The month of October is National Pizza Month, and now, more than ever, local pizza shops are working to cater to their customers amid the challenges of the continued COVID-19 pandemic. While one might think the new “order out” culture brought on by the pandemic would help pizza shops, that help has been offset by things like rising food costs and limited interaction with customers. But through all that, these local businesses are continuing to work as hard as possible to keep moving forward.
At Fauci Pizza in Lynn, a family-owned pizza place that has been in operation since 1971, adjusting to the pandemic has been a challenge from the beginning. Due to safety concerns when the pandemic was first booming, owner Jim Fauci decided that it would be safest to shut down completely for a two-month period. The doors at Fauci Pizza were closed during all of April and May.
“I think it was just a combination of factors,” said Fauci. “A lot of people were coming in without masks, people weren’t taking the right precautions, and it just made sense to me to shut things down until we got a little bit of a better handle on things.
“Even when we opened up again, we still haven’t been allowing anyone into the store. We’ve never had much of a sit-down crowd anyway, it’s always been mostly either takeout or delivery, but now we aren’t even allowing people in to pay. We’re having people prepay everything and then we bring the food to them curbside.”
Fauci notes that his workers, who have been coming in every day to help him out, have been staunch in their adherence to the new pandemic precautions.
“We kind of have a mutual agreement among all of us to not go to big parties or do anything that would potentially put any of us at risk when we’re not here,” said Fauci. “Everyone knows to not come in if they’re not feeling well and everyone has been really cautious about keeping everything clean and sanitary at all times.”
In addition to keeping COVID-19 at bay, pizza shops are also dealing with the issue of rising food costs brought on by the pandemic.
“Just with steak and cheese, our food costs have gone up from $5,000 to $7,000 a week, and that’s a lot,” said Fauci. “It’s hard to deal with that kind of a rise in food costs without raising your prices, and that’s the tough part about dealing with all of this.
“We were one of the incredibly lucky businesses to get the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loan early on, so we’ve been able to take care of our employees through all of this,” Fauci added. “I’m not sure what we would’ve been able to do if we hadn’t gotten that loan.”
At Nick’s Place in Saugus, the original location of the local chain that has been around since 1985 and has locations in Saugus, Winthrop, Revere, Lawrence and West Newbury, the goal is to continue to help as many people as possible.
“It’s been a tough time for everyone,” said Amit Saini, a manager at Nick’s. “We’re just trying to help people in whatever small way we can, and we’re so thankful for all of the people who continue to patronize our business in these trying times.”