Drive down Merrimon Avenue this summer and you'll pass a storefront with a new name on it: The Majestic, a counter-service spot serving shrimp and lobster sauce, crispy orange beef, and Szechuan dumplings at 319 Merrimon Ave. It opened in late May. If you've eaten at Jettie Rae's Oyster House on Charlotte Street, either location of Vinnie's Neighborhood Italian, or Gan Shan, you've already met the people behind it. The Majestic is the fifth restaurant from the Scheffer Group, the same operator running those other four.
That's not a coincidence worth shrugging off. For a Grove Park resident deciding where to eat this week, knowing who actually runs the kitchen changes what you should expect to walk into, and it explains something about why the Merrimon Avenue corridor keeps adding restaurants that feel more like siblings than strangers.
The Same Kitchen Group, a Different Name on the Door
The Scheffer Group built its reputation on Jettie Rae's Oyster House and two Vinnie's Neighborhood Italian locations, one of which has anchored Merrimon Avenue dining for roughly 15 years. Gan Shan added an Asian-inflected menu to the lineup. The Majestic is a departure in cuisine, built around what its executive chef Kaya Rehnberg describes as dishes that evoke a specific moment in Chinese American culinary history, the kind of food that shaped neighborhoods rather than trend cycles. Rehnberg leads the kitchen day to day, while Gan Shan's chef stays on in an advisory role.
What that means in practice: this isn't an independent newcomer testing the neighborhood. It's a company that already knows how Grove Park and North Asheville diners behave, applying that experience to a fourth cuisine under a fifth banner. If Jettie Rae's or Vinnie's has ever run smoothly for you on a Friday night, that same operational backbone is now behind The Majestic's counter.
It's worth knowing this before you build your rotation around it. A restaurant group with four other properties to protect has different incentives than a solo owner staking everything on one location. Consistency, hours, and staffing tend to hold steadier. If The Majestic's à la carte offerings expand or its hours shift with the seasons, it will likely track the pattern the group has already set at its other spots rather than the erratic first-year wobble of an independent restaurant finding its footing.
What's Actually on the Calendar This Month
Restaurants aside, the bigger date for most Grove Park households is a few blocks up the hill. Grovewood Village, the 11-acre site tucked next to the Omni Grove Park Inn, holds its Biannual Studio Tour twice a year. The spring session happened back in May. The second one lands September 12 and 13, from noon to 5pm both days, free and self-guided, no ticket required.
Grovewood is home to eight working artist studios inside the building that once housed the weaving operations of Biltmore Industries, the Arts and Crafts enterprise that helped define the Appalachian Craft Revival a century ago. During the tour weekend, the resident artists open their doors:
- Chris Abell, wooden flutes and whistles
- Rick Ekerd, blown glass
- Melissa Engler and Graeme Priddle, sculptural wood art
- Lisa Gluckin, ceramic art
- Carl Powell, glass sculpture
- Helen Purdum, ceramic art
- Tom Reardon and Kathleen Doyle, jewelry
- Brent Skidmore, fine furniture and sculptural wood art
Grovewood Gallery, next door, drops prices roughly 10 percent on nearly everything during the tour and pours complimentary wine courtesy of Metro Wines, the Charlotte Street shop that's been voted the top wine retailer in Asheville for seven years running. While you're there, the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum and the Biltmore Industries Homespun Museum are both open (they close for the winter months, so September catches them mid-season), and Eldr restaurant sits on-site if you want to turn the afternoon into an early dinner.
Parking is free but limited on-site. Carpooling helps. The Grove Park Inn's parking garage sits directly across the street and offers an hour of free parking, which covers most of a studio walkthrough if you're efficient about it.
The Parts of Grove Park That Don't Change
Restaurants open and studio tours come twice a year, but the neighborhood's daily texture runs on older fixtures. Kimberly Avenue is the spine most residents walk or jog, curving past the Rose Garden and the old stone clubhouse of what was once the Grove Park Country Club, now the golf course beside the Inn. Donald Ross, the architect behind some of the country's most enduring golf courses, redesigned it after the Inn opened in 1913, and locals still treat the greens as a scenic backdrop for a Sunday walk even if they never pick up a club.
A short drive gets you to Beaver Lake, where Beaverdam Creek was dammed in the 1920s to form the lake at the center of North Asheville's other historic neighborhood. It's a smaller-scale outing than a hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it's the kind of half-hour reset that doesn't require planning: a loop around the water, a chance to watch whatever's nesting that week, and a drive home in time for dinner.
That's the part worth sitting with. The restaurant scene shifts because a company like the Scheffer Group is actively building out its footprint. The studio tour has a fixed calendar because Grovewood runs it on a biannual schedule. But the Rose Garden, the golf course, and Beaver Lake don't move. They're the constants that make it easy to notice when something new does show up, like a Chinese American counter-service spot from a company you already trust with your Friday night reservation.
Making a Weekend of It
If you're putting together a plan around the September 12-13 window, the pieces line up without much effort:
- Walk or drive the Kimberly Avenue loop past the Rose Garden in the morning, before the heat sets in.
- Head to Grovewood Village between noon and 5pm for the studio tour. Budget an hour if you want to actually talk to the artists rather than just browse.
- Grab the discount at Grovewood Gallery while it's active, and stop for a glass from Metro Wines if you're not driving.
- Close the day with dinner at The Majestic, or at one of the group's more established spots, and see for yourself whether the family resemblance holds up.
None of this requires a car full of tourists or a trip downtown. It's a genuinely local weekend, built entirely from what's already inside the neighborhood's edges.
The throughline here isn't really about restaurants or art studios. It's that Grove Park rewards residents who track who's actually behind the changes, not just what's changed. A new sign on Merrimon Avenue means less when you know it's the same team that's already earned your trust four times over. A studio tour date means more when you know exactly which eight doors will be open and for how long.
If you're weighing a move within Grove Park, curious what a specific street or price point actually looks like right now, or just want a local's read on the neighborhood beyond what shows up in a general search, Nate Kelly is easy to reach and happy to talk through it. Let's Connect.
