Easy Tiger: Bar Mix and Hummus

When your flight is delayed and you roll into town after your dinner reservation has already been canceled and the restaurant is locked up tight, you look for any port in a literal storm.

Thankfully, Easy Tiger in downtown Asheville was located mere steps from our hotel. They welcomed us with incredible hospitality, life-reviving cocktails, elevated vegetarian bar bites, and pro-wrestling playing on one of the TVs.

Is this heaven?
No. It's Asheville.

A bowl of house-made Thai curry bar mix with cereal, pretzels, and wasabi peas at Easy Tiger in Asheville.

Creamy hummus topped with olives and herbs, served with naan bread, sliced peppers, carrots, and pickles.

The Spot: Easy Tiger

• Location: 125 S Lexington Ave Unit 103a, Asheville, NC 28801

• Vibe: Low-key sports bar with elevated food. Lots of TVs, comfortable seating, sports memorabilia on the walls.

 

The Bite: Bar Mix and Hummus

• Price:

  • Bar Mix: $6

  • Hummus: $14

• Vegetarian Status: All are vegetarian and both are actually probably vegan, but you should double check.

The Flavor Breakdown

Why don’t more bars offer a proprietary snack mix? Whenever I see it on a menu, I order it and typically, end up ordering another drink because bar mix is delicious and salty enough to necessitate another cocktail.

The bar mix at Easy Tiger isn’t some Chex Mix afterthought but a really moreish combination of Crispix and Kix cereals, pretzels (inarguable the most useless part of bar mixes), rye chips, wasabi peas and wonton chips tossed in a Thai curry seasoning.

You get all of those classic flavors - lemongrass, a hint of chili, turmeric - and I genuinely think I could have eaten an entire tureen of the stuff while watching Fanatics Fest coverage.

Bar mix has to be a high margin product (cereal is pretty cheap - you can get a box of store brand Cheerios at Aldi for $2) and any good kitchen will have seasonings already), so I don’t understand why more establishments don’t have their own proprietary mix.

Either way, I’m going to order the stuff every time I’m back to Easy Tiger and it also inspired me to tinker with the recipe for my own bar mix.

Testing out a homemade curry bar mix recipe - it has Cheerios, Cheez-Its and pretzels with curry leaves, sesame seeds, chili powder, salt, sugar and turmeric but I think I can do better.

Unless you’re in a Middle Eastern restaurant, ordering hummus can be a little risky. Most places

Easy Tiger is not most places.

The hummus was creamy and thick, drizzled with copious amounts of olive oil and pitted olives (serving pitted olives is a a small but important detail which shows concern for your guest). Served with the sweetest bell peppers I’ve ever had, crunchy carrots and cucumbers and pickled cucumbers and peppers as well as crisp yet fluffy naan, this hummus hit the spot after a grueling travel day. It was light yet satisfying and would make any Syrian proud.

My son ordered the burger and fries and the law of the land states that I must levy a Mom Tax on his food, so I snagged a few of his fries, They’re hand-cut, double fried and manage to be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside which would make the Belgians proud.

Remember the great vibes this summer as the United States hosted the World Cup and visiting nations reveled in the good things about this country and make their home countries proud?

Yeah - that’s what Easy Tiger does for sports bars.

The Beverages: Strawberry Girl Summer

• Price: $12

So nice, I ordered it twice. Strawberry-infused Tito’s, almond orgeat, Lillet Blanc, lemon and coconut water with fresh mint.

I want to learn how to make this cocktail and create variations on it - cherries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. I want this served in pitchers across the country.

This is how much I enjoyed this cocktail - I researched who is in charge of cocktails at Easy Tiger. Shoutout to beverage director Ashley Williams - absolute cocktail genius.

One Mouthy Sandwich Girl Rating:

• Flavor & Freshness:

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 - Bar Mix

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 - Hummus

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 ½ - Average Rating

• Value for Buck:

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪

  • Prices were super reasonable considering the quality of the food and the size of the portions.

• Vegetarian Variety:

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪

  • Four out of six appetizers are vegetarian-friendly (five out of six if you ask for no fish sauce on the Laap Tots) and they have a falafel pita on the handhelds section.

• The Verdict:

  • 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪

  • I wish more sports bars were as thoughtfully crafted and interesting as Easy Tiger. The food is elevated without being fussy, the cocktails are perfectly blended and they have a solid beer list. The James Brothers Restaurant Group are doing it right in Asheville and I can only hope that they’ll inspire the same for some smart, passionate entrepreneurs in West Palm.