The Ultimate 2026 Guide To: Local Businesses You Need To Know in Western North Carolina
The Ultimate 2026 Guide To: Local Businesses You Need To Know in Western North Carolina
Looking for local businesses to support in Asheville and across Western North Carolina? Our Local Businesses You Need to Know in WNC guide highlights standout locally owned businesses, entrepreneurs, and organizations throughout the region.
From longtime favorites to hidden gems and newer businesses worth discovering, this curated guide makes it easier to find great places to shop, eat, visit, book, and support throughout WNC.
Explore the featured businesses below and discover something new in your own backyard. Every visit, purchase, reservation, and recommendation helps support the people behind the businesses that make Western North Carolina such a special place to live and visit.
Many of these featured local businesses are also sharing exclusive discounts just for Travel Guides Asheville followers 🤍
Save this guide on our Instagram to easily reference & share with friends.
1. The Scotsman Public House
Instagram: @thescotsmanwaynesville
TGA Followers Discount: Mention TGA for a free dessert with puchase of two entrees! Valid through December 31, 2026.
The Scotsman Public House is an award-winning Celtic pub located in the heart of downtown Waynesville, North Carolina. Inspired by the traditions of Scotland, Ireland, and Great Britain, The Scotsman offers a menu of house-made dishes alongside craft cocktails, an extensive selection of beer, and a carefully curated collection of whisky and Scotch. Guests can enjoy live music, themed events, delicious comfort food, and warm Appalachian hospitality in a lively yet welcoming atmosphere. Whether you're stopping in for a pint, gathering with friends, celebrating a special occasion, or discovering the flavors of the region, The Scotsman strives to create an experience that feels both memorable and familiar.
2. Harpp Flower Farm
Instagram: @harppflowerfarm
Rooted in Murphy, North Carolina, Harpp Flower Farm specializes in growing beautiful blooms and unique foliage for weddings and seasonal floral design. We cultivate distinctive, specialty varieties that celebrate the beauty of each season, creating bespoke arrangements with intention, artistry, and care. Every stem is thoughtfully grown and every design is crafted to reflect your story, bringing naturally elegant, garden-inspired florals to life's most meaningful moments.
3. Love Land and Home
Instagram: @love_landandhome
LOVE Land and Home is an all female real estate firm in Asheville. We prioritize connections over quotas and relationships over cold calling scripts. Our approach to real estate is knowledge-based, experience-focused, and heart-centered. Whether you are ready to steward some of our sacred land, find your perfect gem in the city, or invest in the great revitalization of our region, LOVE Land and Home will help you love where you land. Broker-in-charge, Lacey Townsend, is joined by brokers Jeanne Lambert, Sarah Poet and Robin Staples. Proven market expertise and grounded intuition, shared with an uncompromising joy - this is real estate, with LOVE!
4. South Slope Acupuncture and Wellness
Instagram: @southslopeacupuncture
South Slope Acupuncture & Wellness is a multi-practitioner integrative medicine practice in Asheville, blending evidence-based acupuncture with sports medicine, fertility care, and pain management. We regularly treat cyclists, trail runners, and other outdoor athletes working through overuse injuries or recovering mid-trip, alongside locals investing in their long-term health. Every visit starts with a real consultation and a plan built around your goals, not a quick fix. New patients are welcome; we recommend booking ahead, especially during peak trail and cycling season.
5. Posh Lash Lounge & Day Spa
Instagram: @poshlashlounge.dayspa
TGA Followers Discount: Mention TGA50 in your booking notes for $50-off a 90 or 120 minute head spa! Valid through November 30, 2026.
Posh Lash Lounge & Day Spa is an award-winning wellness and beauty destination in the heart of Asheville, proudly serving Western North Carolina since 2016. As a locally owned small business, we’ve built our reputation by combining advanced esthetic services with genuine relaxation in a warm, welcoming environment.
Our signature Japanese Head Spa has become one of Asheville’s most sought-after wellness experiences, featuring hydrotherapy scalp treatments, aromatherapy, scalp massage, and deep relaxation designed to reduce stress, promote scalp health, and leave you feeling completely refreshed. We also specialize in luxurious facials, lash extensions, brows, permanent makeup, microneedling, scar revision and camouflage, areola restoration, hair restoration treatments, and customized skincare.
Whether you’re a local looking for self-care or a visitor seeking a memorable spa experience, our experienced team is dedicated to helping you look and feel your best. With private treatment rooms, personalized care, and a commitment to excellence, we create an experience that’s both results-driven and deeply restorative.
Named Best Esthetician in Western North Carolina for 13 consecutive years, we’re honored to be a trusted destination where beauty, wellness, and confidence come together. We look forward to welcoming you to Posh Lash Lounge & Day Spa.
6. Benjamin Walls Gallery
Instagram: @benjaminwalls
TGA Followers Discount: We offer 20% off glasses of wine on Wednesdays!
Where art inspires adventure, the Benjamin Walls Gallery invites you to experience the natural world with local Appalachian artist Benjamin Walls—a five-time Smithsonian exhibitor, seven-time international award winner, and passionate conservationist. His fine art photography captures nature’s beauty, mystery, and wonder—with the occasional side effect of serious wanderlust.
Fortunately, the experience doesn’t end with his fine art. Sip sustainably produced wines at the in-house WALLS Wine Bar, then let WALLSabout Luxury Travel turn inspiration into an unforgettable journey—from African Safaris and New Zealand adventures to the wild beauty of the Canadian Arctic.
At the heart of every experience is a commitment to protecting the wildlife, destinations, and communities that inspire it all. Through fine art, sustainable luxury travel, and partnerships with leading conservation organizations, the WALLS brands have helped raise or directly contribute more than $1.5 million to conservation and charity. Because admiring our planet is wonderful—but helping preserve it is even better.
Consider yourself warned: you may arrive for the art, stay for the wine, and leave on the trip of a lifetime. Visit the Benjamin Walls Gallery in Asheville: Sunday to Thursday: 10:00 AM – 7:30 PM Friday / Saturday: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
7. Sky Loraine Art
Instagram: @skyloraine_
TGA Followers Discount: Use code SkyLo10TGA for off! Valid through December 31, 2026.
A lifelong painter, Sky Loraine’s work transformed after working in the construction industry for the last 5 years. “This incarnation of my art is based on years of experience working in the design and construction trades. An industry that creates more than a billion tons of waste each year piqued my interest in what it would be like to apply watercolor to wood. The love and excitement were immediate and felt sympathetic.”
Whether dug from the dumpster or pulled from the wreckage of a flooded space, Sky Loraine works on material that would otherwise be trash. Passionate about using construction-industry cast-offs to make art, Sky Loraine aims to inspire a conversation about conservation and the future of our world with each piece collected. Working with these natural materials, Sky Loraine uses an intuitive approach to unearthing the form that’s already in the wood.
Visiting her new studio in Marshall, NC, you can see what it looks like to create a space for art that cares about beauty and about the fate of our forests.
8. Brianna Fisher Photography
Instagram: @briannafisher.photography
TGA Followers Discount: Mention TGA for 5% off your wedding collection! Valid through December 31, 2026.
Brianna is a wedding and portrait photographer based in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she has spent the past eight years documenting love stories and life's most meaningful milestones. Specializing in weddings, engagements, couples, families, and portraits, she is passionate about creating timeless imagery that reflects genuine emotion and authentic connection.
With deep roots in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the High Country, Brianna thoughtfully incorporates the region's breathtaking landscapes into her work, allowing the natural beauty of the mountains to complement every story she tells. Her photography is warm, romantic, and true to life, blending candid moments with thoughtfully guided portraits to create a gallery that feels both beautiful and deeply personal.
At the heart of Brianna's business is her Christian faith, which shapes the way she serves every client with kindness, integrity, and intentional care. She believes every person has a unique story worth preserving and strives to create an experience where couples and families feel comfortable, celebrated, and genuinely seen. Whether photographing a mountaintop wedding, a quiet engagement session, or a growing family, Brianna's goal is to create meaningful photographs that become lasting heirlooms, preserving memories that can be treasured and shared for generations to come.
9. Blue Star Gallery
Instagram: @bluestargalleryavl
We are a unique new gallery featuring WNC artists and makers in an historic 1925 house in West Asheville. The house itself is beautiful. The art inside is amazing. We have abstract, contemporary and landscape paintings. We have pottery, jewelry and blown glass. There's something for everybody.
The gallery is the vision of co-proprietor Babette Reynolds, one of our featured artists who is an army veteran with an unparalleled background in the business world. Co-proprietor David Newton is a retired reporter for ESPN turned gallery manager.
Part of their mission includes the Path Forward Foundation that supports the art and music world in the WNC/Asheville area. Their slogan, "Where the Art World meets the Mountains," sums up their vision of making the gallery and West Asheville a destination for art enthusiasts.
10. Ace & Eagle
Instagram: @aceandeagleavl
TGA Followers Discount: Use code TGA20 for 20% off your booking reservation! Valid through October 30, 2026.
Ace & Eagle was built around one simple idea: create a place where people can connect through play. As Asheville's premier urban sports club, we've brought together state-of-the-art golf and multi-sport simulators, covered pickleball courts, billiards, private event spaces, and dynamic social and play programming—all designed to offer something for every type of guest in an welcoming, engaging environment. Located inside Hi-Wire Brewing's RAD Beer Garden, our space combines the excitement of sport with the hospitality of a neighborhood gathering place. Whether you're introducing your family to pickleball, sharpening your golf game, celebrating a special occasion, or simply looking for something different to do while visiting Asheville, there's an experience waiting for you.
Throughout the year, we host leagues, clinics, tournaments, watch parties, social events, and community gatherings that make every visit feel different. Pair your game with award-winning craft beer from Hi-Wire Brewing, relax in our comfortable social spaces, and enjoy a destination built around connection as much as competition. At Ace & Eagle, we believe great experiences happen when people come together to play. Whether you're chasing your personal best or simply looking for a memorable time, you'll find your place here.
11. GreenFlash Watersports
Instagram: @greenflashwatersports
TGA Followers Discount: Use code TGA 10 for 10% off any activity booking. Valid through December 31, 2026.
We help create Asheville memories with multiple tour options. We make custom itinerary private party bus trips. Perfect for bachelor / bachelorette groups, birthdays and family gatherings. We help make your ideal route to breweries, wineries, scenic cruises, galleries, whatever fits best for your party, pickup at your location, and get everyone home safe.
Our guided brewery tours by kayak in the River Arts District are a fun way to visit Wedge Brewery, HiWire and New Belgium, or choose a scenic kayak rental that passes the Biltmore Estate. We also have tubing behind our ski boat, wake surf, waterski and wakeboard instruction on Lake James from a champion water ski instructor with great success for beginners. Lake James is nearby with gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain views. Can be a fun day taking scenic boat ride if you don't want to get towed behind boat also.
12. Tanager Plants
Instagram: @tanagerplants
TGA Followers Discount: Mention TGA for 5% off your purchase! Valid through December 31, 2026.
Tanager is a native plant nursery in Mars Hill, just north of Asheville. Our mission is to help cultivate and steward habitat-forming plantings in our area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. That mission also includes using ecologically-aware growing practices such as Integrated Pest Management and organic sources of fertility.
We offer a wide range of native plants including trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous perennials in either biodegradable or reused containers. We grow in our own living soil blend and according to organic standards and we focus on local ecotype, seed-grown plants whenever possible in order to promote genetic biodiversity. Our region is overflowing with native plant species that have so much to teach us about beauty, ecological function, and interdependence. We would love to help you find your new favorite native plant!
13. Honeysuckle Holler
Instagram: @honeysucklehollerhvl
Honeysuckle Holler is the only dedicated country dance bar in Western North Carolina. We enthusiastically welcome dancers of all levels and styles of dance, and we provide various dance lessons every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Lessons are followed by all request dancing so you can help control the playlist while you're here! Saturdays are all open dance.
While we love dancing, you definitely don't have to dance to enjoy your time here: we have delicious, seasonal craft cocktails, mocktails, top-shelf bourbon, and so many more amazing offerings. Our beautiful, historic space in downtown Hendersonville is available for private events - let us know what you'd like to celebrate. We are a community that actively embraces everyone. You are always welcome at the Holler!
14. Sacred Art & Story
Instagram: @stacyvajta
Sacred Art & Story is the West Asheville studio of artist and teacher Stacy Vajta, where ordinary materials—sticks, clay, fabric, wool, paper, beads, and found objects—slowly become soulful, slightly quirky dolls, figures, masks, talismans, and folk-art creatures. Stacy offers small-group workshops in her home studio, live online classes, self-paced digital workshops, and private studio retreats for one or two women. Everything is small by design, with good guidance, plenty of materials, and enough room for the work to become something personal, playful, and entirely your own.
You don't need art experience. Stacy guides the process without over-controlling it, inviting you to settle in with the materials, follow your imagination, and notice what begins to take shape. Some pieces become meaningful companions or markers of a particular moment. Others simply bring a little more beauty, personality, and unexpected delight into the places where people live. Original artwork is also offered through occasional online releases, studio openings, and local events.
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