Finest is ‘here for the neighbors’: New affordable deli thrives in West AVL

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Earlier this month, West Asheville celebrated the grand opening of AVL’s Finest, a farm-fresh deli committed to serving high-quality, affordable food.

According to co-owners Mike Bean and Gab Bonfiglio, their menu was designed with the Asheville community in mind.

“We think we were always going to be doing something special and unique to the area. One of the biggest things that is unique about us, I think, is that we are here for the neighbors first and foremost,” Bean said. “We love our tourists, but I’m a neighbor. I live 300 steps away from our front door, and the reason that I started at the farmers’ market was I wanted more good sandwiches and I love feeding people our really beautiful sandwiches. That’s the spirit that we want to carry through.”

Bean began Finest as a farmers market pop-up before moving the enterprise to its first brick-and-mortar location at the end of September. The restaurant is now open bright and early in West Asheville, serving customers from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekends at its 794 Haywood Road location.

A part of the Finest mission statement is affordability, something the owners have a special appreciation for from their time living around the delis and bodegas of New York City.

“Approachability and affordability have been central to our mission from the get-go,” Bonfiglio said. “I’m from the New York area, Mike lived in the in New York when he was an adult, and it’s normal to have a routine there of eating from the street carts and eating at your favorite local deli or bodega or whatever. And it’s routine because it’s affordable, right? So, we wanted to recreate that experience.”

On the side of the Finest building, big red letters advertise “FOOD TO GO,” another tenet of the deli’s restaurant model.

“We want everyone that is out on the street to be able to get a really beautiful piece of food, and ideally a really beautiful, well-sourced piece of food, which is something that we are, like, doctrinaire about,” Bean said.

Read more about the Finest menu in our story here.

One example from the menu is the “Worker’s Special,” a $15 combo meal which includes either a chopped cheese made with Morganton-based J4 Cattle Company beef, a chicken salad sandwich made with Winston-Salem-based Joyce Farms chicken or a “veg combo” made up of local roasted vegetables, in addition to chips or salad with a drink.

“That is not much more expensive than if you were to get a value meal at McDonald’s and I promise you, your stomach will feel better eating J4 beef than it would eating a Big Mac,” Bean said.

In the weeks since Finest has opened its doors, business has been bustling, with the patio tables and sidewalks around the deli filled with customers. In the months to come, the restaurant owners want to widen their community focus to more than just food, too, with aspirations to offer cooking classes, live music, book clubs and even “Settlers of Catan” tournaments.

For more about the finest new deli in Asheville, visit www.finestavl.com.