previously reported<\/a> on the extensive damage Ole\u2019s Guacamoles had to both its Black Mountain and Asheville location after Tropical Storm Helene swept through the region in September 2024.<\/p>\nElena Delatorre said her family owns two buildings in Black Mountain: One at 401 East State St. where Ole\u2019s Guacamoles is, and another at 502 West State St., the new home of Kyoto Teriyaki House. Before Helene, the West State Street building was an event venue the family rented out.<\/p>\n
The Asheville location of Ole\u2019s Guacamoles was in a rented building that was destroyed during the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the hurricane destroyed both of our locations, we had to find somewhere to generate money to get back on our feet,\u201d Elena Delatorre said. \u201cSo we forgot about the venue and did a temporary restaurant here with Ole\u2019s Guacamoles to help us generate revenue and rebuild the original one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fourteen months after Helene, Ole\u2019s Guacamoles was able to reopen at its previous East State Street location.<\/p>\n
Once that happened, Elena Delatorre said she knew the West State Street location needed either another restaurant opened by the family or to be leased out for someone else to use. It was then she said her sons Abraham and Daniel came up with the idea of opening a Japanese restaurant at the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of it just sitting vacant, Black Mountain always needs an extra place to eat,\u201d Abraham Delatorre said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always liked Japanese and we\u2019re always experimenting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elena Delatorre said the family is working with a chef and other staff who have worked at other Japanese restaurants, which has helped the family get acquainted with the cuisine.<\/p>\n
She said Kyoto Teriyaki House is a family business. It will have a full bar and will focus on Japanese menu items, including Japanese cocktails, appetizers and food.<\/p>\n
Abraham Delatorre said the restaurant will operate on a faster pace than perhaps a traditional Japanese restaurant. The menu will be small and won’t include sushi, but will focus on getting orders out fast.<\/p>\n
A ribbon cutting for Kyoto Teriyaki House was held Feb. 20 and the restaurant opened the week before.<\/p>\n
Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cheryl Hyde said the restaurant is a welcome addition to the nearly 40 independent restaurants in the Swannanoa Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s always room for more diversity in the food,\u201d Hyde said. \u201cA lot of towns have been eaten up by hamburger joints and our town really has a good diverse group of restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said despite seeing the damage to the Ole\u2019s Guacamoles restaurant, the Delatorre family committed to regrouping and feeding people when needed in the aftermath of Helene, just as many other restaurants in the Valley did.<\/p>\n
Abraham Delatorre said he has seen a lot of locals come through since Kyoto Teriyaki House opened and the restaurant has been \u201cstaying busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great since day one,\u201d Elena Delatorre said. \u201cIt\u2019s been very successful. We have a lovely, lovely community. Great support. We love Black Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n
More: What opened in the Swannanoa Valley in 2025? Check out this list<\/a><\/p>\nKarrigan Monk is the Swannanoa Valley communities reporter for Black Mountain News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at\u00a0kmonk@blackmountainnews.com.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLACK MOUNTAIN \u2013 The family behind a popular Mexican restaurant in Black Mountain is bringing a Japanese cuisine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[937,3279,3281,2596,1162,8,151,220,2599,2164,1525,3280,173,939,2597,2593,2595,2381,2598,628,2594,934],"class_list":{"0":"post-3235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kyoto","8":"tag-affiliate","9":"tag-black","10":"tag-black-mountain","11":"tag-cuisines","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-japan","14":"tag-kyoto","15":"tag-local","16":"tag-local-affiliate-food","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-mountain","19":"tag-nc","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-overall","22":"tag-overall-positive","23":"tag-positive","24":"tag-reservations","25":"tag-restaurant","26":"tag-restaurant-reviews-u0026-reservations","27":"tag-restaurants","28":"tag-reviews","29":"tag-u0026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}