Southern Season, a gourmet grocery store based in Chapel Hill, is planning to open a new store in Asheville, according to rvanews.com. From the story, which focuses on the closure of its Richmond store:
Company officials say the move will allow Southern Season to focus on opening stores with smaller footprints. Two such stores, a 25,000-square-foot Southern Season to be located in Atlanta and a smaller Taste of Southern Season store in Biltmore Village near Asheville, North Carolina, were announced alongside the Richmond closure. Another “Taste” concept is planned for Charlottesville. The stores, between 4,000 and 7,000 square feet, will offer a smaller selection of the store’s best selling items. The company plans to open upwards of 30 of them in the next several years.
Southern Season’s flagship Chapel Hill store is 60,000 square feet; Richmond is around 53,000. Executives say the company is simply “following the (downward) trend in retail store size” in its decision to focus on locations of a smaller size.
Word on the street is that the store will move into the former Katuah Market space near Biltmore Village. Katuah Market closed a year ago, with a number of people citing a poor location as at least one reason why the market didn’t last.
Update: Southern Season is going in at 4 Swan St. in Biltmore Village.
Here’s more about Southern Season, from its website:
Southern Season is the premier destination for specialty food and gifts. Since its creation in 1975, Southern Season has been known for the breadth and quality of its gourmet foods, wines, housewares, and cookware. A food lover’s paradise with exciting and innovative products from vendors local to international, Southern Season offers over 70,000 items sold in-store and online. With a belief in southern hospitality and a passion for the art of entertaining, Southern Season prides itself upon great tasting and distinct products offered by a knowledgeable and friendly staff ready to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
Known as a “culinary Mecca,” the store features specialty food products, chocolate and candy, wine & beer, coffee & tea, prepared foods, kitchen tools, home items, gifts and much more. Guests, however, don’t come to Southern Season solely for the food. A visit to the store often includes exclusive samplings from featured vendors, a hand-crafted java from the full service coffee & tea bar, an ice cream cone from the old-fashioned soda fountain, a glass of wine from full service wine & beer tasting bar, or a cooking class taught by a celebrity chef. Southern Season also has a full service indoor / outdoor restaurant showcasing a menu of creative, seasonal fare that highlights local ingredients also available in the store.
Southern Season has been featured in publications by Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, Gourmet Retailer, and on the Food Network. It was honored by the National Association for Specialty Food as its Outstanding Retailer of the Year and by Gourmet News with its Retail Achievement Award for its success in the area of food education. The late New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne once described Southern Season as “wall to wall and floor to ceiling…a visual and gustatory delight!”