And as with many of Asheville’s best drinking options, great care has been applied to the front patio, an area well populated thanks to Asheville’s fairly friendly climate. Here, the seating is made up of picnic tables and grass-style umbrellas, some additional padded bench seating running along one of the dive bar’s exterior walls. At night, large red bulb Christmas lights play off of black painted brick, bathing the front patio area in a soft red light in perfect dive bar fashion. The patio here is long enough to pack a pretty decent-sized crowd.
The best dive bars are the ones that defy explanation and the sheer density of light, decoration and relentless waves of reflective tinsel along the ceiling makes Lazy Diamond difficult to accurately capture. I mean this as a compliment, sincerely, that the best analogy I can think of is Lazy Diamond feeling a bit like a dive bar in the center of a cruise ship where the staff hangs out and talks about the tourists they had to serve that night. The place feels like a gilded bunker, the tinsel playing off of Christmas lights playing off of the mirrored bar area that runs the length of the space. Multi-colored Christmas lights blend into a soft red glow that mirrors the patio, a dive bar subterranean feeling of sorts.
Vinyl DJ sets command a corner of the space most nights, a small dance floor extending off of it that blends into the rest of the Lazy Diamond. The main space includes the bar that runs its full length, a line of booths along the opposite wall and a handful of short tables in between. This main space ends with a swinging pair of saloon-style doors that lead to the epically graffiti-laden bathrooms and a caged storage area that somehow also enhances the vibe. Even by dive bar standards the bathrooms are impressive, wild mixes of stickers, graffiti and posters in each of the available bathrooms.
