New menu, venue upgrades rolls out at Asheville restaurant offering Southern bites, sips

ASHEVILLE - A Biltmore Village cocktail-style lounge and eatery’s latest renovation has led to a reconstructed menu and reformation of its dining room with more enhancements to come.

Azalea Bar & Kitchen, at 5 Caledonia Road, was due for a major refresh though only opening in 2020, according to restaurant manager, Stacie Mathieu. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the restaurant’s temporary closure, making it difficult to restore the vision and passion, until now.

“They’ve tried to have a couple of reopens, but no one really had their heart and soul into it 100% so it didn’t have the love it deserved,” Mathieu said. “I came in to join the team at the end of May/early June and kind of did a little ‘bar rescue/kitchen rescue kind of thing, and it’s expanding and growing every day. It’s going to continue to be different every time you come in.”

The new menu features a short list of Southern-inspired sharable dishes, small plates and desserts. The full bar offers beer, wine and a list of signature cocktails.

Azalea is a brick-and-mortar restaurant that’s part of The Residences at Biltmore, a family-owned all-suite hotel that has counterparts in Dillsboro and Clemson, South Carolina.

“If you’re looking to escape … it’s like Airbnb-style so you have apartments, basically. You have three-bedroom apartments with a full kitchen, a full bath, washers, dryers. You have a home base when you’re staying downtown,” Mathieu said. “You’ve got Biltmore right there, downtown right there, so it’s an awesome location if you’re coming in for an extended period of time.”

Nearly a decade ago, The Residences at Biltmore opened, but Azalea Bar & Kitchen was added three years ago to serve hotel guests and Asheville residents.

The restaurant and bar are in a high-tourism area, close to Biltmore Village and the Biltmore Estate. Hotel guests have the convenience of grabbing a meal, snack or drink on the property.

Locals have easy access to the restaurant, too, as it’s near residential areas. And all are privy to the perk of the parking lot outside its doors.

“Come in, have some drinks before dinner, come back after dinner, have some small bites and small plates,” Mathieu said. “It’s kind of tapas-style – just pick and pull and share with your friends before you go out for the night. Or if you’re staying at the hotel. Or if you’re local and you don’t feel like going downtown; you just want a chill environment where you can hang out with your friends and have a small gathering. The idea is that it’s a cozy little place you can hang out.”

The summer renovation project has improved the seating layout in the intimate, casual dining room and accented cozy lounge corners.

More improvements are to come, including new overhead light fixtures and custom tables made with reclaimed materials. Dining will be extended to a spacious lower-level room, which will offer more room for families and will open to the tucked-away patio that will be outfitted with a fire pit and more.

And as Azalea’s dining rooms develop, so will its menu.

“Incorporating that Asheville flair to it, too, while expanding on an inviting space,” Mathieu said.

Azalea Bar & Kitchen’s new menu

Azalea’s menu received a complete overhaul, different from its former menu that focused on breakfast and was more diner-style, Mathieu said.

Now, the restaurant opens at 3 p.m. and offers lunch and dinner service with classic Southern favorites.

The early bestseller are fried green tomatoes, which are Mathieu’s go-to, too.

They are prepared using a house breading, fried, and layered with bacon jam and pimento cheese, then topped with green onions and balsamic reduction.

The tasting board includes three rotating kinds of cheese, seasonal fruit, mixed nuts, spicy mustard, local jam, gherkin pickles and sourdough pretzels.

“You get a little bit of everything with that board, and you can add charcuterie meat or extra cheese if you wanted to beef it up a little bit, but it’s a pretty big board and you get a little bit of everything that satisfies your craving,” Mathieu said.

She recommends adding an order of marinated olives and feta with multigrain crackers to the tasting board, too.

The four-piece Southwest eggrolls are made with crispy fried chicken, black beans and corn and served with a scratch-made Cajun ranch.

“They’re easy to have a quick snack if you just need a pick-me-up. Those are a good go-to that I find myself snacking on at least once a week,” Mathieu said.

Another comfort food favorite of hers is the linguine pasta, which she said is approachable for adults and younger diners. It’s made with an in-house alfredo, marinara or simple butter sauce plus parmesan. Fried chicken may be added.

“We grow all of our herbs in-house. We do try to put as much love and in-house, scratch-made effort as we can into every dish,” Mathieu said.

At the bar, several craft cocktails are offered, including the popular Blackberry Fizz made with dry gin, local blackberry jam, lemon and egg white.

The Pineapple Express is kind of a fun play on a colada-meets-a daiquiri. It’s a classic with coconut rum – Muddy River, which is native to Belmont, North Carolina, she said.

The rum is mixed with Luxardo liqueur, pineapple and a fresh coconut puree and topped with hibiscus simple syrup.

Espresso and chocolate are the featured dessert martini flavors.

“We use an expresso grind from Round Earth Roasters. We brew that in-house. We make a pot of espresso and chill that. It’s kind of like a cold brew meets fresh expresso but we only have it for a day or two and make it fresh.”

The menu ends with a few dessert options, like the waffle sundae that has the option for a chicken and waffles upgrade.

“It’s incredible. The waffles have a pearl sugar in them which gives a little bit of crunch and a little bit of sweetness that sneaks in,” Mathieu said. “We make a Cajun sugar for the chicken and waffles. So, instead of the ice cream you can sub for the chicken and the maple syrup gets drizzled on top. The waffle is one of the best waffles I’ve ever had. It’s so good.”

Azalea Bar & Kitchen

Where: 5 Caledonia Road, Asheville.

Hours: 3-9 p.m. or later Tuesday-Saturday.

Info: For more, visit facebook.com/AzaleaBarKitchen and on Instagram at @azaleabarkitchen.

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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Azalea Bar & Kitchen reveals first stage of revamp, releases new menu