MARBLEHEAD — The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on a number of industries and businesses over the past year, with the restaurant business being one of the hardest-hit.
For places like Marblehead’s Casa Mia Cucina Italiana, the loss of revenue from indoor dining has been hard to fight.
Casa Mia Cucina Italiana, which is owned by Gino Scalzi, offers a casual family style atmosphere specializing in southern Italian cuisine specifically from the Calabria region of Italy.
Casa Mia is losing a few thousand dollars a week just to stay open, and the restaurant asked for help to secure its payroll for the next four weeks and pay its January rent. That would give the place a chance to meet payroll requirements and save the next four weeks of income to help make it through the rest of the winter.
That’s where The Barstool Fund came in. Started by Swampscott native and Barstool Sports founder/chief of content Dave Portnoy and powered by The 30-Day Fund, The Barstool Fund was set up to help small businesses around the country deal with the consequences of the pandemic. Portnoy’s rules to qualify for the fund were simple — businesses can only qualify if they are still paying their employees.
“Beyond that, it’s just finding out what (businesses) need the money for,” Portnoy said in a video statement introducing the fund. “Do they need rent relief, tax relief — what can we do to help them stay in business until the pandemic is over?”
Scalzi made a video to talk about how the pandemic has affected Casa Mia, discussing the difficulties in keeping his12 employees on the payroll, a 60-percent drop in sales since the end of October and the more-than $10,000 the restaurant spent on personal protective equipment, custom plexiglass dividers and hand sanitizer.
“The money from Barstool is going to go to keep everyone on the payroll and just make it through the winter,” Scalzi said in his video.
Portnoy, who has 1.9 million followers on his personal Twitter account (@stoolpresidente), sent out a call to action to his followers, his friends in the industry and other celebrities to contribute to the fund. Since starting on Dec. 17, The Barstool Fund has raised more than $16 million and helped 58 businesses remain in operation. Donations have come from a total of more than 130,000 individual contributors, including celebrities such as NFL stars Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and Greg Olsen, UFC President Dana White, “Bar Rescue” star Jon Taffer, ESPN host Scott Van Pelt, philanthropist Bill Pulte, restaurateur Guy Fieri, YouTube star Mr. Beast and a number of others.
Casa Mia’s full donation was ready in less than a day. When Portnoy contacted Scalzi to let him know the good news, both sides could hardly contain their excitement.
“You guys are the exact type of restaurant we want to help,” Portnoy said to Scalzi in a video call. “Our plan is to help you guys get through the next few months until things clear up.”
“It’s greatly appreciated and it’s greatly needed,” said Scalzi.
Casa Mia will now be able to remain in operation without worry over the next few months, and many other businesses around the country are benefiting from the same generosity thanks to The Barstool Fund.
To learn more about the businesses in need and to make a donation to The Barstool Fund, visit https://www.barstoolsports.com/the-barstool-fund.
