For Corner Kitchen owners, flood, flood again means try, try again

ASHEVILLE – Business partners Joe Scully and Kevin Westmoreland are part of the current generation working to preserve the historic Biltmore Village as the owners of Corner Kitchen restaurant.

At the turn of the 20^th century, Biltmore Village was established as a mixed-use community of homes and businesses for workers and families of George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, which sits at its entrance.

On the weekend of Sept. 27, Scully and Westmoreland’s 20-year investment was nearly washed away when Tropical Storm Helene caused the Swannanoa River to rise and flood the now-devastated business district.

The extensive cleanup and rebuild are moving forward slowly, with no known date for when the area will reopen and rebound.

“I think we are going to have more floods in this area and the thing I will say, there has to be something done about flood resilience in this area whether it’s lifting the buildings or funding to mitigate the effect of water getting in here,” Scully said. “If we all agree this has value, we need to step up and do something about it.”

Scully said many business owners don’t have the money or resources to do it themselves, and the restaurateurs know firsthand. Corner Kitchen, at 3 Boston Way, is undergoing a massive renovation after floodwaters reached the ceiling on the ground floor of the raised building.

Scully said the waterline is nearly 8 feet higher than when Biltmore Village flooded in 2004.

Corner Kitchen had been open for six months when that historic flood occurred, requiring walls and floors to be stripped and replaced.

Now those same walls and floors have been removed. The building is gutted, and electrical systems, plumbing and gas lines all must be reinstalled. The partners had recently upgraded the lighting and sound panels and painted, which now must be redone.

Scully said the restoration is expected to take six to eight months, and building renovations are expected to cost $500,000-$750,000. They must stay within the historic district’s guidelines, maintaining many of the building’s original features.

“We’re over a million easy that we lost, and the thing about it, we just have to move forward,” Scully said.

Obamas’ Corner Kitchen table survives

Westmoreland said the prior flooding experience prepared them for Helene to an extent. He said they prepared for the storm and flood by moving items to higher ground, to no avail.

When they returned in the days following the storm, they discovered the kitchen and dining room in shambles and equipment destroyed.

“Everything was all akimbo,” Scully said. “Everything was everywhere.”

Westmoreland said mud from the porch to the sidewalk was 6 to 8 inches deep and looked like flowing lava.

The 8-by-12-foot walk-in cooler and 8-by-8-foot walk-in freezer behind the building had been lifted and brought down on their corners. They were full of fresh food in preparation for a busy weekend. Scully said they weren’t accessible for 12 days, then all the food was thrown away.

Food and beverage losses are estimated at $75,000 and loss revenue is at least $100,000 per week during the busy tourism season. About $500,000 in gross revenue was expected for October.

That doesn’t include the revenue losses at their downtown restaurant, Chestnut, which closed for several weeks due to the ongoing citywide water outage.

Furniture on the patio and ground floor stored upstairs was not damaged. The table President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dined at while visiting Asheville on vacation in 2010 was spared.

Scully and Westmoreland said they count themselves lucky considering the many neighboring businesses positioned lower to the ground and more severely impacted.

They said they’re optimistic that they won’t have to experience another flood event for a long time but said it’s inevitable that it will happen again.

Scully said the redesign will be strategic, raising the building higher and reorganizing electric panels and other systems to be more resilient.

Owners not ready to retire

Scully said, that in 2004, they used a loan from the Small Business Association for nearly $300,000 to rebuild and still owe $40,000, which they’d planned to pay off in a couple of years.

Westmoreland said the SBA loan was a lifeline that kept the business afloat. They have taken out a new SBA loan to recover from Helene.

“There are days, I think we both have days, where we sort of think, ‘Well, should we just sell the building as is and go off into the sunset?’” Westmoreland said. “But. … it’s not a part of our make-up.”

Corner Kitchen will return as the restaurateurs aren’t ready to retire and have invested so much.

Westmoreland said other motivations included bringing back the more than 50 employees laid off after the storm and maintaining business with local vendors, including farms, dairies and beverage producers.

“We love Asheville. We’re one of the earlier restaurants that was creating handcrafted, good, solid food that we can feel good about. We’re not pioneers but like second wave,” Scully said. “The idea of Biltmore Village and Asheville and a circular economy and working farmers ― all that stuff we’ve done over the years has value and should be preserved.”

Scully said Biltmore Village is symbiotic — Corner Kitchen and its neighbors generate customer traffic for each other — and if the restaurant left it would be a significant loss.

“We’ve become a revenue generator for everyone else around here and the same thing with the Biltmore Estate,” Scully said. “Without the Biltmore Estate, there’s no Biltmore Village. Without Corner Kitchen, a lot of places wouldn’t have the same kind of volume. It has some economic value not just to us but to other people.”

Chestnut set to reopen Nov. 14 with menu changes

Scully said Corner Kitchen and Chestnut have had excellent job retention, attributing factors like a living wage, full health benefits and 401k to making working at the restaurant a career. Yet, he said, several people left the city soon after the storm and may not return.

Westmoreland said it’s understandable if some people find other employment, but he’d love it if everyone came back when the restaurant reopens, tentatively in April or May.

At Chestnut, Scully said, about 57 employees were laid off due to the storm. They have begun to return as the restaurant prepares to resume service.

On Nov. 14, Chestnut will reopen, offering brunch and dinner daily. Previously, brunch was on weekends only. The extended hours are to create job opportunities for the displaced Corner Kitchen staff.

Chestnut’s revised menu will feature several Corner Kitchen signature dishes. A portion of dessert sales will be donated to a local nonprofit supporting the rebuild of Swannanoa called Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa.

Standing outside Corner Kitchen, Scully and Westmoreland recalled the many years spent at the restaurant raising their children and creating lasting relationships with their team and community members.

“I love that we have this restaurant and this staff and the people who’ve come to see us for the past 20 years. It’s a part of our lives,” Westmoreland said.

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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and covered the arts, entertainment and hospitality in Louisiana for several years. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Biltmore Village’s Corner Kitchen, gutted by Helene, vows to reopen