At first, customers didn’t know what to expect at Potential New Boyfriend in Asheville, North Carolina. During the day, the space glows with a riot of pop art and sunlight shining on a mishmash of couches and midcentury chairs. Visits kick off with amuse-bouches, yet the wine list, plotted on a New York magazine-style matrix of flavors, skews casual. The food menu, dreamed up by owner Disco and chef Dana Amromin, mostly consists of desserts, like earthy tahini cheesecake or masala chai ice cream sundaes, but the bar only serves customers at least 21 years old. At night, guest DJs spin a variety of tunes through high-end speakers; people sometimes approach the booth thinking they need to order at the counter.
“Guests don’t necessarily know what to expect, which has its pros and cons,” Disco says. “We get to wow them.” Customers aren’t the only ones who have struggled to parse Potential New Boyfriend. “Institutions don’t really know what to do with us and how to categorize us, whether it’s the liquor authority in North Carolina or insurance companies. That has been tricky,” he adds.
After running a small ice cream startup at a farmer’s market, Disco decided he didn’t want to open a scoop shop. Instead, he threw together all the things he did want — frozen desserts, a casual wine bar, small plates, a living room-like space he could hang out in for hours — into one place. “I wanted to piece together the best of all worlds,” he says. “The experience I want to offer is as if customers came to a friend’s living room for a dinner party.”…