Imagine you have the American dream: your very own business. All of the sudden, a bomb goes off, your business is destroyed, and you are left with nothing. While this may sound like a doomsday film, this was the reality for businesses on Nashville’s 2nd Avenue North on Christmas morning.
At 6:30 AM on Christmas Day 2020, a bomb exploded in downtown Nashville on 2nd Ave. North, irreversibly damaging a block of buildings. Ensemble and Simply the Best $10 Boutique were among businesses who lost everything.
Store owners Sandy and Geff Lee opened Simply the Best $10 Boutique in 2011 with intentions of providing an affordable yet valuable shopping experience.
“We wanted people to come shop with us, and to provide them an interesting great item that didn’t cost so much money–where everyone could shop,” said Sandy. “Plus we did not want to be just a souvenir store.”
Seeing great success but feeling held back by the ten dollar price limit on their products, in 2015, they decided to open Ensemble, four blocks away from the sister store. This past year, they relocated right next door to Simply the Best $10 Boutique and reopened on March 1, right before closures due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Most customers were tourists, and staff always created a welcoming environment embodying Southern hospitality in the heart of Nashville.
“Our guests were just happy people. They were so happy to be in Nashville, and they always thought of our staff as ambassadors to the city,” said Lee. “The whole Nashville experience was kind of extended by our staff and the store… that’s how we loved it, that they provided that sort of experience.”
They took pride in that their business was locally owned and operated, and that they were able to foster this friendly environment atmosphere.
That booming business, along with others on 2nd Avenue, suddenly crumbled on Christmas morning.
Sandy had started a routine of not keeping her phone in her room. While playing with her daughter’s dog she could hear her phone blowing up in the other room. Upon checking it, she found that her former manager and friend had both notified her that there had been an explosion downtown. In utter disbelief, she turned on the news.
“I kept naively thinking, ‘well they’re saying Broadway and 2nd, and our stores are out closer to Church.’ That’s like two really big blocks,” Sandy said. So I’m thinking ‘they keep saying Broadway’ and kind of selfishly thinking, ‘well, maybe it didn’t hit us.’
At that point, it was 7 a.m., and she went outside to tell her husband who was cooking Christmas brisket. Throughout the day, it was still unclear whether their store had taken a hit.
“They kept bringing up on the news all of the well known bigger places…but they never mentioned our block, full of small businesses. We have Pride & Glory Tattoo, our two stores, the liquor store, and another tattoo store. They never mentioned any of us, ever,” Sandy said.
The next morning she received a text from her hairdresser with a picture of the damage to their stores.
“Ensemble was completely collapsed, and although the building of $10 was standing, the storefront was blown out, the windows and doors were blown out. We knew at that point, that was a gut punch. We knew this wasn’t good.”
Most people in this circumstance would have attempted to figure out the intimate details of what had just occurred to their business to justify their pain, but after the initial gut punch subsided, Sandy’s mindset shifted.
“Never at that point have we looked back, we just keep looking forward,” Sandy said.
She knew she had no control over this situation, and instead left it in the hands of first responders whom she fully trusted and began the process of moving forward.
It could take up to two years for their building to be restored, and relocating is not an option.
“We need foot traffic, we know the heart of downtown, we don’t know the Gulch, we don’t know 12 South; those aren’t our people, those aren’t our customers.”
Sandy and Geff’s plans for the future could include combining the two stores once a new space opens up downtown that feels like a good home for them or possibly waiting for their building to be rebuilt. They know they will have no problem getting their store back up and running.
“We are just calmly, positively looking for a pathway, and if there’s somewhere for us to rebuild, we have a great model, we know how to make a successful store. I have a feeling a lot of our staff would come back. It’s just going to come down to finding a space.”
In the time being, they are taking life day by day and basking in the amazing support of the Nashville community. When asked about the reactions and support they have received, Sandy remarked, “That’s America: we help each other, we don’t hold each other down, we help propel people forward, and that has been really just amazing.”
While this bombing rocked Nashville, what has come out of it is nothing short of a miracle: people banding together to rebuild all that was lost and supporting each other as business owners grieve their losses.
Just as Sandy and Geff had thought they had lost everything, Sandy asked that the rescue team go back into the store to retrieve some personal belongings. While the first responders were collecting these items, they pulled out the American flag that had proudly hung outside of Ensemble since 2011. This flag is a symbol of community and restoration for Sandy and Geff; it unites those who are working tirelessly to rebuild this 2nd Avenue to those whose lives once revolved around this block.
“Hopefully that’ll hang in a store someday, but it made the fire rescue and the police feel so good. They said that was the best thing they uncovered in all the rubble,” Sandy remarked about the retrieval of the flag.
Nashville has endured its fair share of catastrophes in the last year: the tornado that rocked East Nashville in March, being a Covid hotspot, and the bombing that took a part of Nashville’s iconic downtown with it. Nashville is full of communities who want to help rebuild all that has been tragically lost and damaged in the last year. We are strong and mighty in our response to this most recent tragedy and must continue banding together as we rediscover all that is hidden under the rubble.
If you are looking for a way to support Ensemble, they are selling bracelets that they had made right before the bombing. All of the proceeds is going towards rebuilding the store and its employees. The link can be found here.
