Vincent's Ear

From AshevilleRock.com

Vincent's Ear was a local bar, cafe and music venue located in downtown Asheville. The Lexington Avenue basement and courtyard space opened in 1993, and was originally invisioned as a smoker-friendly hybrid of cafe, jazz club and art gallery. It was also one of the first wave of downtown cafes (Malaprop's and Beanstreets being the other notable examples), and was largely credited with the revitalization of the Lexington Avenue area.

During the mid-1990s the venue slowly evolved from an experimental jazz bar to an indie/garage rock bar, adopting a broader collection of musical acts, often including performers who would have otherwise found themselves without a performance space. The space was a central hub for performers and artists throughout most of its existence, although many have claimed that its final years were laden with "scene" politics and snobbery.

[edit] Closing

The venue closed in January of 2005 after a controversial lease non-renewal by landlord Dawn Lantzious, and was widely thought to have been inspired by the eviction of the neighboring Asheville Community Resource Center space earlier in the year. Although there were many organized attempts to "Save Vincent's Ear" (including appeals from local politicians, developers and the Chamber of Commerce), these ultimately failed. Many claimed that the "renewal" of downtown had actually caused the venue to be "gentrified" out, and the topic remains a heated point of discussion today.

In April of 2007, it was revealed that the courtyard space formerly occupied by Vincent's Ear (which had been unused since early 2005) was leased from the Lantzious family by the owner of Mela Indian Restaurant, which opened shortly after Vincent's Ear was closed.