creative & eccentric, perhaps too eccentric?. the instant you see the bull and beggar you know you're going to a hip, eccentric, creative restaurant. first, there's barely a sign for the restaurant. it's in the river arts district at the end of an unpaved drive in the old industrial building that houses the ever-popular wedge brewery, amandawest hair salon and wedge studios and gallery (guarded by a giant metal dinosaur). to get to the restaurant you have to wind your way around the wedge brewery and its food trucks, and the casual visitor might give up before finding it.
inside, the high-ceiling space retains a lot of its industrial/warehouse feel, with mostly unadorned brick walls, concrete floors and the obligatory hvac ducting on the ceiling. to the right is a large bar, and a mirror on the far wall gives the illusion that the space is even larger than it is. there is seating at the bar, at tables on the first level and also on a loft level (unused the night we were there, a tuesday).
but the menu is where it really gets creative. and eccentric. perhaps too eccentric even for asheville. if there's a unifying theme to the menu, it's hard to figure. southern? french? seafood? what? if there's a pricing strategy, we couldn't see it. some dishes and drinks are real bargains, while others verge on the outrageous.
there are small plates, snacks, a big selection of cheeses, a good bit of seafood -- from mussels and french fries for a bargain $13 to basil-fed snails (six tiny, tiny bits of green flesh for $10), charred octopus, and a variety of oysters on the half shell for $3 each. there a few large plates or entrees (trout, filet mignon). i had the filet( $30), nicely done but overwhelmed by the madeira sauce and only slightly better than mediocre fries. (go to fig in biltmore for what pomme frittes should be like.) what stands out is the mostly raw and steamed two-tier seafood platter for $85, easily enough for two or three, and a smaller one for $65, and caviar for $100.
one recent and positive change is that the raw bar and even the seafood platters are half price from opening at 5 to 6:30.
there's a small and, yes, eccentric, wine list -- i couldn't find a cab on it to go with the filet mignon and settled for a merlot blend -- some local craft beers and a nice selection of premium liquors and intriguing drinks at mostly reasonable prices.
maybe it sounds like we didn't like the place, but in fact we did. we love the space and the atmosphere, and the service was friendly and peppy. several of the dishes were wonderful, though in other cases the chef's reach far exceeded his grasp.
it was a special occasion (a birthday), so we didn't hold back. our tab for two cocktails, two glasses of wine, two entrees and one snack, with tax and our usual generous tip, came to around $165. but we saw couples come in and probably drop less than $40.
we'll definitely come back, though we'll want to investigate the menu a little more in advance.
we do think the owners need to rethink the menu just a bit. keep it eccentric and creative, sure, but perhaps tone it down a bit for the only moderately adventuresome diner. finetune the pricing. and finish the darn website (after all, the restaurant has been open since july).