If real estate success is all about location and opportunity is so often a matter of timing, combine the two with a vision and take a seat at The Pure and Proper.

The restaurant is located in downtown Black Mountain, which has grown considerably from its reputation as the very small town Richard King remembers growing up there. The fateful timing occurred in late summer of 2021, when he was stopped at a red light on State Street and glanced at the boarded-up 60-year-old Pure Oil service station, vacant for over two decades and obviously dilapidated. But the building had always intrigued him and almost on a lark, he called Joe Tyson, the owner of that building.

“I called him up right then and said, ‘Hey Joe, this is Richard. Are you ready to sell me that old gas station yet?’”

To Richard’s surprise, Tyson said he thought he was ready to sell. “I turned the car around, went to his office and we talked. I asked him if he needed any money right then and he said no. I asked if he needed me to sign anything and he said no. Then I asked him to give me 60 days due diligence and we shook on it.”

That due diligence began with Heidi King, Richard’s wife, mother of their two kids and business partner. The two met at Montreat College when they were 18; the first ten years of their marriage they had a construction company. “We both kind of obsessed over details and were enamored of making old things beautiful. Heidi became a self-taught interior designer and we worked well together.”

The Kings got out of the construction business in 2013, moved to Belize for a bit, then spent the next two years traveling with their kids in an RV, from South America to Canada. When they came back to Black Mountain, they bought the Greenville SC franchise rights for Asheville-founded White Duck Taco; Richard focused on that while Heidi pursued an online degree in interior design.

Then came the pause at the traffic light. “When I left Joe’s office, I called Heidi and told her I needed her to come look at something with me. She immediately asked me what I had bought,” he remembers with a laugh. “I told her I hadn’t bought anything yet, but that we had a great opportunity to buy something really cool. When I told her what it was, she was excited.”

At the building, they opened the garage doors and walked into a space that he describes as “Just nasty. There was oil all over the floor, water dripping from the roof and it stank. We looked at each other and said, ‘This is perfect.”

It didn’t take long to decide what the historic town landmark was perfect for. “Right away we started thinking about a restaurant. At that time, Black Mountain had breakfast, brunch, lunch, burgers and pizza figured out. But if you wanted a date night, or to celebrate a special occasion, you drove to Asheville. We thought Black Mountain needed a date night restaurant.”

They loved the building but had to be sure it could love them back. A structural engineer assured them that while it needed a lot of work, the bones were great and it would hold up.

“From there we had to figure out how to bring it up to codes but keep it comfortable and cozy and not lose its charm. Heidi gets 80% of the design credit. When we do these projects, I typically do function and flow, and she pulls together the colors, warmth and vision.”

They took possession of the building in September 2021, replaced the roof, added insulation, brought electrical up to date and codes. The street level was renovated and transformed into an entry, dining room and bar, keeping the original stone and brick walls, refinishing floors and repairing windows; the basement became more seating and a wine cellar, with egress to a patio. An attached addition was built for the new kitchen and bathrooms.

They brought Ali and Jake Whitman on board as business partners; Jake, who had worked in several well-known Asheville restaurants, would be executive chef.

The service concept stayed true to Richard’s original goal of date night dinner in an elevated night space. “We knew we’d have lunch, but we also felt strongly that dinner would be our fastball, and we were right.”

Whitman and his sous chef Robert Ottey saw dinner as sharable plates, playing in New American with international flavors and flair, sourced seasonally and as locally as possible.

The menu changes quarterly, though some dishes will always ground both lunch and dinner; for the former, that’s the brussels sprouts, steak sandwich crispy chicken sandwich and duck confit grilled cheese. At dinner, it’s the poutine, mussels, crispy chicken plate, flat iron steak and duck leg confit.

Ottey, who is now executive chef since Whitman left to open his own restaurant, has just rolled out a new dinner menu, incorporating the bounty of peak summer produce as small plates and on mains like pan-seared scallops.

The Kings are pleased that they’re no longer the only date night destination in town; the more restaurants that serve the residents and visitors to Black Mountain, the better for all. “When I was growing up, it was seen as little ole Podunk Blak Mountain. That’s all changing. We used to have to go to Asheville for cocktails and dinner. Now it’s all here, and Asheville is coming to Black Mountain to check us out, and Heidi and I are happy to be part of that.”

Meanwhile in Swannanoa…

Shortly after Helene devastated Western North Carolina, the Kings bought the century- old Swannanoa Bank building in Beacon Village, with the intent to preserve the historic architecture and bank elements such as the original vault and renovate it to a beautiful restaurant. In part due to on-going recovery efforts, the permitting process has been slow, and The Counting House is not expected to begin brunch and dinner service until Spring 2027.

In the interim, the owner of a vacant building 200 yards from the former bank had dinner at The Pure and Proper and called the Kings to see if they were interested in talking over their space.
Because the Kings had already nabbed noted Asheville chef Brian Crow (Chestnut/Corner Kitchen) as a partner – with his wife Megan Crow — for The Counting House and because the vacant building was already built out as a restaurant (previous tenants were Native Kitchen and Terra Nova Beer Co.) they said yes.

Daymakers Slider House is now open at 204 Whitson Avenue, a come-as-you-are gathering spot for locals, decorated with vintage Beacon Village and Swannanoa Valley memorabilia, with TVs to catch the game and live music. Crow has crafted a casual menu of sliders, wings, salads and sides.

Written by Kay West