‘About community’: Local pizza shop focusing on Helene relief before restoring store in Asheville

CHARLOTTE ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — PIE.ZAA has no shortage of customers here in Charlotte. But workers say it's nothing compared to the popularity of their Asheville location.

Damage from Hurricane Helene has closed that store indefinitely. Owners say before they repair that restaurant, they want to restore the community.

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"It's just about the community," said PIE.ZAA Kitchen Manager Brittany Beall.

PIE.ZAA's operators say they feel close to the people of Asheville, even from their sister location in South End. But their first order is to help neighbors rebuild with profits way down the menu.

"So right now, really our main focus is the community of Asheville... It's not even our store," Beall said.

They're doing that with a GoFundMe. Owners created an account to get money moving quickly so they can help rebuild the mountain community. As of Friday night, donations topped $24,000.

Owner Tyler Kotch says the goal is $100,000.

"Our owner helped founded an organization down there called Fast and its "Friends Assisting Survivors Together." So yeah, super cool thing that donations and drop-offs are at The Venue in Asheville. And so they've been bringing in as much supplies as they possibly can," Beall said.

The store's Instagram shows the owners working with people in the community — cutting down trees to save trapped people, and delivering food supplies, and even gas to those in need of getting out of the city.

"We are using all the money that we raise to either bring in supplies or people. We've brought in baby supplies. We've run in gas for generators, food, and water. We bring pallets of stuff every week. So it's just trying to bring in as much. And then as soon as kind of everybody has gotten everything, what we'll do is we'll put that towards organizations that are helping small businesses rebuild," she said.

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As for the pizza, owners say ordering a pie will make a difference in the restaurant's goal of reopening someday in downtown Asheville.

"We just want to help as many people as we possibly can. Everybody here, the owner, pretty much he hires everybody that cares and we care for people," Beall said.

You can access the GoFundMe