Help ButterPunk Weather the Storm

I'm Sasha - as a friend of ButterPunk, I’m creating this project to raise funds for another local Asheville business that dreams of rebuilding alongside our recovering community. ButterPunk was slated to open this fall to a community of biscuit lovers - but the storm changed those plans and the ButterPunk crew needs support to keep the dream alive and bring us the comfort of their flavors as soon as possible.

The amazing friends that started ButterPunk together, Beth and Dana, share their story and love of community. There’s so much need in ours right now, and if you can contribute, share, spread the word, or visit ButterPunk when they open their doors - your support is so appreciated.

From Beth and Dana:

Hello!

You might have had our biscuits - fluffy and flaky on the inside, buttery and crisp on the outside - at the Asheville City Market or at a pop-up around town. While these biscuits have only been in Asheville for a few years, the dream of ButterPunk has been a long time coming!

ButterPunk is Beth Kellerhals and Dana Amromin. We are two longtime industry vets who met when Beth hired Dana as her sole Pastry Cook way back in 2010. Beth was - for the first time - helming a pastry program for the famed Kogi food trucks and a growing Los Angeles restaurant group, and Dana was fresh out of pastry school. Dana doesn’t remember sending Beth her resume, but due to a little something we call pastry fate, we became a team for the next 3+ years. During that time in Los Angeles, we opened up new restaurants with Roy Choi (A-Frame, Chego, Sunny Spot), made pies at The Pie Hole, saw some great concerts, ate some excellent deli sandwiches, and even auditioned for Cupcake Wars. If you look long and hard enough on the internet, you might just be able to find our audition videos. ;-)

Our friendship has endured over time and distance, love and loss, personal lows and career highs. Basically, this friendship has been an oasis of community and support as we’ve lived our daily lives - near and far. We’d often talked about opening a business together, but we didn’t know if we’d ever live in the same city again... until now! Beth moved to Asheville in 2019 to be closer to family and, in a way, Dana did too when she followed in February of this year.

As soon as we saw the spot at 372 Depot Street, we knew it was the perfect canvas to showcase our biscuit sandwiches, craft coffee and our other sweet treats. We were hard at work designing a space to be the best part of everyone’s day when Helene hit. Like most businesses in the RAD, we have sustained extensive damage. Our wonderful landlord (You don’t hear that much in Asheville) is working with us and is helping restore the space back to neutral so we can move forward with construction.

Our biggest losses have been time and income. We are now stuck in limbo as it will take many months to get the space up and running - much more time than we anticipated, as we were originally on track to welcome you into our space before Thanksgiving. As time is money, this is a huge hit for us.

We are hoping to raise $20,000 to help us finish purchasing our coffee equipment (from a local company), kitchen equipment, and to help us pay for lost wages. As this business was going to be Beth’s sole source of income, it is going to be tough to get through the winter.

We forge ahead, hopeful that ButterPunk will be a place that brings you and others joy. As our personal friendship has been an oasis of love and support for each other, we hope that ButterPunk becomes that place for you.

With Love and Butter,

Beth and Dana