Workshop Lounge

Workshop Lounge sits one floor up, inside a building that used to be the Asheville Foundry and Supply Co., which produced steel used in buildings across Asheville and North Carolina, including the Biltmore Estate. The hotel around it is five red-brick buildings in total; three hold its 87 rooms and this bar, the other two the event spaces and a restaurant next door. Inside, teal leather stools on brass legs line a marble-topped bar backed by mirrored glass cabinets and a row of brass pendant lights, with one wall left in the original brick. The courtyard behind it — brick walls, iron furniture, a run of lanterns — is the other place to sit. At 51 South Market Street, cocktails run $13 to $17. Three cocktails carry the list: a Smoked Old Fashioned built on Old Forester bourbon, demerara, and bitters, served in a smoked glass; a Cafe Boulevardier that swaps in Kamora coffee liqueur alongside the Amaro Averna; a Hot Guava Gimlet made with gin, guava, lime, chili, and Tajin. The lounge has hosted live music on recent Thursdays and Fridays — Dr. William Bates in July, Chris Fraser and the Simple Folk Band back to back in June. Sit at the marble bar for the brass and the mirrors; take the seat by the brick wall if the original foundry is what you came to see.