11/26/2024
Long post alert.
As many of you know, we live and farm on the Nolichucky River, and have grown so much food that has gone through the restaurants, and out to our produce subscription subscribers for many years now. We do this farming on two separate plots about a mile from each other on opposite sides of the river. Over the years the Nolichucky has deposited trillions of tons of fertile soil all down the valley where we live which makes this all possible, but a river always comes with a risk. A "when not if" type of proposition stretched out over too many millennia for us to even begin to grasp, and sometimes she comes calling.
Both of our farms were devastated by the flood. The mess will take years to clean up, and much of it will no longer be farmable, as the river has cut a new path, and removed up to twenty five feet of sandy bottom loam. We also leased a large chunk of this to Scott's Strawberries, who have always been so great to work with, but that is a side of business that was wiped away in total all at once, and a tough hit for us. Luckily the water fell short of our house, but we did lose structures, and it will be a good while before we will be farming in high gear, as we devote our time to clean up and soil conservation. We will be working with the local soil conservation district, as will many up and down the river, and we do have excellent people in charge of that kind of thing here in East Tennessee, so we will recover, but it's a lot right now, and will require a lot of attention for the next several years as the river ebbs and flows into a new path.
Once the bridges on both sides, plus several more up and down the valley were out, the ride to work for our employees at our Chuckey location (County Line Pie) was too much to ask. It went from mostly 10 minutes, to mostly 30 to 45 for our 7 employees there, and shortly after offering them positions at our other two restaurants, they all found other jobs close to home. The property was without water for over two more weeks, and so faced with uncertain timelines on bridge reconstruction and no staff, we decided not to reopen that location, and to put the building up for lease. When we started Main Street in Johnson City fifteen years ago, we were helped out by having good landlords who wanted us to succeed as we got our feet under us, and we hope to be the same for someone else out here on 107.
What many of you don't know is that the King Center, the building where the Johnson City location is a tenant, was sold this spring.
Then the building sold again about a month later.
Our lease is up December 31st of this year, so we of course were concerned about where things may be headed. The building has always been owned by local people that we looked up to, great Johnson City business people. Now the building is owned by an out of town investment group. This right off the bat kind of goes against what we have always tried not to be or support, so After many hours spent contemplating, discussion after discussion, and new information from the new owners, we very recently reached the conclusion that we were not interested in renewing the lease uner terms they were offering. As new owners do, these new folks have big plans for the building, and we wish them the best. This is just part of the business cycle. Their new plans will mean lots of work and construction, including on the first floor, as well as us not being able to keep our current footprint. Being in Pizza, we thrive on large parties, and we can't do without some space for accommodating them. To improve things, sometimes you have to make some sawdust, and we know exactly how that is, so we hope to see the King Center looking better than ever sometime in the future, but at this time, that is not something we are ready to deal with. As you can imagine, we were also not in agreement on new price per sq foot, and felt like after 15 years of doing business in the space full of unique challenges, our opinions were a bit more realistic.
This subject of construction brings me to Kingsport, our The Main Street Pizza Company - Kingsport fans will know where I am going next. First, we are so grateful for the City of Kingsport for the complete Main Street overhaul. It is just a bullet you have to bite to make things better, that just like the JC situation, you have to endure some construction. The city, and the folks at Downtown Kingsport Association have been great as far as communication and support goes. They have done the best job I have seen done in a situation like this, but at the end of the day, it is something you can't really do much about in a real sense. Everyone just has to hang on for dear life, and hope you see the other side, and that the upgrades prove worth it. We have gone through it before in Johnson City. However, as the project moved down the road and settled in on our block, it went from a minor inconvenience, to a serious drop off in sales. Again, this is to be expected, but when the other two stores are also coming to a close, it makes it much more difficult to absorb. It also becomes a burden on your staff, who count on that money daily. Therefore, we are going to also hope to become helpful and inspirational building owners for someone with a good idea, and less flood mud to clean up.
We will ATTEMPT to stay open in Johnson City until Dec. 15th, in order to give us time to have 15 years of stuff out by the end our lease. We say attempt, because it becomes extremely difficult to stay open once you can't hire new people. Our current employees must all do what is best for them, and we encourage that. We will ATTEMPT to stay open in Kingsport until Dec. 22nd, one week later.
We let our employees know as soon as we made the decision about a week ago, and so far, they are all being terrific about it, and maybe we will be able to hang on until then, but at some point, you just run out of enough bodies to do the job, so let's hope for the best, but you might want to get one last Thai Pie if that is a thing for you.
If you have an event or catering on the calendar already, it is a go or if it is for 2025, someone will be in contact.
We would like to thank everyone for 15 great years in Downtown JC, 10 years in Downtown Kingsport, and 5 years in Chuckey. We put more local food on plates than every other restaurant in the tri-cities combined during that time, and look forward to continue farming for you.
This is not goodbye, but see you later, as we are still involved in things in both Downtown JC and KPT, and will still be farming in Limestone.
Please be kind to our staff as we wind down here, flu season is upon us, so we will be short some, and probably kind of busy, so please be patient, and tip those guys good.
We love you all! We look forward to the next chapter!
Jamie and Elise
