Pat whalen: owner, the orange peel social and pleasure club LLC Asheville.

• Author: Parry, Amanda
• Position: Entertainment

Talk about impressing the right people. In April, Pat Whalen got a phone call from Rolling Stone magazine telling him that The Orange Peel Social Aid and Pleasure Club had made its list of the five best rock clubs in the country. A former funk-and-soul venue that closed in the late '70s, The Orange Peel reopened in 2002 thanks to an investment by Whalen, whose Public Interest Projects Inc. specializes in downtown revitalization. "We felt like Asheville was a perfect market just to have a great, world-class live-music club," says Whalen, 58, a former lawyer who has lived there since 1974.

The Orange Peel has hosted an eclectic mix of performers, including Bob Dylan, Wilco, Ziggy Marley and Lou Reed, in a relatively intimate--capacity 942-setting. In June 2007, Smashing Pumpkins played a two-week residency with nine sold-out shows. More than 8,000 fans flocked to town, causing the press to proclaim it the biggest local musical event since Elvis Presley's three performances at Asheville Civic Center in July 1975.

A native of Jacksonville, Fla., and a Davidson grad, Whalen moved to Asheville shortly before the King's gig. After getting a law degree from Northwestern, he left his parents' home on a quest: He would drive around the country until he found the ideal place to live. It didn't take long. He awoke one August morning in a motel...