Crime & Safety
Cafe Pompeii Comes to the Rescue for Fire Victims
Hanover Street restaurant stayed open past normal hours, providing a place and food for EMTs, Red Cross volunteers and residents whose apartments are uninhabitable.
It’s a terrifying experience to be left homeless but Tony Pezzano took the sting out a bit with his immediate tender, loving care of the victims affected by the four-alarm Cooper Street fire late on Tuesday night.
Not only did the owner of Café Pompeii throw open his doors for the residents who were dazed in the early morning hours on Wednesday after the building was left uninhabitable, but also welcomed EMTs, firefighters and volunteers from the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts who needed a spot to talk to the students and provide emergency assistance.
“We did the human thing,” said Tony the day after the fire. “These are college kids and we know some of them who’ve been coming in for pizza during the school year and summers while they’re working.”
Find out what's happening in North Endfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
When EMTs asked him at about 2:30 a.m. if the restaurant could stay open later and help the Red Cross volunteers with space to talk to the victims, Tony did not hesitate for a second.
“We said we’d stay open as long as we needed to,” he said. “We gave them a place to stay, brought out pizzas and whatever they wanted to drink.”
Find out what's happening in North Endfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In the end, Tony’s restaurant provided meals and beverages for about 20 people.
Despite staying up well after 4 a.m. with restaurant staff members and his mother until “everyone was squared away,” Tony was right back to business as usual Wednesday at the restaurant on Hanover Street.
He brushed away the notion that his family restaurant acted heroically.
“We’re part of the neighborhood and that means rendering help whenever we can,” he said. “This is the first time anything like this has happened but we’d do it again. We’ll be there for people.”
The Red Cross volunteers were overcome with gratitude to Tony and his family.
According to Communications Director Kat Powers, Tony’s mother, Lucia, said: “Your money is not good here,” when volunteers asked to buy pizzas. “We have a tradition of hospitality in the North End.”
Powers described how volunteer Lisa Contee said she never answered a fire call expecting it but “Pezzano served her the best cup of cappuccino she’s ever had.”
