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More Videos: Even in summertime, Rosetta's fans can't resist the restaurant's rustic soups.

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Leave it to Rosetta's Kitchen, Asheville's beloved bohemian-veggie eatery, to put a local twist on a Depression-era tradition.

Rosetta's this year rolled out its "Community Cauldron Night," essentially a soup kitchen for the food savvy-set. On Sunday nights, the restaurant pulls down its menu board and sets up a giant Macbeth-style cauldron bubbling with fresh soup made from local ingredients. The soup and accompanying cornbread are delicious, plentiful and free (although donations are accepted.)

The "community" is at least as important as the "cauldron": Over mismatched bowls of creamy leek soup, students, musicians, graphic designers and latter-day hobos parse subjects as divergent as keeping backyard chickens and the mutability of gender. While it took a recession to instigate the weekly event, it's a rich environment indeed.