The Barstool Fund - Puleo's Brick Oven
Established in 2004, Puleo's Brick Oven serves traditional homemade Italian food. From their delectable dishes to dedicated staff members, they are sure that you will be pleased with your meal and service. All food is prepared from scratch.
Reader Email
Hello,
My name is Chuck Puleo. I own an Italian restaurant in Florham Park, NJ. The restaurant is Puleo's Brick Oven. We are a sit down Italian restaurant that specializes in pasta, fish and chicken entrees. I know our name is the Puleo's Brick Oven, but we do very little pizza, just make 10' pizza's. We are BYOB. We opened in 2004.
Anyway, we are in trouble. We are on the brink of having to shut down and lay off about 10 employees. Our sales are about 60% down and I do not see it changing anytime soon, maybe even getting worse as the weather continues to be terrible. We are a very small restaurant, we seat about 80ppl. I work there full time, my 82 yr old father works here as well as occasionally my niece and nephew. Normally, we average about 150 dinners on Friday and Saturday nights, we are now averaging about 25 dinners each night respectively. We are doing some take out, but that only makes a very small dent in the problem.
You actually were right next to my restaurant somewhat recently doing a review of the pizza at Nonna's Pizzeria right next to us. My nephew Chris Puleo was begging you to stop by our restaurant over Instagram, but I think he was just a bit too late.
Anyway, I hate asking for money from anyone, but I figured I would hate to shut down and have to tell the employees there is no work even more. I hope there is another round of PPP coming, but it may come too late. We will be out of money within 2-3 weeks.
I think this is a great thing you are doing and if there is no money left for my restaurant, I hope that whatever money you send out saves others. God Bless you and stay safe.