Noble Cider plans restaurant, 'inspirational cider experience,' in downtown Asheville

ASHEVILLE — A future for Rankin Avenue and Walnut Street's historic Tyler Building, long under construction, is beginning to emerge from the dust. 

Noble Cider will open a bar and modern-American restaurant in the portion of the airy 1928 building once home to an oddly beautiful Goodwill store.

The restaurant will help anchor the massive limestone-trimmed brick building, which has a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trevor Baker, a co-owner of the local craft-cider company with wife Joanna Baker and Lief Stevens, detailed a particularly compelling plan for the 3,500-square-foot space fronting Rankin, including a top-tier chef and ambitious cocktail program. 

An indoor garden party

The restaurant, he said, will be filled with light and greenery — sort of an indoor garden party. 

A full bar will feed a craft cocktail menu, with special focus on the company's main output: locally made craft cider.

The menu will highlight apple brandy and other spirits centered around the deep apple culture once again growing stateside. 

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Long gone are the days of sweet, poorly made apple cider, though the industry has worked hard to shake that image.

Noble's restaurant project aims to assert cider's role in modern food culture: America's oldest alcoholic beverage is somehow new again. 

"The reason we want to do this is because we see ourselves as more than just cranking cider out," Baker said. This project will help Noble build a more "inspirational cider experience." 

"We're elevating what we do with the natural complement of food, cider cocktails, the sorts of things that will build our brand."  

Noble will have a top-tier chef

And then there's the kitchen: It sounds quaint that Baker's brother will be the chef — Asheville, in particular, loves a family business.

But beyond that, Noble Cider's new chef Gavin Baker has worked as sous chef at The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England, a Michelin-starred restaurant driven by renowned chef Heston Blumenthal. 

Baker has opened restaurants around the world, and most recently studied sustainability and the future of food while earning a Master’s Degree from SOAS University of London.

And, not for nothing, he's an alumnus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. 

"What we have is a well-trained chef moving back home," Trevor Baker said. "While we've been at Noble doing our thing, we wanted to elevate our cider experience, and it just timed up nicely." 

Local, sustainable, slow food

Baker said his brother will help complete the story of Noble Cider.

The apple mash from the cider-making process, for example, feeds Red Angus cattle living on Morgan Branch Farms in Leicester.

That beef will now be dry-aged at the new restaurant and cooked over the Josper Charcoal Oven soon to be installed in an open kitchen.

And the wood for the Josper? Apple, naturally. 

"When you have an apple orchard, there's a lot of pruning involved," Baker laughed.

A large percentage of the menu will be cooked over charcoal, and plenty of cider will make it onto the menu. 

While the aim is sustainable, locally focused Michelin-quality food, it will still be approachable. Expect, however, some special events and menus to be sprinkled into the restaurant's programming. 

"We're planning on having fun with it, but this is a nice opportunity to elevate cider, offer good food and cocktails, and be in a good location," Baker said.

The Leicester taproom will still handle all cider production, and will remain a neighborhood watering hole. 

Noble Cider's new downtown location, at 45 Rankin Ave., is projected to open in early 2019.