x Alex Matisse
Recently, Vita sat down with Alex Matisse of East Fork Pottery. Alex was raised in a small New England town by a family of artists, anthropologists, and inventors. He left the Northeast at 18 to attend Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina where he discovered the enduring traditions of pottery making in the South. Alex left college after a year and a half to pursue a traditional apprenticeship with two potters over the course of three years. In 2009, Alex purchased an old tobacco farm just north of Asheville in the mountains of Madison County, North Carolina and founded East Fork Pottery. He built a 36-foot-long wood-burning kiln and a series of rudimentary workshops which served as the original site of East Fork from 2009 until 2018. His then partner (now wife), Connie Coady, became more involved in the business and he was joined in 2013 by a friend and fellow potter, John Vigeland. The three of them shaped what East Fork is today. Today East Fork is one of the largest dinnerware manufacturers in the US, making a beloved and collectible assortment of pottery in Asheville, North Carolina with clays from the American Southeast. Alex lives in Flat Rock, NC with his wife and their daughters, Vita and Lucia.
How do you celebrate the beginning of summer?
Alex Matisse: After a long dreary North Carolina winter, bring all the house plants that crowd our kitchen in the winter outside, invite our friends over for an afternoon walk down to the river below our cabin, and have long dinners on the sun-warmed flagstone patio. And if it’s not too hot we light the wood-fired hot tub and watch the stars come out and fireflies drift up into the canopy!
What are your essentials for setting a festive table at home?
Alex Matisse: We are a little wild and loose with our table setting. Our cabinets and shelves are overflowing with things we have collected over the last 15 years of running a housewares business. Many of them are objects our friends made, and they all hold some big memories from the life Connie and I built over the last 16 years. Connie loves color so there is usually something bold that holds it all together, oftentimes a big tablecloth, then layered with flowers or leaves from the woods around our home, sturdy linens, and of course lots of pottery.
What dishes do you find yourself making repeatedly this time of year?
Alex Matisse: It sounds a little basic but good grilled chicken (thighs of course) is just the best, cooked very slowly over real coals so the skin starts to render and crisp. We have this big cast-iron firepit that doubles as a grill, so we get it going to grill and then throw a few more logs on to have the warmth and light through dinner as the sun sets. For dessert, Connie makes a passion fruit pavlova that is a crowd favorite, and there is never enough.
What are your go-to restaurants in Asheville?
Alex Matisse: We encourage everyone we know to visit because it’s such an easy flight from so many places, especially New York. Our list is Tall John’s, which is in a beautiful little historic neighborhood we used to live in before we moved to the country, Bull and Beggar down in the River Arts District for some really rich historical Frenchy food, Chai Pani for a really fun and rambunctious Indian feast, and Table, which was one of the first farm-to-table restaurants in Asheville 20 years ago and is still perfect.
No meal or party is complete without...
Alex Matisse: A fire burning with people sitting around it, lots of candles dripping wax everywhere, making a mess, massive overflowing platters of grilled meat and vegetables, copal sprinkled on coals, the kids asleep in their beds.
