the local joint

champion sound breakfast sandwich. i recently ate here for a lunch break while landscaping for 8 hours. i got the big bear sandwich. i rarely admit defeat and use silverware to attack a sandwich, but this was necessary given the delicious smothering of gravy on top of the fried chicken, bacon and cheese. this was all on a homemade biscuit. it is as good as it sounds, sided with some in house home fries. thelocaljoint is as its name denoteslocalfood at really reasonable prices, highly recommended.

the food is wonderful. it's a locally owned and they uselocalmeats and fresh ingredients. however, the service is lacking. the waitresses seem as if they could careless about actually serving food, but seemed more interested in talking to each other. it appeared to stem from management b/c even the manager acts as if customer service isn't a high priority. it's hard to enjoy even good food when you're service is terrible. i really hope they can turn it around.

an outstanding restaurant. a truly outstanding restaurant for breakfast and lunch. to a great extent, the food is fromlocalfarms, breweries, etc. rather than commercial distributors. the preparation is wonderful, in a home style (if your grandmother was a great chef), and served by a neighborly staff. if you are into ironic humor, thelocaljoint is attached to a gas station, not the typical location for a reataurant of this calibre. the name is appropriate in that thelocalpopulus for miles around make this their favorite.

the good, the bad & the ugly. i go to thelocaljoint several times a week. i've probably done breakfast, lunch and dinner an equal number of times, week days and weekends, so i feel i'm writing a solid "report".

in some aspects, i absolutely love thelocaljoint. it's wonderful to see a business finally "make it", in this particular spot, where so many have failed. it's even more wonderful to have a restaurant in fairview who useslocalfarmers and merchants and cares about good, quality,localand organic foods, beers and wines.
with that said:
the good: a pretty unique menu consisting of mostly good food, made from a lot oflocalfarmers and merchants. warm, fun,localenvironment when you're there with your neighbors or friends, especially on a cold morning (with good coffee!!) ; a nicelocalgathering spot.
the bad: the wait staff. while they are all different ages and personalities, they all seem to have a common thread....and its not a good one; a apathetic attitude and a sense of entitlement. i've seen 1 female server with a friendly attitude but all of the rest of the waitstaff seems to be hurried, stressed out and very angry or unhappy.
the ugly: attitudes. none of the wait staff seem to give a sh*t if you are there or not and most all of them act as if they are doing you a huge favor by waiting on you or as if you are encroaching upon them if you ask more than 1 question. god forbid if you ask more than one question or have a special request or food allergies! they don't bother trying to hide their displeasure and dirty looks. some of them do little "huffs" and one female server (who seems to be there all the time and works every station) all but rolls her eyes at you every time you say or ask anything.

i also have to say here that i have put in my years as wait staff, in every environment from mom & pop greasy spoons to 5-star restaurants, so i know the life. i know how ugly the public can be and i know how you can be treated and then not get tipped or make any money from it, therefore servers have my empathy and i always treat wait staff with respect and i always tip well, even when the service is less than ideal. (i've even tried tipping the one really obnoxious female server there really well to see if it would make a difference in how she treats me the next time i come in. nope. she doesn't care. she's always just as impatient and obnoxious every single time.)

how do these people keep their jobs?

the cook staff doesn't seem any better. often their eyebrows are furrowed in the most unhappy and even angry expressions. are they unhappy or hung over or just plain miserable, or what?? i've heard the wait staff and cook staff fussing and snapping at each other. "why is this here?" "where's my ____?" if you go to the counter at the end to place or pick up a to go order, the cook staff will be all over the place within a foot in front of you and will not even bother to look up to see if you need anything. i realize that's not their job but i really don't think it would kill them if they could at least look up, make eye contact and at least smile. i don't know....maybe a few of the rigid faces would, indeed, break, crack and fall off.

fairview as a whole is such an artsy fun community and most people in fairview have really great attitudes. all of this negative stuff seems so out of place in fairview!!!! attitudes like this usually "trickle down". if management or the lead wait staff have horrible attitudes, they tend to hire people with the same "energy" or "vibration". i've heard good things about the owner of thelocaljoint, so i have to wonder....is it coming from her? or is she too far removed from the daily grind and it's coming from her management or lead staff?

whatever the source of it is, i sure hope the owner sees this and has a wakeup call.

as much as i love my littlelocalrestaurant, i'm afraid my experience there yesterday was just about the last straw. i've tried to look over it, and focus on the good aspects and i've tried to deal with it but i think i've had about enough of the really negative attitudes and i think it's worth it to drive further into asheville, to the restaurants where you're treated as valued and appreciated.

it's a p-i-t-y.

eat at a gas station? if  thelocaljoint  is attached, you bet! my friend marti and i pulled in, driving past the pumps . . . . . . to the joint’s side entrance. a warm day, if might have been a little too breezy for umbrellas, but they must make the place look even more festive when they’re up. as soon as we walked in i smiled at the diner-come-21st-century interior. compelled to raise my eyes to “eat local”  the minute we walked in, my eye was then drawn lower to dishes and wall tiles, then toward me to red-toned vinyl bar stools with yellow piping, and finally, reaching closest to where we stood, the floor tiles. the hip color palate is throughout. notice the stacked, colored crates bringing color to the plain white tile wall. forward to shelves of colored dishes. forward again and lower to shelves of mugs and condiments that suspiciously go with everything else. could the color palate be ketchup, mustard, pickle? someone has an incredible eye for color. moving on from color and de

amazing food for great prices. i was wary when we first pulled up and saw that it was attached to a gas station, but lesson learned. don't be so judgy!

astonishingly good prices for well-made,localsourced food served in a funky and comfortable environment. i had the cuban panini with sweet potato fries and my spouse enjoyed his rueben with sweet potato fries. we also had the buffalo chicken chips appetizer. around $24 and we will each be getting another meal out of our leftovers.

two things to keep in mind. quality food takes a little time. don't come in here and expect to get your food in the same amount of time one gets regular diner food. the buffalo chicken chips must be meant to be shared by many more than two people (which is fine, love leftovers).

all we could say is wow!!!!!. my daughter and i were looking at property and we met the realitor at thelocaljoint where my daughter ordered a mamosa to begin her morning. it was amazing. we returned for lunch before going back to winston salem and were astounded with the chicken salad sandwitch with a hint of apple and taragon and lettuce and a slice of beautiful tomato. we also had a great rubin and thought both where the best we had eaten yet. the ice tea was superb. we hated we left without tasting the lemon cake. now we have to go back. a true oasis in the beautiful rolling hills of fairview. we shall return.

thanks!. my family loves thelocaljoint! the food is fresh and very good. not always consitantly the same but consistantly good. i recently have developed some food sensitivities which make going to restaurants challenging but last week i gave my complicated order to a smiling server and was served a meal that was delicious and one that fit into my restrictive diet. no huffing or eye rolling (that i saw anyway) about the "difficult" customer. this was the most pleasant dining out experience that i have had in a couple of months.

we went to breakfast at thelocaljoint this morning and sat at the bar because there were no available booths. what i saw in the next 10 minutes made me unable to eat my meal.
the cook dropped an omelet on the floor, reached down with her bare hands to pick it up and wipe the floor, then continued cooking (which included grabbing omelet toppings with her bare hands). she pulled her pants up and pulled her t-shirt down multiple times between trips to the veggies and cook top. i mentioned something to the server, but the cook never washed her hands during our entire visit.
thelocaljoint used to be one of my favorite breakfast choices, but i don't think i will be able to return after this visit.

we love this place. were headed to lake lure and hungry. stopped at cvs and happened to ask the pharmacist if she knew of a breakfast place. she said "try thelocaljoint, it's very good." understatement. we loved the decor , the food and service was great. yes it's at a gas station with clean restrooms and a great menu. yes to thelocaljoint.

best homefries ever. first things first, thelocaljoint is connected to a gas station and while the decor is diner-like and nice and the restaurant clean it still is an odd location which could cause low expectations.

don't let that be the case! loved our trip here and the location makes the awesome breakfast food that much better and unexpected. it was a great breakfast for us out-of-towners who stayed in fairview while visiting asheville, nc. if you are in asheville, this restaurant is only 15-20 minutes outside of the downtown area and worth the trip.

our waitress was friendly and attentive with multiple fresh, hot coffee refills while we checked out the menu. the wife enjoyed "the fairview" benedict that is topped with avocado and sauteed spinach. not your typical diner fare for sure! she loved it.

i got 1 pancake (awesome maple flavored butter), side of homefries, and a cheese and egg biscuit.

the homefries were ridiculous. they were crispy fried potato cubes and they were heavenly. not sure how a restaurant makes such an ordinary menu item stand out so much, but this place accomplished that. the pancake was great too, wish i had room for more than one. now the biscuit was just a tad fluffy for my tastes but it was homemade and fresh which was nice.

all in all a great place. we went here on a whim one morning, one of the few vacation restaurants we didn't plan out in advance and it turned out to be one of the meal highlights of our trip. wish we would have made it back for dinner!

pack of jackals. proceeding an afternoon of chasing waterfalls down the road in somewhereville, we drug ourselves into thelocaljoint to replenish our sun drained souls with some grub. i didnt get to taste them myself, but all reports read that the pancakes were a winner. i snaked a couple of (frozen variety) fries when a compatriots back was turned and thought they had a odd kind of sweet taste to them, but no one else seemed to mind, or notice. their reuben looked substantial and didnt live a very long life on roosters plate, as he has the hunger of a lumberjack. as for myself, i had the western burger and it kept my attention, i didnt care for the bbq sauce (also very sweet) but otherwise it was up to snuff. the ol' sleestack that took my name had their buffalo chicken sandwich and she said that it was a bit of a hot mess. she found that the onion strings were limp, rather than crispy and that the amount of cheese on it was a load of overkill.
there was a lot of other food eaten (fish tacos, philly cheesesteak) between our two tables and i didnt hear anything else other than grunts, so i will assume that all the rest was thoroughly enjoyed. service was both patient and awesome and they have the (not so) greasy spoon diner aesthetics down pat..
grade: yes.

fantastic!!!. this place is so good and cute. very good menu and love the fact that they use most alllocalstuff!! coffee is great. everything is homemade and fresh. specials are always great too

hip hip hurray!. thelocaljoint is located in the old huddle house in fairview--it has a retro diner feel with great food. i've never been disappointed with any of the specials, last time had the mocha waffle. it's fun to see what creative meals they come up with. always served by friendly staff. try sitting at the counter to scope out what to order next time.

opens at 7 am!

amazing food ! we are visi.... amazing food !
we are visiting home (were from fairview) on post deployment leave and wanted to try this place since its the only real place close to home we decided to stop in. we were not disappointed at all ! friendly server, food was made to order and came fast, huge portions, absolutely delicious ! and is one of the only places we've been to back home that gives military discounts ! which is awesome considering everyone else has been so rude when we have asked. 5 stars to thelocaljoint ! we will be back soon !