The Best Way to Spend an Asheville Summer Sunday, Part 2: River Drinking in Chimney Rock

I’d been to the Chimney Rock Brewing Company twice before last summer, and while I’ve always enjoyed myself on the riverside deck underneath the towering summits of the Chimney Rock State Park (that might’ve been one of the cheesiest lines I’ve ever written, and I might hate myself for it, but it came out organically, and thus honestly, so I guess I’ll keep it?), I never thought you’d be able to get into the river. 

Chimney Rock Brewing Company is located in Chimney Rock Village, which is just outside of Lake Lure (both the town and lake itself), and about forty minutes from downtown Asheville (an easy half hour from where I am with my Asheville address, but basically Fairview locale). Chimney Rock Village is cheesy but in a good way. Asheville is obviously touristy, but it’s mostly three specific types of tourists:

1. Bachelor and bachelorette parties: enough said.
2. Beer people: Wanna talk hops? THEY DO.
3. People who like farm-to-table food, local art, cool bars, and an off-the-beaten-path-feel-with-really-going-off-the-beaten path, aka the people I attempt to satirize most in this blog while ignoring the fact that they are me. 

Chimney Rock is different. It’s filled with your stereotypical American tourist outfitted with a camera, slew of children, and penchant for spending money on salt water taffy and/or “gems,” no matter where they are geographically. The first time I was at Chimney Rock was with my cousin Mikey. We agreed that the tourist trap feel, surrounded by towering (there I go again) mountains reminded us of Lake George, NY, which is especially fitting since Last of the Mohicans, set in Lake George and the surrounding Adirondacks, was filmed here. 

On that visit with Mikey, I visited Chimney Rock Brewing for the first time. It was a cool spring day, but we sat on a couple of Adirondack chairs on their tiny beach and had two beers, one of which Mikey promptly threw up back into its cup—whether it was because he was hungover or just because he wanted to add to the cheesy tourist ambiance is still up for debate (what’s not up for debate is that his claim that it had a “bad beer smell” is bullshit). 

I’ve gotten very off track. 

Chimney Rock Brewing has a deck and small beach area right on a lovely mountain river and is one of the more picturesque places to have a beer in the western NC beersphere (first it was “towering mountains”…now beersphere? I’m sorry for whatever’s happening in this post). I always wanted to come back in the summer since it seemed like somewhere great to spend an outside afternoon, and I imagined I’d be able to stick my foot into the river, but what transpired was far better. 

When I went to Chimney Rock Brewing last summer for the first time with my cousin and friend, we wore bathing suits, probably just to be optimistic, but we didn’t intend to use them. We arrived early, got some beers, and posted up on the beach, not sure how long we’d stay. 

Then, people started getting into the water, not just tip-toeing in but fully wading out to the middle of the river, the opposite bank, or going upriver where it even seems deep enough to swim. 

We followed suit, and since it was a lovely, hot day, we found a nice spot a couple of feet out in the water with some flat rocks and stayed for 2-3 hours. Hanging out in water with food and drinks on a hot summer day is ideal, and there is nowhere else you can do so (that I’ve found) in WNC…where the water is this clean. 

Sundays at Chimney Rock Brewing became a thing last summer, and I hope I’m there often in Summer 2023. While there’s plenty to do in Chimney Rock, I’d pair this outing with a stop at the Bearwallow Provision Company and/or a little Fairview tour if you’re coming from Asheville. 

And if you want to get super trashy…wander down the street to the infamous Mistake by the Lake, the next entry in this July’s Best Way to Spend an Asheville Summer Sunday series.