Ravaged by floodwaters, Frog Level Brewing remains resilient
The beer garden at Frog Level Brewing following Hurricane Helene.
Morgan Crisp.
After floodwaters from Hurricane Helene overtook the Historic Frog Level District in downtown Waynesville this past weekend, several business owners are slowly picking up the pieces.
For Frog Level Brewing Company on Commerce Street in the heart of the district, the beloved creekside establishment will once again being pouring craft ales today.
“We wanted to get the taproom open and that's been the priority and drive so that we can all gather again,” said FLB co-owner Morgan Crisp. “That's what keeps us fighting.”
Crisp said the brewery will be open during regular hours on Monday, which is 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. To note, the Town of Waynesville will also be enforcing a citywide curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“We know we’re a gathering place and social hub for our patrons,” Crisp said. “And we have put all of our efforts the last few days in to being able to reopen.”
According to Crisp, the highly-popular beer garden area behind the brewery along Richland Creek “has been destroyed by several feet of deposited mud.” But, the inside taproom “had minimal damage.”
“It will take us many months to recover,” Crisp said. “We've put so much effort the last few years in restoring the creek banks and had so many volunteers and hands helping us and now it feels like we are having to start all over.”
Although Richland Creek has finally retreated back to its normal water level, the damage to Frog Level itself is tremendous. Questions remain over which businesses will survive and rebuild moving forward and what other may not return.
“We still have a lot of damage yet to assess and recognize in our other buildings [in Frog Level],” Crisp said. “And that too is going to take much longer to actualize before we can even begin to tackle clean up.”
But, what does remain, is the hopeful spirit of small business owner and their community coming together amid the wrath of Mother Nature.
“It's heartbreaking, but seeing how the merchants of Frog Level have rallied is inspiring,” Crisp said. “It takes guts to be a business owner anyways, but to have to face this type of challenge and to work as relentlessly as everyone has worked as soon as the waters receded shows the dedication and caliber of merchants that make up Frog Level businesses.”
