From Staff Reports 

Firestorm Café & Books recently announced that it will be closing March 1 at its 48 Commerce St. location in downtown Asheville, but plans to reopen in an as-yet undetermined location.

The nearly 6-year-old collective business  with employee owners plan to continue the community-building concept somewhere. 

The staff of three owners and two interns will host a community conversation on relocation possibilities at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the the current location.

Firestorm’s website noted that “we’ll discuss our plans, suggest some ways that folks can lend us a hand, solicit feedback on our draft anti-oppression statement and, most importantly, create space to hear your ideas, concerns and desires for a new Firestorm.”

The self-managed business, which opened in May 2008, has become the home for a wide variety of events, ranging from the political to puppetry.

Perhaps most notably, Firestorm served as the host to the Asheville branch of the National Occupy movement, an international protest against social and economic inequality, and organized against the Business Improvement District in Asheville.

It has hosted zombie film screenings and singer-songwriters, offered offbeat, underground and independently published literature by organizations, such as AK Press, PM Press and Chelsea Green Publishing.

The café serves paninis and vegan soups to community group meetings, including the Asheville Homeless Network and the Asheville Anime Club.

In 2011, Firestorm won national recognition from Zagat, as one of the 10 Coolest Independent Coffee Shops Across the U.S. In 2010, it won  the No. 2 Slow Money Business in America from the Slow Money Alliance.