As a young teenager, Jillian Tenge dreamed of one day owning the restaurant in Avery County where she earned her very first paycheck. Years later that dream came true.
“It was my first actual job,” Tenge recalled. “I even had to get a workers permit to start. I loved it then, and I love it now. Owning the restaurant today really brings it all full circle.”
Since 1980, the family-owned and operated eatery in the heart of Newland, NC has offered fresh sirloin burgers, hand battered chicken and pizza to generations of hungry guests. According to Tenge, the restaurant is such a longstanding part of the community that it’s considered an unofficial landmark of Avery County. Even the name has staying power. Although officially renamed Jillian’s Cafe, locals still call it SanDees.
Tenge was thrilled her entrepreneurial dream came true, but two years after taking the helm at the cafe, Hurricane Helene devastated her mountain town and her storefront. Like so many other small business owners in Western North Carolina, the storm left a path of destruction behind that seemed insurmountable.
“It was like there was a river coming through town,” Tenge recalled. “The water came through the restaurant — water, mud, dirt, you name it — it went through every corner of the place. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
As the waters receded, Tenge said cleaning up and starting over felt completely daunting. “I just thought to myself, where do I start?” In the days following the storm, she leaned into her community of friends, family and employees who helped out cleaning and fixing what they could. But beyond immediate repairs, she worried about Helene’s lasting financial implications.
“It’s one of those things when you think, ‘How do we get the money to rebuild, when we didn’t have money to build in the first place? Am I going to be able to make payroll and keep the lights on?’ I was on the lookout for anything that could help financially, and people were looking out for me too,” she said.
It wasn’t long before Tenge discovered the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative (WNCSBI) created by Dogwood Health Trust with Appalachian Community Capital. The program provides grants to eligible small businesses that sustained physical or economic damage from Hurricane Helene. Thanks to WNCSBI — and the sweat equity from Tenge’s community — SanDee’s reopened for business in December 2024.
“It felt so good the first couple of weeks to get back open to someone other than a plumber, electrician or repair woman. It felt good to be able to pay the bills with money coming in,” Tenge said. “It was a godsend, a huge relief, a huge weight lifted knowing that some of the expenses are taken care of. I am very grateful that I applied.”
Although the region may not quite be back to business as usual, being back in business at all means a lot to Tenge and her regulars. “The restaurant is a meeting spot. It feels good knowing that we can make a difference in people’s lives just by serving food. It’s a stability thing that we’ve been able to provide — a normalcy.”
“We are a very hardworking community,” she continued. “Everyone is trying to rebuild and survive, so (WNCSBI) was a huge relief. I know everyone receiving this grant benefits from this. It is good to know that we have help.”