Asheville is a mountain melting pot

SLIDESHOW: Asheville

p>The drummer sounds the first thumping beats, steady and thick in the cool night air.

After several moments, a second offers a tentative melody, gaining confidence from the approving cheers of the gathered crowd.

The toddlers and barefoot teens are the first to start moving -- bouncing and swaying and twirling with abandon.

A third and a fourth drummer join the growing tempest, now a fifth and sixth, building to a rhythmic crescendo. Suddenly, the staccato peal of a tom-tom breaks through the din. A goateed sexagenarian raps his cowbell, and a long-haired man in a black beret crouches around his drum, inches away from the audience like a washed-up rock star.

The crowd is alive now, a pulsing mass heaving along with the frenetic pace of the drummers. Dancers sway and swoop, arms akimbo and heads bowed, their eyes closed as the sound washes over them and echoes back from the darkening stone walls.

This is the Friday night Drum Circle, and this is Asheville, a city that makes no apologies for its nontraditional flair, that embraces the bohemian and yet welcomes outsiders like a long-lost friend.

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Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, Asheville is a pleasing amalgam of mountain culture -- the traditional music, the art and the food -- and pure urban hipness, an oasis of cool in the middle of the ancient hills of western North Carolina.

Asheville's downtown is devoted to art and food, with quirky galleries, art-supply shops and curbside bistros lining every street. The power-suited men and women who enter and leave the BB&T tower seem out of place in this downtown, where the sartorial code leans more toward thrift-store chic than suit and tie.

The beginning and ending of Asheville is its art, but you don't have to seek out the galleries to find it. It's part of the social consciousness -- public benches are wrought-iron sculptures, graffiti urge peace and love, and even the clothes and hairstyles show a keen sense of avant-garde design. Street musicians are just as likely to play the latest Shins tune as they are a fiddle-and-accordion bluegrass breakdown. The Appalachian Craft Center peddles traditional mountain arts (and free homemade cookies on Fridays) while the former Woolworth's building is now home to a soda fountain/arts flea market.

The anti-establishment vibe is also on display when it comes to dining -- the handful of downtown chain eateries sit forlorn and vacant while the outdoor patio at the Mellow Mushroom swarms with lunchtime patrons enjoying a slice of pizza or a sandwich. Starbucks? Not a chance. You'll find your java at independent joints such as The Sisters McMullen, Early Girl Eatery or City Bakery Café.

The food, like the art, speaks to you. Each dish is taken seriously, and a city that provides the Mexican-Caribbean fusion of Salsa's also offers the down-home yet sophisticated comfort food of the Tupelo Honey Café.

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No less fascinating than downtown is the River Arts District, a gritty accumulation of converted warehouses about 2 miles from the city center. Behind the nondescript brick facades, you can watch art in the making. The dozens of painters, sculptors, potters and glass makers here seem to enjoy sharing their work almost as much as creating it.

One of those artists is Jonas Gerard, whose stream-of-consciousness paintings burst from the walls of his 5,000-squarefoot studio. Gerard -- who has exhibited in major cities including Washington, Boston and Chicago -- moved to Asheville from Miami two years ago, becoming a bigger fish in a smaller pond. His studio is open daily to visitors, allowing guests to stand next to him as his passion spills onto the canvas. "It's creativity," he said, describing his work. "It's intuition. It's instinct. That's what it is."

Across the overgrown railroad tracks and up a flight of crooked wooden stairs is the gallery of Mary Charles Griffin, who displays works with offhandedly morbid titles such as "Left Turn on the Expressway," a dizzying swirl of color and texture. Griffin spent most of her life raising a family, learning painting from a private instructor until attending graduate school at Western Carolina University. She finished in 2000 at the age of 77 and now shares space with other painters and photographers at Warehouse Studios.

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There's so much more to Asheville if you're willing to drive out of the city center. Biltmore, the largest private residence in the nation, is open daily for tours. The grounds include immaculate gardens and a winery. Biltmore Village offers upscale shopping just minutes from the estate.

Just outside Asheville lies a nature-lover's playground -- the Blue Ridge Parkway snakes around the city; Pisgah National Forest lies to the north and south; the hulking Smoky Mountains stretch far to the west.

But it's easy to park the car at your downtown hotel for a couple of days, letting your feet and the hip undercurrent of this intoxicating city carry you along.

Contact Jeremy Glover at (804) 649-6387 or jglover@timesdispatch.com.