A rural neighborhood with a surprisingly good food trail
Gillespie Heights feels more like a mountain hamlet than an Asheville dining district. Tucked around quiet roads such as Gillespie Drive and Parham Road, the neighborhood is primarily residential, so you will not find a walkable row of restaurants right outside your front door. Instead, the local food scene gathers along New Leicester Highway, where farm stands, markets, casual counters, taco trucks, and a family-run vineyard create a distinctly western Buncombe County dining experience.
The best way to explore is by car: start near the New Leicester Highway corridor, grab something hearty, pick up a few local provisions, and finish with wine and mountain views. Prices are generally friendlier than Asheville’s trendiest dining rooms, with most casual meals landing between $8 and $18 per person.
Grateful Roots Market & Deli: the neighborhood go-to
At 3393 New Leicester Highway, Grateful Roots Market & Deli is the kind of place locals quietly depend on. It combines a small grocery, farm shop, deli counter, and community gathering spot, making it one of the most useful food destinations near Gillespie Heights. The owners’ connection to local farming gives the shop a strong sense of place, while the menu is broad enough for breakfast, lunch, snacks, or an easy dinner to take home.
For breakfast, look for egg sandwiches, bagels, English muffins, and hearty wraps. At lunch, the hot-pressed panini selection is the main attraction. The Reuben, French dip, Caprese, Tuscan chicken, and vegetarian “Veg Your Face” sandwich all make a convincing case for skipping a fast-food stop. Soups, salads, pasta salad, fruit cups, and other homemade sides round things out.
- Cuisine: American deli, farm-market fare, vegetarian-friendly options
- Price range: About $8–$16 for breakfast or lunch
- Best for: A quick but thoughtful meal, local groceries, picnic supplies, and baked goods
The market also stocks Amish meats and cheeses, local eggs, produce, ice cream, hot sauces, jams, chocolate, bread, and other goods from Western North Carolina producers. It is an excellent hidden gem for assembling a road-trip lunch or a casual dinner at home.
Los Tacotes: casual Mexican comfort food
For something bolder, follow New Leicester Highway toward the 2900 block and look for Los Tacotes at 2935 New Leicester Highway. This modest taco-truck-and-store setup is exactly the sort of place that rewards curiosity. It is casual, unfussy, and centered on Mexican street-food staples rather than elaborate presentation.
Expect tacos, burritos, and other filling options that are easy to order at the window and take back home. The setting is more roadside than polished, but that is part of its appeal. Gillespie Heights residents looking for a flavorful weeknight meal can usually eat well here without spending much.
- Cuisine: Mexican street food
- Price range: Roughly $8–$15 per person
- Best for: Tacos, burritos, takeout, and a low-key local experience
New Leicester Highway has a practical, everyday rhythm, and Los Tacotes fits it perfectly. This is the sort of stop where you might grab dinner after errands, add a drink from the nearby market, and be back home before the evening fog settles over the ridges.
Addison Farms Vineyard: wine, snacks, and mountain scenery
At the western end of the local food route, Addison Farms Vineyard offers the most scenic food-and-drink outing near Gillespie Heights. The family-run vineyard sits at 4005 New Leicester Highway on a 55-acre farm with wide Blue Ridge views. Its tasting room focuses on North Carolina-grown wines, including varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Montepulciano, and Petit Manseng.
This is not a full-service restaurant, but it is an ideal place for a relaxed afternoon snack. Bring a picnic, order a bottle, or enjoy a tasting with local cheese, crackers, and rotating charcuterie-style selections. On some weekends, food trucks and pop-up vendors add a more substantial meal to the vineyard experience, so it is worth checking the current event schedule before heading out.
- Cuisine: Wine-country snacks, cheese, charcuterie, picnic fare
- Price range: Approximately $15–$35 for tastings, wine, and shared snacks
- Best for: Date afternoons, visitors, sunset drinks, and special occasions
The porch and vineyard views are the real draw. If you want to show someone the quieter, agricultural side of the Asheville area, this is one of the easiest places to do it.
Leicester Grocery and Garden: provisions with local character
Another useful stop along the broader Leicester corridor is Leicester Grocery and Garden. It is less of a destination restaurant and more of a practical local food institution, but that distinction matters. Rural communities often build their food culture around small markets, garden produce, seasonal goods, and neighborhood gathering places rather than formal dining rooms.
Pick up cold drinks, snacks, produce, and simple ingredients for a meal at home. In warmer months, the surrounding Leicester area is especially appealing for shoppers interested in farm products, roadside stands, and seasonal abundance. The Gillespie Heights area is close enough to Asheville for convenience but far enough out to retain that country-store feeling.
Bakeries, farmers markets, and the local sweet tooth
Gillespie Heights does not have a dedicated bakery district, but local baked goods appear throughout the Leicester food network. Grateful Roots carries cakes, pastries, breads, and specialty items from regional bakers, including gluten-free and vegan options. Its market also highlights local producers such as Dwell & Delight Baked Goods, Annie’s Bread, and Dolci Di Maria.
For a fuller farmers-market outing, plan a Saturday trip toward Asheville’s North Asheville Tailgate Market or another seasonal market, where Leicester-area producers and small food businesses often sell bread, pastries, preserves, vegetables, eggs, and prepared foods. The tradition here is less about one famous bakery and more about following the ingredients back to the farms and home-based bakers that supply the region.
That farm-to-table connection is one of the most appealing things about eating near Gillespie Heights. A breakfast sandwich may include local eggs, lunch may feature regional cheese, and an afternoon snack may come from a nearby family farm or kitchen.
Food trucks and flexible local dining
Food trucks are part of the wider Asheville food culture, but near Gillespie Heights they tend to appear at vineyards, markets, breweries, community events, and seasonal gatherings rather than on a permanent daily schedule. Addison Farms is the most natural nearby place to watch for rotating trucks and pop-up meals. Asheville’s broader truck scene includes everything from wood-fired pizza and burgers to Cuban, Filipino, Mediterranean, barbecue, and dessert vendors.
The key is flexibility. Check a venue’s social media or event calendar before setting out, especially on weekends. A planned vineyard visit can easily become an informal food-truck dinner, while a simple market run may turn into a meal built from local bread, cheese, soup, and produce.
The Gillespie Heights food tradition
The defining food tradition around Gillespie Heights is not fine dining; it is gathering good local ingredients and sharing them simply. Think pressed sandwiches, farm eggs, tacos eaten from a paper tray, homemade soup, regional cheese, Appalachian-grown wine, roadside produce, and porch meals with a view.
For the best local crawl, begin near Grateful Roots on New Leicester Highway, stop for tacos farther along the corridor, and continue toward Addison Farms Vineyard. Bring a cooler, leave room for baked goods, and allow extra time for mountain scenery. Gillespie Heights may not have a packed restaurant strip, but its nearby food scene offers something better: small businesses, local farms, and genuinely personal places that make the countryside outside Asheville taste like itself.