The Times Bar & Coffee Shop

The Times Bar & Coffee Shop occupies part of the S&W Building at 56 Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville, a 1929 Art Deco landmark built as the S&W Cafeteria and one of the finest buildings in the city — the interior keeps prohibition-era details including dumbwaiters and hidden tunnels. The venue is two businesses running from one address, which is the reason it belongs in this guide: a coffee shop through the day and a cocktail bar at night, in the same room, with the same staff. That format matters more than it sounds. A non-drinker who arrives at 11am and one who arrives at 9pm are in the same place ordering from the same counter, rather than choosing between a café that closes at four and a bar that only pours alcohol.

The coffee side runs Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 4pm, and the bar runs later — to 11pm most nights and 1am on Friday and Saturday, closed Mondays. It becomes 21 and over after 4pm, takes no reservations at all with seating strictly first come first served, and does not permit commercial photography or photoshoots of any kind, which is a rare and rather welcome policy in a building this photogenic. Two honest caveats about the drinks. The venue publishes its menus as images rather than text, so nothing can be read online in advance, and the list changes with the season — the current one is themed around the 1990s. And a Kimchi Refresher and a Buckthorn Shrub that have been attributed to this bar could not be found on any menu we could access, so treat them as unconfirmed rather than as things to order by name. What is dependable is the format: espresso and cocktails from one bar, all day, in one of the best rooms downtown.