The Smokin' Onion cooks up plans for new West Asheville restaurant

Tiana Kennell, Asheville Citizen Times
·3 min read
The Cluckin' Good is a plant-based "chicken" sandwich and one of the most popular items on The Smokin' Onion's menu.
The Cluckin' Good is a plant-based "chicken" sandwich and one of the most popular items on The Smokin' Onion's menu.

ASHEVILLE - It’s a bittersweet ending and beginning for West Asheville diners as one restaurant closes, and another will soon take its place.

In December, The Trashy Vegan closed permanently at 697 Haywood Road. The former food truck transitioned into a brick-and-mortar restaurant in May 2022.

Those seeking plant-based meals won’t have long to wait or far to go as another vegan restaurant will move into the storefront suite this winter.

The Smokin’ Onion, a plant-based comfort food truck, is revving up to launch operations at the permanent address while keeping the mobile eatery rolling.

Co-owner Keems Schultz and her husband, co-owner/head chef Parker Schultz, launched The Smokin’ Onion food truck in 2021.

Sous chef Zach Wright has been with the business from the beginning.

The entrepreneurs started the business with the plan to open a permanent concept one day.

“Good fit, right timing, everything kind of lined up. With Trashy Vegan and us ready to make the move forward and them ready to step back, everything seemed to line up, and it was a good fit,” Parker Schultz said.

From left, The Smoking’ Onion sous chef Zach Wright, and owners Keems and Parker Schultz, January 4, 2024, in the plaza where their new brick-and-mortar will open in West Asheville.
From left, The Smoking’ Onion sous chef Zach Wright, and owners Keems and Parker Schultz, January 4, 2024, in the plaza where their new brick-and-mortar will open in West Asheville.

Moving into West Asheville

Keems Schultz said West Asheville is the ideal neighborhood for the business.

“A ton of our clientele live out here, and we love the vibe of West Asheville,” she said. “It’s a very local — people who want to support local, and we’re super excited about that.”

Now Parker Schultz and Wright will be preparing food in a kitchen more than two times the size of the food truck.

Many familiar and favorite dishes from the food truck will be offered on the restaurant’s lunch menu, like the Cluckin’ Good Sandwich and The Town Gyro. An appetizer and breakfast menu will be introduced with new, original dishes like “chicken” and waffles, breakfast bowls, oatmeal and pancakes.

The Smokin' Onion's Town Gyro is made with plant-based ingredients.
The Smokin' Onion's Town Gyro is made with plant-based ingredients.

“We’ll be doing something a little different here with breakfast and lunch,” Wright said. “From what we’ve seen around the community, there’s a big demand for a vegan breakfast and lunch place, so taking our approach to making a lot of stuff in-house and some of the things you can’t really in other vegan restaurants and bringing that in.”

Wright said the restaurant will allow the chefs to pay more attention to detail in the scratch-made food.

For beverages, the restaurant will offer soft drinks with adult drinks to come later. Drip coffee and teas will be served, though they’re leaving the espresso business to the neighboring Bad Manners Coffee, which opened in November.

The Smokin' Onion also neighbors Botiwalla by Chai Pani restaurant.

Visiting The Smokin' Onion

The soft opening is projected to happen by February.

The hours will be 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday-Monday.

The Smokin’ Onion food truck will continue to operate from 12-8 p.m. Tuesdays at New Belgium Brewing in River Arts District.

From left, The Smokin’ Onion owners, Parker and Keems Schultz, and Zach Wright, sous chef, pose in front of their new sign on Haywood Road in West Asheville, January 4, 2024.
From left, The Smokin’ Onion owners, Parker and Keems Schultz, and Zach Wright, sous chef, pose in front of their new sign on Haywood Road in West Asheville, January 4, 2024.

“Our food is for everybody, not just vegans,” Parker Schultz said. “It’s just good food that happens to be plant-based, and anybody will enjoy the food if they come out and try it.”

The positive reviews have continued to pour in from first-time visitors who are surprised by their experiences.

“We’ve had a lot of non-vegans be thoroughly impressed with what we’ve done. … We try to open up how good plant-based food can be — you don’t have to think of it as vegan food,” Wright said.

Follow the Citizen Times for updates on the opening and a deeper dive into The Smokin’ Onion’s new menus and venue.

The Smokin Onion

Where: 697 Haywood Road, Asheville.

Opening: Tentatively January/February 2024.

Info: For more, visit thesmokinonion.com and follow on Instagram @thesmokinonion.

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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: The Smokin' Onion cooks up plans for new West Asheville restaurant