smallbites
Sushi Tasting!
$25 All-you-can-eat • WOW!
by mackensy lunsford send food news to food@mountainx.com
(excluding individual sushi/sashimi) Sundays Only
Come see our newly remodeled dinning room!
3 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801 828-225-8885 • Open 7 Days a Week www.ChampaAsheville.com how sweet: Anna and Joshua Sachar have your sweet treats.
Visit our other location in downtown Hendersonville • 437 N. Main Street
Photo by Max Cooper
laughing mask candies comes to lexington
Don’t miss the experience of a unique outdoor familystyle fun while you’re in Western North Carolina… enjoy quiet water canoeing, kayaing and tubing in the beautiful mountains near Brevard, NC. The French Broad River offers the ideal place to experience nature up close. Take your time (this is not whitewater!) and enjoy nature’s peace and beauty as you paddle in the great outdoors.
CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE! CANOEiNg & KAYAKiNg EASTATOE TUbE ADVENTURE Choose from 3, 4 & 7 hour self-guided canoeing and kayaking trips on the French Broad River.
Cool off on a hot summer day… mountain style! Kids of all ages enjoy this 2-3 hour tubing ride.
828-877-3106
FlY FiSHiNg
DiSCOVERY AT DUSK
Guided Trips gUiDED TOURS Instruction Experience the French Fully Stocked Broad River at twilight Fly Shop during the most active time of day for wildlife.
Headwaters Outfitters
Just 9 miles west of Brevard on Hwy. 64 and Hwy. 215
34 JULY 18 - JULY 24, 2012 • mountainx.com
Laughing Mask Candies, a classic by-the-pound candy shop, recently opened on Lexington Avenue. Husband-and-wife team Anna and Joshua Sachar offer Jelly Belly jelly beans in every imaginable flavor, classic hard candies and taffy, too. They also stock sweet-and-sour pops and jawbreakers, and suckers worthy of the Lollipop Guild’s head honcho — even if he’s into funkier flavors like habañero pepper. “We’ve tried to get stuff that you couldn’t just get at a convenience store,” Anna says. Which is certainly not to say that everything in the store is weird — much of the selection is classic, if not perfectly nostalgic. Butterscotch disks, anyone? The store’s name and carnival theme are both inspired by Joshua’s collection of Mardi Gras and Venetian masks. But the two have more than colorful disguises to their credit: Anna has an associate degree from the California Culinary Academy and is the winner of the 2005 San Pellegrino “Almost Famous Chef” award. Joshua spent 10 years as a chef, two of them at the Michelin-starred Jardiniere in San Francisco. While taking a break from the restaurant world, Joshua grew culinary mushrooms. So why candy? “We were in Northern California for eight years and every little town had stores with interesting candy, and we would go in there all the time,” Anna says. “We thought it was fun and something different and when we moved here, we realized there was really nothing exactly like it.” The duo actively seeks out local candy makers, they say, and hope to display candy-inspired art in their front room. They also plan to offer birthday parties, candy-making demonstrations and special events, including holiday gingerbread-house workshops. Laughing Mask Candies is located at 84 N. Lexington. For more information, visit laughingmaskcandies.com.