News

Wide-ranging Mex-Italy opens on Asheville Highway

Alberto Quintero serves a Mexican dish at the new Mex-Italy restaurant on Asheville Highway.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 21, 2014

Mex-Italy has opened at 1201 Asheville Highway, offering a wide-ranging menu not just of Mexican and Italian origin but many beef, chicken and seafood dishes.

The latest family-owned operation to occupy the Asheville Highway location built as a Howard Johnson's in 1965, Mexi-Italy is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
After working for months renovating the space, Alberto Quintero and family members opened on Wednesday.
"We just went for it," he said. "It was really better than we expected."
Ordering from the Mexican and Italian choices has "been half and half," he said with a grin.

The restaurant employs about 12 people, Quintero said.
What Mexi-Italy lacks in national focus, it makes up for in variety.
Mex-Italy — if you're wondering, Quintero says it's pronounced Mexi-TAL-I, not Mex Italy — offers eight nachos choices for appetizers, 13 Mexican-style lunch entrees and eight sandwiches it lists as Italian-style — including chicken breast, turkey, Philly ribeye steak on French bread and the Mex-Italy burger, with hamburger, breaded eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, cheddar cheese and smoked applewood bacon. Sandwiches are $10 or $10.50 except for the $14 ribeye sandwich. The Mexican lunch choices range from a $7.25 half chimichanga to $10 tortas. It includes four huevos dishes — scrambled eggs topped with various choices.
Ranging even more widely, the dinner menu includes soups ($7), salads ($9-11), white and focaccia bread pizza ($10 for a personal size to $19 for a whole pie), 10 pasta dishes ($12-25), 11 Mexican specials, including, extending the cultural range again, jambalaya ($8.50 to $17.50), 21 seafood dishes ($10 to $15 or market price), including lots of shrimp dishes, scallops, fried catfish and the Mex-Italy platter — crab cake with lobster sauce, rice and black bean cake.
That's still not all. The dinner menu offers nine chicken dishes, four kinds of quesadillas ($6.50-11), six fajitas ($13-16.50), nine steaks ($12-15) and 10 desserts ($2.50-7.50) including fried ice cream, pineapple cake and flan.

The restaurant also offers a full bar, with wine ($4.50 a glass), margaritas, daiquiris, bottled and draft beer. It's at 1201 Asheville Highway. Phone: 828.595.9834.