During our last day in Asheville, we had been walking around the downtown area ducking in and out of shops and checking out places that we had missed during our visit. One brewpub that we hadn't visited was Lexington Avenue Brewing and we decided to stop in there for lunch and to try some of their beers.
Steve Wilmans was living in the Pacific Northwest and owned a recording studio in Seattle. After selling the recording studio, Wilmans ended up in Los Angeles and hooked up with a distant cousin, Mike Healy. It turned out that Healy was looking to move to the Asheville area and Wilmans told him that he'd help him with the move. While in Asheville, Wilmans saw a vacant building that used to house the local Salvation Army and he thought that it would be a great place to open a recording studio. Leaving the sun and sand of Southern California, Wilmans opened Echo Mountain Recording Studio in 2006.
Wilmans and Healy would sit around most evenings enjoying some of the growing number of craft beers that were being brewed in Asheville. Healy was trying to figure out what to do and one night the two decided that maybe they should open a bar. Or better yet, a brewpub that featured beers similar to the West Coast beers the two had fallen in love with when they lived out there.
The two found a place on N. Lexington Ave. in downtown Asheville that was once a livery stable, then had turned into a department store. The process of buying the building and renovating the space took nearly two years and the Lexington Avenue Brewery - known simply as the LAB - opened in early 2010. A year and a half later, Lexington Avenue Brewery became the first Asheville-based brewery to win a medal in the Great American Beer Festival in Denver with a bronze medal award for their Three Threads brown porter.
The success of the LAB meant a significant expansion was needed. Just to the south of Lexington Avenue Brewing was a 35,000 square foot building that was originally an A&P grocery store. The space was being turned into condos and retail space, and LAB expanded their restaurant, brewing facility and a taproom into the north side of that building. The expansion for Lexington Avenue Brewery opened in early 2013.
Located just south of Walnut on Lexington (see map), Lexington Avenue Brewing has a front section with open windows out to the street. Garage-style doors can be easily opened during warm weather.
We decided to sit in the front area at LAB. Our server, Lauren, came over with a couple of food menus and dropped them off for us. We ordered up a couple samples of their beers to try before we figured out what we wanted to drink. The front area at LAB was definitely the place where people wanted to be that day.
Inside the main area of Lexington Avenue Brewery, the main dining/drinking area was open and spacious, but it wasn't like a big beer hall. The same style of heavy tables with mesh metal chairs that were out in the front area were in there, as well.
There was some pretty artwork along the brick walls of the main room. There was a small stage tucked into a corner that was probably used for live music, but only if it were solo or duo act. In the far back of the place was a large room that was used for private events or special occasions. It was much more formal in that room than the rest of the brewpub.
The main bar was next to a brewing room with huge tanks that you could see from the main room. The bar was a 92-foot serpentine-style design that curved around the north side of the main room. It was one of the more interesting bars I've seen in a brewpub.
The beers that LAB was serving that day during our visit were on chalkboards. My wife got the Lil' Country India Pale Ale and I got the Waves of Grain Amber ale. Both beers were very tasty. The IPA was especially good and I ended up getting one of those for my second beer. It had a forward hoppy taste that was very smooth on the backside.
The food menu was definitely unique for a brewpub, but probably not for Asheville. They had a number of gluten free and vegan offerings, as well as about a dozen interesting appetizers. My wife remarked that the beer-braised pork belly and Brussels Sprouts was intriguing for her. My eye caught the pork confit tacos with an avocado salsa.
My wife wasn't all that hungry after a large breakfast we'd had earlier in the day. She thought about one of the salads they had on the menu, but I ended up talking her into getting the green chili pork nachos. And that was selfish on my part as I wanted to try their green chili pork. Unfortunately, the green chili pork in North Carolina is nowhere close to the great green chili pork in Colorado. The nachos had ground pork, red beans, a white cheese sauce, and chopped peppers, onions and cilantro. It wasn't a big portion, but my wife was happy enough with what she ordered.
I ended up getting the house-made pastrami on rye sandwich. A side of fries came with the sandwich. It was piled high with thin-sliced pastrami, topped with Swiss cheese and lettuce. The rye bread had a moist texture and a good taste. And the sandwich was.... good. It was just all right, in my opinion. The pastrami didn't really knock my socks off in terms of taste. Overall, we thought the beer was better than the food.
We thought the ambience and decor of Lexington Avenue Brewery was pretty cool, the beer was very good, and the service was impeccable. The food, however, was pretty basic for what we ordered. I guess I was expecting more out of a place that was in a wonderful space, had some great architecture, and had a good beer offering. Still, there wasn't much to complain about on our visit to Lexington Avenue Brewery.
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