Local restaurant raises funds for burned out stores, including competitor
Just before the breakfast rush on Dec. 28, Kitsa Jobeless was told by police to get everybody out of her family-owned restaurant.
A garbage truck on a routine dumpster run had caught fire behind the Country Coffee Shop in a Mendham Borough shopping plaza.
"When my sister (Jobeless) first called, I figured we'd be open again by lunch," said John Paxos, who has owned the diner for 20 years. "She even went out the back door to see what was going on."
Minutes later, that back door was engulfed in a fireball from the truck's propane fuel tanks and next meal this restaurant will be serving could be months away.
The fire shut down four businesses in the Village Shopping Center. Yellow police tape blocks the entrances of the burned-out or smoke-damaged interiors, but it is the flame-blackened back alley where the truck caught fire that shows the real extent of the destruction.
"All the plastic containers and light fixtures were melted," Paxos said. "The back third of the place was burned, but there is nothing salvageable. It has to be gutted."
MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns
The back parking lot of Dante's Ristorante on East Main Street overlooks the Village Shopping Center. Its carry-out business is in direct competition with Village Pizza, which was shut down by the fire.
"There aren't a lot of restaurants in town," said Dante's co-owner Lisa D'Urso. "We have friendly competition but we try to support each other."
Within 36 hours of the fire, D'Urso and co-owner Tony Sarno, started a fund to help the shuttered businesses. The restaurant owners are taking donations, which they say they will match, and will also contribute a percentage of their January sales to the effort.
"We're thinking maybe about 5 percent, depending on what kind of month we have," Sarno said. "It's mostly for their workers, to help them out a little. People see a closed restaurant but they might not think about the people who lost their jobs."
Paxos employed 16 people - five cooks and 11 waitresses to staff his restaurant, which on most days was open from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dante's has hired a few of the displaced employees, and one cook was taken in by a local deli.
"I have insurance," Paxos said. "But the people who work here are now out of a job 'till we re-open. That's tough. That's tough on them."
Two doors down from Paxos' restaurant was The Chocolate Shoppe, which expanded into Mendham seven years ago from the original store in Washington Township, Warren County. The Mendham store was a total loss from smoke damage.
Owner Darleen Wizorek employs mostly family members and has "thinned out" their hours so everyone can continue working, said her daughter, Jes Wizorek, who was unaware of the Dante's fund.
"That is just so incredibly generous and heartwarming," she said.
In the discussion about the fund, D'Urso, Sarno and Paxos used the word "community" liberally.
"We're here to make money, of course, but also serve the community," Paxos said.
At the County Coffee Shop, as in all places like it, there is always a donation jar or flier on the counter appealing to the generosity of customers.
"We just had a can out for a (volunteer) fireman in town who had cancer," Paxos said. "We collect for the fire department, all (youth) sports programs, the band, whatever."
Donations from these types of restaurants come from customer's loose change and the from the largess of the back kitchen. Buns, burgers and dogs for school picnics. Pies for pizza-night fundraisers. If you live in a small town, you get it.
"We're all part of this community," said D'Urso, who has lived in Mendham Township for 30 years. Sarno has resided in either the township or borough for 17.
"We have the same customers," Sarno said. "I know if something like this happened to us, they'd help us out."
The day of the fire, Paxos got a second call from his sister. This one said the fire department was bringing in hoses through the front of the restaurant to fight the flames. At that point, he knew he wasn't opening for lunch.
"That's when I knew it was bad," he said. "I jumped in the car and headed down there."
He heard sirens and in his rearview mirror saw trucks from neighboring Randolph Township.
"I knew where they were going," Paxos said.
By the time he got to the diner, smoke was billowing out the front.
And then word began to spread. That's how it is in a small town when something bad hits home.
"Everybody was talking about it," Sarno said. "By lunchtime everybody knew how bad it was. I went home that night and called Lisa and said, 'We've got to do something.' She said, 'I was just having the same thought.' "
By the next day, the bucket was out on Dante's to-go counter and began filling not with just loose change, but $20s and $50s and checks.
"Our customers have been great," D'Urso said. "But that's how it is here. It's a small town, but it has a big heart."
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.