Some New, Good…Vibes

“It’s a Vibe” is Annoying…but Sometimes Accurate? 

Few things are as annoying as when I ask someone what a place or event was like and they respond with some version of “it was all vibes.” 

“It was all vibes” tells me A) nothing and shows me that B) you tend to say what other people are saying without any real POV of your own. 

That said, the vibes are hard to escape right now.  As writer Naaman Zhou wrote in a 2023 piece for The Guardian titled Vibe check: what does the most overused word of our era actually mean?, “‘Vibes’ are everywhere, from pop culture to politics. Is it a symbol of human connection – or has it become meaningless?”

Editor’s note: I trust Zhou’s take on vibes because he started off his article with the line “The most important people in the history of the word ‘vibes’ are The Beach Boys,” which is 100% fact. 

Zhou goes on to say that a vibe can be “an idea, a message, a connection between two people, an atmosphere,” etc., etc. showcasing that the word is rather amorphous and citing a University of Michigan linguistics professor who notes that “vibes” has undergone a process called “linguistic generalisation” (it’s a British publication, so we’re going with British spellings…) which means it’s meaning has expanded to the point of covering almost too much. 

In a piece in The Atlantic from 2022, The Origin of Vibes, writer Tom F. Wright defines vibes much less obliquely. “Vibes,” he writes, “has become a ubiquitous word in the past half-decade, one many people now reach for when describing the distinct emotion given off by a place, or thing. It is the prevailing shorthand for a cultural atmosphere, mood, and zeitgeist.” 

Wright then goes on to describe John Fetterman as “a vibe,” and while I don’t love or agree that any politician should be “vibey,” I do agree that there is a distinctly Pennsylvanian vibe to Fetterman, the same vibe given off by my beloved Gritty or the fictional Mare of Mare of Eastown, a show that distinctly captured said Pennsylvanian vibe. 

I think what’s annoyed me most about the ubiquity—and thus conformity and misuse— of vibes is that before it became annoying, it was a good word used to describe the general essence of something you knew, but couldn’t exactly put into words. And so, I’m not going to let the “good vibes” only crowd appropriate vibes completely. I’m going to take it back because over the course of the last month, I’ve found two new establishments in the greater Asheville area that…are themselves, vibes. 

New Vibe #1: Eda’s Hide-a-Way

In early June, a friend asked if I’d ever been to Eda’s Hide-a-Way. I hadn’t, so I said so, and he told me he’d seen it online, drove up to Weaverville to check it out, but didn’t go in because he felt like it could be…a bad vibe. 

I can certainly see where he was coming from. From the outside, Eda’s is located in a nondescript cinderblock building in a sort of warehouse-centric part of town. And remember, this is Weaverville, not Asheville, so this is not a warehouse district filled with breweries and art studios…it’s a warehouse district full of like, storage units. And it’s in the is-it-rural-is-it-not sort of no-man’s land between the Asheville sprawl and the legit countryside, where, well, you can’t be sure whether someone’s vibe is just decidedly not trendy or like, make-America-great-again-and-then-restore-the-stars-and-bars. 

I’m pleased to announce that Eda’s vibe is not racists-cosplaying-hillbillies, but: a vintage country music video. Weirdly soon after I first heard of Eda’s, anothet friend asked if I wanted to go there on a Friday night to hear a band he described as a “Maybe a Dolly Parton cover band?” that ended up covering not just Parton, but all sorts of classic country songs from “back in the day.” The decor of Eda’s matches that aesthetic: it’s all hazy yellow bulbs, strings of old-school Christmas lights, glitter, and Western kitsch. And Eda’s is a vibe, because while—speaking of buzzwords—curated, it’s not curated. It doesn’t have the same manufactured feel of many an Asheville dive. It feels—cue another buzzword—authentic. 

Eda’s does country covers every Friday, and we liked it so much after our first visit that I’ve been back, I think, four times?  It’s very relaxing, removed from the fray, and just very cool. 

INSERT ARE YOU SURE VIDEO Eda’s has the same vibe as this video. 

New Vibe #2: Bush Farmhouse

The Bush Farmhouse in Black Mountain is a South African restaurant tucked off of the main strip near the Railyard that I’ve been wanting to try for some time. 

Before I get into the vibe of Bush’s, I want to get into the food, because the vibe had nothing to do with the food. 

The food was phenomenal. It was one of the best local meals I’ve had in a long time. 

We started with an appetizer of grilled wings, which came with some delicious, zingy, refreshing but spicy green sauce, and a side of peri-peri aioli. Editor’s note: Peri peri should be bigger than it is. I then had the shrimp roll, which was phenomenal (and like…not fist-sized, which so many restaurants go to when making any kind of seafood rolls) and we split bread pudding for dessert. I 100% want to go back for the rib eye with peri peri butter, sausage roll appetizer, and the half-roast chicken. 

And now…the vibes. 

Since it’s a South African establishment, there are strong maybe-the-savannah-maybe-the-beach vibes to the outdoor eating area and bar. Lots of rattan, palm frond decals, and bright colors. We just had dinner at Bush’s, but I’d love to go sit at the bar some summer night or winter afternoon. But, it was the crowd that stuck out as very…vibey. 

I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it felt like everyone maybe everyone was trying to cosplay a cosmopolitan ex-pat from yesteryear. There were alot of lux looking linen shirts, flowy skirts, both men and woman wore an excessive amount of jewelry, and even those who were decidedly dressed very down dressed down in a way that let you know they had money, like everyone was an off-season ski instructor? I didn’t hate it and kind of hate that I found the whole vibe very cool, disregarding the fact that my friend Jacki and I didn’t fit it whatsoever.