LATE SHIFT Asheville’s options for dark-thirty dining

ASHEVILLE’S OPTIONS FOR DARK-THIRTY DINING

PIE.ZAA

PHOTO BY JOANNA SASSOS

BY KAY WEST

It’s 11 p.m., you’ve just left the concert, you’re running on empty, and you need a bit of fuel to get you home. No one zooms in tighter on the late-night food map than members of Asheville’s service industry, coming off a long shift and ready to belly up to a bar for a beer and a bite. Here are some of the pit stops on their radars.

• Better late than ever is the menu plan at enduring downtown favorites Sovereign Remedies and Storm Rhum Bar.

Both specialize in highbrow spins on lowbrow dishes, like

Sovereign chef Bert Sheffield’s house-ground, foot-long hot dogs and Storm chef Jay Medford’s tempura cauliflower with chipotle yogurt, and gojuchang pork sliders with kimchi.

• “I don’t like pizza,” said no one ever, especially not as the clock creeps toward midnight. From the city that never sleeps,

PIE.ZAA on the South Slope boasts New Yawk-style pizza by the supersized slice (12 inches from tip to crust and 15 inches wide) or by the pie — only slightly smaller than a monstertruck tire. Or downsize (but still fill up) with a slice, full pie or chicken wings, tenders, fries and more from One Stop

Kitchen at the Asheville Music Hall.

• Last call for award-winning wings and reverie-inducing Wisconsin mac and cheese isn’t until midnight on weekends at

• West Asheville is all aboard for the late-night meal train with multiple options on Haywood Road’s mainline. First stop is

WALK, known for its al pastor, tuna and tofu tacos. At Desoto

Lounge, the classic pinball machines, jukebox, PBR tallboys and meatloaf sandwiches are the real deal. West Asheville’s version of Cheers is the Westville Pub, where everybody knows your name, your booze of choice and your favorite slider trio. At the Odditorium, sloppy Joe’s, slaw dogs, burgers and fried-in-the-shell peanuts by the bag are just a few of the tasty treats coming out of the spanking new kitchen into the wee hours of the night.

• Off West Ashevillle’s beaten path but well worth the hunt is The Malvern, a retro gastropub on the edge of Malvern

Hills on Patton Avenue. French fry flights, wonton nachos and buttermilk-brined fried chicken make hearty nightcaps.

• Look for the crowd of smokers out front to find two downtown bars with late-night food menus. Asheville Yacht Club prepares Polynesian- and Caribbean-influenced cuisine that’s still clearly from the South. Meanwhile, the Rankin Vault offers the right burger with the right beer and perfectly crispy tater-tots as well as other sandwiches and sides to surprise.

The Langren Hotel opened on July 4, 1912. It was located on the corner of Broadway and College Street. With 210 rooms, local papers celebrated its arrival and its implication for the city’s growing tourism industry. The building Fun Fact was razed in 1964, replaced by a parking lot. In 2017, the AC Hotel Asheville Downtown opened where the Langren once stood.

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