North End Restaurant Owners Optimistic After Difficult Year
BOSTON (CBS) - It's been a difficult year weathering the pandemic for North End restaurant owner Joseph Pagliuca. "Bring on the weather, please come down we need customers," he tells WBZ-TV one year after being forced to close his doors when the state went into lockdown.
He just received brand new tables for the outdoor dining he looks forward to beginning April 1, but this time last year there was little optimism when he had trouble even paying his bills. Social distancing still keeps his restaurant at only 40% capacity, and his workload has increased with fewer employees returning. "It's tough, I'm putting in double hours. I had to call in my wife, my kids to help me," Pagliuca said.
This time last year the North End was a ghost town with no customers, no foot traffic and no lunch rush. Daniella DiPietrantonio, co-owner of L'Osteria restaurant had to pivot to take out which is still a fraction of her business today. Now she is feeling some optimism. "I am now that the vaccine is out, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel," she said.
Part of that light is people returning to the streets of the neighborhood with some of the hustle and bustle coming back. "I'm looking forward to bringing them in," said Joseph Pagliuca.
Which means no days off in the kitchen, one way he has survived the pandemic.
