The grandmothers are watching. Their portraits — some softly faded vintage color photographs, others black-and-white prints — line the exposed-brick walls of Betty’s Biscuits in downtown Boone. Outside, a cold mountain breeze drifts down West Main Street, but inside this cozy restaurant, the air is warm with scents of butter and coffee. Conversation softens to a murmur as the first gentle strums of a guitar ripple across the room.

First up is Andrew Massey, a young, bearded singer-songwriter from Lenoir. He begins his short three-song set with a piece about his long-ago crush on a girl in church. The audience of about 30 leans in, hanging on to every word of his story, then claps politely as he steps aside for the next performer.

Sarah DeShields (left) and Meris Gantt realized their dream of creating a collaborative performance space with the East Boone Listening Room. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

This is the atmosphere that Meris Gantt envisioned when she, Sarah DeShields, and a handful of friends, all in their 30s and 40s, launched the East Boone Listening Room in the fall of 2023. It grew out of two local organizations — Bloom House and the Boone Studio Collective — known for creating spaces where artists and entrepreneurs could meet and collaborate. Gantt, a singer-songwriter herself, wanted a room where quieter music and storytelling could unfurl without having to compete with the clinking pint glasses and shouted conversations of a typical bar.

Most artists aren’t accustomed to being listened to so intently. “They haven’t had situations where people are sitting quietly and just watching them,” Gantt says. “It can be unnerving.” But no one comes into the Listening Room expecting perfection. “It’s really just about being human,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if you mess up. That’s part of the charm.”

• • •

Gantt and fellow songwriter DeShields had seen the power of quiet connection at Open Folk, a similar event in Asheville, and decided Boone needed something like it. They started the Listening Room in another small venue, but when that space closed, friend and restaurateur Tina Houston agreed to share the welcoming walls of Betty’s Biscuits. It was a natural fit.

The restaurant, which shares its downtown block with a bronze statue of western North Carolina music legend Doc Watson, is a love letter to family. Houston, a celebrated local chef who also owns three other restaurants, named the place for her grandmother and then filled it with everyone’s grandmothers: photographs of staff members’ matriarchs, sepia-toned memories smiling down from the brick. Among them are portraits of Gantt’s grandmother and great-grandmother, their eyes catching the amber light as guitars are tuned and stories told.

Chef Tina Houston, the creative force behind Betty’s Biscuits and creator of its Zionville Hot Chicken Butterbuster, also owns Reid’s Café & Catering Co. in Sugar Mountain and The Beacon in Boone. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

Gantt moves through the crowd with the ease of someone greeting neighbors. Long brown hair falls over the shoulders of her oversize green button-down; faded black jeans and worn boots give her the look of a musician ready to jump onstage if needed. She pauses to check on small details — a microphone stand, a chair slightly askew — before moving on with a nod or a smile. Her friendly demeanor rarely fades as she checks in with her team — a loose but devoted group that came together almost by chance.

In addition to Houston and DeShields, there’s photographer Sydney Everett and her husband, Simon, who manages a local brewery. He vets and books most of the Listening Room artists and runs the soundboard with quiet precision. DeShields’s husband, Kevin, runs the livestream that lets fans listen in from home. Around them orbit friends from Boone’s creative community — designers, planners, videographers — each lending skills that keep the evening running smoothly.

Artists’ sets are curated for variety but united by intimacy.

The Listening Room is not a free-for-all where just anybody can perform. Artists are invited, their 15-minute sets curated for variety but united by intimacy: folk ballads, soft-edged indie rock, a fiddle tune that turns the room breathless. “We prequalify — it’s not an open mic,” Gantt says. “You have to be a certain level of good, but it’s not about a polished performance.” She smiles at the contradiction. “It’s connection, not polish.”

The small stage — really just a cleared area beside the front window, with woven carpets spread in front of wooden tables, chairs, and benches — feels more like a living room than a music venue. A place where melodies and stories are shared rather than performed. About 30 to 50 people typically crowd in, locals shrugging off coats and mittens, hands wrapped around steaming mugs. “Part of the reason we only do it in the winter is the cozy vibe,” Gantt says. “It’s better when it’s darker.”

The Zionville Hot Chicken Butterbuster is a menu icon at Betty’s Biscuits. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

That winter rhythm also suits the lives of the organizers, most of whom juggle creative careers and young families. “We’re all too busy in the summer to do this,” Gantt says.

Even the program length reflects the group’s gentle practicality. Four performers play just three songs each, a structure Gantt defends with a grin: “If you’re committing to sitting in a roomful of people, listening to music you’ve never heard, it takes a lot of brain energy to stay focused for two hours. And these songs are emotional, right? There’s only so much of that before you get tired.”

The brevity keeps the audience alert and the night manageable. “A lot of people are our age or older,” Gantt says. “We want to be home and in bed by 8:30 or 9 — or at least have the option to.”

“By the time we leave, our hearts are so full. We’re like, Oh, this is the best thing I do all month!”

What the event lacks in duration, it makes up for in connection. “I think it’s brought a lot of unlikely friends together,” Gantt says. “We’ve seen people that didn’t have a big platform now playing other venues and getting a little bit of traction.” Musicians swap numbers after their sets. Listeners discover new favorites. Collaborations spark over shared pots of coffee.

For the organizers, the reward is as much personal as it is communal. “All of us come in frazzled,” Gantt admits, “and by the time we leave, our hearts are so full. We’re like, Oh, this is the best thing I do all month!”

Sydney Everett agrees. “It’s kind of gloomy in the mountains in the winter,” she says, “so it’s nice to be able to get out with friends and listen to good music. And especially since Hurricane Helene and all the events that have been happening to the mountains lately, everybody’s writing songs about it and telling those stories. That just kind of gives you hope.”

• • •

The Listening Room crowd feels that hope. Some close their eyes as verses unfold; others cradle coffee cups like talismans against the chill outside. A pair of teens curl against their mother’s shoulders, drowsy but attentive.

Over its brief life, the East Boone Listening Room has become a small winter ritual in this tight-knit mountain college town — neighbors gathering close, music drifting through scents of pastries and coffee, a pause from the noise of the wider world.

The cozy atmosphere at Betty’s Biscuits lets musicians like Andrew Massey connect closely with the audience. photograph by Sydney Gail Photography

The grandmothers on the brick walls seem to approve, their framed faces catching the light as the next performer steps forward, guitar in hand, and the room leans in to listen.

For upcoming East Boone Listening Room events, visit bloomhousenc.com/music or find them on Instagram @eastboonelisteningroom.

Betty’s Biscuits
640 West King Street
Boone, NC 28604
(828) 865-0131
bettysbiscuitsnc.com