Our Story
A really long time ago:
In the 1860s, a Prussian sailor named Harry Johnson was stranded in San Francisco with a broken arm and hip. He took a job as a kitchen boy, worked his way up to bartender, and never looked back. By 1868 he had his own place in Chicago. By the 1880s he was running a saloon called Little Jumbo in lower Manhattan's Bowery, drawing Wall Street financiers and Tammany Hall politicians alike.
In 1882 Johnson published New and Improved Bartender's Manual, the first comprehensive guide to the profession of bartending, covering everything from opening a bar to training a barback. It included hundreds of recipes, among them the first written versions of the Bijou, the Marguerite, and an early Martini. He is widely regarded as one of the fathers of professional bartending.
The Building:
241 Broadway sits at the corner of Broadway and Elizabeth Street in Five Points, the neighborhood named for the five corners formed by Broadway, Chestnut Street, and Mount Clare Avenue. A streetcar once ran this corridor, making it a natural commercial spine between downtown and the residential neighborhoods to the north.
In the 1910s, a grocer named John H. Jenkins Jr. sold his downtown shop and built a two-story building at 241 Broadway, designed by local architect T.E. Davis and completed in 1920. It operated as an independent neighborhood grocery for decades.
Not quite so long ago:
The building survived a fire in the 1980s and cycled through various lives, from underground punk shows to office space. Just before we arrived, it was Valet Gourmet, a takeout spot. In 2017 we renovated the ground floor and opened Little Jumbo.
Ever Since
From day one, the focus has been on being a welcoming, comfortable haven that happens to have great cocktails. We've become the living room for the Montford and Five Points neighborhoods; the kind of place where you feel like you belong.
In 2018 we started hosting live jazz in our parlor and over the years it has grown into one of the nerve centers of Asheville's creative music scene. Every Monday and Tuesday, world-class musicians perform original, boundary-pushing work, completely free, no cover, no minimum. It's not background music. It's a space where musicians explore new sonic territories and audiences encounter ideas they've never heard before. We're proud to be recognized as one of the best listening rooms in town.
Along the way, some very kind people have said nice things about us. Garden & Gun named us one of the Best Cocktail Bars in the South. USA Today put us on their 2025 list of Best Bars in the USA. Monocle called us "the place to meet the locals." We've been covered in Southern Living, Food & Wine, Whisky Advocate, and the Citizen-Times, among others. We're proud to be in the Mountain Xpress Hall of Fame for Best Bar in North Asheville.
But the thing we're most proud of isn't on a list. It's the regulars who come in every week, the musicians who treat our stage like a laboratory, and the fact that after all these years, the bartender still knows your name and your drink.
We open at 4:00 p.m. daily.