NEWS
Black Mountain News
Chaney Harrison and his wife Dana had planned to open a new food trailer in Swannanoa in the fall of 2024.
They had acquired a commercial kitchen in August 2024 before Chaney Harrison, who serves in the Air Force Reserves, left for a month for military work.
In that month, Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina, devastating the region.
“Everything changed for everybody,” Harrison said.
In the aftermath of the storm, Harrison said he applied his more tactical skills to help with the disaster. He worked with Savage Freedom Relief Operations helping with medical support and deliveries.
Harrison said his background is in special operations search and rescue, work he has been doing in the Air Force and reserves for the past 21 years.
During COVID, Harrison went to New York where he helped build a field hospital and treat patients.
Harrison helped found a staffing company during this time to help bring in those in the military to help work in these hospitals.
He said the last time he was in New York for this work was 2023, when he came back home to the Swannanoa Valley to start a family.
“The COVID situation was a little bit of a boom and a bust in the sense that it’s only a disaster for so long,” Harrison said. “When you’re in that services space, once the need goes away, then the demand for your services goes away.”
Back in Swannanoa, Harrison said he had been looking for an opportunity that was closer to home and that he would have more control over. He said he had been thinking about the idea of doing a mobile food business “for a long time.”
After spending the first half of 2024 working on recipes, Harrison said he was starting the process of opening when Helene hit.
After he finished his search and rescue work, he turned to using the system he had in place for the food trailer and started preparing meals for those who needed them. Harrison said he served approximately 16,000 meals between October 2024 and January 2025.
At that point, Harrison said he needed to make the change to operating as a food trailer to provide for his growing family.
“We finally made the pivot to we need to get open and get back to business ourselves,” Harrison said. “We kind of reached the end of what we could donate in time and money and started working the process to get open.”
In April, Harrison and his new food trailer, Defiance Cafe, received the necessary permits to operate.
Harrison said Defiance Cafe focuses on grab-and-go foods that he makes in the commissary kitchen and sells in the food trailer.
The main dishes at Defiance Cafe are his take on Jamaican patties “with a southern twist.” The current menu offers a spiced beef filling and a veggie filling.
For side dishes, Defiance Cafe serves Harrison’s grandmothers macaroni and cheese made with pimento cheese, a cucumber salad and pimento cheese.
There are several desserts on the menu, including a heavy cream, bread pudding, bourbon fudge pie and cookies that Harrison described as being “as big as your face.”
He said he wants to keep the menu relatively simple right now as he is “a one-man show,” but as he hires staff he will be able to expand the menu. Harrison said he is looking to hire employees because he wants to make sure to be able to maintain a balance in his life.
“This business is one baby right now,” Harrison said. “We’ve got to make sure we have time for the family.”
Harrison said his goal is to “put out a good product” that customers can feel good about buying.
“I don’t have any illusions of being any kind of chef,” Harrison said. “But I do really enjoy making good food for people.”
Looking to the future, Harrison said he wants to be “fairly prolific in the Valley” and expand into other areas of Western North Carolina.
Defiance Cafe is doing lunch service at 2288 U.S. 70 in Swannanoa, but Harrison said it has been difficult to get potential customers to know the trailer is there, and he is looking into other options.
“I am emotionally and personally invested in having a physical presence in the Valley,” Harrison said. “I just don’t know if we’re going to be able to afford that out of the gate.”
Harrison said he is “inspired to create” a space where people can come together and interact, something he said is missing in Swannanoa.
“I want to be a part of helping create a network of those places that people can come and interact with each other positively,” Harrison said. “For right now, we’ve just got a little truck in the parking lot, but we’ve got to start somewhere, right?”
Karrigan Monk is the Swannanoa Valley communities reporter for Black Mountain News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected].