Born in Spruce Pine and raised in Asheville, Bryan King backpacked solo through Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia for 9 months before making the move out to the Bay Area in Northern California at the end of the internet boom in 2000. After 11 formative years living in SF and working in Silicon Valley he and his girlfriend Angela decided it was time to take a gamble and return to WNC in 2011. With little to no restaurant experience, they received a crash course in all things 12 Bones from the previous owners, Tom Montgomery and Sabra Kelley. Bryan and Angela finalized purchase of the two restaurants in 2012, got married in 2013 and published the restaurant's first cookbook in 2015 with Head Chef Shane Heavner and Author Mackensy Lunsford. Since that time, they have had to move both locations because of impending road improvements. In the spring of 2019, 12 Bones Brewing opened along side the recently moved south Asheville store on Hendersonville Road in Arden.