Pizza Today - November 2020 - 41

Pizzeria Impact Stories
Pizzeria owners and leadership share their firsthand accounts
We asked pizzerias, large and small, to
send us their stories of weathering and
even thriving during COVID-19. We
created a COVID-19 Capsule at PizzaToday.com, where you will find the full
stories in the operators' and company
leaders' own words. In the next several
pages, we want to share with you
excerpts from their stories. Read their
full stories, along with others at
pizzatoday/covid19stories.

VENEZIA' PIZZERIA - (5 LOCATIONS)
PHOENIX, ARIZONA

THE PIZZA PLACE
- SAN FRANCISCO, CA

"The past 6 months have definitely been
the most challenging in my 22 years of
being a restaurant owner. I will never forget
the day in March when I had my head
down in my office debating whether or not
I could handle the pressures of what we
were up against. I had serious thoughts of
closing down because of the uncertainty of
the virus..."
"As we moved forward with business in
this new, uncertain environment, the support of the employees is what kept us
going. They thanked me daily for still having a job and we all felt blessed when we
were deemed an essential business. It gave
me more courage to stay strong and carry
on as one of the leaders in the community
by being able to provide food to our customers since many of the restaurants in our
area had shuttered.
"I wanted to give back to my employees
so we decided to schedule two benefits for
our employees. The first was an Employee
day which happened on Tuesday, April
21st. On this day we gave back all 100% of
every sale we made for that day. It was an
amazing turnout from the community to
help support our employees as they have
been working so hard over the past month.
We ended up having sales of $72,000 for
all the employees. This also did not include
all the tips they received that night. I recall
a few customers in the parking lot handing
a $20 or $50 extra tip as a "thank you." It
was great to see the amazing gratitude.
The second benefit we put in place was
we gave each employee a $2 per hour raise
for the next two months as an appreciation.

"We are The Pizza Place on Noriega
at Ocean Beach/San Francisco, CA. I am
Cindy Co-owner/GM along with my
husband Kevin, Co-owner/Chef and we
have been in business since 2007.  We seat
appx 90ppl and are a neighborhood gathering spot, so when shelter in place went into
effect here in SF on 3/17, it hit us (like
everyone) hard..." 
"We collaborated with a local organization that is usually an outdoor education/
camp (mewaterfoundation.org)for low
income/troubled kids here in the city and
helped provide them with a fun Friday
pizza night a few different times during the
pandemic as these kids and their families
are facing food insecurities. It was great
to see how excited the kids were to still
be able to get a treat like pizza when they
normally wouldn't be able to afford it. 
We are in the midst of collaborating
with our local Irish pub up the street to
provide food for them to re-open outdoors
and sell our food (in SF for bars to reopen
outside they need to have a bonafide meal
offered to guests). We adjusted our staffing
and had to reduce some employee's hours.
We've had a couple covid scares and have
all been tested two different times. We are
lucky to have a great community that has
always had our backs these last 13 years
and are very supportive of our business." 

-Co-owner/GM Cindy

I actually ended up extending the $2 per
hour an extra month so it ended up being a
three-month benefit for all employees. We
were considered a "hot spot" nationally so I
felt it was the right thing to do."

-Owner Domenick Montanile

JET'S PIZZA
- STERLING HEIGHTS, MICHIGAN

Don't miss an engaging roundtable
discussion with Jet's Pizza leadership,
including Jimmy Galloway, Vice President
of Franchise Sales; John Jetts, President;
and Jeff Galloway, Vice President of Store
Operations. Watch the engaging video at
pizzatoday.com/covid19stories.
PIZZA HEAVEN
- LUZERNE, PENNSYLVANIA
"Hello! My name is Jake Schell, I am the
24-year-old sole owner of Pizza Heaven
in Luzerne, Pennsylvania. We are an
independent Sicilian Style shop and have
been in operation for over 11 years, and I
have been an employee for about eight. I
purchased the shop in January from the
previous owner, Bud. The plan was for him
to take his leave in March. A little after
three months of ownership things were
great and we were cruising into our first
busy season in good shape. Then, COVID.
What could I do?
Honestly it doesn't seem like I did much
in hindsight, but I know I did. I put an
admittedly janky homemade sanitizer
station out front, and closed for dine in as
required by the state, as well as followed
all other requirements. Closing was never
a consideration personally, but I have the
utmost respect for any operator's personal
decisions. Collectively, our entire staff
agreed that we wanted to keep working.
N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 4 1

034_PIZ_1120_FTCOVID.indd 41

10/12/20 3:01 PM
http://www.zaToday.com http://www.pizzatoday.com/covid19stories http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - November 2020
