T he Creators of N.C. By Wiley Cash

Moving On Up

Hist or y is brewing again in downtown A sh evill e.

By Wiley and m allory CaSh In 1994, Oscar Wong began brewing beer in the basement of Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria in downtown Asheville. Wong, the son of Chinese immigrants, grew up in Jamaica and moved to the states to study civil engineering at the University Notre Dame. After forging a successful career in nuclear engineering, he would later create an innovative nuclear waste disposal company and then go on to found Highland Brewing Company, Asheville’s oldest independent brewery. As the first legal brewery in Western North Carolina following the repeal of prohibition, you can imagine its allure. Still, it took Wong eight years to break even. Why? Because he was determined to produce a high-quality product on a consistent basis. He invested in his vision. While that superior quality persists, little else remains from those early days in the basement.

In 2011, Wong’s daughter, L eah Wong Ashburn, of ficially joined the team at Highland Brewer y. More than a decade earlier, Ashburn had applied for a position with her father’s company af ter graduating with a degree in journalism f rom UNC - Chapel Hill, but her father turned down her application. He wanted her to find her own way, he told her. And so she did.

Years later, af ter Ashburn built a thriving career in sales and marketing with a yearbook publisher in Charlotte, her father actually recr uited her for a position at Highland, but in the inter vening years, the tables had turned: He could no longer af ford her. But blood is thicker than water, and, apparently, so is beer. “Other things became more impor tant and the brewer y was one of those more impor tant things,” Ashburn said in a 2018 inter view with Business North Carolina. “It was about being par t of the communit y. You can’t put a value on that.” L eah Wong Ashburn is now Highland ’s president and

CEO, and her tenure has marked an era of rapid change, both for the company and the cit y of Asheville. In 2011, Highland opened a tasting room at their mountaintop manufacturing facilit y in east Asheville, which has now grown to 70,000 square feet and of fers complimentar y tours of their onsite brewer y, a lively taproom with ample seating, a performance stage, a roof top garden bar and an indoor event space. According to Brock Ashburn, L eah ’s husband and the company’s vice president, “We built the taproom to accommodate the throngs of people who were showing up, par t of an ever-increasing interested public who wanted to drink our beer where it was made.”

O ver the past decade, a lot of people have — as Brock A shbur n puts it — “show n up” in A shev ille, and the cit y is now an inter nationa l destination for foodies, beer connoisseurs and outdoor enthusiasts. “T here’s a lways been a soul and a spir it in A shev ille,” L ea h says, “and Highland got to join up w ith other people who believed in the potentia l for A shev ille. Great beer is a complement to g reat food and qua lit y of life.”

Communit y and regional pride are more than just branding tools; Highland is a company whose culture is built on stewardship and communit y responsibilit y, tenets made apparent in their practices of reducing or reusing waste, par tnering with local nonprofits and embracing solar power. T he company also collaborates with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conser vancy, naming seasonal beers af ter unique regional landscapes. Ashburn has always made clear that she intends to keep the company concentrated on regional endeavors and has no plans to ship beer across the countr y, choosing instead to focus the company’s ef for ts within the confines of the Southeast. T his comes as no surprise for a brewer y that has spent t wo and a half decades fostering a regional brand in a region that has quick ly gained international attention.

Today, L eah and Brock are sitting at the brewer y’s new downtown taproom in the old S&W Building, a quintessential example of Asheville’s stunning 1920s Art-Deco architecture. L ate morning sunlight pours through tall windows that look out on Pritchard Park, illuminating the gold-plated fixtures and ceiling tiles, the two-stor y marble columns and tiled floors in a glowing aura that sweeps visitors back into the roaring ’20s. You can almost sense what Asheville must have been like a centur y ago, when it was first known as a destination for Holly wood stars, politicians and titans of industr y. Highland anchors the new S&W Market’s downstairs dining area with a taproom, along with several local restaurants that provide counter ser vice. Upstairs, on the mezzanine level, Highland has opened a f ull bar and tasting room with ample space for guests to rela x over a pint.

One can only imagine what it must mean to L eah for Highland to return to downtown, where it all star ted f rom such humble beginnings over a quar ter centur y ago.

“As a second-generation owner, I was encouraged to make the brewer y my own,” she says. “T hat did not feel safe to me at first because of the long histor y of Highland, but my father’s sentiment was honest, and he’s let us create our own vision.” T hat meant changing the beer por tfolio and re-envisioning the brand. She says it also meant improving the proper t y: “We star ted as a manufacturing company, but Brock ’s an engineer and a builder, and I’m a marketer,” L eah says. Combining all of those interests and backgrounds led to a complementar y hospitalit y component. “It appeals to tourists because it highlights some of the great things about Asheville in one location.”

Outside, people are waiting for the S&W Market’s doors to be unlocked for the day’s business. A line of tourists and downtown of fice workers in business attire snakes down the sidewalk. L eah and Brock look out the window and pause for a moment, perhaps recalling the throngs of beer enthusiasts who showed up the minute the first taproom opened at Highland ’s manufacturing site a decade earlier.

“T his is an oppor tunit y to tell our stor y downtown and also attract people to come out to East Asheville to visit our brewer y,” Brock says. “It’s a great oppor tunit y to get our brand out there and let people know where this all star ted.”

From a downtown basement to a mountaintop in East Asheville to the second floor of one of the cit y’s most iconic downtown buildings, Highland has come a long way. But whether it’s the qualit y of the beer or the family name, some things never change. PS Wiley Cash is the writer-in-residence at the University of North CarolinaAsheville. His new novel, W hen Ghosts Come Home, will be released this month. Mallory Cash is an editorial and portrait photographer.