From Staff Reports 

Travel + Leisure readers have named Asheville the quirkiest town in the United States, according to the magazine’s September edition.

The magazine noted, “Asheville, N.C., for instance, ranked highly for its booming craft beer industry and diverse dining scene — but here, ‘diverse’ goes well beyond a few good places to eat pho.

“On his No Taste Like Home tour, Ashevillian Alan Muskat lets visitors forage in the woods for — and then sample — wild local delicacies like ‘fairy potatoes,’ which grow on vines, and reishi, known as the Mushroom of Immortality.

“‘Asheville sits smack in the middle of the most biodiverse temperate bioregion on the planet,’” Muskat boasts. “‘So even our plants are freaky.’

“Is it the thinner mountain air or that the locals are standing too close to a vortex?” the magazine asks, rhetorically, of Asheville. “Either way, these North Carolinians are tops for eccentricity thanks to both old and new charms: the vortex-laden terrain, which purports to send off good energy; the Friday night drum circle in downtown’s Pritchard Park; and the seemingly bottomless love of local beer.

“To tap into their vibes, try the beer-and-moonshine ‘hoptails’ at Grove Park Inn’s Great Hall Bar, the BRÖÖ shampoo at the Earth Fare shop, or the port cake at Short Street Cakes. 

“Asheville also ranked in the top 10 for great bakeries; Vortex Doughnuts offers a local beer-of-the-day donut,” the magazine’s Asheville write-up concluded.

The Travel + Leisure accolade came just weeks after Outside magazine named Asheville is one of 16 Best Towns in the country for vibrant cultural scenes and outdoor spirit. This marks at least the seventeenth list Asheville has made this year.