Ashley Christensen

Coming Up

North Carolina State University sits at the start of Ashley Christensen’s record, but the work that defines her is the restaurant structure she built in Raleigh, one opening at a time. Since 2007, she has held the restaurant owner / chef role at Poole's Diner, and that first anchor became the base for a measured expansion rather than a quick scale-up. By 2011, Christensen had added restaurant owner / chef roles at Beasley's Chicken + Honey and Fox Liquor Bar, while also serving as chef and proprietor of AC Restaurants, a title that points to a wider operating frame across the city. That sequence continued with restaurant owner / chef of Death & Taxes in 2015, then Poole'side Pies in 2019. The pattern is accumulation with control: each addition extends the portfolio without breaking its shape. In Raleigh, Christensen’s name now sits at the center of AC Restaurants as the through-line for a body of work that has grown in steady stages.

Where They Are Now

Raleigh remains the fixed point in Christensen’s professional identity, and she has said so plainly: “I’m so proud to call Raleigh my home.” Her language about hospitality reaches past service mechanics and into the room itself. On the work of restaurants, she has said, “I think the biggest thing that we do is make ourselves available for conversations.” That frames dining rooms as places of exchange as much as transaction. She has also been direct about the limits of polish: “We’re willing to be vulnerable about the fact that we make mistakes.” The statement lands as operating philosophy—one that leaves room for correction without pretending the work is clean.

Signature

Christensen’s signature dishes include macaroni and cheese, Mac N Cheese Batman, and Macaroni Au Gratin. Read together, they map a kitchen vocabulary built on familiar ground, with the distinction coming through in execution and naming rather than novelty for its own sake.

In Their Words “I think the biggest thing that we do is make ourselves available for conversations.” “We’re willing to be vulnerable about the fact that we make mistakes.”

Honors

Christensen’s honors include James Beard Foundation Award, Outstanding Chef, Eater Best Chef in the Nation, James Beard Foundation Award, Best Chef: Southeast (2014), Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, and Food & Wine Restaurants of the Year, Death & Taxes. The recognition spans individual work and restaurant-level impact, placing her within the field as both operator and chef.