---
title: "Asheville Says Goodbye to East Village Grille Owner After Crash"
url: https://www.hereasheville.com/2026/10/29/east-village-grille-owner-papanastasiou-funeral-tunnel-road/
date: 2026-10-29T05:52:05-04:00
modified: 2026-10-29T05:52:05-04:00
author: "Ricardo P. Gross"
categories: ["Traffic"]
site: "HERE Asheville"
attribution: "HERE Asheville"
---

# Asheville Says Goodbye to East Village Grille Owner After Crash

> ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville will bury one of its best-known restaurant owners Thursday. Nicholas Emilios Papanastasiou, 66, who ran East Village Grille, died after he had a medical emergency at the wheel and his car crashed on Tunnel Road, the Asheville Police Department said. The crash came on a Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25, a few

*Source: [HERE Asheville](https://www.hereasheville.com/2026/10/29/east-village-grille-owner-papanastasiou-funeral-tunnel-road/) — October 29, 2026 by Ricardo P. Gross*

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville will bury one of its best-known restaurant owners Thursday. Nicholas Emilios Papanastasiou, 66, who ran East Village Grille, died after he had a medical emergency at the wheel and his car crashed on Tunnel Road, the Asheville Police Department said.

The crash came on a Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25, a few minutes before 1 o’clock, in the 900 block of Tunnel Road, according to police. Papanastasiou was heading west in a 2025 Mini Cooper when the emergency struck. The car left the pavement, hit a light pole and ended up at the bottom of an embankment. He died later at Mission Hospital. Police are still looking into the crash.

Papanastasiou spent 36 years running East Village Grille, a restaurant he helped start with his brothers. He later expanded into Filo/Post 70 in 2006 and opened Post 25 Kitchen and Lounge in Arden in 2016. In a social media message, the family restaurants called him a father, leader, partner and mentor.

A funeral is set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 227 Cumberland Ave., with burial right after at Lewis Memorial Park, 415 Beaverdam Road. A celebration of life, known as a makaria, will follow at Post 25. Morris Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Tunnel Road is a busy commercial stretch on the east side of the city. Studies of local crash data keep flagging it as a high-risk corridor, together with Hendersonville Road, Merrimon Avenue and Patton Avenue. For many diners, his places were a fixture of eating out in Asheville for more than three decades.