‘We’re starting to get our vibe back.’ A visit to Asheville, N.C., as it rebuilds from Hurricane Helene.

We heard this sentiment again and again on our recent visit, Hallmark story after Hallmark story. Neighbors helped neighbors; communal kitchens, food banks, and pop-up supply centers were set up. There were message boards and tents, and potable water stations. “There were positives that came out of it,” says Tracey Morgan, artist and proprietor of the Tracey Morgan Gallery, which recently featured an exhibit of Asheville artists using debris and other materials salvaged from Hurricane Helene. “We learned to take care of each other.”

We wanted to see just how much the city has come back. Is it ready for tourists? We checked into The Radical. The recently reopened hotel is in the River Arts District (RAD), the hardest-hit section of Asheville. During the aftermath of Helene, The Radical, which suffered flood damage to its lower level, was used as police headquarters. Today, the artsy, eclectic hotel is reason enough to visit the River Arts District. Located in a former concrete and brick warehouse, the hotel features a bold, in-your-face chic industrial vibe, with colorful street-art-style paintings, funky and wonderfully gaudy chandeliers and furnishings, and a friendly, hangout lobby. There are 70 rooms with the same vibe, with murals painted on brick walls by local artists, and modern, stylized baths. The hotel’s Afterglow coffee shop by day and DJ bar at night had just reopened. The Golden Hour restaurant, helmed by award-winning chef Jacob Sessoms, who specializes in wood-fired, Southern-inspired cuisine (shellfish beignets, shrimp toast, wood-roasted bone marrow), was closed during our visit but has since reopened. The hotel also plans to reopen its rooftop bar and host a variety of local events and programming when the warm weather season begins.

“We want to bring this place back alive,” Stewart told us. We suspect it will be in full swing by the time you read this.

The next morning, we explored the River Arts District. We’d heard it was “destroyed, more than 80 percent gone.” The lower River Arts District, closest to the French Broad River, once filled with warehouses and buildings housing artist studios and galleries, was leveled. All the buildings were destroyed, demolished, and removed. Plans are underway to determine what will be developed on the swath of empty land bordering the river. More than 100 artists lost their studio and gallery spaces and many of their artworks.

The good news is that the upper River Arts District is alive and well, and provides gallery space to many dislocated artists.

“People, even locals, think that RAD is closed,” says Adam Cohen, manager at Jaime Byrd Contemporary Art Gallery. “We’ve had to work hard, shuffle and relocate. But the artists are here. This morning, I went around and counted. There are currently at least 341 artists showing their works in the RAD.”

We didn’t count, but we spent a few hours browsing art galleries in the RAD, meeting artists, and listening to their stories. “We were lucky we were able to repair and get back up and running as quickly as we did,” says artist Jaime Byrd. She told us about two beavers that were found swimming around in her gallery after the storm and pointed out some of her artworks inspired by the tragedy and the community’s response. “A lot of people are sharing spaces now but there’s lots of movement and reopenings. It’s coming back.”

We visited Pink Dog Creative, showcasing the work of more than 25 artists, the RAD Outpost, a new light-filled modern gallery with studios and works of displaced artists, Wedge Studios, with more than 30 artists represented, and several other galleries, all within easy walking distance. We also stopped in the North Carolina Glass Center, offering glassblowing classes and featuring more than 60 artists who work and sell out of the Center.

That evening we dined at The Bull & Beggar restaurant, also in the River Arts District. It’s a lively spot, housed in a former warehouse with high ceilings, brick walls, and wooden beams, offering fine dining. We shared charred cabbage, scallop crudo, and anchovy toast appetizers followed by steak frites and pan-roasted turbot.

The city of Asheville was without electricity for weeks and without water for 53 days, during its busiest tourist season. It was basically shut down. “It felt like a war zone,” the bartender at the Asheville Proper, a restaurant in downtown, specializing in live fire cuisine (think: grilled steaks, smoked meatballs, sesame shrimp). “Roads were closed, helicopters were overhead, emergency vehicles were everywhere.”

Five months later, downtown was back in business; it was hopping. We hopped, also, aboard the rollicky LaZoom Comedy Bus Tour, for a fun and funny look around town, and then we explored downtown on foot. Shops, restaurants, breweries, and galleries were all open. Some of our favorites include Good Hot Fish, a Southern-style counter fish fry restaurant by an award-winning chef; Burial Beer Co. (Asheville is filled with cool breweries!); Potential New Boyfriend, a cozy place for a drink; Curate, for fabulous Spanish tapas; and Early Girl Eatery, for a hefty breakfast. We also visited the Asheville Art Museum, featuring a collection of American art from the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on the Southeast. The collection includes more than 7,500 objects, including 175 sculptures and more than 1,000 studio and contemporary craft objects, including glass, ceramic, fiber, metal, wood, and mixed media. The museum is also hosting Asheville Strong, a special exhibition of artwork by artists who live and work in the Helene-affected Appalachia region, providing an opportunity for impacted artists to showcase their work (through May 5, 2025).

Our final evening, we dined at The Market Place restaurant, a semifinalist for James Beard Outstanding Restaurant in America (2024), and a mainstay in downtown Asheville since 1979. The restaurant, helmed by executive chef and owner William Dissen, a 2025 James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef and a pioneer in farm-to-table cuisine, served as a food bank during Hurricane Helene. “We were cooking for 1,000 people or more a day, out of food trucks,” Dissen said.

Judging from our meal at The Market Place, that had to be some of the best disaster food ever served! We started with the charcuterie platter with house-made and locally cured meats and pickled and fermented local vegetables. We tried the roasted cauliflower, which was nicely charred and topped with crunchy, tart apple shavings, taleggio cheese, and crispy garlic, followed by the mushroom tagliatelle and crispy duck confit. All around us, people chatted, laughed, and clinked their glasses.

“I think Asheville in its comeback stage is going to be a vengeance,” Dissen said. “We’ll be back better than ever. I can already feel the warm and jovial vibe.”

For more information, visit www.exploreasheville.com.

Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at bairwright@gmail.com