Decatur Indian restaurant Chai Pani is collecting bottled water to deliver to Asheville, North Carolina, one of the cities hardest hit by last week’s Hurricane Helene.
Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, reported 30 people killed due to the storm, and thousands of residents and businesses in western North Carolina are without power and water indefinitely. Though many roads into Asheville are closed, the city is accessible via I-26.
Chai Pani will accept donations of bottled drinking water at 406 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. in Decatur until 10 p.m. tonight; from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday; and from 8-10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2. Water will be loaded into a 16-foot moving truck and transported to the Asheville location of Chai Pani, where it will be distributed to Asheville residents.
Sahar Siddiqi, chef de cuisine for Chai Pani Decatur, said staff members quickly mobilized to think of a way to help those hardest hit by the storm.
“Our community there is devastated,” she said. “In talking to our team members up there, we know the biggest need is safe and clean drinking water. We’re trying to do whatever we can, and this is a feasible way we can help quickly and effectively.”
The Chai Pani Restaurant Group also includes locations of Botiwalla in Asheville and Atlanta. A second Asheville location was set to open this Friday. The opening has been postponed indefinitely, but the kitchen has power and is being used by nonprofit World Central Kitchen, to prepare meals for Asheville residents in need of food.
Meherwan and Molly Irani opened Chai Pani opened in Decatur in 2013, about five years after the concept launched in Asheville. The Decatur restaurant was named to the Atlanta Michelin Guide’s debut list of recommended restaurants in 2023, the same year Siddiqi was named a James Beard semifinalist in the Best Chef: Southeast Category. The Asheville Chai Pani location won a Beard Award in the Outstanding Restaurant category in 2022.
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