Restaurant Depot
It’s one of the oldest buildings in the city that has been in continuous use, and after last week’s tornado, it may be shuttered for up to 90 days. That’s the situation at Geist, the Germantown restaurant that saw pieces of its walls and windows end up on Jefferson Street. Geist is one of many restaurants and bars facing a triple threat from the tornado: damaged buildings, loss of inventory, and hourly employees who need somewhere to work while the pieces are put back together again.
It is not a contest, and terms like “hardest hit” are subject to different criteria. But however you look at it, the hospitality industry — the second-largest industry in the city in terms of number of employees, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. — is suffering in the wake of last week’s tornado damage.
Many of the city’s small chef-owned restaurants and bars are in battered neighborhoods, including East Nashville, Germantown and Donelson. Some businesses are closed — whether for the short term due to power outages or for the long term due to structural damage — and even those that are open are facing complications. In addition, some suppliers to said restaurants — including Sysco Nashville, Aramark, Restaurant Depot and Best Brands — are coping with their own tornado-inflicted destruction.
It didn’t take long for the hospitality community, particularly restaurants, to rally to keep each other employed, sheltered, fed and supported, all while trying to figure out how to get their lights turned on, and while grieving the losses of members of the community. “This sounds weird, but it went from the lowest day of my life to one of the better days of my life because of the way people reached out,” says Mike Krajewski, owner of MK Fitness and an investor in Nashville Urban Winery — both of which sustained considerable damage.
“We have been flooded with opportunities for temporary housing and offices, meals, cooler space, volunteers, repair vendors and more,” says Austin Ray, whose A.Ray Hospitality runs a number of local restaurants, including Von Elrod’s Beer Hall & Kitchen in Germantown. As of press time, Von Elrod’s has reopened with bar service only, with kitchen service to be brought back in the near future. (Update: Von Elrod's has now resumed kitchen service.)
Below is a rundown of the ways in which the local hospitality industry is coping. All donation numbers are up to date as of press time on Monday, March 9.
- The Nashville chapter of the United States Bartender Guild, through the USBG National Charity Foundation, started a GoFundMe for industry workers facing hardship. That means anything from funeral expenses for a loved one to auto repairs. Recipients do not need to be bartenders or USBG members. The fund has raised more than $71,000.
- Chef Jessica Benefield, owner of The Green Pheasant and Two Ten Jack, feels lucky that her home and restaurants were spared. She almost immediately started a GoFundMe for hourly hospitality workers and those who rely on tips, with the intent to purchase grocery gift cards that those in need can use. To date, she has raised more than $22,000. “It is so successful that I am having to look for places to give these funds,” she says.
- The 37206 service-industry GoFundMe has raised more than $45,000 for East Nashville restaurant employees so far.
- Neither Nicky’s Coal Fired nor Hathorne was in the path of the tornado, but both offered refrigerated storage space for chefs who didn’t want ingredients to go to waste while the power was off.
- Food supplier Sysco Nashville (where a wall between a cooler and freezer collapsed) is bringing in products from Louisville and elsewhere in the interim, and plans to have full inventory within a week or two. Alcohol supplier Best Brands, which lost its warehouse, is leasing space from liquor distributor and competitor Ajax Turner in order to keep its doors open and local restaurants and bars stocked with booze. Benefield says chefs are getting creative and paying premiums to have replacement shipments as they run out of certain items.
- Even sadder for chefs than not being able to open their restaurants is seeing food go to waste. That’s according to Laura Karwisch Wilson, partner and founder of food-business incubator and commissary kitchen space Citizen Kitchens. Citizen Kitchens started serving coffee and prepared sandwiches from its Hunters Station location, to both victims and rescue crews. Food trucks used the central East Nashville spot to continue to feed folks. Of course, they were far from the only ones. The Feral Pastry Chef set up at the patio of Crying Wolf, offering vegan meals for those in need.
- The Nashville Food Project is expert at feeding people in emergencies on a day-to-day basis. The nonprofit was well-poised to make more than 2,000 from-scratch meals daily and post details on their site about where the food could be found. The group was also able to rescue food that would have gone bad from commercial kitchens in affected areas.
- Chef Sean Brock encouraged his many social media followers to place wholesale tea orders from High Garden Tea, which sustained significant damage. That way High Garden’s owners will have some income even without its retail shop.
- The Music City Center, The BE-Hive, Tailgate Brewery, website FOH & BOH, pop-up Setsun and others are starting to make offers to cooks, servers and others. “We have been coordinating with the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association, collecting who has job openings,” says Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of NCVC. “But this is not a poaching situation. It is fine for everyone to go back to their original jobs whenever.”
