Anoche

Anoche shares its lot on Clingman Avenue with a taco truck, Laurita’s Kitchen. The two take a break together every summer to rest. Amber Arthur opened the bar in November 2022, across the street from the Grey Eagle. She had started PennyCup Coffee with Bill Tanner, and opened BattleCat Coffee and Olde London Road, an English football pub. All of them now run as one collective with seven owners, several of whom first worked for her at BattleCat. Rebecca Bennett is a certified master of agave spirits. “Agave spirits speak to me because there is so much to learn from them, and the history has been widely misconstrued and turned into a cash crop,” she told Mountain Xpress.

Most of the seating is outside, along a slat fence hung with string lights. A timber pergola covers part of the deck and leaves the rest open to the sky. Under it, long tables with woven-back chairs; past it, Adirondack chairs with arms broad enough to hold a drink. The groupings are small and separate, so two people can sit without joining anybody’s party. On a snow day the heaters come out and people sit there anyway.

Inside, shelves run floor to ceiling with mezcal and tequila, string lights woven through them. A hand-lettered ORDER HERE sign hangs over a narrow white counter. A mural by Edwin Salas covers one wall. The Guayaba finishes with sal de gusano, dried agave-worm salt — not a garnish that only sounds unsettling. The Jengibre gets sal de chapulin instead: ground grasshopper. Otono arrives with a cinnamon stick still smoking over the ice. The Carajillo Frio mixes tequila with actual espresso, three coffee beans floating on the foam.

Hurricane Helene put the French Broad more than thirty feet over its banks in September 2024. Anoche came through unhurt and reopened on October 9. The lot did other work first: a free supply table of baby formula, canned food and pet food, open to anyone who needed it.

Taste the sal de chapulin before you ask.