Historic Flat Iron Hotel, Luminosa restaurant open in downtown Asheville
ASHEVILLE - Days before its public debut, The Flat Iron Hotel was abuzz with staff and contractors putting the finishing touches on the historic downtown landmark.
A top coat of polish was worked into the preserved original lobby floors, new recipes were tested for dishes considered for the menu of the Italian-inspired restaurant, and final adjustments were underway in rooms and suites as the hospitality staff prepared to welcome the first guests.
It’s been years in the making but the Indigo Road Hospitality property will open an adaptive reuse boutique with awe-inspiring designs, views and experiences for locals and guests to the city.
On May 15, The Flat Iron Hotel will officially open at 20 Battery Park Ave. after construction delays.
“We’ve been training for a whole year for this part of it,” said Executive Chef Graham House, who is leading culinary operations with fellow Asheville local, Chef de Cuisine Sean McMullen.
The hotel offers six guest floors with 71 rooms, three food and beverage concepts, a conference room and a coworking office. Plus, amenities like the premium concierge services.
The Flat Iron Building, constructed in 1926 and modeled after the famed flatiron-shaped building of the same name in New York, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The skyscraper was a retail and office building and home to WWNC, Asheville’s first radio station that broadcasted from the ninth floor.
Interior architecture and design firm Mey & Co and local architecture firm Rowhouse Architects led the extensive renovation to preserve its original Art Deco design and transform it into The Flat Iron Hotel.
The Flat Iron Hotel aims to awe visitors from its rooftop bar with vista views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and downtown to its ground-level café and restaurant to the Prohibition Era-style speakeasy with secret entryways hidden in the former basement boiler room.
“I’m super stoked. It’s been a long time coming,” McMullen said. “Having our live fire going and being able to work with local farmers again is awesome.”
The Flat Iron Hotel team took the Citizen Times on a rooftop-to-basement tour of The Flat Iron Hotel and shared what makes the property a standout.
Enter The Flat Iron Hotel
The grand entrance on Battery Park Avenue leads to an intimate lobby where guests can check in and out, request a classic luggage cart, or receive guidance from the concierge at the reception desk.
The Wedge Brewing Company has partnered with The Flat Iron Hotel to brew the Flat Iron Italian Pilsner, which will be offered to guests at check-in.
Director of Outdoor Experiences Zach Girgenti said guests may request custom experiences in and around Asheville for individuals, groups and families in advance. Options include an in-house bar crawl, hiking, foraging, kayaking, intimate dining experiences and cooking classes off-site, and a wine tasting at an area vineyard with a 50-mile scenic helicopter ride over the city.
“Creating experiences where you can feel that not only is it easy to do but it’s memorable, it lasts a lifetime,” Girgenti said.
Girgenti recommends contacting the hotel to begin the process at least a week before a planned stay.
Stay, work at The Flat Iron Hotel
General Manager Jeff Elstro said two original antique elevators ― expected to be active by September ― have been restored and fortified with modern components and will be manually operated by an elevator attendant.
A modern automatic elevator is operational, too.
Floors three to eight have guest rooms and suites positioned along the angular hallways of the triangular-shaped building.
Mey & Co’s Principal Carrie Dessertine and Studio Director Dana Jaasund designed the guest rooms and suites with original elements like the preserved transom windows and classic prewar bathrooms while modernizing the areas with complementary colorful, custom furniture and hand-drawn wallcoverings.
Each floor features the original doors painted with former office tenants' names with plaques detailing the businesses' history.
Elstro said another unique touch is the butler pantry-style rooms on each guest floor that allow quick access to ice, sparkling water, coffee and other beverages.
On the second floor, the Iron Works coworking office offers shared desks and podcast recording capabilities for daily, weekly and monthly rental for hotel guests and locals.
The Flat Iron Hotel offers various spaces for private bookings for meetings and events, including a partitioned apex dining room in Luminosa.
Luminosa restaurant and café
Adjacent to the lobby is Luminosa ― an Italian-style restaurant by night and café by day with an open-air patio off Battery Park Avenue.
The dining room is designed as a warm, chic tavern with classic tables, banquettes and a bar. The wood-paneled walls aid in creating a warm, relaxed ambiance and feature stylized portraits of historic, notable Asheville individuals.
The banks of large windows pull in ample lighting and offer views of the bustling city.
On May 15, Luminosa’s regular dinner service will begin with an approachable, rotating menu that is subject to change as the culinary and bar teams source seasonal, local harvests.
“We’re still the local chefs cooking local food,” House said.
The kitchen is outfitted with a wood-burning oven and grill, and the team will produce thin-crust pizzas, fresh pasta, dough, bread, garlic knots, Italian bread sticks and more in-house.
Luminosa’s menu features antipasti, such as the bone marrow tater tots served with horse radish aioli, celery and pickled red onion.
McMullen said the lemon pizza topped with shaved lemon, smoked mozzarella, ricotta, fennel and arugula has been a fan favorite with the staff.
“It caramelizes the onion in the oven and cooks the fennel at the same time. It’s a light and enjoyable pizza to eat,” McMullen said.
The menu continues with full entrées of salads, pasta and protein-forward plates, like the campanelle pasta prepared with country ham, nettles and pickled shallots.
The chefs have applied whole animal butchery as a sustainability method, evident in dishes like the 32 oz. dry-aged bone-in ribeye served with herbed tallow.
“We’re committed to doing everything in-house and doing things the right way,” McMullen said.
Luminosa’s hours are 5-9 p.m. Sunday, 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Special culinary events, like pasta-making classes, chef’s dinners and other programs will be announced.
Morning pastries, after-dinner dessert
Executive Pastry Chef Mattie Grey curated the dessert menu with options including the “Secret Garden” made with a chicory and espresso sponge, mascarpone mousse and a salted chocolate crumb.
Stay longer for after-dinner coffee, tea, cocktails, dessert wines and amaro.
Morning and lunch diners may stop into Luminosa for grab-and-go pastries, breakfast sandwiches, coffee and other treats from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday and 7 a.m.-10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The Rooftop Bar
Take a trip to the ninth floor for the chic hangout aptly named The Rooftop Bar.
Opening May 17, The Rooftop Bar offers indoor seating, and three offshoot outdoor deck areas provide different panoramic views of the city and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Beverage and Restaurant Manager Sarah Charles has curated the menus for the bars at Luminosa, The Rooftop Bar and The Red Ribbon Society.
“Each of the spaces has a particular energy and that should be reflected in the beverage lists,” Charles said. “We have a fun marriage of Italian-inspired, Negroni-inspired cocktails and more ‘patio-crushers,’ as I call them, for the roof. … Nothing too fussy, nothing too complicated, just delicious and crushable.”
Signature cocktails and mocktails complement the culinary offerings and use fresh ingredients and garnishes, and the bars offer Italian-focused wine lists, local beers and other hand-selected libations.
“There’s a lot of passion that exists within these walls and that translates not only to the food but to the beverage,” Charles said. “It’s important for beverages to reflect seasonality, not only on the kitchen side.”
Charles said the zero-proof options are designed to be more polished and offer an adult-curated experience beyond lemonade.
The Rooftop Bar’s beverage menu will offer small bar bites.
The Rooftop Bar’s hours are 4-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday, 2-11 p.m. Saturday and 2-10 p.m. Sunday.
For those who recall the former Skybar venue, the fire escape seating areas are no longer accessible to bar guests.
However, Estro said curated live, local music nights, inspired by NPR’s Tiny Desk series, in the former radio station on the ninth floor will launch soon.
The Red Ribbon Society
The Red Ribbon Society, an exclusive speakeasy bar, is tucked away in the hotel’s basement.
It’s named for “the anti-Prohibitionists of 1907, who boldly sported red ribbons as a symbol of defiance.”
The Red Ribbon Society will be open on weekends from 7 p.m.-midnight on Thursday-Saturday.
A secret passcode is required for entry. Specifics are hush-hush to maintain the secretive allure but follow The Red Ribbon Society on social media for clues.
For those cleared for entry, a door off Wall Street leads guests down a dark hallway and into the concealed bar in the former boiler room and A. Williams Ribbon Supply’s ribbon-making factory, established in 1907.
Original features aid in creating the mysterious mood like the barred windows high above the bar at ground level, and framed tools and blueprint displays pay homage to the site’s history and workers. The boiler door remains on the wall opposite The Red Ribbon Society’s bar.
The historic decor is juxtaposed by soft furnishings like the velvety green banquettes, maroon seats and drapes in an elegant bar styled after the roaring 1920s.
In addition to the specialized handcrafted cocktails, a small bar bites menu with charcuterie and snacks will be offered at The Red Ribbon Society.
The Flat Iron Hotel
Where: 20 Battery Park Ave., Asheville.
Opening: May 15.
Info: For more, visit ashevilleflatiron.com and follow @theflatironavl, @luminosaavl and @redribbonsociety on Instagram.
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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: Tour: Flat Iron Hotel, Luminosa restaurant opens in downtown Asheville
