Since opening in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2022, Neng Jr.’s has skilled an upward trajectory that might be the envy of any restaurant. Led by enterprise and life companions Silver and Cherry Iocovozzi, the Filipinx restaurant has garnered many accolades: It was a 2023 James Beard finalist for Greatest New Restaurant, one among Bon Appetit’s 2023 Greatest New Eating places, and in 2024, was named a USA As we speak Restaurant of the Yr.
This run of excellent fortune abruptly got here to a halt on September 27, 2024, when Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina and devastated western Appalachia. The recognition of Neng Jr.’s couldn’t put together its house owners and employees for the financial devastation and precarity that Hurricane Helene wrought, and months later, with Neng Jr.’s on the cusp of reopening, the Iocovozzis’ story is one which many restaurateurs throughout the state have lived — stuffed with challenges that extra cooks, with the rising menace of local weather change, may quickly face.
Neng Jr.’s was shuttered from September 28 to December 11, a interval of over 10 weeks and not using a single penny coming in. “Even with the success of our restaurant, we don’t have a spine of funding. We actually relied on every week and every day of service to ensure we’re no less than breaking even,” Silver Iocovozzi says. There was no massive stability of their checking account to ensure they might climate a number of weeks of not with the ability to function. Whereas the restaurant itself was not bodily broken by the storm, the crew didn’t have the assets to climate a number of weeks of not being operational. The dearth of energy obliterated hundreds of {dollars} in perishable meals and provides on the restaurant, and the Iocovozzis assess the lack of income from the closure as roughly $80,000.
Neng Jr.’s is simply one of many 250 independently owned eating places within the Asheville space that has endured this financial downturn. The native restaurant business employs round 22,000 individuals, and tourism contributes roughly $2.9 billion to the native economic system. The hurricane hit throughout the fall and the winter purchasing season, significantly busy — and worthwhile — instances of yr for native companies. Customer spending declined by 70 % within the fourth quarter of 2024, and in October, unemployment spiked to 9 %, up from 2.5 % the earlier month. As of January 2025, at an unemployment charge of 6.1 %, Asheville has the best unemployment charge of any metropolitan space within the state.
Eating places and different small companies face a contradiction: the necessity to reopen, however there’s a structural lack of ability to take action. “We have to assist our economic system, which is truthfully devastated, and I believe we’re going to need to depend on tourism in an enormous manner. However I don’t assume we’re fairly prepared for it,” Silver says. This monetary precarity has solely been exacerbated by a scarcity of federal and native authorities help. “There’s no lease moratoriums coming down from the state stage. There’s not any help or reduction from these monetary burdens that we’ve not simply as enterprise house owners, however as those that need to pay our payments,” Silver provides. The duo has obtained $750 in FEMA cash, the extent of the help they’ve obtained. “We haven’t heard something again in regards to the grants or loans that we’d apply for.”
Within the face of governmental inaction and lack of communication, the restaurant business has completed what it does greatest: help its personal. When the hurricane first hit, the Iocovozzis labored with Ashleigh Shanti of Good Sizzling Fish to offer meals to these in want. In an try and recoup a few of their misplaced income, the Iocovozzis headed to New York to collaborate with fellow cooks to host pop-ups at Brooklyn spots like Leo, Honey’s, and Ops Pizza. “We’re actually grateful for the platform that individuals are giving us with a view to trudge ahead and proceed on,” Silver explains.
With the return of potable water, the Iocovozzis reopened Neng Jr.’s on December 11, an accomplishment that introduced with it blended feelings. The ethics and optics of reopening can weigh closely on their minds. “I do have considerations if it even feels proper to have this fantastic eating or particular expertise restaurant at this worth level when there’s nonetheless a lot struggling,” Silver wonders. In addition they fear in regards to the emotional labor that could be requested of their employees, most of whom returned when the restaurant reopened. “I believe of us are going to ask in regards to the hurricane quite a bit, particularly in the event that they don’t stay in Asheville, and that’s going to be onerous to reply over and over. It’s very tough for us,” Silver explains. No server who has misplaced a cherished one must relive that trauma each time they step out into the eating room. Within the face of those considerations, the Iocovozzis give attention to the truth that eating places may be sources of pleasure for his or her group, and attempt to deliver that pleasure to patrons. “All of us want a spot of gathering to take pleasure in and to calm down and to be served and eat good meals and really feel comforted,” Silver says.
The drastic local weather disasters of 2024 point out precarious instances forward for companies alongside America’s jap coast. Whereas hotter ocean temperatures on account of local weather change haven’t elevated the variety of storms annually, scientists preserve that this has elevated the probability of extreme, devastating storms. “Count on the surprising. Something that we predict might occur might change,” Silver says. Simply because the COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized the restaurant business, local weather change and pure disasters like hurricanes have the potential to upend whole cities’ food and drinks scenes, which means that cooks just like the Iocovozzis at the moment are contemplating costs, menu modifications, employees security, and working bills.
The street to restoration for the Asheville restaurant business remains to be rocky. In accordance with Meghan Rogers, government director of the Asheville Unbiased Restaurant Affiliation (AIR), in 2025, many eating places are nonetheless working on restricted hours and with scaled-back menus. Eating places are reopening within the usually slowest time of yr, with out the numerous revenue they might’ve made throughout the busy fall and vacation seasons. “Our native neighbors have been wonderful at popping out and supporting their favourite eating places, however they’ll’t maintain everybody. We constructed this meals tradition and this stage of eating places as a result of we had such a excessive stage of tourists,” Rogers says. Common restaurant Eldr introduced its everlasting closure on January 9, stating on Instagram that “the headwinds from Hurricane Helene and the lengthy delay in reopening was an excessive amount of for the enterprise to bear.” AIR misplaced round 15 of its 150 members on account of closures.
For the Iocovozzis, reopening has been a decidedly blended bag. “Enterprise is nice, we could possibly be doing higher, in fact. That is the slowest winter I’ve encountered in Asheville in a few years, however most nights we’re absolutely booked,” Silver mentioned in February. “We’re hanging in there the perfect we will. I believe there was loads of hope, however with the lack of Brian Canipelli [chef-owner of local restaurant Cucina 24 and Contrada], I really feel prefer it’s secure to say we’re at a standstill with all the loss we’ve endured.” Canipelli was a number one determine within the Asheville restaurant business for many years, and his sudden passing weighs closely on the local people.
The Iocovozzis fear that Asheville will probably be left behind, as nationwide consideration, understandably, turns towards different crises. “I do know I’m eager to see individuals come out extra, I’d like to see individuals register what’s occurred right here as magnificent in harm because the fires in Palisades and Altadena. It’s onerous to explain what the area has skilled.” The Iocovozzis are deeply dedicated to the world, and encourage vacationers to come back again. “Make a plan to go to within the spring,” Silver implores. “Actually attempt to uplift these small companies, as a result of Asheville is known as a place that’s crammed with small companies that make the city.”
