The Corner Kitchen

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A House With a Long History of Feeding People

The building at 3 Boston Way has been associated with food for well over a century. Built in 1895 as part of George Washington Vanderbilt's planned village — designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same landscape architect behind New York's Central Park — the house sheltered estate workers before evolving, decade by decade, into a gathering place for the community. By the 1930s, a resident named Charles Jennings had already started a nearby restaurant. By 2004, Kevin Westmoreland and Joe Scully had opened Corner Kitchen inside those same walls, and Asheville's culinary scene has never quite looked the same since.

The origin story is genuinely charming: the two co-owners met through their sons — both named Matthew — at a YMCA Adventure Guides meeting. Westmoreland, who grew up nearby and remembers Biltmore Village when it was still a neighborhood of barbers and grocers, brought operational and business acumen. Scully brought decades of professional kitchen experience, including time at the Culinary Institute of America, the United Nations in New York City, and several executive chef posts in Atlanta and along the coast. Together they formed Westmoreland & Scully and purchased the former Hathaway's Café at the very start of Asheville's restaurant renaissance.

The Food and the Philosophy

Corner Kitchen describes its approach plainly: "Lots of places do farm to table. The difference is what happens in between." That gap — between sourcing and plate — is where the kitchen earns its reputation. The current dinner menu, overseen by Chef de Cuisine Paul Morgan (who grew up in Charleston fishing and crabbing, and found his footing in an Italian kitchen before the lowcountry's West African food traditions shaped his style), reads as confident American cooking with Southern roots and seasonal instincts.

Dishes like the Pecan Crusted Trout from Sunburst Farms with ginger sweet potato mash and bourbon beurre blanc, or the Shrimp n' Grits with Benton Country Ham and Cajun butter, sit alongside a 14 oz. dry-aged pork chop with pimento grit cake and collard greens. The brunch menu — served daily from 9:30 to 2:30 — is equally considered, ranging from a Boozy French Toast with Grand Marnier brioche and bourbon sorghum to the House Made Corned Beef Hash, described on the menu as "a homage to Joe's dad, so it's gotta be good."

The wine program earned a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 2019, a recognition that reflects the care put into the list — and that's reinforced on the floor by Certified Sommelier and AGM Sarah Ogden, who trains staff on regions and food pairings.

Community as a Core Value

Corner Kitchen celebrated its 20th anniversary in February 2024, a milestone that speaks to something beyond good food. The restaurant has been Green Restaurant Association certified since 2012, composting since 2005 — a program that became a model for other independent restaurants in Asheville. Each quarter, a portion of dessert sales goes to a local nonprofit through the "Sweets for a Cause" program, with past recipients including Manna FoodBank, Pisgah Legal Services, and BeLoved Asheville.

The team also notes a quieter piece of local history: the phone number listed for Corner Kitchen — 828-274-2439 — was Kevin Westmoreland's childhood number, available when they opened. They secured it. That's the kind of detail that tells you everything about how rooted this place is.