Charleston restaurant hosts fundraiser to support Hurricane Helene-impacted restaurant

CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – 1010 Bridge Restaurant Chefs Paul Smith and John Evans have made it their mission to support Hurricane Helene victims through donation collection and volunteer trips to Asheville.

Now, they’re taking on another quest to help a “brother” in the restaurant business.

Chef William Dissen, a Charleston native, was forced to temporarily shut down his restaurant, “The Market Place Restaurant” in Asheville due to storm damage.

To support Dissen and help him and his staff get back on their feet, 1010 Bridge is holding a week-long fundraiser to raise money for the restaurant.

“This is very important to help. It really can make a difference between reopening and not, between bankruptcy and not. The restaurant industry is always this fine line of making it and not making it,” Chef Paul Smith said. “Things like COVID, things like here the derecho, things like the flood here, and now, you don’t think of a hurricane affecting the mountains of North Carolina, but Asheville is devastated.”

The fundraiser includes a special three-course prix-fixe meal based on recipes from Dissen’s cookbook, “Thoughtful Cooking.”

The prix-fixe dinner will be served each night in addition to the full regular menu from Monday, Oct. 28 to Saturday, Nov. 2 with all proceeds benefitting Dissen’s efforts.

The three-course dinner is $100 per person, and it includes Squash soup with blue cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds, Hernshaw Farms Mushroom toast with peppered homemade ricotta and pickled onions and Cider-braised pork shank with collard greens and farro.

Chef Paul Smith said people can either call and make a reservation, or they can order the meal for takeout. He said it is important to not let Asheville victims get left behind. He said that he and John Evans would not have the success they do in Charleston without the influence and friendship they’ve had over the years from Chef Dissen.

“We are a better restaurant because John worked at the Marketplace. We are a better restaurant because we follow and he asks us for advice, we ask him for advice. This is what it’s about. It’s about rising the tide together and looking at each other as peers, as friends, as brothers and also just as humans, and this is the right thing to do.”

If anyone does not want to purchase the meal but still wants to support Chef Dissen and his staff, they can donate to his GoFundMe .

Earlier this month, Chef John Evans with 1010 took two trips to Ashevill e to donate supplies to victims of the Hurricane. He said it will take years to restore normalcy for people like Chef Dissen.

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