ASHEVILLE - Follow the trail of foraged mushrooms to a new restaurant celebrating fresh and wild foods.

Wild Morel Restaurant and Wine Bar are now open at 204 Main St. in Brevard. The hours are 4:30-9 p.m. daily.  

Tony Pope, chef, and owner is curating menus that showcase seasonal ingredients sourced from local and regional farmers, growers, and suppliers.

“Wild Morel will be a destination restaurant and wine bar offering an unforgettable experience focused on the symmetry between food and wine, seasonal ingredients, and my very own personal style,” Pope said in a news release.

Wild Morel is in the former location of Marco Trattoria, which Pope took over nearly a month ago. Diners returning to the venue will have a vastly different experience than before.

Marco Trattoria served Italian cuisine. Wild Morel is serving New American style dishes prepared with French techniques and inspired by ingredients found in Transylvania County, Zach Weinstein, general manager, said.

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More changes are underway, including new management and a dining room and kitchen revamp. Lunch hours were suspended during the renovation.

The building has been a restaurant in Brevard for almost three decades, Weinstein said, and Wild Morel will keep the tradition going.

“It’s kind of like a new restaurant inside of the old restaurant,” he said. “It’s a startup restaurant inside what was already a busy restaurant.”

Pope, a West Virginia native, embarks on WNC’s dining scene with an extensive resume in tow.

He’s a graduate of the Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute in Charleston. He’s served as executive chef for Dormie Network, Buckhead Diner in Atlanta, and Chechessee Creek Club in South Carolina. He was the executive sous chef of the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia and chef de cuisine at Bayonne Restaurant in New Orleans and Hanks Seafood in Charleston.

The 25-year industry veteran has created and shaped menus bought and managed restaurants, and designed top-level kitchens.

At Wild Morel, Pope is leading the restaurant's transition by introducing elevated farm-to-table dishes with mushrooms and more.

On Aug. 8, new menus will roll out for the dining room and bar.

The updated wine list will have more than 70 labels focused on natural, sustainable, and dry-farmed wines with old world and new world selections, Weinstein said. A spirits, vermouth, and sherry program will be introduced soon.

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A cheese program that will feature local and imported cheeses is in development, too.

The wood-fired oven that’s been a staple of the building will be used to make premium Neapolitan pizzas. Recently, the menu featured a truffle cheese and mortadella pizza made with fresh chanterelles foraged from the Hendersonville area.

“We also have a wide selection of proteins on the menu,” Weinstein said. “Chef Tony is very experienced cooking fish, coming from Charleston. He’s maintained much of his procurement network, so we’ve been getting fresh fish from the Carolina coast daily and are also serving steaks.”

Entrée plates set to roll out this week include New York strip steak, Cheshire pork, Prince Edward Island mussels, squid ink linguine with shrimp and scallops, smoked trout, and local heirloom tomatoes.

The menu is expanding by the day, Weinstein said.

Hours: 4:30-9 p.m. daily

Info: For details, visit wildmorelrestaurant.com or call (828) 883-4841. Follow on Instagram @wildmorelrestaurant or Facebook at facebook.com/wildmorelrestaurant/.

Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.