Highland brewing
He wanted her to find her own way, he told her. More than a decade earlier, Ashburn had applied for a position with her father’s company after graduating with a degree in journalism from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but her father turned down her application. In 2011, Wong’s daughter, Leah Wong Ashburn, officially joined the team at Highland Brewery. While that superior quality persists, little else remains from those early days in the basement.
Why? Because he was determined to produce a high-quality product on a consistent basis. Still, it took Wong eight years to break even. As the first legal brewery in Western North Carolina following the repeal of prohibition, you can imagine its allure. After forging a successful career in nuclear engineering, he would later create an innovative nuclear waste disposal company and then go on to found Highland Brewing Company, Asheville’s oldest independent brewery. Wong, the son of Chinese immigrants, grew up in Jamaica and moved to the States to study civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
In 1994, Oscar Wong began brewing beer in the basement of Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria in downtown Asheville. Leah Wong Ashburn carries her father’s torch at Asheville’s oldest independent breweryīy Wiley Cash and Mallory Cash | photography by Mallory Cash