Asheville is full of Art Deco architecture, and one of the most iconic examples is the gorgeous S&W Cafeteria built in the late 1920s.

Well, the cafeteria is long gone, but it's been repurposed into a food hall and market with a little taste of everything.

- To me, we're in the most beautiful building in downtown Asheville, and it started in 1929.

It goes way back with my family.

My grandfather, he was the manager of the S&W for 35 years.

The S&W Cafeteria has my heart, and to see the way it's come to life one more time, I hope it never stops.

- This became a food hall in 2021.

We knew we wanted local vendors.

We knew we wanted to have a great variety.

And we thought that having a food hall here would be the perfect mix for this building.

And we thought, "What a better use of this space than to have a mix of vendors in this building."

- The S&W Cafeteria has come back to what it formerly was, which is one of the most beautiful parts about the story that we have here.

Was many things over the years.

It's tried to be restaurants.

It's tried to be an event space.

But now we've come back to its original roots, which is a cafeteria.

And the beautiful part about what it is, it's not just one business.

It's multiple businesses here.

- We have Farm Dogs that is a spinoff of Farm Burger right off the street.

We have Mikasa Criolla that is empanadas and other Peruvian-inspired fare.

We have Bun Intended that is Thai street food.

We have Buxton Chicken Palace that is a spinoff of the original Buxton Hall Barbecue.

We have The Hop Ice Cream, everybody's local favorite that's been in Asheville for 30 years.

We have the new tenant, which is Flour, and they are gonna be serving delicious salads and sandwiches and breakfast.

And we also have Highland Brewing, which is our flagship tenant on the mezzanine.

So we're really lucky to have all of these fantastic vendors in the building.

- You walk in the door right away, and you know that this is a special place.

A lot of the traffic funnels towards us just naturally.

You know, we've also been around Asheville for a long time, and I think people genuinely are excited to come try like the local homemade ice cream shop when they come into the S&W.

- They've kept this unique original Art Deco architecture, always feels really special.

- Art Deco and Art Nouveau started in Europe and came through here, but Art Nouveau is really more of a European event, and Art deco is more the American expression of it to some degree.

Douglas Ellington is an architect who lived here in the '20s, and additionally he worked on city hall, Asheville High, First Baptist.

So Art Deco was a brief moment, and we're very fortunate in Asheville to have several buildings here.

- During the renovation process, what we really did was try to peel back layers of things that people had done over the years to get it back as much as possible to its original state because obviously the building is incredible and beautiful just as it is.

- Luckily, the outside of the building hasn't changed.

The inside, the ceilings, still seem the same, the floors.

The stairs, I love the stairs.

- One of my favorite features of the whole place is the travertine stairs.

As you go up or down, you can see they're worn.

As an architect, when I see stuff like that, I feel like I'm seeing time.

I'm looking at it, at time itself.

- Even if you're just coming to see the architecture, it's worth the trip, but anybody in your group is gonna be able to find something that they want when they come here.

So it's a really easy place to bring a group of people and make sure that everybody's going to be happy and also get to experience a lot of Asheville's unique history at the same time.

- I'd recommend The S&W Market to anyone who's looking for like a really authentic retro vibe.

It's just a fun place to go and hang out with your friends and have a good meal.

- I like that there's so much of variety.

You can choose anything you want from ice cream, chicken.

I mean, they have it all here.

- [Anne] We feel really good that we've gotten back to the original purpose of the building as a cafeteria.

So this is our modern-day take on a cafeteria where you have counter service, and you have local food that's delicious at a reasonable price, which was the whole meaning of the cafeteria to begin with.

- [Deborah] The S&W Market is at 56 Patton Avenue in Asheville, and it's open every day except Tuesday.

On Fridays and Saturdays, they're open until 8:00 PM.

For more information, visit their website at swmarketavl.com.