There’s something slightly surreal about leaving Miami, winding your way into the Blue Ridge Mountains, and finding a familiar face standing in front of a 1,000-degree fire. But that’s exactly what happened at Xico. Located in downtown Asheville’s South Slope District, Xico is a first-of-its-kind “Cocina de Fuego and Marisquería” named after a small village in Veracruz, Mexico. The restaurant comes from longtime Asheville restaurateur Dave McFarland and Miami’s very own Chef Scott Linquist, co-founder of COYO Taco and a guy who has spent more than three decades cooking his way through the many personalities of Mexican cuisine.
We were in town for Xico & Friends, the restaurant’s ongoing series of collaborations, and this particular weekend came with a twist: I was taking over the bar. Chef Scott challenged me to create cocktails around seasonal farm ingredients. Three drinks came out of it. The Bugs Bunny Baby was a daiquiri detour with Havana Club Blanco, carrot juice, cinnamon, lime and dill. Bright, vegetal and just savory enough. Then came El Doctor No Mames, a ridiculously refreshing highball of Ilegal Mezcal, lime, cucumber, celery and Topo Chico. The kind of drink that disappears suspiciously fast. Finally, Cherry Gutierrez, my Negroni-ish love letter to the mountains, with Havana Club Clásico, beets, sweet vermouth, bitters and cherry. Earthy, dark and a little dramatic. Xico’s regular bar program has plenty of personality of its own. Tequila and mezcal dominate the back bar, naturally, alongside cocktails like the Al Pastor Margarita, made with tequila blanco, Ancho Reyes, al pastor salsa, roasted pineapple juice and lime with a blue corn rim. But the thing I became embarrassingly attached to was Xico’s own Green Man Mexican Style Lager. Cold, crisp and absolutely built for food coming off a charcoal grill.
The beating heart of Xico is its Cocina de Fuego, anchored by a Josper charcoal and wood-fired grill that can climb to around 1,000 degrees. You smell it before dinner really gets moving. Nearby, masa cooks on a traditional Mexican comal. An oversized lava-stone molcajete becomes dinner theater as Guacamole is mashed to order and arrives with three house-made salsas and warm tortilla chips. Even the Caesar Salad gets a little showmanship, prepared tableside from a wooden cart.
And then the seafood starts arriving. The Agua Chile Verde brings Ecuadorian white shrimp together with cucumber, heirloom cherry tomatoes, avocado and a serrano chile, cilantro and lime marinade. Cold, acidic, herbaceous and exactly what you want before attacking the heavier side of the menu. The Agua Chile Negro goes darker and richer with sliced Faroe Island salmon, fresh mango salsita and a pasilla negro yuzu ponzu. Sweet fruit hits chile, citrus and fatty salmon in the same bite. Then there are the Ostiones Rostizados, market oysters roasted on the half shell with jalapeño cilantro lime butter, pickled shallots and serrano chiles. Just order them. The Atún Tostaditas are another easy yes. Thinly sliced sushi-grade tuna lands over chipotle aioli with tomatillo pico de gallo, avocado, pickled serranos and shallots, micro cilantro and lemon EVOO. Gone in about 45 seconds.
One of Xico’s strongest details is also one of its simplest: the corn. Mexican heirloom corn is freshly ground and nixtamalized for masa, giving the quesadillas the kind of aroma and texture that makes supermarket tortillas seem particularly depressing. Fillings include Pollo Carbón, Huitlacoche y Hongos and Flor de Calabaza, but whatever goes inside, pay attention to the tortilla itself.
Then you get to the Josper. And things become serious. If you order one centerpiece at Xico, make it the Whole Fish A La Talla. The Acapulco-style preparation comes straight from the fire, dressed with two sauces: jalapeño cilantro butter on one side and ancho chile garlic butter on the other, with olive oil-poached baby heirloom tomatoes alongside. This is the dish that explains Xico best. Carnivores have their own decisions to make. The Arrachera is a 10-ounce Black Angus skirt steak marinated with garlic, toasted cumin and cilantro, served with refried pinto beans, queso fresco and chiles toreados. Come with friends and graduate to the Chuletón Grande, a 34-ounce bone-in Angus ribeye for two (really four) with pasilla negro black garlic butter and huitlacoche. Either way, get the Esquite alongside it. Local corn is charred and covered with roasted garlic aioli, smoked chile and cotija gratinada.
Save room for dessert. Seriously. There are classic Churros coated in cinnamon sugar with Mexican hot chocolate and whipped cream, which are almost impossible not to order when they hit a neighboring table. But the Pastel de Elote is where things get interesting. A sweet corn cheesecake soufflé is baked to order and finished with añejo tequila cajeta sauce. It somehow lands somewhere between cornbread and Basque cheesecake. The Crepas de Cajeta lean fully into decadence with warm pistachio crepes, roasted bananas, goat’s milk dulce de leche and vanilla bean ice cream. And because Miami made it across the North Carolina border, there’s Pastel Tres Leches, soaked in the traditional three-milk sauce with roasted pineapple, whipped cream and toasted coconut.
What I liked most about Xico wasn’t one particular plate. It was seeing something familiar (anyone remember Olla?) evolve somewhere else. Scott helped make COYO Taco part of the fabric of Miami, back when Wynwood still had considerably more warehouses than luxury apartment towers. In Asheville, he isn’t trying to recreate that restaurant or export Miami north. Xico feels rooted where it is. The fire ties it all together. For one weekend, we got to throw a little Miami rum into that equation. Turns out, it all tastes pretty damn good in the mountains.