CLARENCE, N.Y. — Less than 24 hours after a portion of the facade fell off the front of the plaza that Pesci's Pizza is in, co-owner Chris Phillips walked over the rubble determined to still fulfill orders made prior to the collapse.
The last of the Pesci’s Pizza & Wings sign was taken down Tuesday at the Transitown Plaza, but inside, Phillips was still hard at work, baking fresh pizza.
At around 4:30 p.m. Monday, the facade over the top of the restaurant and three other stores collapsed.
Phillips tells 7 News that thankfully, they’re closed on Mondays, so nobody was underneath it at the time.
“If somebody was sitting there, forget it. Not injuries, they would have been dead,” Phillips said.
Phillips was at the business earlier in the day, but he had just left to deliver a special order for an event.
“I left here a little before 3 p.m., got a phone call about an hour later from the neighbors on either side that the front of the plaza fell off. I had no idea what that meant at first,” Phillips said.
That phone call was from his next-door neighbor Aaron Tallman, who’s SAS Shoes & Route 5 Boots was open.
“I was waiting on a customer at the front of the store and heard this big loud crash and didn’t really know what it was or what it could be,” Tallman said. “But, it didn’t sound good. Then I stepped outside, took a look and couldn’t believe what I was looking at.”
Now the cleanup begins. Crews were on-site to clear the rubble and add support to the remaining facade.
Tallman closed the side doors to his store, while Phillips was forced to ‘partially’ close for the day.
“We did have two pre-orders we had to take care of, a couple office meetings,” Phillips said. “We didn’t want to let them down, so we got in here and got around the construction guys to get those out.”
When crews said it was safe, Phillips walked over the rubble and right to the kitchen.
He then fulfilled the few orders that were placed before the facade ever came down.
“Was there ever a doubt that you were going to get those orders made for those people?” 7 News reporter Derek Heid asked.
“It’s just kind of who we are,” Phillips said. “[I said] ‘I’ll just go in the store and hope for the best,’ and we will get them out one way or another.”
Once the pizzas were ready, he walked the order past the demotion straight to customers.
“We’re good, It’s just a couple of broken windows right," said Phillips.
Other than the two special orders Phillips took care of, Pesci's remained closed on Tuesday.
The outside of the building may look a little different, but Pesci’s will be open as normal again on Wednesday.
