Come late summer, the fig tree at Liberty House Café in Asheville, NC, bears the purple promise of homemade Fig Newtons. In the adjacent garden, tomato plants run in a ruby-red stream. Green squash leaves ramble like kudzu.
Sydney and David Beverly bought the breakfast and lunch spot on the edge of the Chestnut Hills neighborhood in 2020. The building is surrounded on two sides by the season’s best: apples, carrots, kale, tender lettuce. Picnic benches and patio tables sidle up to the border. Local roasters supply Liberty House’s coffee. The garden belongs to a green-thumbed neighbor who also owns much of the block and lets the Beverlys pick what’s ripe. “We’re super lucky to have the location we do. Customers say to me all the time, ‘It’s like our little secret,’” Sydney says. Here, they share a few of their Asheville favorites.
Liberty House Café
We set it up as, “Have your picnic catered for you.” You order, then we bring it out to you and leave you alone. We really love giving good service, but the beauty of it is there’s not a server in your face all the time asking how everything is. Monday through Friday we run a set menu, but on weekends David comes up with specials based on what we can pull from the garden. Things are blowing up right now. So our pastry chef is making homemade Fig Newtons.
Atomic Furnishing & Design
The whole space is this giant warehouse that also features local artists. It’s so fun to walk through, because they have the coolest midcentury furniture you’ve ever seen. If we have nothing to do, just walking through there is like Christmas. We’ll pick up a piece or something. The staff is super sweet. And it changes a lot—all the artists bring in new stuff. Just really curated collections of things.
The Whale
They have two locations in town. The one we go to is in West Asheville because we live very near. It’s like a beer garden with offerings from all over the United States, all over the world. They have German selections and rosé on tap. And the staff there is amazing. We go two to three times a week. You sit outside. You bring your dog. It’s super chill.
North Mills River Park
We are both outdoorsy people, and we do a lot of trout fishing. Our favorite place to go is southwest of Asheville, twenty-five to thirty minutes away. We put our waders on, and there’s a stream that goes through. We can stay out there all day, or we can stay out there an hour. There are hiking trails. It’s beautiful, especially in the fall.
Most Visited Places is an ongoing digital and print series underwritten by The Mountain Valley Spring Water.
