I have been obsessed with the radio spot for a new bar in Biltmore Village called The Village Pub. It’s the kind of advertising you don’t hear too often anymore—hokey, borderline disturbingly earnest proliferating that tries so hard to be everything to everyone that it comes across as bland.
While I really should have the commercial memorized (for the sheer amount of times I’ve both heard it and repeated it), I’m going to paraphrase some of my favorite parts:
- The Village Pub has every craft beer you’d ever want.
- The Village Pub has any food you’d want: smashburgers, hot dogs, salads…and fries!
- The Village Pub even has top-shelf whiskey and tequila!
- You could go to The Village Pub to watch the big game…or meet friends!
- They even have a great patio for your pup!
- Whenever I (the announcer) go to the Village Pub, I make a new friend.
It’s made even better because it’s all read by the radio station’s sales manager, who’s clearly not a voice actress. The line I’m most obsessed with is the one about making a new friend every time you visit—how can one guarantee that?
I’d been wondering who exactly this ad was catering to—modern audiences are typically a bit savvier than this Mad-Men era schick—but a few weeks before Christmas, I was in the sauna at the gym, and an older gentleman I typically avoid making eye contact with (the kind that’s all too happy to talk at you the full time you’re trying to sweat in peace) was telling some hapless victim all about a new bar he and his wife went to, The Village Pub, which to hear him tell it, had everything you could possibly want in a bar: craft beer, top shelf whiskey and tequila, tvs to watch “the big game,” smash burgers, and “a patio where you could bring your pups.”
So, last Monday, when my friend Dani texted to see if I wanted to join her for half-off wings at this new bar in Biltmore Village—The Village Pub—I was only too excited to say “yes.”
I’ve got to say that the advertising does the joint a bit of a disservice. I was expecting a sort of chain-restaurant style nightmare, but what I found was a really nice sports bar with a really great, very open space that had reasonable prices and played a nice selection of top 40 classics (Jessies Girl, American Girl, Brown Eyed Girl…you get the picture), the kind of low-key neighborhood bar that isn’t a dive, but isn’t farm to table, that there’s a real lack of in Asheville. The cherry on top? They have both hot wing dig and spinach artichoke dip, two appetizers I frequently want but rarely find on Asheville’s menus (shoutout to Hillman for a solid spinach artichoke offering).
I got ten huge wings which were fairly good, and I sampled Dani’s footlong hot dog with beer cheese which I wasn’t hungry enough for Monday but tasted delicious. We determined that The Village Pub will be a great place to meet for a casual Sunday of eating and imbibing and have tentative plans to do such in February (once dry January ends). All in all, I had a really good experience here. My only complaint isn’t that not only did I not make any new friends, I wasn’t even approached with a friendship offer.
AshevilleExplorer 