The destruction, infrastructure challenges, and low tourism rates caused by Hurricane Helene have forced many businesses to restructure their models and offerings. Many are operating in the red in hopes of increased business in the months to come. For Gerry Mahon, the owner of Asheville’s Mellow Mushroom, serving the community and collaborating with other business owners have been meaningful and essential through the early weeks following the storm.

Four days after the storm passed, Mahon and his crew began giving away pizzas to the community at a rate of about 1,000 pizzas per day for six days. People were happy to wait in lines that stretched out the door and around the corner.

“One that really got me was the mom of a family of three,” Mahon said. “She walked up and hugged me and thanked me, saying she had lost her house, her car, and everything. She said this gave them time to be a family and feel sort of normal, and for that, they would be forever grateful. I walked off and I cried my eyes out, because you have to engage the emotion. It hit me really hard in that moment, and then we started taking it out to the grander community.”

As World Central Kitchen came into Asheville, Mahon and his staff expanded their efforts, bringing pizzas to Marshall, Barnardsville, Fairview, and fire departments around the region. While grateful for the opportunity to serve the community in a time of great need, Mahon recognized the necessity of adapting business strategies to operate with reduced capital.

During the fall, many restaurants experienced a 50% decline in revenue. Drawing from lessons learned during COVID, Mellow Mushroom streamlined its menu to simplify kitchen processes and control ingredient costs. Returning to these strategies has been crucial in maintaining operations after the hurricane.

Another key shift has been an increased focus on takeout programs. Despite higher costs for customers, many prefer having food delivered rather than driving into town to pick up meals.

“It’s still something that we can do and be profitable with,” Mahon said. “That’s what we are trying to do in this moment, because we don’t have the option of trying to be that other restaurant right now. Nobody’s in town, so the option is just not there.”

While maintaining profitability is a primary focus, retaining employees remains a top priority for Mahon. Defining roles and keeping staff engaged has helped provide hours and preserve the team’s expertise.

“I’ve got employees that have worked for me for 12, 13 years, and some for more than 20 years,” Mahon said. “Keeping them engaged as much as possible is hard when you’re losing 50% of their business, but it also gives you an ability to then grow the business as we find ourselves coming out of this because you have the knowledge base already. It’s better than having employees move to Greenville or Knoxville and starting over later.”

Collaboration was key when a group of restaurant owners faced the challenge of securing potable water in October. For most businesses, paying $1,000 or more per day for water was unsustainable, and suppliers would only deliver in large volumes. Mahon coordinated with a water supplier, representing a group of 10 restaurants that needed water. By sharing the costs and resources, they managed to reopen weeks before the city restored potable water. 

“This allowed us to engage whatever business we had, but for me, I didn’t want to wash anything,” Mahon said. “I literally ran with anything that came in a can, which was limited, but I knew I was making something that was safe for customers. I had one complaint from a customer about serving wine in a plastic cup, but that’s where we were at the time.”

During the fall of 2024, Mahon worked with local organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Explore Asheville, and Asheville Independent Restaurants to determine ways to engage the limited number of visitors during the holiday season. The hope was that holiday traffic would provide a much-needed boost to help businesses survive the slow winter months before spring brings increased activity.

“Finding and giving the core things they sought to see and feel when they came in the first place will be the thing that gets us through the winter,” Mahon said. “I think that if we can do that, we can find ourselves through this, but it’s only going to be with working together as a community.”

Restaurants have also ramped up efforts to attract local patrons while the number of visitors remains slow. Community outreach methods like radio ads, mailed coupons, and discount nights for locals have proven effective. Engaging employees for ideas to draw in local customers has also helped restaurants remain profitable during slow months.

“It’s the community around us, and we’ve all got to work together,” Mahon said. “It’s figuring out how we keep ourselves afloat, and how we can help each other out. There’s a lot of restaurants that are working with one another, and that will be the thing that gets us through the next six months. We have a tremendous amount of work to do — not just us, but Asheville as a whole — to pivot and engage the customer in a new and different way.”