- Our final mountain stay takes us to Asheville, where the iconic Flat Iron Building with its striking triangular shape and ornate design have drawn the eye of architecture fans for generations.

But now it's a lovely boutique hotel with elegant dining and stunning rooftop views.

[lively music] - Flat Iron Hotel was an office building long before it was a boutique hotel.

It was developed in 1926 by a gentleman named L.B.

Jackson, who is known from the L.B.

Jackson Building, downtown Asheville, his first project.

You'll find similar type of buildings around the country.

Some are more famous like the one in New York, obviously ours now.

But basically it was built as an office building, and it had tenants from 1926 all the way to 2018, when it was closed, and they're gonna be converted into the boutique hotel it is today.

So the Flat Iron Hotel offers 71 guest rooms.

Based on its unique shape, it has 71-plus room types, everything from a queen bedroom to a king-bedded suite.

Our suites are in the apex of the building, so you have a nice view with the natural lighting in the corner of the building, everything from the rooftop, which is off the fire escape, which is now an enclosed rooftop bar with three patios.

One feature they're unaware of is the speakeasy, which used to be the boiler room of the building.

And that's always a pleasant surprise when they find that in the basement.

And then Luminosa is the highlight.

So we have been fortunate that the community has really embraced our Italian Appalachian restaurant.

- I think the Appalachian roots run really deep here between me and my chef de cuisine, Sean McMullen.

We're both from the region.

One dish in particular that I can think of would be our agnolotti dish where we get in a whole hog every week, brine that in our leftover olive brine, and then braised in the pizza oven, picked.

And then that goes inside the agnolotti pasta with creamer peas, cornbread crumb on tap, and a little Aleppo.

It's kind of like a homage to like soup beans kind of thing, and that's just kind of a play as far as like Appalachia roots go, like no waste.

Everything kind of gets used.

- I enjoy the pizzas.

I love the pasta dishes.

But the thing I really appreciate is that they change the menu with the seasons, so there's always something new.

In fact, tonight we're doing the chef's tasting menu.

So I'm told I'm gonna be surprised at what I have offered for our group of 20 because there are new things on the menu that I haven't even seen yet.

- One of the most important things for us is trying to honor each ingredient and utilizing all of the trim as much as possible so that there is as little waste as possible.

So, oftentimes, it'll be a conversation between myself, the team, and chefs, saying, "Hey, is there a byproduct at which you are looking for an application, ingredients that aren't being fully used that we can apply to the beverage program?"

For the beverages here in Luminosa, very much an Italian-style expression, lots of negronis, lots of spritzes, but playing upon a little bit more of specificity utilizing local ingredients.

So, again, trying to offer that hyper-seasonal lens in the space with the spirits that we're utilizing but also the ingredients.

- Well, I think one ideal of many of the hotel is our location.

Any door you walk out, you're within walking distance to many restaurants, shopping, bars, breweries.

- Everything is very central and local.

You can walk pretty much anywhere.

We did valet, and I don't even think we've picked up the car.

We've just walked everywhere.

- There's not a day that's gonna go by where we might have three or four walk-ins of guests just wanna see the hotel 'cause they remember back how it looked before it was converted to a boutique hotel.

If you walk through the hotel, you're gonna see plaques that really honor those first tenants that were in the building, notables that are on here.

We have everyone from doctors to dentists to florists.

And you'll find as you go through the guest room floors different plaques and signage on the doors talking about their residence here.

- There's so many interesting snippets of who has been there and different professions for each floor.

I've learned a lot about Asheville by staying here.

- We're always a pleasant surprise.

I don't know if people expected the building to turn out as locals have learned what it is today and how we took care in restoring the building, took care in re-presenting it to Asheville.

And I think they can be proud of this building that we're able to save it for many, many decades to come.

- The Flat Iron Hotel is at 20 Battery Park Avenue in Asheville.

To plan your visit, give them a call at 828-579-2106, or go online to ashevilleflatiron.com.