Haywood Common

A white geometric whale tail is painted across a teal cinderblock wall, and beneath a wooden pergola strung with bulbs, picnic tables stand between patio heaters. Farther back, rows of tables sit under cream umbrellas against a wood fence.

Rob and Hannah ran the Belly Up food truck from 2015, then opened the restaurant at 507 Haywood Road. Mountain Xpress counted at least sixteen new food and beverage businesses on that road in 2017, the year they came. The building is shared with The Whale, a beer collective.

The bar leans on smoke and the season. Smoke Show is tequila and mezcal with lime, ginger, grapefruit and hibiscus. The Smoked Pineapple Mai Tai puts mezcal in with white rum, pineapple and coconut milk, and Juniper Garden sets gin and St-Germain against cucumber and ginger beer. On the fall menu, the Apple Butter Old Fashioned pairs bourbon with apple butter and hard cider. The Kimchi Bloody Mary starts from a house-made mix. Bee Kind, a special of gin, honey ginger, Domaine de Canton and dandelion bitters under a bee pollen rim, gives 10% of its sales to the YMI Cultural Center. The mocktail version counts too.

Food comes from a counter order. The kitchen also has its own ground, a 150-by-150-foot plot in Marshall grown organically and no-till, and its produce is sold in the market space inside. Desserts come from Baked Pie Company and Folk Saints.

Carry the drink out to the pergola.