In the rush to prepare for Hurricane Irma, some in Plant City weren’t fortunate enough to get all the non-perishable food they needed from the gas stations and grocery stores. But even on Sunday, with winds starting to howl and rain starting to pour, and after the storm passed Monday morning, they weren’t out of options.
A pair of Plant City pizzerias, ABC Pizza House and Hungry Howie’s, stayed open Sunday and Monday to serve locals whatever food they had in stock when much of the city had closed its doors.
“It wasn’t about money,” Hungry Howie’s owner Charlie Sobh said. “It was about service … we’re pleased we were able to help and service everybody.”
Both pizzerias were faced with staffing shortages and a limited amount of supplies, forcing them to close their doors earlier than normal Sunday and Monday to conserve food. Cars flooded the parking lots and lines of people wrapped around the buildings from open to close. But neither business lost power, so people were able to escape the heat and feed themselves and their families with a hot meal.
“Some people, you know, they have no lights,” ABC Pizza owner Ted Fotopoulos said. “No food at the house to cook.”
Ted Fotopoulos estimated he and the store’s reduced staff — some of whom left their homes to stay at the restaurant during the brunt of the storm — made roughly 700 pizzas from Sunday through Tuesday. The biggest order came from Verizon, which ordered 100 pizzas Tuesday morning for workers patching things up in Plant City.
Though pizzas were the most-ordered items, customers were able to eat anything ABC Pizza had on hand to offer.
“The grill was off the chain with hamburgers and steaks, fried food,” Spirit Fotopoulos said. “It was nonstop.”
One block down the street, Sobh and the Hungry Howie’s staff were hard at work serving customers of their own. But Hurricane Irma presented them with a dilemma they had to plan around: a flooded warehouse.”
“The warehouse was underwater,” Sobh said. “I had to wake up early every day, get in the van and pick up food.”
Sobh and his staff were still able to feed hundreds of people, including members of the National Guard. He said the restaurant sold more chicken wings than pizzas, though the store did sell enough pies to run out of boxes Monday.
They also helped out when people were short on cash. In one case, Sobh says, a customer with a $40 order only found $10 on hand to pay. A woman in the restaurant offered to cover the rest of the payment herself but Sobh split it with her.
“People have a heart,” he said. “That's one thing I can tell from this.”
The restaurant wasn’t able to deliver food or offer its buffet service, and could only take walk-in orders because the staff was too busy cooking to meet the high demand. Though it was an exhausting experience for Sobh, he said feeding Plant Citians was worth the extra effort.
“It's a beautiful community,” he said. “They're loyal to us and were loyal to them.”