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The Tale of Two Markets
Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: June - 2022
In just a few years, Historic Toxaway Market and Mountain Café have become local institutions. Stop by to discover why. Located at 15886 and 15889 Rosman Highway.
Robin and Chris Pickel, owners of the Historic Toxaway Market and Mountain Café, first visited the area in 2000.
As Robin tells the story, “We drove up at night in the fog and were just happy to make it on all those curvy roads. When we woke up the next morning (we were staying at a friend’s home on the lake) and saw all the gorgeous color on Toxaway Mountain, we were hooked!”
Five years later they left their Florida home and moved to the area.
When in 2017 the Pickels leased the building that had been Toxaway Wine and Cheese, the whole community was grateful –the closing of that business in 2014 had left the community without a place to buy essentials.
From the outset, the goal was to source local and regional goods, to identify the very best products in every category while keeping quality high and prices low. They began what is now their regularly routine of driving to Franklin for superior steaks from Brasstown Beef and buying deli meats from Boars Head.
Today the shelves overflow with non-GMO and Gluten free products. There’s a freezer full of prepared foods, and a cooler crowded with single serve desserts – slices of peanut butter pie cheesecake, tiramisu, and key lime pie among them.
Brasstown Beef’s steaks now share space in the meat case with pork chops from Cheshire Farms in Wayne County.
Over 500 different selections fill the wine racks, presenting bottles from well-known growing areas in the US and Western Europe to lesser-known wine regions.
In June 2020, the Pickels opened the Mountain Café across the street from the Market. They installed a full-blown barista station serving Pisgah Roasters Coffee and packed the freezers with Hershey’s Ice Cream. On the menu are cones, floats, shakes, and smoothies. Breakfast croissants, quiches, and sticky cinnamon buns are baked fresh every morning. Visitors and locals come for the food and coffee, to browse the assortment of gifts – mugs, journals, signage, pillows, and more – rock in the chairs on the front porch, and work in the conference room with its barn doors and free wi-fi.
The Historic Lake Toxaway Market and Mountain Café are open Tuesday through Saturday. Market hours are 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. and Café hours are 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. For more information, visit historictoxawaymarket.com, and sign up for wine tastings at historictoxawaymarket.com/contact.html or on Facebook at @HistoricToxawayMarket.
