Wed 7/22/26 – 4-9:00 PM -Join us for a mid-week Sangria special: $6 white sangria – Pinot grigio, brandy, pear, peach, mango fruits, and pineapple- pear- peach juices. Let’s get ready for an early summer full of sangrias and fun!
Thurs 7/23/26 – 4-9 PM -Most locals know of the mystery of “The Brown Mountain Lights.” But let’s share. The Brown Mountain Lights are unexplained, glowing orbs that flash and hover around Brown Mountain in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest. Reported since 1913 by journalists, they appear as floating or darting balls of light. Scientists and locals debate their cause. Theories range from ghosts and aliens to swamp gas and distant car headlights. Reports estimate their size from a star to a basketball. The lights typically appear on clear, dark nights, most often from late summer through late fall. Although they can sit still, they can also slowly drift or shoot up into the sky before mysteriously vanishing. This phenomenon has captured national attention for generations through folklore, scientific views and modern sightings. Scientific views according to the US Geological survey studies suggest the lights are often just refractions of distant train and car headlights. There are others who propose natural gases escaping the mountain and igniting, or static electricity discharges like St. Elmo’s fire. Researchers from Appalachian State University have used night cameras to record unidentified orbs with no scientific results, thus adding to the mystery. PBS and CBS have made documentaries about the phenomenon, but the lights remain a mystery cult. According to Cherokee legend, in 1200, the Cherokee fought a great battle near Brown Mountain against the Catawba Indians, and many warriors died. The lights are said to be the spirits of Cherokee maidens who search in vain for their loved ones.” A more recent legend says the lights are caused by the spirit of a heartbroken woman searching the mountain at night by torchlight, looking for her fiancé who failed to come for her on their wedding day.
In 1977, a visiting team of scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory aimed a distant arc light to a point west of Brown Mountain where observers waited. The blue-white beam appeared as an “orange-red orb apparently hovering several degrees above Brown Mountain’s crest.” The scientists concluded that most of the sightings were indeed refractions of lights in the distance. Joe Nickell with the “Skeptical Inquirer” makes this observation: “The evidence is clear: There is no single explanation because there is no single phenomenon. Just as we know that not all UFOs are weather balloons, not all Brown Mountain lights have a single cause. one proponent of the mystery insists that “the paranormal lights often move in strange ways and can change color before your eyes, unlike the stationary lights from normal sources, or car lights that always move on the same route.”
But for those of you who want to try to spot them, the best viewing spots are Wiseman’s View in the Linville Gorge Wilderness or the Brown Mountain Overlook on NC Highway 181. Probably should stop by The Brandy Bar for a straight pour of brandy before you go or take a flask of brandy with you – it will sharpen your wits! Brown Mountain Lights – CB Frost, Cointreau, Vermouth, Campari; UFO (a/k/a unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) – CB Frost, Coconut Cream, Melon liqueur, pineapple juice; Paranormal – Vanilla Cognac, lime juice, heavy cream; 1/2 price on fruit/infused flight