A lot can change in 15 years—just ask chef Katie Button.
“I think about our first cocktail menu. At this point it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, did we really have that vanilla martini?’” she laughs.
Button is the chef and founder of the award-winning and now 15-year-old restaurant Cúrate Bar de Tapas. Since opening in 2011 in Asheville, North Carolina, Cúrate has earned the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Hospitality Award and been recognized by the Michelin Guide.
Cúrate also helped put Asheville on the culinary map. Alongside other trailblazers like Meherwan and Molly Irani, who started Chai Pani in 2009, Button brought national attention to the mountain town. Although, that’s not what she had in mind when she first opened the neighborhood restaurant.
Credit: Julio Martinez Photography
More Than Just a Restaurant
“Honestly, we were envisioning opening a small Spanish tapas bar, and it was just gonna be an Asheville thing,” she says. “It was half the size that it is now. And I was hoping people would love it, but people loved it so much that word spread.”
It wasn’t long before Button was nominated for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef Award (now called the Emerging Chef Award), and she was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2015. Since then, Cúrate has grown into more than just a local restaurant—it’s also a cookbook, wine club, and travel guide, offering chef-informed trips to Spain.
At its core though, it’s a love letter to Spain. Cúrate offers simple but perfected renditions of Spanish dishes like Pan con Tomate, Croquetas de Jamón, and Patatas Bravas. Built around the idea of sobremesa—lingering and relaxing at the table after a meal as a way to come together and have meaningful conversations—Cúrate was incredibly prescient. In 2011, smart phones were still new and social media, too, but with both consuming our time today the concept feels more important than ever.
Credit: Fraiche Photography-Kristina-Valdiviez
Showing Up for Asheville
Like any restaurant, Cúrate has been thrown its fair share of challenges. The pandemic hit the industry hard in Asheville, and a few years later, Button and her team were weathering the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Nevertheless, just days after the storm, Cúrate was providing thousands of free meals to the community as a part of a World Central Kitchen relief effort.
Credit: Evan Sung
In reflecting on how her restaurant has endured all these years, and through these obstacles, it’s the Asheville community Button points back to.
“I do think a big part of it is that we have stayed in Asheville,” she says. “The community loves to dine out. And when they dine out, they dine out [at] local and independent [restaurants]. And that’s incredibly important.”
With a wealth of great restaurants concentrated in the midsize city, Button and her team have not rested on their accolades. In fact, she says the vibrant local dining scene has only pushed her to keep reinventing and improving Cúrate.
“I can’t wait to see how it retains its sense of identity,” she says. “And also how it changes over time, because Cúrate has changed a lot, and it’ll be exciting to see how it shifts in the next 15.”
With spring upon us, there’s no better time to book a table on Resy and experience Cúrate and the magic of Asheville for yourself.
Read the original article on Southern Living
Dining and Cooking