Small Bites: Restaurant and food news in small portions

Hey pig! At Battle Food Truck, D.O.G., artist Tommy Lee’s pet pig, was caught getting into the beer — a variety called Blind Pig Porter, at that. D.O.G. is just fine, having slept it off in the grass shortly thereafter. Photo via Blind Pig and Asheville Beer Week

Blind Pig Supper Club’s Battle Food Truck, part of Asheville Beer Week, was a great success. About 200 people enjoyed five different dishes from five different food trucks, with each diner voting on his or her favorite.

The Tin Can Pizzeria‘s “Fuzzy Pig” pizza, with bacon and peaches, was excellent. The Tin Can Pizzeria can be found down in the RAD next to the Pink Dog building, Monday through Saturday, for lunch.

Also, the Lowdown food truck brought it with pork belly over a pimento cheese-grit cake and curly fries with mushroom ketchup, fried kale, mustard-seed caviar and a rhubarb barbecue sauce, all with mostly local ingredients. Check their Facebook page for locations.

Pho Ya Belly and Flying Falafel Brothers also had strong showings — visit their respective Facebook pages for details.

The winning dish belonged to Marni Graves (from Our Taco Truck), who took it to the street with a puffy taco filled with housemade Hickory Nut Gap-pork chorizo and fresh, local veggies (including radishes), served with elote, a Mexican street-style corn on the cob. Graves won $500 for her efforts. The winning dish will be featured on the truck’s menu — check the Facebook page for location and details.

The Cooking Channel’s Road Trip with G. Garvin recently visited Asheville where they went behind the scenes at Cucina 24, also stopping by the Chop Shop Butchery, Blue Water Seafood, a local farmers market and Green Man brewery. The show debuts on the Cooking Channel on Tuesday, June 26, at 9 p.m.

The Blackbird Restaurant is opening a location in downtown Asheville, says owner Roz Taubman in an email to Xpress. The restaurant will open in the new Aloft hotel at 51 Biltmore Ave. That’s two new restaurants opening on Biltmore, what with Chestnut, the restaurant by the owners of the Corner Kitchen, opening across the street. Taubman promises to keep us updated. For more about the Blackbird, visit http://www.theblackbirdrestaurant.com.

Champa Sushi and Thai, located at 3 Biltmore Ave., will close for much of the month of June for renovations, reopening with a new interior and menu. http://champaasheville.com.

Speaking of closings, Harris Teeter on Hendersonville Road will close on Sunday, June 17. A Lowes Food grocery store will open a couple of weeks later. Until Harris Teeter closes, it’s offering discounts on various food items, all the way up to half-off for frozen foods — but keep in mind that at press time, Xpress observed that the shelves had already been picked somewhat clean. Harris Teeter is located at 378 Hendersonville Road.

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