Santé Wine Bar is healthy (as its name, translated from French, suggests).
Former owner Carla Baden wants to dispel rumors she's heard that the place is closing; it's not. It simply changed ownership.
Allan Morse, an engineer, is Santé's new steward. He's neither changing careers nor making a detached investment. Rather, he's keeping his day job and remaining a regular at Santé, as he has been for the majority of its existence (it opened 6 1/2 years ago).
While Morse hopes to engineer an expanded lunch and dinner menu that will debut this spring or summer, he doesn't plan to change much otherwise. “We're going to keep to the core,” he says. Santé's wine-on-tap system — the first in the state — will remain, offering a dozen wines on draft.
Morse serves on the board of the Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Lyric Opera, so he plans that Santé's wines will flow with a little more music in the coming months. He hopes to bring piano, guitar and light jazz performances to his new corner of the Grove Arcade.
Santé Wine Bar and Tap Room is located at 1 Page Ave. It opens daily at 4 p.m. For more information, see santewinebar.com.
