Longtime Center City pizza place reopens after closing for over a month ago due to COVID-19

PHILADELPHIA - Center City is beginning to show some signs of life but mostly for major restaurants. Still, many small businesses have had it rough for almost two months now.

The coronavirus is forcing many of them to reduce service or flat out close. Like Joe’s Pizza on 16th Street between Walnut and Sansom.

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"Would we even get customers? And then once the offices closed and the other stores and businesses around us closed that was a sign," said Casimira Villico.  No foot traffic in the heart of the city meant no customers.

"Then all of sudden like that we had to close," said Villico. Her husband has owned the place for 31 years. But Joe's Pizza, they kept the original name, has been in this same location for even longer.

"It really affected us. It affects our workers of course, what we have in stock and it affects how we're going to pay our bills," she said. They closed March 24th but last Friday they decided to take a chance and reopen. Even providing coupon discounts to customers.

"It's really different. We're used to the lunch crowd. The rush. Everything just slowed down and we're just trying to get through it," said Giuliano Tomasi. He says they’re getting through it by supporting the people who have supported them for decades. They’re donating pies they’ll deliver to healthcare workers at hospitals nearby. They started by delivering dozens of them to Jefferson Hospital.

"Healthcare workers and teachers everybody is doing a lot and we want to support them because they've always supported us," said Tomasi. The hope is that customers will remember to come back to them once this is all over.

"We're trying to help everybody out and we hope everyone helps us out," said Tomasi.

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