18 minute read
A&E
The dark side of Mill Street
New speakeasy opens in Jackson County
Cecelia White and Don Panicko, co-owners of Dark Moon, a speakeasy now open within the White Moon café. Caitlin Penna photo
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER
Crossing the threshold of the White Moon café in downtown Sylva, one is immediately drawn in by the scent of culinary delights and unique beverages. But, against the back wall is a nondescript door. There’s no sign on it, nor is there any indication that the entryway serves any more of a purpose than a broom closet.
Turning the doorknob, you’re soon pulled into Dark Moon, an intimate and intricate speakeasy. Underneath the dim lighting, there’s an array of quality spirits and wines, cheeses and meats, as well as an extensive handcrafted cocktail menu.
“We wanted to create a small European style, big city bar,” said Don Panicko. “The concept is to create a flow around Sylva, where you either start or end your night at Dark Moon. It’s about the connectivity between all of these great dining and nightlife spots in downtown.”
Alongside his wife, Cecelia White, the young couple has seemingly doubled-down on the strong business and community roots they’ve grown in the two-and-a-half years since White Moon opened its doors. With Dark Moon, it’s about bringing forth the artistic talents of White and Panicko, who each come from elaborate backgrounds of creativity and pursuits.
“We care so much about the environment we’re creating, and I think that elevates the experience for everyone who comes in here,” Panicko said. “We like to go to new places and pay attention to all the little subtleties. It’s about traveling and collecting experiences, and being influenced by those places — if I “We care so much about see something really good the environment we’re and clever at a spot, it sticks with me.” creating, and I think that With the speakeasy setting, Panicko finally gets to elevates the experience dive deep into his passion for for everyone who comes handcrafted cocktails, a skill set he picked up while living in here.” and working in the New York City restaurant/bar scene. — Don Panicko
“I enjoy coming up with all of these different kinds of craft cocktail recipes, carefully measuring out every- Want to go? thing and making sure everything is perfect in presentation and taste,” Panicko said. “There’s no cutting corners with our craft cocktails — your Tuesday drink will taste the exact same as your Saturday drink.” Dark Moon is located in the back of White Moon café at 545 Mill Street in Sylva. Hours for Dark Moon are 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. White Moon operates from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. www.whitemoonnc.com or 828.331.0111.
A Charlotte native, White attended the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, while Panicko (hailing from California) worked his way up through the service industry in The Big Apple. Both found their way to Western North Carolina on separate journeys, ultimately crossing paths in Asheville.
With White working in apothecary goods and Panicko headlong into woodworking in Asheville, they soon discovered the harmonious mountain town of Sylva. Fast-forward a few years and now they have two businesses open and thriving within the community.
In terms of the current pandemic and state mandates, all safety protocols are being followed. Dark Moon will offer limited capacity seating, as is already the case with White Moon. And even though Dark Moon was conceived before the shutdown (and constructed in recent months), White and Panicko were steadfast in keeping their vision alive, now coming to fruition.
“We’re all in uncharted territory right now as business owners, but we knew we needed to adapt and not standstill — we needed to evolve and ensure our survival,” Panicko said.
“We didn’t close a single day during the shutdown,” White added. “We survived for months simply barricading the front door and taking online orders. And what’s really great is that during that time, the local community started to catch on to what we’re doing — we’re very appreciative that people love and appreciate us.”
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
You’ve got to get up to get down
Approaching the backside parking lot of Upslope Brewing Company in Boulder, Colorado one recent evening, I was immediately greeted by the new normal when it comes to live music.
With 25 marked off spaces set up in the vacant lot facing the loading dock, we were told what the house rules and state mandates were for social distancing in a public setting. Six feet apart. Masks on. Only mingle with those you arrived with. Wash your hands if using the port-o-potty.
One by one we were walked by a staff member to our pre-assigned space, sat down and applied the free hand sanitizer sitting on top of the makeshift keg table at each spot. To order a craft beer, scan the QR code on the keg table, choose your beverage and await your fulfillment.
For many in attendance, this was their first live music experience since March, before “all of this” and the daily existence of unknowns and limitations of what one can and cannot do in society, all in the name of consideration and public health.
Going through their sound check, The Pamlico Sound erupted from the loading dock stage. An endless array of joyous faces, howling instruments and colorful vibrations, the ensemble dusted off six months’ worth of seeing live music on a TV or computer screen. This was happening, and in real time. And dammit, that sensation and unfolding scene before our eyes was surely missed.
“I’ve been trying to spread positivity anyway I can,” said Will Baumgartner (aka: “The Reverend EverReady”), front man for The Pamlico Sound, at the set break. “People right now? It’s a combination of they’re struggling and they’re kind of learning things about themselves, these ways of adapting to unexpected situations and so on.”
Their first performance since March, the band rolled through a mixture of classic covers and original numbers. It was a whirlwind blend of funk, soul and psychedelic rock, which remains at the core of influences for Baumgartner.
A native of Nags Head, North Carolina, Baumgartner grew up soaking in the sights and sounds that echoed from the nearby late-night bars and nightclubs. A resident of Colorado for the last 22 years, he continues to bring a true sense of southern hospitality to the western frontier.
“Our music is meant to create movement and connectivity,” Baumgartner said. “People will usually dance a lot at our shows, but nobody really knows what to do in this current live music environment. I know they’re having a good time because they’re smiling, and maybe in the second set they’ll dance in their space once they’ve had enough Upslope beer.”
Not long into the second set, the primal urges that resides within each of us took over. Foots tapped wildly as bodies soon emerged from camping chairs and began to gyrate. It was a familiar feeling to move to a beat, this motion once cherished and radiated often, now a foggy memory of the “before times.” In an odd way, it felt like we were getting away with something moving about in our space.
Throughout the night, Baumgartner & Co. radiated this sense of pure fun and rollicking freedom from behind the microphone. Powerhouse vocals pushing into the heavens. A horn section that tugged at our hopeful hearts and curious souls. They intrigued our deepest emotions of human connection and rhythm: the fundamental foundation of funk, soul and rock music.
“Where we stand right now is sort of unprecedented for most people,” Baumgartner said. “But, at the same time, you sort of look within yourself for a universal thing that can carry us through the loneliness and disconnect we’re all currently experiencing.”
Ending the night with the iconic 1974 single “Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus
Upslope Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. Below: Will Baumgartner. (photos: Andrew Wyatt)
& Chaka Khan (and written by Stevie Wonder), The Pamlico Sound succeeded in their mission to remind folks that we are — indeed — all in this together, and we’ll get through this, so long as we never forget that simple, yet complex, notion.
“During ‘all this,’ I’ve seen people become more tender and considerate to each other, where they acknowledge each other as human beings who are hurting and are healing,” Baumgartner said. “And I think people are thinking more in that way, and in turn are attracting more people to them. I just hope that it helps push us into a better space.”
Following the show, attendees carefully exited the parking lot and cranked up the engines aimed for destinations unknown. Marked off spaces were cleaned up and sanitized. The warm sunshine of the early evening had now transitioned to darkness, a crisp breeze signaling the end of summer and the ushering in of fall.
Packing up their gear, The Pamlico Sound felt rejuvenated in their creative purpose and personal passion: the sacred act of live performance.
“There is a way through ‘all of this,’ which is being part of something bigger, but also being aware of your individual self, and how it all fits into the universe around us,” Baumgartner said. “When I was onstage tonight, I know that my primary role in life hasn’t been crushed — it’s just thriving in a different way.”
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
• Elevated Mountain Distilling Company will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. www.elevatedmountain.com.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends,
Western Carolina Writers w/Stuart Stroud,
Jesse Frizsell & Nick Mac Oct. 9, Mojomatic
Rockin’ Oct. 10 and Arnold Hill (rock/Americana) Oct. 23. All shows begin at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.froglevelbrewing.com.
• The Ghost Town in the Sky parking lot (Maggie Valley) will host a drive-in concert series with St. Paul & The Broken Bones (soul/rock) on Oct. 29. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m. Hosted by
The Grey Eagle and Worthwhile Sounds, tickets are available at www.thegreyeagle.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host The
Natti Love Joys (jam/soul) Oct. 9 and
Shane Meade & The Sound Oct. 17. All shows begin at 7 p.m. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Will
James Oct. 10 and Shane Meade & The
Sound Oct. 16. All shows begin at 7 p.m.
Free and open to the public. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• The Maggie Valley Festival Grounds will host a drive-in concert series with Jason
Isbell & Amanda Shires (rock/Americana)
Nov. 5 and Keller Williams & Friends (jam/acoustic) Nov. 13. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m. Hosted by The Grey Eagle and Worthwhile Sounds, tickets are available at www.thegreyeagle.com.
• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. www.nantahalabrewing.com.
• The Smoky Mountain Event Center in
Waynesville will host a drive-in concert series with Mt. Joy (Americana/indie) Oct. 3, Yonder Mountain String Band (bluegrass/jam) Oct. 7, Papadosio (jam/rock) Oct. 9-10, Goose ALSO: (jam/rock) Oct. 17, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (jam/rock) Oct. 24 and The Marcus King Trio (rock/jam)
Oct. 27. All shows begin at 6:45 p.m.
Gates open at 6 p.m. Hosted by the
Asheville Music Hall, tickets are available at www.ashevillemusichall.com.
• The Blue Ridge Heritage Craft & Quilt
Exhibit will be held through Oct. 31 at the
Haywood County Arts Council on Main
Street in Waynesville. www.haywoodarts.org.
• The “Haywood County Medical Exhibit: 1870-1950” will be held at The Shelton
House in Waynesville. The showcase will run through October. Admission is $7 adults. $5 students. Children ages 5 and under free.
Admission includes Shelton House. 828.452.1551 or www.sheltonhouse.org.
• There will be a free wine tasting from 2 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar &
Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
Drive-in concert series
Take a chance and be a winner in the Feline Urgent Rescue (FUR) of Western North Carolina’s fall fundraisers.
Enter to win an exquisite T. Pennington print of “Smokies Scenic Preserve” at Newfound Gap. This beautifully framed colored-pencil landscape print has a retail value of $595.
Tickets are $10 each or three for $20 and are available for purchase at T. Pennington Art Gallery on Main Street and the Animal Hospital on Depot Street, both in Waynesville. All proceeds go for the medical expenses of the kitties at the sanctuary.
Also enter to win a handmade quilt pieced
The Smoky Mountain Event Center in Waynesville will host a drive-in concert series with Yonder Mountain String Band (bluegrass/jam) Oct. 7, Papadosio (jam/rock) Oct. 9-10, Goose (jam/rock) Oct. 17, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (jam/rock) Oct. 24 and The Marcus King Trio (rock/jam) Oct. 27.
All shows begin at 6:45 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m. Social distancing and Covid-19 protocol will be in place. More shows will be announced in the coming weeks.
Hosted by the Asheville Music Hall, tickets are available at www.ashevillemusichall.com.
FUR fall fundraiser
by T. Pennington.
and donated by FUR volunteer Maggie Hickle. This vibrant quilt is made from Kaffe Fassett’s pattern and fabric and measures 59”x62”. Tickets are $5 each or five for $20 and are available at the Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery on Main Street in Waynesville.
The quilt is on display at the Mast General Store on Main Street in Waynesville thru Oct. 15. Then, it will be on display at Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery Oct. 16-Oct. 31.
The winners will be drawn for both fundraising items on Oct. 31. You don’t need to be present to win.
Feline Urgent Rescue of WNC is nonprofit, state certified facility.
All cats are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, tested and microchipped before adoption. To learn more about FUR, visit www.furofwnc.org or www.facebook.com/furofwnc.
Digging into history: a visit to Jamestown
Right after Labor Day, my friend John tists, physicians, forensics experts, geneti- of representative government based on the and I traveled to Virginia’s Historic cists, and genealogists who from buttons, maxim that governments of free people rely Triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, breastplates, shards of pottery, the founda- on the consent of the governed.” and Yorktown. A paper for which I write had tions of buildings, and human remains bring Church & State is a powerful reminder of commissioned me to do some pieces on each the past more vividly alive than ever before. our past, of the intertwined races and culplace, and though I had visited there earlier From the skeleton of a male colonist tures in the American story, and a reminder, in my life, that was long ago. examined in Church & State, for example, too, that we Americans are one people. As
Those three days I spent living in the sev- Dave Givens told me, “This enteenth and eighteenth centuries left me place is our home, regardless of buoyant and in love what race you are.” again with America. The same could be said for The two museums I all of America. Whatever we visited in Jamestown, think of our country — whether the time I spent we cherish its ancient values and shambling around virtues, or whether we wish to Williamsburg, and the guided tour I took of Yorktown: all reminded me, as did the docents, of the Jeff Minick Writer make repairs — we should at least love and care for our home. ••• Cold weather is coming on, complicated history and just as some of us relish of our country, of the many individuals — hearty meals — stews and black and white, Native Americans, and casseroles — after the salads other peoples, men and women — who have and sandwiches of spring and over the centuries built our country. The liv- summer, so too do some readers ing also inspired me — the guides, the sweet the team deduced the following: “knees and enjoy fat books to while away the dark clerk at the Griffin Hotel, the waitresses and feet together and hands over the pelvis sug- evenings when Jack Frost rakes his icy finwaiters in various restaurants like Ken’s gest this individual was shrouded; this indi- gers across the fields and forests of these Deli, the Cheese Shop and Culture Café in vidual has robust arms and legs; coffin stain- mountains. Williamsburg, and the Mobjack Bay Coffee ing and nail patterns indicate that the coffin To compliment the colonial and Roasters and Petite Café in Yorktown, and was hexagonal-shaped and had a gabled lid; Revolutionary War theme of this review, let the other tourists I met. All were cheerful, tooth analysis suggests this individual repeat- me point book lovers to New England and upbeat, and in several cases, went above and edly held needles and an awl in his mouth. the novels of Kenneth Roberts, many of beyond in being helpful and friendly. Could he have been a tailor by trade?” which I read 30 years ago.
At Jamestown, I was fortunate enough to The Rediscovery Team, including other Though Roberts may be little rememinterview Dave Givens, Head Archaeologist forensic anthropologists and photographers, bered by many today, in the middle of the of that historic site. For well over an hour, he knows that “every skeleton has a unique twentieth century his historical novels about spoke with John and me, and then led us in bone biography. Critical information gained the early history of our country were best the rain to the ruins of the church, pointing in the field can provide information about sellers. Arundel, Northwest Passage, Lydia out sites along the way where digging into age, sex, ancestry, stature, level of physical Bailey, Oliver Wiswell, Rabble in Arms, and the past would soon resume. Here was a activity, and sometimes injuries sustained in more: all focused on the men and women of man passionate about his work and whose life. This forensic evidence, coupled with his- the eighteenth century. team, Jamestown Rediscovery, has added torical records, can often answer questions What makes these novels particularly much to the vast collection of objects and about the characteristics of an individual or impressive is Roberts’ ability to dig up, as do human remains taken from this soil. even their identity.” the archaeologists of Jamestown, the history
Which brings me to my weekly review. In addition to such fascinating details, of early America. He heavily researched the
Jamestown Rediscovery has recently Church & State reminds us that here in material found in all of these novels, and issued Church & State: The Archaeology of Jamestown in 1617-1618 burgesses from the matched that material to entertaining charthe Foundations of Democracy (Jamestown colony met in the choir of the church of the acters, both fictional and real. Rediscovery Foundation and Preservation time. In that year and in that place “the foun- If you have high school students who Virginia, 2020, 102 pages, $19.95). In this dations of our nation’s democratic experi- enjoy reading and want to learn some histobeautiful collection of reader-friendly prose ment were laid, including the right of indi- ry, I highly recommend these books. and vivid photographs, Dave Givens and his viduals to enjoy and securely possess private (Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four associates reveal the meticulous work and property; the rule of law, enshrining the fun- of his own: two novels, Amanda Bell and Dust the use of technology that go into the ongo- damental principle of our government, and On Their Wings, and two works of nonfiction, ing recovery of items from our past. Here we all democratic governments, that no one is Learning As I Go and Movies Make the Man. meet not only archaeologists, but also scien- above the law; and finally, the establishment minick0301@gmail.com.)
Writers Night Out
In this time of COVID-19, the NC Writers’ Network West is not holding face-to-face meetings. However, the group is gathering once a month on Zoom. Writers Night Out will be hosted by Glenda Beall at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9.
The featured writer for October will be well-published poet Scott Owens from Hickory. Owens was a regular instructor at Writers Circle around the Table in years past where he taught how to improve or how to begin writing poetry.
Owens’ latest poetry book, Breaking, has been published by Main Street Rag and will be launched the week before he reads at Writers Night Out. After Owens’ reading, writers and poets are invited to participate in the open mic.
Members of NC Writers Network West will receive invitations to this Zoom event. For those who are not members, contact glendabeall@msn.com and you will receive information for joining and reading at open mic that evening.
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