107 Market and Deli: Foothills Meats, Cup of Jomo team up for new eatery

A new eatery debuted in downtown Black Mountain March 23, a collaboration between local businesses Foothills Meats and Cup of Jomo.

Located at 107 Black Mountain Ave., 107 Market and Deli features a menu with breakfast and lunch sandwiches as well as coffee and tea beverages, and provisions.

Breakfast is served from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., with lunch served from 10:30 a.m. until close at 3 p.m. Following the 3 p.m. closure, 107 Market and Deli transforms into an event space that will host Foothills’ signature butcher table dinners.

Foothills Director of Marketing and Catering Megan Watts said the idea for 107 Market and Deli stemmed from the early days of Foothills when co-owner Casey McKissick would sell provisions at the farmers market.

“During the pandemic, they went back to kind of the market style of having local provisions available for everyone to pick up,” Watts said.

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She said lunch boxes were also offered during that time at the butcher bar. While this model eventually closed and moved over to The Foothills Grange, the management and butcher teams stayed in the space that now currently holds 107 Market and Deli.

Cup of Jomo was located across the street in the WNC Outdoor Collective. Watts said walking across the street to get a coffee from owner Joseph “Jomo” Morris was a daily ritual.

“We have been going over to Jomo to get coffee on a pretty daily basis for a lot of us,” Watts said. “It was actually my first day that I started, that was one of the first things that we did was pop over and have a little chat.”

While Foothills has been around for two decades, Cup of Jomo will celebrate its second anniversary in May.

Watts said Foothills was constantly getting feedback about customers missing the sandwiches and other offerings from the butcher bar.

“It just kind of kept happening and kept happening, and we were wondering what we wanted to do with the space and then literally one day we all just decided we need to turn this back into something to do with Foothills, where people can come spend some time during the day, meet up with friends, grab a bite,” Watts said.

She said Foothills wanted to serve coffee but had no interest in getting into the coffee business and decided to ask Morris if he would be willing to set up shop in the new spot.

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“It was kind of a no-brainer to say yes to it,” Morris said.

Morris and Watts both said business has been good in their short time open.

“It’s been pretty good, especially for Cup of Jomo,” Morris said. “We closed up the first fiscal week with what would have been kind of like summer volume for us at our old spot.”

Watts said there are already several Butchers Table and other events planned within the last month.

“We’re really stoked about our progress and the reception that we’re getting in the community,” Watts said.