of the first things they learn when they start making calls is
I have learned that when the choice has to be made, it is more important for the message to be understood than it is to risk it being lost in a lot of sugar coating.
that the customers didn’t attend the same training class they did. Every prospect is unique and their levels of comprehension are different. While the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle is critically important for sales people, it is just as important in every other area of interaction between two or more people. Don’t blame others for their inability to comprehend your message. When you do this, you become like that great American philosopher of the 1970’s, Archie Bunker who would say, “The problem, Edith, is that I’m talking to you in English and you are listening to me in Dingbat.” Something many sales trainers teach is a concept called mirroring. It is simply matching, or mirroring the level of expertise or communication skills of the person to whom you are talking. It’s a technique designed to keep you from being perceived as talking down to prospects. Whether you are communicating with a co-worker, boss, friend, spouse or a child, when you accept full responsibility for getting your message across, you will find your communication skills beginning to improve. When you are talking with someone, even in casual conversation, and what you say is misunderstood, take personal responsibility for the lack of communication. Mentally evaluate how you could have said what you wanted to say in a more clear fashion. By doing this, you will find yourself searching for ways to improve your communication skills. Learning to talk in a clearer, simpler and more understandable fashion will also make you a more enjoyable person with whom to interact. The art of effective communication is critical. It is what separates good teachers from poor ones. It is what separates successful coaches from mediocre ones. It is what separates great managers from dictatorial bosses. It can be the difference between success and failure in virtually every undertaking you attempt. When you take full responsibility for getting your thoughts across to others, you will be happier and get many more of the things you want in life. Think about it! If you’d like to discuss or hear more on this topic from Mike, you can email him at successtips@aol.com
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April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 79
UPDATES FOR
NATIONAL WORLD [
& news briefs
Dish, Disney deal envisions Internetdelivered TV nationwide
Dish Network recently made a significant announcement about a deal with Disney. The agreement opens the way for the satellite TV service to live-stream Disney-owned channels like ESPN and ABC over the Internet to customers’ smartphones, tablets, video game consoles and other devices. The objective is to attract so-called cord-cutters who have become dissatisfied with large channel packages and increasing monthly bills for cable or satellite service. The new service will bypass Dish’s 14-million-customer satellite system and offer content via the Internet in a similar way that Netflix delivers video. No start date has been revealed, and Dish will likely have to cut
]
similar deals with other programmers to make such a service attractive. Although Dish did not give a potential service cost, it said that it would probably be cheaper than current packages. The agreement is the first of its kind between a major pay TV distributor and a top media company. However, the pair will not be alone in trying to launch such a service. In January, Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) bought Intel Corporation (INTC)’s media group with some intention to launch an Internet-delivered TV service over mobile devices. Sony Corporation also said that it would launch an Internet-based TV service in the U.S. this year. The deal’s financial terms were not released. But as part of the agreement, Dish agreed to disable, for three days after the initial broadcast, a function on its Hopper digital video recorders that permits people to automatically record and strip out commercials from prime-time weeknight
programming. However, that provision only applies to programs on ABC. The companies plan to work together on new advertising models. Dish and Disney claimed they are considering inserting ads into programming based on viewer data, developing new ways of advertising on mobile devices, and measuring viewing for longer than the current industry standard that includes the live broadcast plus three days of DVR viewing.
Hawaii Gas gets final approval for importing liquefied natural gas hawaii
Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has given Hawaii Gas approval to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Hawaii to use as a backup source for its synthetic natural gas operations on Oahu. The company intends to begin shipping LNG from the West Coast using International Organization for Standardization (ISO) containers that can hold about 10,000 gallons of LNG, which will be re-gassified and injected into Hawaii Gas pipelines using a mobile vaporization unit at Pier 38 at Honolulu Harbor. According to officials with Hawaii Gas, a subsidiary of
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Macquarie Infrastructure Company, the importation of LNG would permit the company to diversify its fuel sources and enhance the reliability of its gas supply.
Carmakers bank on small SUVs as next big thing worldwide
Carmakers are depending on the fast-growing demand for small SUVs to earn new customers in the United States and help turn around their businesses in Europe’s still-fragile market. United States carmaker Chrysler’s Jeep brand launched the Renegade and France’s Citroen introduced the Cactus at the recent Geneva Auto Show. According to IHS analyst Tim Urquhart, they are just the beginning of a long list of carmakers looking to “come to the party.” They are coming big and small. Mighty Volkswagen, aiming to become the globe’s No. 1 automaker by 2018, has rolled out the concept T-Roc, while South Korea’s fourth automaker SsangYong will launch the XLV sport utility vehicle next year, with the aim of doubling European volumes from 3,000 last year to 6,000 in 2015. The market for small SUVs is rising
36
66
carolina in the west
the old north state
just about everywhere across the globe. It is among the fastest-growing market segments in the United States, where the tall cabin, big cargo area, fuel efficiency and maneuverability appeal to young people and downsizing baby boomers. In Europe, small SUVs have proven themselves more recession-resistant than most.
Intel seeking wearable technology ideas nationwide
Intel Corporation is launching a global initiative challenge for people to come up with technologies that are wearable, and the company is offering prize money. W. Eric Mentzer, a vice president of the Intel Architecture Group and director of strategy, planning and operations in the Visual Computing Group, revealed the challenge to the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance TechEdge event at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento. Intel is currently accepting applications for people to share a concept of a wearable use of technology. Beginning this summer, the chip company will hold a contest challenging people to build a new wearable technology. So far, wearable technologies include anything that can be worn,
national & world
implanted or attached. The technology could be for clothing, stickers, helmets or various types of accessories such as shoes, watches, glasses, or wristbands. The top prize is $500,000, with a total of $1.3 million to be awarded.
$50 million financing fund for California prisons solar project california
Solar company SunEdison Inc. assembled a $50 million fund to finance solar power generators in California’s prisons. SunEdison will manage the solar projects after they are built. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, National Bank of Arizona and Sol Systems Company participated in this agreement. Washington, D.C.-based Sol Systems advised Nationwide Mutual Insurance on the equity it acquired in the deal. The funds will pay for 13.4 megawatts of solar generation capacity to be built on prisons that are managed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR. According to CDCR, it currently has 37 megawatts of solar power projects installed.
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national & world news
H2Oscore founder expands utility monitoring application nationwide
Marquette University’s McGee Young is known in Milwaukee for his H2Oscore online water usage tracker. In launching the new application, Meter Hero, Young explained to his team: “I want you guys to put H2Oscore out of business… As a startup, you want to find ways of making your own work obsolete…The first time around, you’re not going to get your own solutions right.” Young said he and his H2Oscore considered lessons they could learn from H2Oscore, which monitors a homeowners’ water usage online. What they discovered was that users want to see water, electric and gas bills side-by-side, not just tracking water usage, but energy overall. Meter Hero
provides online updates on all of the above. Adding a new showerhead to your home might reduce water usage, but less hot water could also impact the gas bill. McGee explained, “We don’t want to wait around for three months for our next bill to see if it’s making a difference.” Meter Hero is intended to be a teaching tool, giving students an eye on the whole range of energy usage. The data tracker’s been rolled out in conjunction with local schools and organizations, including Discovery World, Young said. The team recently released Meter Hero and is currently requesting feedback as team members work to improve the new meter reader. The H2Oscore team has been chosen as a finalist in the Chicago-based Clean Energy Trust’s national clean energy challenge, and could potentially win funding for Meter Hero. In the meantime, Young said the
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group has been saturated with interest from businesses and others.
Potential Southwest nonstop flight between Dallas and Memphis dallas to memphis
If Southwest Airlines obtains two additional gates at Dallas Love Field, the airline claims it will add another nonstop to its Memphis service. Memphis International Airport is one of 12 destinations that could acquire a nonstop if Southwest is able to get gates being vacated by American Airlines. American is reportedly giving up the gates as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Southwest initiating service between Memphis and Dallas would reduce round trip nonstop flights by nearly $100.
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Food Lion pledges comprehensive sustainable seafood policy for suppliers nationwide
Grocery chain Food Lion will require its seafood suppliers to indicate that their products have been harvested responsibly to protect the environment. According to the company, its new sustainable policy will affect about 1,000 products sold. It affects seafood that is fresh, frozen, packaged or in cans. Food Lion is a subsidiary of Delhaize America of Salisbury, the United States division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group and has 1,113 Food Lion stores in 10 states. Karen Fernald, senior vice president of merchandising at Food Lion, says the new policy positions the chain among “an elite list of grocers in the U.S. to accomplish this
goal.” Fernald also said about the new vendor requirements, “At Food Lion, we believe that we have a responsibility to protect seafood species for generations to come…Through our policy, customers can trust that the seafood products they buy in our stores today are responsibly harvested.” Food Lion’s parent company recently announced that it sent letters to its pork suppliers urging them to eliminate a controversial type of animal crate used to house pregnant pigs. Delhaize America wants those suppliers to switch to open pens from stall housing used for sows. Food Lion’s seafood policy is stronger, requiring documentation from its suppliers that details the source of a product. The grocer wants wild-caught seafood to come from fisheries “that are governed by credible, enforceable and science-based management plans that respect the amount of harvest to ensure
seafood populations will continue to be healthy in the future.” If the seafood is farm-raised, Food Lion requires that the product is certified and reviewed to prove that the production process is safe for workers, nearby communities, the environment and human health. Food Lion is working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to verify that its seafood supply comes from sources that are responsibly managed. Therefore, the nonprofit marine science center, based in Portland, Maine, will monitor that compliance measures are in place, guaranteeing the harvesting of the seafood is appropriately maintained.
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 83
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capital adventurist
Mountain Biking IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA by eric cre ws
while mountain bikers across the southeast have known for years that pisgah national forest offered some of the best mountain biking in the united states , the rest of the world is quickly catching on . last year , the hundreds of miles of mountain biking trails and gravel roads around brevard played host to bike magazine during their annual gear review as they tested the latest mountain bikes on some of the area’ s most popular trails . during their stay, the writers at bike magazine dubbed the area “ ground zero for some of the best mountain biking in the nation .”
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 85
capital adventurist
‘‘w
ith thi s m uch single track to be had, there are cer t a i n ly a w ide ra nge of trails in Pisgah,” the magazine said. “That said, Pisgah’s brutal rock gardens and endless valley-to-ridge climbs make it better suited to more advanced riders. We loved it. Technical challenges, jaw-dropping beauty, ornery boulder fields and all. Our only regret? Not having more time to ride it all.” Meanwhile, a recent article on Singletracks.com, an online mountain biking trail guide, named Brevard one of the Top 10 mountain biking destinations in the United States. 86
| April 2014
When asked about Brevard’s most recent accolades in the cycling world, Wes Dickson, owner of Brevard-based bike shop Sycamore Cycles, said the quality of the riding in the area is one of those things that most people in Transylvania County and Western North Carolina have known for years. But the recent national recognition is just an added bonus. “I think people are finally figuring it out,” he said. “The East Coast has pretty good riding up and down it, but we’re pretty blessed that we have so much in one spot. I’ve been to good riding locations across the country, but a lot of times it’s a little more down-played. Here, the community recognizes that it’s one of our greatest assets and one of our strongest identities.” Sam Salman, owner of The Hub and Backcountry Outdoors, a bike retailer and outdoor shop in Brevard, agreed that the
trails—as well as good relations with the U.S. Forest Service—in order to continue to keep up the trails people have come to love. “We just have to continue to promote and maintain these trails so they don’t fall apart on us,” he said. Dickson agreed. “Making sure we are good stewards of our resources is really important,” Dickson said. “But right now we’ve got a lot of great people on the ground working on the trails on a regular basis, so we’re on the right track with that.” In the future, Dickson said he believes mountain biking in Transylvania County and across the region will continue to gain in popularity. “We just have to keep working to keep it going,” he said. “Mountain biking is not going anywhere anytime soon, that’s for sure. But with how close we are to a lot of major metropolitan areas, mixed with our year-round riding season, I believe more and more people will keep coming to the area. I think we’re definitely on the right track.” Salman said the diversity of Transylvania County’s terrain makes it certain to be a top destination for years to come, especially as the word spreads about how many miles of trails there are in the area. “It’s not just one or two trails,” he said. “We have hundreds and hundreds of miles of great trails and you can ride a great variety all in the same day. It’s a unique spot.”
Our Guide To Where To Ride While the trails near Brevard continue to receive high praise, they aren’t the only trails in the area worth riding. Whether you’re looking for an afternoon of sightseeing on gravel roads or a fast-paced descent on one of the area’s world-renown mountain biking trails, we’ve put together a short guide to some of the best places to spin your wheels. recognition is well-deserved. “I grew up on the East Coast and have ridden just about everywhere there is to ride around here,” he said. “There are definitely some trail systems that have amazing trails, but I think Brevard has probably the greatest diversity of trails in the whole United States. “We have DuPont and Bent Creek that have purpose-built, flowy, amazing single-track and doubletrack, and we have Pisgah, which was never meant to be ridden on by bikes,” he said. “But we’ve been graciously allowed to ride on these 100-year-old logging and hiking trails that tend to satisfy anyone’s desire for super-gnarly riding. There are incredible, long burly climbs, beautiful ridge lines and pretty amazing technical trails.” Salman said the test in the future is going to be maintaining the
bent creek Just minutes from downtown Asheville, Bent Creek Forest lies at the northern end of the vast Pisgah Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest. The 30 miles of trails in the Bent Creek Research and Demonstration Forest are well suited for everyone from beginning and intermediate mountain bikers, families, and groups to cyclists looking to challenge themselves on tough climbs and steep descents. Because of it’s proximity to Asheville, Hendersonville, Fletcher, Arden, and other cities in the greater Asheville area, Bent Creek sees a large number of visits during the evening hours when groups of mountain bikers meet up for a post-work ride. The area also features a campground, mountain lake, and family recreation area, and leading to big crowds during the April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 87
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summer months. Riders looking to branch out beyond the 30-miles of trails in Bent Creek can link up with other trail systems in Pisgah National Forest by heading out over the Bent Creek Gap Road—an old forest service road—for some long-distance adventure rides. While challenging for novice riders and those first beginning mountain biking, the trails in the Bent Creek trail system are not considered extremely difficult due to recent trail work that eliminated the most challenging, technical aspects of the trails. Most trails follow old road or railroad beds and have only a few areas that require significant technical skill, with steeps, rocks, roots, mud, and creek crossings. For the most part, mountain bikers can expect to find fast, flowing sections of singletrack trail that makes for fun riding. We recommend Green’s Lick, which is known for being one of the most popular trails at Bent Creek. The trail’s 2.5 miles of single-track drops 800 feet in a fast-paced barrage of berms, rolling water bars and jumps. For a full afternoon ride, we like to link this trail up with Deer Lake Lodge, Wolf Branch and Ingles Field Gap, but the expansive trail network of Bent Creek provides a wide-range of options for adventure.
tsali
With 37 miles of trails, the four loops found in the Tsali Mountain Biking Recreation Area near Fontana Lake offer visitors a variety of landscapes, trails and terrain. Whether riders opt to tackle the narrow singletracks or take a casual cruise down one of the flat, well-beaten roads, there is certainly something for everyone to be found at Tsali. The four trails meander through mixed pine and hardwoods on a peninsula that juts out into Fontana Lake and provides great views. While hikers may travel the trails on any day, mountain bikers and equestrians alternate days of use on the trails. We recommend the Thompson Loop Trail, a 7.7-mile-long trail that offers cyclists miles of single track with great views of wildlife and scenic vistas from the many overlooks along the route. The trail also features a number of stream crossings. An added bonus: the chance to see old homestead locations as cyclists pedal along the old logging roads.
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Just minutes from downtown at the new Adventure Center of Asheville, Kolo Bike Park provides purpose-built bike trails on over 100 acres of rolling terrain. The trails are designed with multiples lines and features to accommodate all ability levels and are built in adjoining loops that can be ridden independently or combined for longer or more challenging rides. The premise behind the park’s design is Kolo Flow. The word Kolo comes from the Slavic word for circle or wheel and also means bicycle in several languages. In order to optimize the flow of a bicycle wheel, the park utilizes its rolling terrain to help skilled riders maintain momentum and encourage newer riders to build confidence and skill in a controlled environment. Kolo Bike Park allows riders to experience every aspect of mountain biking—descending, climbing, jumping, and technical skills riding have all been created with over five miles of machine and hand-built trail for a true mountain bike adventure. More features and routes are designed and will continue to be added. Kolo Bike Park will host regular skills clinics, camps and races including short track, super D, time trial, cyclocross and cross country events. A rider can learn new skills and then test them out against the clock or other competitors at one of the
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many race events. Adventure Rentals at Kolo will provide full-service bicycle rentals from basic mountain bikes to the latest suspension technology and all the supporting gear needed to get rolling. Rentals are available for use at Kolo Bike Park or can be taken off-site to any of the numerous regional cycling destinations. In addition to the Bike Park and Rentals, Kolo will be offering packages with other adventures at Adventure Center of Asheville by joining together with Asheville Zipline Canopy Adventures, Asheville Treetops Adventure Park and Wildwater.
Solid Cherry
rocky knob
Hard work by a crew of dedicated volunteers helped carve some incredible mountain biking trails from the dense forest and rocky terrain of Rocky Knob Park in Boone. The 185-acre park was easily one of the most highly anticipated additions to the High Country in recent years and has quickly become a haven for Boone mountain biking enthusiasts. With several miles of trail, a bike skills park and other amenities already in place, the Rocky Knob Park is shaping up to be a true High Country mountain biking treasure. The park was made possible thanks to a partnership with the Watauga County Tourism Development Authority (WCTDA), who received a $500,000 grant from the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund “ i think brevard has (PARTF) to assist with the acquisition and development probably the greatest for Rocky K nob Park. In diversity of trails in 2009, two $5,000 grants were the whole united states ,” secured from the Bikes Belong said sam salman Foundation and Specialized Bicycles. These grants were made possible through the WCTDA’s partnership with B oone A rea Cycl ist s, a local nonprofit organization work ing to promote and develop cycling opportunities throughout the Boone area. When complete Rocky Knob will host six to eight miles of mountain bike trails for all skill levels, three shelters, an adventure playground, and picnic areas. We recom mend bikers check out the one-mile-long Middle Earth Trail, one of the more difficult trails at the park, accessed off of the upper portion the Rocky Branch Trail. If the rocky terrain of the trail doesn’t provide enough of a technical challenge for mountain bikers,
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be sure to check out the two skills areas accessed from this trail, the easier Skinny Skills Area and the Stone Binge for intermediate to advanced features. Riders should also be on the lookout for the PBJ Skills Trail that descends all the way back to the lower reaches of the Rocky Branch Trail with access back to the parking area. It’s a rousing ride, named for its pumps, berms, and jumps. Many riders use this thrill ride to end their day back to the parking area, connecting to the Rocky Branch Trail’s final big turn called Bring it Home Berm.
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With over 10,000 acres and nearly 100 miles of bike trails, the DuPont State Recreational Forest near Brevard is home of some of the region’s finest trails. The countless waterfalls and mountain vistas offer the chance for cyclists to take in spectacular vistas along their ride. While the trails are known for being more beginner friendly than nearby Pisgah National Forest, they still offer their share of challenges. While one of the most popular trails is Ridgeline, which is known for its fast, flowing terrain with endless berms, jumps and fun, we recommend riders check out the Big Rock Trail for its exposed granite riding that offers bikers a chance to ride for nearly one mile across wide open rock with great views of the nearby mountains.
pisgah r anger district
The Pisgah National Forest is renown as a land of mile-high peaks, cascading waterfalls, and heavily forested slopes, which make it the area’s top destination when it comes to mountain biking. The hundreds of miles of trails found in the over 500,000 acres of the Pisgah have been drawing crowds for decades thanks in part to the forest’s designation as the first tract of land purchased under the Weeks Act of 1911, which led to the creation of the national forests in the Eastern United States. The Pisgah Ranger District near Brevard and Asheville is also home of the first school of forestry in the United States, now preserved at the Cradle of Forestry in America historic site, and boasts two of the first designated wilderness areas in the east. While choosing just one trail to recommend out of the plethora of different options is no easy task, we recommend first-time riders check out the Sycamore Cove loop near the entrance of the forest in Brevard. One of the most popular ways to do the loop is to head up the gradual incline of Thrift Cove, a forest service road that takes riders up to the scenic Grassy Road and onto the singletrack trails of Sycamore Cove. The open hardwood forest offers expansive wintertime views, scenic creek crossings, and a long descent punctuated by roots, rocks and small drops—a perfect introduction to what mountain biking in Pisgah is all about.
Eric Crews is a writer and photographer who writes about outdoor adventure sports in the mountains of North Carolina. Follow his adventures online at: www.wnc-adventures.com
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events
April april 4 -5
BBQ Cook-off & Bluegrass Jam friday 12- 8 | saturday 11- 4 wnc farmers market, asheville, nc Enjoy plenty of great live music and food.
free admission contact brian roberts: 828 -253 -1691 ex . 16
april 4 & 6
Don Giovanni friday 8 pm | sunday 3 pm diana wortham theatre, 2 south pack square, asheville, nc One of Mozart’s darkest operas, Don Giovanni retells the story of the fabled character, Don Juan. This story of uncontrollable lust and its final consequence will shock and satisfy audiences all in one evening. Baritone Galen Scott Bower, last seen as Baron Scarpia in the opera Tosca, returns to play the title role.
ashevillelyric .org april 5
Carolina Concert Choir Spring Concert 3 - 5pm blue ridge community college thomas auditorium , flat rock , nc This features works of American composers and poets.
admission: adults $18 | students $5 with id 828 - 891- 8416 april 5
Hendersonville Swing Band 3 pm | hendersonville high school auditorium Benefits go toward the Morris Kaplan Kiwanis Scholarship Fund.
admission: $10 april 5
Journal Making Workshop 1pm - 4 pm blue ridge art space, 377 shadowline drive, boone, nc The Watauga County Arts Council is sponsoring a creative 92
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journal making workshop for girls ages 13 to 17 under the leadership of instructor Lexie Danner. Scholarship funds are available.
$20 for session plus a $5 material fee 828 -264 -1789 | www.watauga-arts .org april 6 & 27
Hendersonville Chamber Music 3 pm - 5pm first congregational church , hendersonville, nc April 6th will feature the Rawlins Trio, who have developed a reputation as preeminent interpreters of 19th and early 20th century American music. April 27th will feature Carolina Brass performing works by J. S. Bach, Aaron Copland and Gabrieli, along with several light classical works as well. Their programs include audience interaction, providing interesting historical information plus humor!
admission: adults $20 | students free hendersonvillechambermusic .org
april 8 -13 Abingdon’s 2014 Quilt Block Party over 3 dozen venues in abingdon , va Abingdon’s having a block party! This is not your neighborhood block party. This party is all about quilt blocks, a real celebration of the art of quilting and it’s happening all over town. Abingdon businesses, including retailers, restaurants and art galleries, will display new and antique quilts and other “quilt-y” things. Maps are available at each venue.
abingdonblockparty.com | 276 - 676 -2282 april 10 -13
First-Ever UNC Asheville Arts Fest unc asheville campus , nc The full schedule for UNC Asheville’s first-ever Arts Fest is now set, with evening concerts by two different Grammy Award winners, and a full day of free shows on the Quad by local and campus-based bands and dance ensembles. UNC Asheville Arts Fest takes place across campus with free and ticketed events. For theater lovers and “go local” enthusiasts, the highlights include Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” set in contemporary Asheville, with notable downtown figures, including the LaZoom Tours’ ‘nun on a bike’ among the updated cast of characters. A lecture by N.C. Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti headlines the weekend’s literature events, and UNC Asheville
Arts Fest includes visual art exhibitions and collaborative sculpture, new media, photography and more.
F r e e Yo u r F u n k y S e l f a t L E A F ! AT BEAUTIFUL LAKE EDEN CLOSE TO ASHEVILLE & BLACK MOUNTAIN
april 10 -13
begins thursday evening at the laurel ridge county club , waynesville, nc The Haywood Chamber of Commerce along with the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and Buy Haywood will host this event that promises to be the premiere signature event launching the spring tourism season in Haywood County. The weekend will officially begin with the Culinary Gala on Thursday evening, at Laurel Ridge County Club from 5-7pm. Participants will prepare tastings of their favorite recipes, showcase or compete for recognition and awards. The gala event will extend into a weekend itinerary filled with an array of specialty dinners, culinary demos, and tastings hosted by Melange of the Mountains participants. Events such as Farm to Table, Hops to Tap, Sip and Stroke, Dinner on the Mountain, Champagne & Caviar, Five Course Candlelight Dinner, and Wine Pairings will take place throughout the county.
tickets available online www. haywoodchamber .com | 828 .456 .3021 april 12
EGGstravaganza 2- 4 pm
watauga county library, boone, nc
www. joneshousecommunitycenter .org 828 -268 - 6283 | 828 -264 - 8784
MAY 8-11
FESTIVAL Beats Antique
& Fall LEAF: October 16-19
Bootsy Collins
Los Lobos 40th
& the Funk Unity Band
Anniversary
S i e r r a L e o n e ’s Refugee All Stars Elephant Revival Roosevelt Collier B o u k m a n E k s p e ry a n s Locos por Juana Zing Experience • Turkuaz Billy Jonas Band Empire Strikes Brass The Fritz • One Leg Up
Red Baraat Darrell Scott & Tim O'Brien Zach Deputy The Lee Boys • Town Mountain Alash Tuvan Throat Singers Contra w/ Wild Asparagus & Perpetual Emotion The White Top Mountaineers Kim & Reggie Harris Molasses Creek
AND MUCH MORE! FESTIVAL SCHOOLS & STREETS INTERNATIONAL
The Downtown Boone Development Association, the town of Boone, the Jones House Community and Cultural Center, and the Watauga County Public Library will hold the 13th annual downtown Boone Easter EGGstravaganza. Children and families can enjoy live entertainment and arts and crafts, followed by an Easter parade to the Jones House Community and Cultural Center. Once at the Jones House, families and children can participate in the Jones House Easter egg hunt. There will be local agencies and businesses at the Jones House offering treats and activities.
38th
10th Annual Melange of the Mountains Culinary Weekend
2014
free & ticketed events | open to the public unca . edu/artsfest
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
#1 Music Fest • #1 Fest For Kids • #1 Fest For Camping
Music. Dance. Handcraft. Folk Arts. Poetry. Healing Arts. Kids Villages. Lake sports. Great Outdoors. Local Brews & Eats. Camping & Cabins April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 93
events
april 11-27
Mainstage: Dearly Departed fridays & saturdays 7:30 pm | sundays 2:30 pm asheville community theatre
In the backwoods of the Bible Belt, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious. Despite their earnest efforts to pull themselves together for their father’s funeral, the Turpin’s other problems keep overshadowing the solemn occasion. Amidst the chaos, the Turpins turn for comfort to their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who just manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need, and finally, the funeral. This comedy is directed by Lauren Fortuna.
by the Park’s featured entertainer, hammered dulcimer player John Mason, amongst others. Gates will be open from 5-6 am for the 6:30 am service.
free admission april 19
The Sultan’s Wife 11: 00 am
asheville community theatre Music and comedy are in great abundance in this adaptation of a Swahili folktale. This engaging fable tells the story of a hapless sultan, his too-smart servant, and a poor man who knows the secret to keeping those around him happy.
tickets range from $12- $22 www. ashevilletheatre.org
admission: $5 www. ashevilletheatre.org
april 12
april 23 -27 Moogfest
Once Upon a Time asheville community theatre Bright Star Touring Theatre returns to the ACT’s Saturday family series. Literature comes to life in this hysterical production bringing to the stage the stories of “Cinderella” and “Jack and the Beanstalk!” Lenny and Mable reenact these two classic fairy tales, undertaking all the roles from the character formerly known as Prince Charming to a giant lumbering high above the set.
admission: $5 | www. ashevilletheatre.org
april 20
Easter Sunrise Service at Chimney Rock 6:30 am chimney rock park , 431 main st, chimney rock , nc Celebrate Easter by watching the sunrise over Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure. For 55 years, the Park has opened its gates to the community for a inter-denominational worship filled with scripture, song and fellowship. The service takes place beneath 535-million-year-old Chimney Rock, the monolith for which the Park is named. In recent years, the ceremony has grown to more than 1,000 people from around the Southeast. It is organized by ministers from area churches. This special service includes scripture readings, prayer and beautiful music
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10 venues in downtown asheville, nc Moogfest is a five-day festival dedicated to the synthesis of technology, art, science and music. Since its inception in 2004, Moogfest has been a magnet for artists, engineers, and enthusiasts of Dr. Robert Moog and his legacy to meet, share, create and collaborate. With an experimental lineup of daytime conference programming featuring cultural, artistic and technological luminaries and punctuated by a line up of diverse landmark nightly performances, Moogfest honors the creativity and inventiveness of Bob Moog and pays tribute to the analog synthesizer. The conference is guided by the world’s preeminent thought leaders and pioneers of music and technology.
tickets available online www. moogfest.com april 25 -27
Last of the Aztecs 2:30 pm
friday & saturday at 35 below in asheville community theatre sunday at reuter center on unc asheville campus
The Autumn Players’ Readers Theatre Showcase Series presents this poignant comedy about an elderly man coming to grips with being the last of the guys in his social group to survive, as well as the impending death of his wife. When she inevitably departs,
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admission: $5 , tickets available at door april 26
Spring Festival at the Farm 10 am - 4 pm historic johnson farm , 3346 haywood rd, hendersonville, nc
This festival is fun for the whole family, with arts and crafts, pound cake for sale, house tours, food, entertainment, wagon and tractor rides.
admission: adults $6 students $4 preschoolers free 828 - 891- 6585
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the widows of their social group gather to claim the remaining male member and long held secrets are humorously revealed. Written by Joe Feinstein and directed by Wayne Wheeler.
Weaverville Art Safari 10 am - 6 pm
stomers! Thank you to our cu siness for 30 years in bu
Restorations Custom creations Custom paint Kit cars
5522 WILLOW ROAD HENDERSONVILLE, NC 828-693-8246
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BR YO ING UR U S S
Many of the artists and craftspeople of the Safari who call Western North Carolina home choose to live and work here because they are inspired by the beauty of the world renowned landscape. This weekend event is an opportunity to interact with artists and see the process behind the development of their critically acclaimed works of art. The Art Safari provides a chance to wind through the backroads and main streets of Weaverville, Alexander and Barnardsville on a self-guided driving tour. Artists are on hand to talk about their creative processes and exhibit their latest creations. Works of art showcased during the event include pottery, handmade glass, sculpture, jewelry, furniture,
April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 95
events
paintings, drawings, and fiber art. Select studios offer public demonstrations and door prizes. Studios are open from 10am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
free admission
Grief Support Groups fridays 1-2:30 pm first baptist church , 669 w. main street, sylva , nc According to Michael Lee, counselor of bereavement services with Four Seasons Compassion for Life’s Sylva offices, each individual grieves in his or her own way. Every loss is different in some way, but grief often shares common characteristics of leaving people feeling isolated by feelings of sadness and loss. Through support groups, individuals can find validation and feel like they are not alone. She says, “Come as you are…This is a safe and welcoming gathering of people from all walks of life. We know everyone’s story and journey are different. You don’t have to talk; you can just come and listen.”
mlee @ fourseasonscfl .org may 3
Block House Steeplechase 10 am - 5:30 pm
foothills equestrian nature center , 3381 hunting country road, tryon , nc 28782
“Our terraced mountain vineyard and winery nestled at the base of Grandfather Mountain is the first producing winery n Watauga County, NC. Warm breezes during the day and cool crisp nights help develop the flavors and balance of our wines. We think you’ll find our wines unique. Enjoy and share with friends!” Steve Tatum, Owner
LOCATED ON VINEYARD LANE IN FOSCOE Tasting Room Open Every Day except Tuesday Noon till 6:00pm & Sundays 1:00 to 5:00pm (828) 963-2400 • www.grandfathervineyard.com
Sally and Steve Tatum Are Proud To Welcome You To The First Winery In Watauga County 96
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The Tryon Riding & Hunt Club’s 68th Annual Block House Steeplechase will be held on the first weekend of May this year, rather than its traditional mid-April date. The change was made at the suggestion of the National Steeplechase Association, which is responsible for providing horses and jockeys to its sanctioned races around the country. The new date has fewer races scheduled throughout the Southeast, which should free up more horses and riders to compete in Tryon. Pre-race events include the traditional Hat Contest and Tailgate Contest, a Parade of the Tryon Hounds, and exhibitions by Green Creek Minis and Hulinndalur Icelandic Horses. Following the Blessing of the Day by Reverend Mickey Mugen, 68 doves will be released by professional handler L.J. Myers, and the National Anthem will be sung by Emily Kocher. Horses for the first race will enter the paddock at 1:30. Four professional races are scheduled to run between 2:00 and approximately 4:00 pm. The last races of the day are the 4th Annual Stick Horse Races, sponsored by the Greenville Foothills Pony Club, in front of the tower. Gates will close at 5:30 pm.
www. blockhouseraces .com www.trhcevents .org tryon riding & hunt club office: 828 - 863 - 0480
may 8 -11
LEAF Festival lake eden , black mountain , nc LEAF is a world music festival where music, art, and culture join together to strengthen community through the power of creativity. LEAF festival takes place on the site of the old Historic Black Mountain College with a rolling hills, lakes, streams, and mountain beauty on hundreds of acres of comfortable camping grounds. Tickets sell out early, and additional discounts apply for local commuting residents and youth ages 10 through 17. Children 9 and younger are always free. Limited car camping, lodge rooms and cabins are available. Funky costumes and festive attitudes welcome.
Our Our approach approach
admission: adult prices start at $41 for the day or $147 for the weekend
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If your organization has any local press releases for our briefs section or events that you would like to see here feel free to email us at events@capitalatplay.com
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April 2014 | capitalatplay.com 97
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