Asheville Forager in downtown Asheville celebrates is ribbon cutting.

Heather Collins had never heard of Asheville, NC when her employer Paws Mobile asked her to transfer there from Virginia. Her husband, Padraic ‘Paddy’ Collins, had heard of it, but never been.

Nonetheless in 2020, the couple and their toddler daughter took the leap and settled in West Asheville, which is where they realized that their dream of a collaborative concept to address food insecurities, waste and environmental impacts might have found the perfect launch pad.

“Paddy and I had this long-term goal of different zero waste businesses that would feed off each other to address these issues,” Heather explains. “One of those was a grocery store and one of those was a restaurant, and we didn’t really know which would come first.”

It was Helene and its aftermath that brought clarity. “We saw a significant need for a grocery downtown, so we decided to make that the first step in helping this community we love.”

By community, Heather didn’t mean just downtown residents, workers and visitors, but local vendors who needed a place to sell their goods.

On June 10, Heather and Paddy cut the ribbon on Asheville Forager, a grocery store stocked with fresh produce, dairy, meats, seafood, dry goods, baked goods, beverages, grab ‘n go prepared foods and family meals.

“We are two locals wanting to help locals,” says Heather. “We have over 40 local vendors, farmers and makers, and we want to keep everything as local and sustainable as possible with little to no impact on the environment.”

They built their suppliers through relationships they developed with weekly trips to the West Asheville Tailgate Market on Haywood Road on Tuesday afternoons. “We weren’t actually thinking at that time of the grocery, we were just buying their great products and making friends,” Heather recalls. “But when Helene happened, we immediately felt like we had to check in on all of them. So many lost so much and that really drove us to get the grocery going.”

Located in the former Asheville Emporium storefront on Wall Street, Asheville Forager is boutique sized and selected in comparison to big chain grocery stores, but not, Heather emphasizes, bougie. “We want to take the pretentiousness out of eating healthy. We know it can seem out of reach to a lot of people and want to eliminate that.”

That begins with the look and vibe of the store. Except for the refrigeration, everything is upcycled, re-purposed and hand-done; the couple did the buildout themselves once the space was back to a blank canvas, which they also assisted with by buffing out the concrete floors and painting the walls.

The booths were salvaged from a café in Seneca that went out of business; Heather buffed, painted and reupholstered them; shelving came from another place that closed post-Helene. She built the front counter from the pallets their cooler units were delivered on, and Paddy built all the crates in the store from leftover wood.

The most meaningful of the décor elements are the trees Heather painted on the wall behind the counter. The first she calls the Helene tree; the wall-mounted shelves are made from downed branches from trees on the property of the founder of Asheville’s Friends2Ferals. The other she drew and painted on the first anniversary of Helene.

The most endearing ‘art’ was contributed by the couple’s rescue dog Clover, who was the onsite security the nights Heather was alone in the store doing buildout (she and Paddy traded shifts as she kept her fulltime job and went to AB Tech for an accounting degree).  “Just as we were getting ready to finish the floors, Clover knocked over a container of paint, then walked though it, leaving a trail of paw prints,” Heather explains. “It was the best thing ever. We let Clover have some of her friends over to leave their footprints too.”

Clover is also the inspiration behind Clover’s Columns, the concrete support columns in the store. For a small donation, Heather paints a B&W silhouette resembling the donor’s pet and pet’s name onto the column; funds are donated to Friends2Ferals.

The Collins felt confident the baked goods would be a draw; baker Nick Brown was their first hire, rolling out breads, pastries, bagels, and sweet and savory baked goods. He’s become especially known for his kolaches.

The breakfast menu is succinct and relies on Nick’s catalogue — day-old bread for the French toast sticks, avocado toast constructed on his focaccia, a BYO breakfast sandwich on a biscuit or ciabatta.

It was the overnight success of the deli that surprised them.

“We thought we were opening a grocery store that had a deli inside, and it turns out we opened a deli with a grocery store attached,” Heather says with a laugh. “We put a lot on Nick once we saw how popular the sandwiches were; I told him he’d be making sub rolls in his sleep.”

The # 1 seller on the sandwich board is the Italian Grinder – ham, cotto salami, mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, oil and vinegar; and #2 (Heather’s #1) is the Twisted LT – house roasted turkey, avocado, lettuce, tomato, sprouts and mayo. She expects the newly added Roast Beast to give them a run for the money. “It’s our only hot sandwich; chef Luis makes this amazing fig-onion sauce that goes on the hot beef and melted cheese.”

The beef is from Shipley’s Beef, a small father-son operation in Boone. When the menu touts ‘house roasted turkey,’ that refers to the whole turkeys Heather drives to Winston-Salem every other Tuesday to pick up.

Though Paddy can often be found making sandwiches behind the counter, the kitchen is run by chef Luis Beuno, who creates specials, makes take-home dinners like pot pies and meatloaf, and is steering the Forager’s first Thanksgiving feast. (The full meals for 8-10 are sold out, but smaller portions of the bird, as well as salads, soups, sides, breads and desserts are still available to order.)

Heather says. “We love being on Wall Street, there’s a lot of foot traffic and more visitors than we expected. But we get a lot of downtown workers who have to have a sandwich for lunch and come in a couple times a week. It’s nice to build a clientele that you come to know by name – and sandwich!”

More about Asheville Forager.

— Written by Kay West

— AIRfare is sponsored by McGuire Wood & Bissette

Photos courtesy of Asheville Forager
First photo:  Heather and Paddy Collins celebrating the ribbon cutting of Asheville Forager
Second photo:  Clover’s Columns, benefitting Friends2Ferals
Third photo:  Baker Nick Brown and Forager’s sub rolls