From Staff Reports 

Earth Fare in the Westgate Shopping Center in West Asheville officially reopened on June 22, just months after the company announced it was going out of business.

 Indeed, Earth Fare, a homegrown Asheville favorite, is back open under new ownership, but still proudly using the chain’s long-time slogan that it has been “Keeping It Clean Since 1975.” 

In March, an Asheville-based investment group that includes its founder bought back eight of the 50 Earth Fare stores, including in Boone and Roanoke, Va.

The chain aspires to use its restart as a chance to re-emphasize its roots as an organic food retailer.

Asheville Manager David Isinghood told Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) on June 22 that “there is a special connection to the customer” at Earth Fare — and that he believes opening first in Asheville is only fitting. 

“So getting this store open is symbolic of Earth Fare’s new beginning, but also of where we started as a company,” he told News 13.

Meanwhile, the Asheville Citizen Times noted in a recent story that “Earth Fare opened as ‘Dinner For the Earth’ in 1975, with handmade shelves filled with a myriad of organic and natural products.

“It remained locally owned until 2007, when founder Roger Derrough and his business associates sold what was then a 13-store chain to a Boston company that expanded the store to 10 states” and then abruptly announced its closing on Feb. 3, as it went into bankruptcy.