Silver Iocovozzi is a 2024 F&W Best New Chef

Silver Iocovozzi’s restaurant, Neng Jr.’s, in Asheville, North Carolina, radiates unabashed, colorful, queer joy. From the open kitchen with gleaming emerald green–tiled walls to the brilliant red countertop to the massive, glamorous painting of his mom, the vibrant 18-seat restaurant offers what Iocovozzi describes as “the intimacy and the comforts of home” — if your home belonged to, say, an exceptionally fabulous aunt with a penchant for live fire and hand-pulled noodles. With a riotous, freewheeling menu effortlessly veering between Filipino and Southern food — sometimes lumpia and kinilaw grace the menu, and other times a slow-cooked Brunswick stew — there’s nothing else quite like it in the world.

A second-generation Filipino American raised in the Carolinas, Iocovozzi explores how these cultures he grew up with overlap. “Filipino generosity correlates with Southern hospitality,” he says, especially when it comes to food, pointing to the whole-pig traditions of lechon and eastern North Carolina barbecue, and how both use vinegar as punchy counterbalance to richer meats. In what Iocovozzi thinks of as a “handshake between the two cuisines,” a Filipino banana ketchup might get a little frisky with a Carolina barbecue sauce. Or a locally sourced duck breast might be coupled with a silky-smooth adobo-inspired sauce that you can’t help but spoon over everything in sight.

At Neng Jr.’s, Iocovozzi; his husband, Cherry, the co-owner and wine director; and the lively staff boldly put their authentic selves out there every day. This place represents more than just a restaurant to Iocovozzi. It’s a way of claiming space in Asheville, a safe haven for the queer community, and a deeply personal exercise in storytelling in which food and identity are inextricably linked.

Must-order dishes at Neng Jr.’s

Fruit plate

The fruit plate at Neng Jr.’s is modeled on a Filipino snack of green mango and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste). “It’s just super sour and salty and so satiating,” Iocovozzi says. His version uses in-season fruit and a custom sauce of shallots, garlic, fish sauce, rice powder, lime juice, and chile flakes that gets pounded in a mortar and pestle. “When people don’t order it, especially if it’s their first time at the restaurant, I make sure that they get this dish. I’ll send it out because I just want them to understand why this dish is on the menu.”

Adobo oyster 

Iocovozzi’s “accidental” signature dish is a freshly shucked oyster with sea grapes (also known as lato, a quintessential Filipino ingredient), a cured quail egg yolk, and an adobo mignonette. “With the mignonette, it’s just basically adobo, equal parts soy and vinegar, and then shallot and pepper,” he says. “Things like onion and pepper and acid and salt are huge, really basic, groundwork flavors for Filipino food. It’s just a perfect way to start the meal here, and I’ll probably never take it off the menu.”

Duck adobo 

“For the adobo that we serve with the duck, I wanted to go into a more rich direction without using butter and that kind of French classical mindset,” Iocovozzi says. “I decided to do a coconut milk adobo, which is still equal parts soy and vinegar, and then we’re adding coconut milk.” He steeps toasted black peppercorns, fresh garlic, and fresh bay leaves in the sauce overnight and then strains it out the next day. “And it just comes out as this pretty thick and silky sauce that’s just super well balanced.”

Adobo martini 

Developed by general manager Quinton Soemardi, this vodka-based savory cocktail incorporates adobo flavors and ingredients while maintaining the attributes he finds most important in a martini: cold, crisp, stiff, and smooth. A black-pepper-and-bay-leaf tincture forms the base of the drink. It gets finished with a few drops of Silver Swan soy sauce, garlic oil, and an expressed lemon peel and is served with an olive that’s been marinated in a mix of olive brine, toasted black pepper, bay leaves, and Datu Puti cane vinegar. “It’s best enjoyed at the very start or very end of the meal,” says Soemardi, “and best paired with the adobo oyster and our lumpia or kinilaw.”