- There's an old mountain expression called thirstier than a salt face mule, so it seemed like the perfect name for a popular brewery in Weaverville.

[gentle music] - I used to play golf with an older gentleman in Yancey County.

His name was Sam Jones.

And Sam had all of these old mountain sayings.

And one of his sayings was being thirstier than a salt face mule.

And a salt face mule is a mule that's been worked really hard, and where it perspires and lathers up, a brown mule or black mule's face will become crusty white in the afternoon, and that's where the name came from.

Yeah, our goal here was to have some Southern cuisine, and with that, use some of the old mountain sayings to name some of the beers.

And we even have a website where people can suggest names, and we've had several that have been suggested.

We have a Holler Atcha, which is a West Coast IPA.

Sit A Spell, which is a tropical IPA.

We have Bless It, which is our hazy.

So we have several, several of our beers that are named after old mountain sayings.

- So when we thought about opening the Salt Face Mule, it was an old go-kart facility.

It was a Putt-Putt of America.

And what we really wanted to do was build a place for all generations.

And I think we built that.

You know, you have people out here playing putt-putt from two years old to 72.

Everyone's having fun.

It's very family friendly.

We have 36 holes of putt-putt, two 18 hole courses.

We have two full-size bocce courts.

It's just all around a good experience.

- I would describe the food here as Southern inspired.

So, we take Southern dishes and we put our own little spin on it.

We are from scratch, so we do everything in house.

We do a shrimp and grits.

We make jalapeno cheese.

We make our andouille in house.

We make the green sauce in house too.

We also have a creole crusted trout.

It's served over a creole creamed corn that we also do in house.

It's a really good dish.

We work really closely together.

All of the things that Ray, our brewer, rolls out, directly correlate to what we put on our menus, and the types of collaborations that we do with the beer that he specialty brews and the things that we create in the kitchen, it's something I've never experienced before, but it's a really awesome thing.

We try to work together as much as we can on those projects.

- I think the most exciting thing about the brewery is creative control and the ability to make everyone happy, who enjoys beer.

So I don't make a lot of complicated beers.

I don't make a lot of beers that are overwrought.

I try to make very simple, drinkable beers that you can come in and have a few of.

Beer and bars and breweries in general impact the community in a positive way, 'cause it's a community gathering place.

But you can come here and have a couple nice beers and enjoy yourself outside.

That's one of my favorite things, to hear people talking about our beers, you know, just getting excited about it.

I get to basically make everybody happy, and it's pretty fun.

- Salt Face Mule's my "Cheers".

This is a Sidecar.

So it's cognac and Grand Marnier and lemon juice.

And he shakes it up just right and makes that little fuzzy foam on it.

That's my drink.

And when I walk in the door, by the time I get to the bar, it's sitting here.

- I think this place actually epitomizes what Weaverville and, you know, our people are all about.

You know, we're about fun, friendliness, forgiving, good food, great beer, those types of things.

It's a place where you can come safely and you can hang out, and it's wonderful to have it here in the Weaverville area.

- When Helene hit here, we were lucky enough to had thought it through and rented two refrigerated trailers.

We put lights in the kitchen, started the generators, and cooked food for the whole community.

We served, I think, 4 or 500 people out the front door.

We did multiple different events for people that were impacted with Helene, different businesses, different foundations, and I think it really showed the strength of the community.

- We just recently did a fundraiser with Mountain Strong 828, which is a nonprofit from Hurricane Helene, and they raised $35,000 in one day, which was absolutely phenomenal.

Community means everything to me.

I mean, I chose to be a servant, and I have been a servant my entire life.

And you know, being able to make a difference, we try to build everything that we do around being here for the community and the people that support us.

- Salt Face Mule Brewing Company is at 450 Weaverville Highway in Asheville, and they're open daily.

For more information, give them a call at 828-484-7474, or go online to saltfacemule.com.