GOOD GOOMBAYS: A made-to-order restaurant loan, with a side of diplomacy.

• Date: 01 October 2023
• Published date: 01 October 2023

Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks in Dare County is typical of many oceanfront villages in North Carolina in that most businesses are locally-owned. Except during tourist season, it's a quiet, oceanfront community where everyone knows everyone.

Tony Sipe, who is in his mid-40s, has lived in Kill Devil Hills his entire life. For the past dozen years, he's worked at Goombays Grille & Raw Bar on the beach road, Highway 12. Goombays has been established for decades; its undersea murals, Caribbean-style entrees and collage of license plates on the wall create a popular ambiance. Hours extend until midnight, with dinner served until 10 p.m. Last year, longtime owners Charles and Karen Hennigan decided to sell.

"They were great, a married couple who worked all the time, like five or six days a week," Sipe says. "It was family owned for 32 years."

Sipe decided to buy.

A friend, Chris Miller, who is in his early 50s and had worked at Goombays in its first few years, joined Sipe in the purchase.

In April 2022, they contacted the Small Business and Technology Development Center at Elizabeth City State University, which referred them to a local branch office and Matt Byrne.

"He helped us so much. I have an economics background, and Chris has managed huge restaurants, but we would have been lost if not for Matt," Sipe says. "We were prepared for the front side of the business, but it was the other stufflike financing where we were not, and that's where the SBTDC came in. We could ask questions you wouldn't be able to ask your friend, or a guy down the...