The Flat Iron Hotel

The building went up in 1926 as an office block, and stayed one for close to a century — announced, built, and occupied within that same single year. It was home for a stretch to WWNC, Asheville’s first radio station, and to the detectives, architects, and tailors whose old suites are now the hotel’s 71 rooms. Rowhouse Architects restored it, and the Flat Iron opened as a hotel in May 2024, cocktails included on the top floor. What’s up there runs on two schedules. Mornings, the counter pours a Luminosa Chai and a strawberry-rhubarb coffee, with a quiche built on a Dry Ridge Farm egg — the Rooftop Caffè side of the operation. Later in the day it becomes a different list — seven drinks, $15 to $16: Hunter Seeker, Berlin in the 70s, Corpse Reviver, Priority Mail, Gold Rush, Chemist Coffee, Spiced Cider. Suze and mezcal do the heavy lifting, along with an absinthe that still shows up in the Corpse Reviver. Priority Mail runs on Evercrisp apple and prosecco; the Spiced Cider leans on McConnell Farms cider, and the Chemist Coffee on an orange-chocolate gin instead of a plain roast. Three patios wrap the roof, angled toward what Garden & Gun calls Asheville’s “Land of the Sky.” The bar runs fewer days than the coffee counter it shares the roof with, which the regulars up for chai and quiche rarely think to pass along.